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.
Though they originate from Portage la Prairie, none of the guys from Doc Walker have been to Flin Flon That is going to change next Thursday as the three musicians take the stage at the R.H. Channing Auditorium . Kicking starting their tour in Holland, Man., Doc Walker is then making their way to Flin Flon Ð past a familiar location, The Pas. The country band has played it "a million times" according to member Dave Wasyliw, who was born in Thompson and understands the northern life. But the guys are in for a whole new treat. "We're looking forward to it," Wasyliw said when asked how they were feeling about coming north. In what Doc Walker hopes to be a sellout crowd, chairs will line the floor of the auditorium and the raised seating will be out for a higher look at the band. Playing an acoustic show, Wasyliw says they are excited to get things going. "What we wanted to do was to go to these places and make it a little more intimate," he says, referring to the unplugged show coming up. Wasyliw says the b and has been sitting around a table in their Nashville condo for the last six months, writing their record. "We just want to show people how we wrote them," he said in a phone interview. "We sat around with three guitars and we want to show people the process." Wasyliw says things will be even more intimate given that Doc Walker will more than likely sit with a few stools on stage and belt out a few fan favourites. "I prefer this sometimes," he says. "Being able to put your foot up on a monitor, it's just good to do both." In the beginning, the band played a lot of bars and then a lot of theatres, and Wasyliw says that's a big difference from the arenas that they often play now. "There are good things about both," he says, nothing that most musicians dream about playing the big arenas when they are kids but soon realize an intimate acoustic show is just as good. As for Wasyliw, while he dreamed of the arenas, too, he says he also just fell in love with the job. "It's kinda neat," he says. "It's a really neat career and a cool job to have where you hop off the bus and it's different every time." Looking back over the years, Wasyliw says Doc Walker has played to a crowd of 36,000 in Calgary, but they have also played sitting around a campfire as well as a beach party this past January in Mexico. But when it comes to Flin Flon, the guys hope to "put on the best show we can," he says.
