GOLD RECORD HIT MAKER BEN WEATHERBY DIES IN MIRAMICHI

A great Canadian singer, songwriter, recording artist and sound engineer Ben Weatherby died Tuesday night at his residence in the Miramichi

Born in Truro, N.S., Ben spent two decades in Toronto with ARC Records, starting in the 1960′s when that label had rack displays in just about every corner drug, convenience, department and music store in Canada. He also became a country/ folk performer, singer and multi-instrumentalist.

After ARC closed shop, Ben released three lp albums of his own on the Marathon label, earning a rare Canadian gold record for his own song You Can’t Fool A Newfoundlander (the sequel to Aunt Maratha’s Sheep ). He opened his first recording studio in Toronto, relocating to ‘the Rock’ about the same time. Ben had his own television show over a Newfoundland station for six years, started his own Via Nova Records & Publishing Company and earned another gold record.

In 1990 he relocated again, this time to the N.B. port city of Saint John. Over the next 20 years he released 14 CDs of his own plus dozens for others at two recording studios he operated during his time of residency here, the most recent, a Weatherby Sound & Reproduction Centre at 3042 Westfield Rd., Saint John. In recent years, Ben worked mainly with new artists, many of whom could not afford a session on their own, so if they sounded promising, Ben footed the bill. As his wife Helen describes him, “Ben was strong, loving, talented, a one in a million man who loved country music. He was so compassionate he would literally give a stranger the shirt of his back.”

In 2010, however, after several health set-backs Ben sold his Westfield Road property and moved to the Miramichi. He had fought a long courageous battle with cancer. Ben and Helen had just returned from a trip to Louisiana to visit friends a week ago. A really happy trip, Helen said, with lots of singing and laughing along the way.

He is survived by his wife Helen, daughters, Shelley Gomke (Tony) of Saint John and Janice Gillespie (Adam) of West Virginia; two sons, David Fisher (Surlee) of Toronto and Bill Weatherby; two sisters, Sylvis and Betty and one brother Gerry; grandchildren, Nicole, Devan, Kristen, Kayla, David, Dillyn, William and Hayden; great grandchildren, Brendan, Brianna, Layla and Ben.

At Ben’s request there will be no visitation at the funeral home. The Funeral Service will be held on Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 2 p.m. at Full Gospel Chapel, 11624 Route 430 Hwy, Chaplin Island Road, Miramichi NB, with Pastor Wendell England officiating. In Ben’s memory donations to Canadian Cancer Society or a memorial of ones choice would be appreciated.

Arrangements are in care of Davidson’s Funeral Home (622-7464) or online at www.davidsonsfh.com

ALSO OF INTEREST from  SEPT. 2010

BEN WEATHERBY BREATHS NEW LIFE INTO TIN PAN ALLEY CLASSICS.

Of all the CD’s sent to me in the past year none have been played so much in our house or vehicle as the one by Ben Weathrby, Some Brand New Oldies.

There is not one song on it that anyone who knows the veteran club singer and pioneer sound engineering legend could ever imagine Ben recording…let alone 16 of them!

All are Tin Pan Alley songs associated with such leading easy listening pop singers of the 1930′s to 50′s as Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Louis Armstrong and their ilk. Songs as old as The Lady Is A Tramp, Walking My Baby Back Home, Fly Me To The Moon and as relatively recent as the 50 year old classic’s Moon River and Mona Lisa.

Our home record library encompasses most of the recordings of such artists as Crosby, Jolson, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Al Martino, Dean Martin, Ed Ames, Doris Day, the vocalists associated with the big band era of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, the Dorceys, Paul Whiteman and so forth. Once 30 years ago I was taken to task for a statement I had made about Frank Sinatra “How would someone like you stuck in the low brow country folk groove know anything about a singer of the prominence of Sinatra?” That person claimed to be an expert on the king of the bobby soxers, he had 39 of his albums.“Well, if that is the criterea of an expert,” I told him, “I guess I’m a bigger one than you. I’ve over 130 albums of his and three biographies.”

So when I say that I have personally played over this CD of Ben’s more than any Sinatra record, I do have some little knowledge of such songs and the great voices that made them such world favourites.

What makes Ben’s treatment of the songs unique beyond his voice, which seems so suited to their interpretation, is the little touches of humour he adds to the lyrics that seem to breath a new life into them. Singing for instance “the way you sing off key” with a “just like me” aside. Little things that add a sparkle to You Can’t Take That Away From Me.

And to such songs as Hey There (You With The Stars In Your Eyes), Let’s Fall In Love, A Wink And A Smile, What A Wonderful World, Can’t Help Fallin’ In Love, Red Roses For A Blue Lady, Embraceable You, A Kiss To Build A Dream On, You Make Me Feel So Young and Misty.

To explain his departure from the country fare he usually records Ben has written this paragraph as a back note: ‘For as long as I can remember Classic Country was it, now after many years I’ve descovered Big Band music and Jazz. I’d heard it before but being country it was a whole other world of music with different chords and arrangements but when I took another look at it and tried a few tunes with the right backup it turned out to be almost exactly the same as classic country. That is, as far as the mix of music with the singer out front and the instruments coming in and out around the singer it was the same only with different songs and instruments. I got to really like it and decided to record this CD. And I had a ball’ It sure sounds like he did.

The musicians and the harmony singers who joined Ben on the CD sound like they did too. They are absolutely as near perfect as it is possible to get. Ben who got his eduucation in sound with ARC records in Toronto in the 1960′s and served in that capacity for at least half of that label’s output, recorded it in his own high-tech studio

HELEN WEATHERBY’s DEBUT CD

And another surprise from Ben’s studio showed up earlier this year. I say surprise because I’ve known Ben’s wife Helen since they moved to Saint John nearly 20 years ago and had never heard her sing until she recorded a duo CD with her sister Dorothy, aptly titled Sisters two years ago. It was a very enjoyable CD but this new solo disc of 12 cover songs titled I Am Country is an amazing recording with Helen’s voice so sure and true exhibiting not a tinge of nervousness, handling the lyrics made famous by such Nashville legends as Lotetta lynn, Kitty Wells, Dottie West, Wynonna Judd and Lori Morgan with an assured sweetness of voice they rival the originals and are a joy to the ear.

“The Title of Helen’s CD I Am Country pretty well tells the story,” Ben says, “it just don’t get more country than this. I have known this lady for 30 years and we’ve been married for 25 but I just found out she could sing two years ago. We’re both members of a unique internet group called Singsnap.com where she is known as ‘i am country’ and this is strangely what got her singing. Then she went one step further, learned to play bass and is getting real good at it too! Now with the family all gone and just the two of us here at home music is becoming a big part of her life.”

The only other voice on the disc besides Helen’s is on the wonderful gospel song that kick’s it off, His Hand In Mine. She is joined by a ‘good friend’ Peggy Wooden singing heavenly harmony on it.

There are three songs the queen of Country Music Kitty Wells introduced to the world decades ago Will Your Lawyer Talk With God, Honky Tonk Angel and Amigo’s Guitar; five introduced by the Coal Miner’s Daughter Loretta’s Lynn: You’re Looking At Country, Blue Kentucky Girl, You Ain’t Woman Enough, Somebody Somewhere and Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’, plus Wyona Judd’s Mama He’s Crazy, Lori Morgan’s What Part of No and Dottie West’s Would You Hold It Against Me.

WHERE TO GET HELEN & BEN’s CDs NOW!

It’s sad but true. Helen and Ben Weatherby no longer live on the Westfield Road, near Saint John. They’ve moved to the Miramichi area. So to wish them well in their new home or to order either of these two new recordings you can write them, at 541 Route 11, Lower Newcastle, N.B.; phone (506) 773-5039; email Ben@Helen Weatherby or www.cleanvoltatlantic.com