The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor When Darren Crone's father taught him a few chords on the guitar, he was immediately hooked. Then a youth, he was enamoured not so much by the sounds his fingers made as they plucked the strings, but by the chance to put his own thoughts and words to music. 'It was like magic for me, honestly the closest thing to real magic that I could ever say I personally experienced,' recalls Crone. And the magic never faded away. Now the former Flin Flonner, an electrician in Calgary, is building a successful side career as a songwriter. With several of his songs popping up on albums and radio airwaves, Crone has become an emerging force in the country music scene. His first real break came last year when his song 'Borderline Crazy,' performed by the soulful-voiced Levi Hart, was released on Canadian radio. But he got more of a thrill this year when another work, 'Beautiful Crazy Life,' received national play on TV's country-music channel, CMT. Crone penned 'Beautiful Crazy Life' with a bit of help from a musician friend named Quentin Reddy. Reddy loved the song so much that he asked to enter it in Big in a Small Town, sort of a country-music version of Canadian Idol. Out of thousands of songs entered, 'Beautiful Crazy Life' made the top 30. Reddy went to Jasper, Alta., where he performed the song for a pair of judges. 'They raved about the song, which was one of my proudest moments to date as a songwriter,' Crone says. When Big in a Small Town narrowed the finalists down to six, Reddy was still in contention for a grand prize that included the production of two music videos and a recording contract. So off to Toronto he went, performing the song live on CMT in September. Again the judges were impressed, naming him one of two finalists. 'Beautiful Crazy Life' ultimately lost out, but immediately CMT, seeing Reddy's talent and the appeal of the song, offered to fly him to Toronto to record the work. Reddy was in studio earlier this month to do just that, with the song due for a radio release in January. There are also plans to produce an accompanying music video for CMT. Also coming out in the new year is Calgary-based musician Sarah Beth Keeley's new album, which contains another Crone song. He also has songs on an album by Reddy. If that weren't enough, four of Crone's other pieces are now being pitched in Nashville by one of the country music capital's 'top song pluggers,' as the songwriter puts it. 'They have been kept for consideration by some of the biggest names in the industry,' he says. A long way Crone is certainly a long way from the boy who grew up in Flin Flon writing poetry and short stories before he was even in the second grade. 'I was writing poems that my Umma _ that's what we called my grandma _ and my mom would read over and shower me with praise over,' he recalls. In reflecting on his love for music, Crone cites his father's passion for classic rock. 'Songwriting for me, I think, happened as a natural progression,' he says. 'My dad was always listening to music _ÊThe Beatles, Eagles, CCR, Billy Joel, Simon and Garfunkel _ all the greatest music ever made in my opinion, and that the music today has a hard time living up to for me.' When Crone learned a few chords on the guitar, he found music could whisk him off to a whole other world. 'No matter how I felt _ happy, sad, lonely, confused, joyful, excited _ I could sit with a guitar and create that feeling around words and put it to music, and it transported me,' he says. 'When I finally started playing things for others, I would see that they could have the same reaction. To know I could bring someone else into what I was feeling through that three- to four- minute song was an amazing feeling of connecting with people that I think we all look for in this world.' After graduating from Hapnot Collegiate in 1991, Crone spent a couple of years working at Hudbay, then known as HBMS, before moving away. He found himself in Calgary, employed as an electrician, but music continued to play a key role in his life. He kept on writing songs, gravitating toward country because that is the main genre that uses other writers' works. Inspiration With his pen in hand, he draws from all of his life experiences for inspiration, including the first part of his life back in Flin Flon. 'Growing up in Flin Flon made me who I am today,' Crone says. 'The greatest thing growing up there gave me, and I think gave a lot of people that come from there, is a sense of never give up, a toughness that tells us no one's gonna tell us there's something we can't do, even against all odds. We brave the cold winters, we're isolated from the world. We're miners and hockey players, outdoors people, and just about everyone I grew up with there or ever met from there, including myself, has an amazing sense of pride of being from that town.' It was an upbringing that has served Crone well in a songwriting industry with many aspirants but few success stories. 'Believe me, I've been told everywhere from Flin Flon all the way to Nashville by all kinds of people that this is too hard, won't happen for me, don't waste my time or money,' he says. 'And I could have quit, even thought about it a few times, but it's starting to happen now and it's always happening all around me, as long as I keep picking up my guitar and writing a new song. And all those people over all the years that kept telling me it's too hard and not to waste my time, and just give up? Well, I guess they didn't know I was from Flin Flon.'
