Bedtime Stories
Tuesday June 14th, 2022 with Chris Lyne
Stephen Fearing Interview (Part 1)

Back in 1989 - or maybe it was 1990 - one Sunday afternoon I went to a local arts event in Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK where I'd been living since moving there from Ottawa. I'd noticed in the local listings that a Canadian singer/songwriter would be amongst the artists and poets performing and decided to go have a listen.... his name was, as you'll have guessed, Stephen Fearing. Having really enjoyed his set, I thought I'd introduce myself, mentioned CKCU-FM, and of course that opened the doors to a good old chin wag with a very friendly young musician breaking his first album "Out To Sea"... Since then I've had several similar chats with Stephen, including an interview with him for an edition of Canadian Spaces in the early 90s, whilst he was in Ottawa for an appearance at an outdoor music event at the Governor General's. In the years leading up to the pandemic Stephen has made several journeys to the UK and northern Europe; in May 2022 he played a short series of dates in the UK. A few hours prior to his very well-received gig near Weymouth I caught up with Stephen to record this interview for "Bedtime Stories". In this first part of the interview we'll hear how the pandemic created unprecedented challenges for Stephen's livelihood as a performing artist, and of the kinds of measures and re-arrangements he made to respond to these. As the CKCU studio was still in lockdown we had to find ourselves an alternative venue: we chose The Ship Inn, on the picturesque harbourside at Weymouth. * No liver or brain cells were harmed by alcohol in the production of this programme. ** If you would like to suggest/request a particular Stephen Fearing song for the second part of the interview , please pop your suggestion in the interactive section (aka "The Listening Room").