Bob Bossin

Bossin is the writer of the songs "Dief Will Be the Chief Again", "Show Us the Length", "Tugboats", "The Maple Leaf Dog" and "Sulphur Passage (No pasaran)".

As a boy, Bossin fell in love with the early rock 'n rollers – Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent – but by 1958 he had turned his ear to folk music.

[15][16][6][18][19] Those same years saw a revamping of CBC Radio by young, engaged journalists recruited from the student press, among them Doug Ward, Volkmar Richter, Mark Starowitz, and Peter Gzowski.

The configuration – guitar, banjo, fiddle and voices – was that of a string band, one of the traditional North American folk music forms.

Cultural institutions like Theatre Passe Muraille, the House of Anansi Press, Attic Records and CBC Radio's This Country in the Morning/ Morningside began.

Other musicians who played or recorded with Stringband include Frank Barth, Doug Bowes, Jane Fair, Daniel Lanois, Kieran Overs, Stan Rogers, Alan Soberman, Chris Whitely and, for a time replacing Marie-Lynn Hammond, singer-songwriter Nanci Ahern.

Historian of Canadian folk music, Gary Cristall, summed up Stringband's influence: As they toured, they picked up regional images, stories and songs….

They had a repertoire that combined modernity and tradition, both official languages, family and history, politics and sex, geography and poetry, work and play.For Canadian musicians, Stringband's most significant influence came not from their music, but from how they purveyed it.

Among the most popular were "Daddy Was a Ballplayer" (1972), "Dief Will Be the Chief Again" (1974), "Lunenberg Concerto" (1974), "Show Us the Length" (1974), "Tugboats" (1977), "The Casca and the Whitehorse Burned Down" (1978), and "Newfoundlanders" (1978).

Despite little air play because of its explicit language, "Show Us the Length" became a favourite folk song among feminists and was performed by both professional and amateur singers as far away from Canada as New Zealand and Japan.

[26] After Stringband disbanded in 1986, Bossin released several solo albums including Gabriola V0R1X0 (1994) and The Roses on Annie's Table (2005), the latter produced by Vancouver art-rock diva, Veda Hille.

Bossin's songs included "The Secret of Life According to Satchel Paige" (1982), "Sulphur Passage (No pasaran)" (1989), "Ya Wanna Marry Me?"

Bob created Newfoundlanders who were not Canadian by a damn sight; Yukoners who brought lawn chairs and thermoses while the Casca and the Whitehorse burned down; and the guy from Saskatchewan hopefully awaiting the second coming of John Diefenbaker.

Sung by a Who's Who of British Columbia folk artists – Bossin, Stephen Fearing, Roy Forbes, Veda Hille, Ann Mortifee, Raffi, Rick Scott, Valdy and Jennifer West – Sulphur Passage won a half-dozen awards.

Intrigued by his father's history, Bob collected stories about "Davy the Punk" (Dave Bossin's underworld nickname) and the race-track milieu he inhabited.

In 2014, The Porcupine's Quill published Davy the Punk: A Story of Bookies, Toronto the Good, the Mob and my Dad to glowing reviews.

[44][45] Bossin lives on Gabriola Island, British Columbia with his wife, fabric artist and illustrator, Sima Elizabeth Shefrin.