Here's a CD Wal-Mart isn't likely to carry
GLOBE AND MAIL (Toronto) - 07/16/05
by John Allemang
For 10 years, Wal-Mart has been campaigning to build a big-box store on the northern edges of Guelph, near two cemeteries and a Jesuit retreat centre, and for just as long the city's sizable collection of rebels from consumer culture have been fighting back.
Although the Ontario Municipal Board approved the project (which goes
against the city's official plan), the province's Divisional Court has granted a rare leave to appeal the decision. To raise funds for the appeal, scheduled for Aug. 8 and 9, Guelph musicians have banded together in their own act-locally, We Are the World style to create a CD with the pointed title of Not There.
The title track, written specifically for the CD by musician-producer Sam Turton, is a folk-blues number that turns the rhythms of the South against the Arkansas-based corporation with such lines as, "The people stood up and the city said no/But the Walton boys just wouldn't let go," and, "World is round, box is square/Stick it in the south, we don't care" -- a reference to the Wal-Mart opponents' willingness to see the store built at Guelph's more commercial south edge, far from the Jesuit quiet.
The CD, which features such musicians as James Gordon, Jesse Stewart and Dave Teichroeb, costs $20 and is available at Music in Orbit, The Bookshelf and Thomas Entertainment in Guelph, or through www.not-there.ca, the campaign website of Residents for Sustainable Development.