Canadian country music duo Doc Walker will be in Moose Jaw on Saturday, Nov. 19, playing at the Moose Jaw Events Centre alongside George Canyon, Lonestar, and Sawyer Brown.
Since forming in 1994, Doc Walker, composed of Chris Thorsteinson and Dave Wasyliw, have become one of Canada’s most recognized country acts. Over nearly three decades, together they have achieved one JUNO Award, 14 Canadian Country Music Association Awards, 21 Top 10 Canadian country radio singles, eight No. 1 CMT videos, and accumulated millions of streams.
Tickets to the concert are available from Sasktix.ca.
MooseJawToday.com spoke with Chris Thorsteinson about playing in Moose Jaw again, what the pandemic lockdown was like, and being back on the road.
“I’ve always liked Moose Jaw,” Thorsteinson said. “One of our fellow Winnipeggers lives around there, Burton Cummings. Done a few shows with him and we’re big fans of his.
“One of my favourite times when we were touring way back was when we’d do Regina, then Moose Jaw, and Red Deer. Those were the three places in the Prairies I really liked going to.”
Thorsteinson said they used to stay in the Park Hotel back when it was called the Royal George.
“It used to be that it was haunted, we had one of our biggest ‘haunted place’ stories in Moose Jaw. … And I gotta say, none of us really believed in ghosts, but we were pretty creeped out, because we stayed in the rooms up above, right?
“This would have been 20-some years ago, now. That’s back when we used to do bar tours … and every place had a country bar.”
Other Moose Jaw memories Thorsteinson recalled are the time someone broke the back window of their Suburban — they had to take a hotel comforter and tape it up — and the year they played the CP Holiday Train and Moose Jaw was the only place they were allowed to hop off after their set to grab a beer and a bite to eat.
“We’ve been doing it a while,” he laughed. “I mean, it’s been 20 years since we released Rocket Girl. It flies by, man, you think, ‘oh, we’re just a young, up-and-coming band,’ and then that first single is 20 years ago. It’s just amazing how fast it goes by.”
The pandemic was hard on Thorsteinson and Wasyliw because they missed touring, but Thorsteinson said it turned out to be a good time to focus on family.
“After touring for so many years, I think we took advantage of (the pandemic) to slow it down… Both Dave and I and the other guys in the band, like, all our kids are between eight and 15 years old. That’s a good time of life to pause and be with your family.”
The 'Rocket Girl' remix
As they started getting back on the road and feeling the excitement again, Doc Walker asked themselves how they could celebrate the anniversary of Curve (2001), their first big album.
“There were three singles off that record, but ‘Rocket Girl’ was the one that really connected with audiences. But the problem was, I lost the tapes,” Thorsteinson laughed, “for the whole album!
“That’s back when they were recorded on two-inch reel-to-reel tapes. … I spent a week and a half, two weeks trying to track these tapes down and finally found them in a storage room under some boxes. Not the most responsible thing to do with your first recording tapes!”
The tapes were professionally restored and transferred to a digital format. Wasyliw then spent many hours in his personal studio fixing some parts of the recording and redoing others.
“He did most of the work,” Thorsteinson said. “It turned out, too, it sounded pretty darn good at the end, and it still has that same magic that the original had.”
Touring inspires creativity
Thorsteinson and Wasyliw are always working on new music, he said, creating and writing and recording. Their latest single “She Wants What She Wants,” released in 2021, was inspired by experiences of fatherhood.
“It really takes being on the road, though, being together day after day, to either come up with crazy stories or just live through a moment you can turn into a song,” Thorsteinson said.
“So, we’re looking forward to getting back out on the road, especially with Lonestar and Sawyer Brown and George Canyon, I mean, there’s three legendary artists. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be lots to write about after that tour!”
Thorsteinson said that they love playing live enough to give up some money in exchange for performing more frequently. Some bands only want to play four or five shows a year — not Doc Walker. Small towns, a packed schedule, and happy superfans are what they’re after.
“I think we’d rather make less and play more,” he explained, “just because that’s what we do and that’s what we want to do.”
‘It’s going to be a pretty amazing night’
This particular tour is focusing on the biggest hits from the four acts. Given the combined star power and history, they won’t have time to play them all.
“We can’t be on stage for five hours! Nobody’s gonna do that,” Thorsteinson said. “So, you’re going to get the big hits from Lonestar, the big hits from Sawyer Brown, and George Canyon and us … to be able to come to a show like this, where it’s just boom, boom, boom, hit after hit, you know, it’s going to fly by.
“It’s going to be a pretty amazing night, I think, with four acts like that on stage at one time. You’re probably not going to see that again for a while.”
