It was almost five years ago to the day, just two days off, that B.C. singer-songwriter Ryan McMahon performed the last Tour de Fort series show before COVID-19 lockdowns went into place; he’s returning Saturday night to play the Fort Frances Legion.
He doesn’t have new material to promote this time. Instead, McMahon will spend his time on stage at the Fort Frances Royal Canadian Legion reflecting on his 25-year music career.
“It’s kind of cool, because generally, when you go out on tour, more often than not, you are promoting a specific single or specific album,” he said.
“In this case, I don’t even think I’m going to make setlists. I’m going to try and make it different every night and kind of just go up there with, like, all of my songs written on a cardboard sheet, and just kind of pick and choose depending on how I feel the room is feeling at that any given moment, you know. So it’s going to be a really freeing thing. We’re going to laugh a bit, we’re going to cry a bit, and we’re going to try and tune out the crazy world that’s going on around us.”
Over the years McMahon says he’s started to care less what the music industry thinks about him, and he thinks his fans like him more because of it.
“I think, by and large, the less I cared about trying to fit into certain industry boxes, the happier I became, and the more sort of loyal my little audiences became,” he said.
“You know, I’m not up for any awards. I’m not on the cover of magazines. I’m always generally outside of the box, because the industry doesn’t really know where to compartmentalize me. There’s elements of folk and roots and country and rock and all kinds of things in what I do, and I really used to be concerned with that. The last couple records, I really kind of just stripped that away bit by bit. And you kind of just end up, instead of wearing your influences on your sleeves all the time, you end up, kind of really just almost accidentally falling into who it is you authentically are.”
The show will feature McMahon on his own with his guitars, singing songs and telling stories.
“This is a pretty stripped down thing I’m traveling across the country with. It’s going to be just me,” he said.
“I’m bringing a few different guitars with me, and I think I’m going to be seated and I’ll be sort of doing a bit of storytelling and running people through some of the people that I’ve played with and heroes that I’ve met I’ve been on tours with, most recently, Burton Cummings and Tom Cochrane over the last couple of years. And, you know, I’ve got some funny stories from the road with those guys, and a little bit of storytelling, lots of songs from my entire back catalog.”
McMahon recalled how audiences were dwindling during his spring 2020 tour before the world shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were out on a northwest Ontario tour, and the crowds were dwindling, and I joked to my bass player at the time, I said, ‘are we getting worse? Like is word getting word getting out that people don’t want to see me?’” McMahon joked.
“There was this groundswell, kind of rumblings of like, you know, something was about to happen to the world, and we didn’t have any idea. We didn’t know if it was going to last a week, or two, or what was going to happen. Of course, you know, it ended up taking me out for two years, right? As with all of us. Fort Frances was really cool though. People came out, I mean, it was probably about a half-full house, or just over, at the Townshend Theatre. The folks treated us really, really well there. And John [Payne], who has graciously hosted me, and is just so good for the arts in your community, he and I have been trying to get me back there ever since the world kind of opened back up in ‘23, so it’s worth the extra five hour drive from Manitoba for me to come to you guys.”
Fort Frances is the furthest east McMahon is coming on this tour.
Ryan McMahon is bringing his Learning to Shine Tour to the Fort Frances Royal Canadian Legion on this Saturday night, March 15. The show is sponsored by Tour De Fort but is not a part of the passport season. Tickets are $20 in advance on tourdefort.com or at Ski’s Variety and the Fort Frances Public Library, or $25 at the door. Doors will open at 7 p.m. for a 7:30 p.m. show and all ages are welcome. ID will be required to prove age of majority.
