You know you’ve married the right woman when she happily agrees to a 1,000-mile drive from Nashville to a small town on the Ontario-Quebec border to see an obscure Canadian singer-songwriter in a rented social club hall. But, I knew Fred Eaglesmith wouldn’t let us down.

 Neither did the sold-out crowd of several hundred Fredheads – some of whom traveled farther than we did - who were just as happy to see their bearded leader again as we were.

Eaglesmith has been off the road for four years now; after more than four decades on it. His Covid hiatus stretched well past the end of the shut-down, due to a health issue he mentioned during his show but didn’t elaborate on. Whatever it was, he recovered and served up a two-hour foot-stomper at the Germania Hall in Pembroke, Ontario to prove it.