As Gate tells it, "Tom's 14 month long gig at the Maple Leaf had to come to an end. He had a lot more fish to fry and that meant going south, to Toronto. He will reenter my life again and again in the years to come.
It's 1965 and I keep working at the bar. But I've got music in my mind. Real bad. I want to sing. Write more songs and I'm writing a ton. Doing demos. Even drove to Nashville to knock on the doors of countless song publishers and went to see Acuff-Rose Publishing and met Wesley Rose, song of Fred Rose (the man who published Hank Williams Sr.). He polished Hand's songs and got them on records. That man. As I walked the hallways of this giant publishing house, I see the gold records on the walls: Hank Williams, Don Gibson, Everly Brothers. I'm impressed and I'm dreaming of having my own name up there as a songwriter someday..
I came close and nothing happens. I will try again, many times. Nashville. Mel Tillis Company, 'Sawgrass Music' on Broadway STreet. Cedarwood Publishing. Greengrass Publishing, up and down 16th Avenue. I know it all, been there, done that and more. I tried it all.
The furthest my name went in Nashville is on the wall of "Tootsie Orchid Lounge' next to the Grand Old Opry. I placed it there one night. I spent many nights at Tootsies. Across the street at 'Spinning Wheel', Ernest Tubb's Record Shop, Printer's Alley, Ronnie Prophet's spot called the 'Carousel Club'. Yes, I know Nashville well. Very well. I left a lot of songs there with many publsihers. Had demos made there. Came close, but never a hit."
As a musician myself, and as someone who has met and performed with many songsters with dreams of having a hit song, I can't help but be humbled by the work Gate put into his career. It's a common thread in professional music circles that artists, songwriters, have little business acumen, if any. They know the music but neglect the business.
Gate Lepine determination, courage and hard work are not the most impressive threads in his story, but they do set him apart from the majority of professional musicians I've met.
As Gate writes about his trips to Nashville and all the doors he walked through looking for a publisher, I think about the influence this commitment to his craft must have had on a young, nervous and insecure Tom Charles Connors. Bands, like Whiskey Jack, survive for a long time because the members feed off of each other's love for the music and the life that goes with it. In my case, I would never had enjoyed 40+ years in music without the many influential musicians who came and went over the years. Tom and Gate, sitting across from each other, guitars in hand, throwing out ideas for songs, must have been something to behold. The energy in the room must have been palpable.