Get Your Ears On: Truckers sing praises of the road on CBC radio

UTOPIA, ONT – – Owner-operator Derek Hurst thinks somebody ought to write a song about a particular piece of highway.

            And it’s a stretch of road that every one of you has traveled but that no two of you would describe the same way.

            Wondering what the heck we’re talking about?

            Driver Hurst lives in the central Ontario village of Utopia (close to Alliston). Most days, he drives his Freightliner from Toronto to New York. 

            During one of those trips recently, he made the suggestion for the song to CBC Radio 2 afternoon drive-show host Rich Terfry as part of the CBC’s SongQuest contest.

            The CBC is asking listeners to nominate memorable stretches of road that should be immortalized in song. Like Dylan’s Highway 61. Or Simon & Garfunkel’s Bleeker Street.

            The contest runs until Oct. 1, and the songs will be produced, by professional Canadian singer-songwriters, by Oct. 15. The CBC is scheduling a special concert on October 26th at which all 13 songs (one for each province and territory) will be performed.

            In its search for immortal roads, the CBC turned to the best sources going:            Truckers.

            Eight of them, to be precise.

            On-air hosts interviewed eight of this country’s best trucking ambassadors and asked each which roads need writin’ about.

            In addition to Hurst’s, here another driver – – Rene Robert — on his nominated piece of tarmac.

            “The road I nominate is like a live postcard; you never know what you’re going to see. And my heart opens like a flower when I’m on it.”

            Pretty poetic, huh?

             Robert is an owner-operator out of Manitoba who was also, back in 2004, the first driver ever to be named highwaySTAR of the year. 

            He was talking about the wildly unpredictable highway between the two Dawsons; City and Creek. Click here to hear Robert’s suggestion:

            One of the most moving nominations comes from Raynald Bouthillier, from Hearst, Ont.,

            He nominated the stretch of number 11 along which his neighbors lined up to show their respect when his son Jack’s body was brought home after being killed in action in Afghanistan. Here’s Raynald:

            The vote for most historic would probably go to driver Len Stam’s description of driving through the gale winds across the North Shore of Lake Superior the very same day the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Pancake Bay. (Stam’s also, aurally speaking, a dead ringer for Stompin’ Tom Connors.) Want proof? Click here.

            Other notions: there’s one driver the radio host describes as a trucking Jedi, Michel Patry, on the meteorological phenomenon that led to the creation of the stretch of terrain between Baie-Saint-Paul and La Malbaie, Que. Meet Michel:

Then there’s the articulate former NHL player and highwaySTAR Bud Rush on the splendid trip from Edmonton to Kitimat:

            Catherine Maxsom, the only female driver of the group, talks about the Manitoba highway she and her spouse courted on.

            Erb veteran driver and raconteur Alfy Meyer describes the dual-personalities of highway 11 north out of Sudbury. It’s beautiful by day but a white-knuckler by night.

            And then there’s Hurst. And the road we’ve all traveled.

            After he describes the road to CBC host Terfry, Hurst adds, “There was one point in particular I chose this road.”

            Listen here to find out why you, too, probably think that Hurst chose the road best travelled.