ridgerecords.net - Songs Of Rossland

Scroll down for info on the project, purchase options, what it contains, lyrics, back stories, photos, etc. To go to the album use this link :
Songs Of Rossland: Collectors Edition

There you can stream all the audio tracks for free by tapping or clicking on a track. Or you can tap or click on the Download button below the album cover photo to purchase the album for $19.99 Canadian. Or you can scroll all the way down below the track list to purchase a gift card to gift it to someone else. If you prefer to use PayPal instead of a credit card, contact me directly using the Contact button at the bottom of the page.

This is a collection of 26 songs about Rossland and it's people, events, and places. All the songs, with the exception of The Smokies Song (neither Seth nor Dave could remember who came up with the words, but they sung it to the tune of Old Gray Bonnet) were written and performed by Wayne Krewski.

The download package includes high quality mp3 audio files at 320 kbps. The zipped download package is 933.6 MB. When you tap or click on the zipped file it will unzip to a folder containing the audio files, video files, and pdfs that totals 943.8 MB. You'll now have a folder and a zipped file, totalling 1.88 GB (you can delete the zipped file rather than take up space on your device if space is limited). It includes 3 hours and 25 minutes of songs and stories about Rossland and area in high quality mp3 audio files at 320 kbps, plus bonus content which includes 45 minutes of video from a Miners Hall concert with Wayne, Alfie Albo, and Booty Griffiths. It also includes artwork, pdfs with project notes, photos, backstories, lyrics, cuesheets which include lyrics, chords, chord charts, and notes about chord forms used. You can also purchase a digital gift card to gift this album to someone else … scroll down below the track list to do that.
Many of the stories are quite long, and so to facilitate the creation of playlists I've broken most of them up into Intro (the story) and Song.
The cover photo was taken on the top of Gray Mt, with Old Glory in the background.
Included in the download package are two sets of pdfs, one set formatted for computer and one formatted for smartphone. The Songs Of Rossland Back Stories pdfs contain notes, back stories, lyrics, info about who was involved in each track, and technical info about my guitar and how it was recorded. The Songs Of Rossland Cuesheets pdfs contain cuesheets with lyrics, chords, chord charts, and notes about the chord forms used.
I've taken the original multitrack master audio recordings and mixed and processed them from scratch on an iPhone 15 Pro Max in Cubasis. The artwork was also done on iPhone with Amadine. The video is the original DV film processed on iPhone 15 Pro Max in LumaFusion. With this project I have now replaced Logic Pro, Gimp, and Final Cut on my Mac with Cubasis, Amadine, and LumaFusion on my iPhone.

<><><><><>

Live on RidgeRadio

Tracks 1 through 14 were recorded live on Ridge Radio during Sessions broadcasts.

1-2 Time Out Of Context (4:42)

© 2016 Wayne Krewski (SOCAN)
All Rights Reserved
Words and music by Wayne Krewski
Guitar and vocal by Wayne Krewski

Recorded live during a Sessions broadcast on Ridge Radio on 19 July 2025

I was hiking up Record Ridge with Nanuk one day. She was the best touring partner I ever had, she had shared every moment of my time in the back country for 10 years. She was getting near the end of her time, and as it turned out it was the last trek she was able to do. As we trekked I got to thinking about how much longer I'd be able to do that. Then I started thinking about the big disconnect between how you feel on the inside and how you are perceived on the outside.

Time Out Of Context lyric

AS I look at all the years stretching back to a day when my face reflected my inner youth.
AND I consider the direction of my course underway, I wonder when reflection turned untruth.
AND when they stopped seeing the excitement inside, anticipation for the new day to dawn.
MY face became a mask that the years applied, until resemblance to my spirit was gone.

LIKE time out of context, looking for pretext,
PERCEPTION seems to drift on the wind.
THE essence of my truth, the substance of my youth
IS something time has failed to rescind.

PEOPLE look at your face and see the number of years before they ever look into your eyes.
IF they looked more closely underneath the veneers, I wonder would they stop in surprise.
OR would they still see another middle aged man, or maybe elderly would come to their mind.
OR would they see something from when it began, something I could look and see and recognize.

LIKE time out of context, looking for pretext,
PERCEPTION seems to drift on the wind.
THE essence of my truth, the substance of my youth
IS something time has failed to rescind.

WHEN I started the journey all those years ago, knowing nothing of what I would find,
I probably thought that by now I would know, and have everything clear in my mind.
BUT the truth that I found as my travels progressed, was that answers are never the goal,
IT’S the journey that counts, it’s the endless quest, that preserves the youth of your soul.

LIKE time out of context, looking for pretext,
PERCEPTION seems to drift on the wind.
THE essence of my truth, the substance of my youth
IS something time has failed to rescind.

<><><><><>

3 John Ingram (4:28)

© 2025 Wayne Krewski (SOCAN)
All Rights Reserved
Words and music by Wayne Krewski
Guitar and vocal by Wayne Krewski

Recorded live during a Sessions broadcast on Ridge Radio on 26 July 2025

I originally wrote this as a swing song in 2001 under the title Jack Ingram And The Centre Star Explosion. For this project I wanted it to work with one guitar and one vocal, so it's so substantially changed both lyrically and musically that I'm calling it a new song.

John Ingram lyric

JOHN Ingram came from St Thomas, Ontario.
A siren's call told him westward he must go.
HIS courage, strength, and fearless bearing
FORETOLD the badge that he'd be wearing,
JOHN Ingram.

INGRAM was a drunk, a gambler and a brawler, liked brothels at night.
AS Winnipeg's first Police Chief something didn't smell right.
THEY kicked his ass out of town,
AND his legend became renown,
JOHN Ingram.

JOHN thought he'd better keep moving to the west.
WITH his legend maybe Calgary would be impressed.
BUT they soon saw the colour of his tricks,
AND his tenure as Chief they deep-sixed,
JOHN Ingram.

1896 saw Ingram in the Trail Creek mining camp, no city police.
LEGENDARY lawman Jack Kirkup was keeping the peace.
HE kept things running by the book,
BUT some things people wanted him to overlook,
BUT not Jack Kirkup.

IN '97 the City of Rossland was incorporated.
CONSERVATIVE Mayor Scott wanted law to be unregulated.
HE hired Ingram to be the Chief,
AND corruption ensued without relief,
JOHN Ingram.

IN 1901 Ingram took a job as a strike breaker,
BUT 1902 saw him back in charge as a law maker.
THE Centre Star hired him in 1903,
A powderman his last job would be,
JOHN Ingram.

ON a winters day in nineteen-five John met his fate.
HIS stepson Bert came to share his break for the last few breaths that John would take.
THE powder thawing room got a little too hot,
SO he sent Bert to open the door to the frost,
JOHN Ingram.

BERT went on up to the barn while John made detonators.
WHAT happened next was the talk of a lot of speculators.
THE thawing room exploded in flame,
CONCUSSION momentarily came,
JOHN Ingram.

THE black smoke rose 600 feet, spanning 150 feet.
THE thawing room was gone, just a hole in the ground, they found John's body when they saw his feet
STICKING from a bank nearby,
A hell of a way to die,
JOHN Ingram.

JOHN'S son Leslie, 7 years old, came looking for his dad
JUST as they found his body in the bank, what a blow to the lad
JOHN'S was the only death,
THE only one to take their last breath,
JOHN Ingram.

ALL the windows in town were gone, took months to get enough glass to town.
LAURA Kirby at the age of 3 was pinned beneath a door when her house went down.
LOCKHART the diamond drill setter
HAD his nose severed.
HIS life surely did portend
AN ignominious end for
JOHN Ingram.

<><><><><>

4 - Joe Moris (4:15)

Recorded live during a Sessions broadcast on Ridge Radio on 9 Aug 2025

Joe Moris lyric

IN the spring of 1890 Joe Moris hired on to do some assessment work on the Lily May.
JOE and Oliver Bordeau left Colville by sleigh; at the Little Dalles they hired a boat and crew.
THEY went on up the Columbia River, disembarked at Trail Landing, the snow too deep for horse to haul supplies.
OVER 5 feet of snow they packed their gear, only travelling in the mornings. The Dewdney Trail took them right to the Lily May.

ASSESSMENT work was almost done when bare ground first appeared on the south side of Red Mountain; the colour caught Joe's eye.
OLIVER Bordeau had no money, said he'd pay Joe when they got to Nelson. Joe said: "That's okay, I need supplies."

AT noon on the 18th day of April assessment work was done. Joe went to have a closer look at Red.
ON the way he found a cropping, located the Homestake claim; never made it all the way to Red.
THEY went to Nelson, but still no pay for Joe, he went to work at the Silver King, seventeen-and-a-half shifts, he bought supplies and started downriver.
AT Trail Creek the weather was too bad to prospect so he went to work on the Homestake and waited for the weather to clear.

ALONG came Joe Bourgeous and said: "Abandon that claim and come with me. I've found some good prospects up on Red.
THEY located the Centre Star and the Idaho, the War Eagle and the Virginia - they staked the Centre Star extension and called it Le Wise.

THEY went to Nelson, their samples assayed, the best at three-twenty-five a ton. Bourgeous said: “Well that's not worth the price.”
MORIS said: "We'd better record, go back and find some better ore." Bourgeous said: "Okay, but I won't pay."
THEY went to Topping to record their claims, said: “We've got five, we can only keep four. If you pay them all we'll give you one.”
FOR twelve dollars and fifty cents Topping bought the Centre Star extension. He went, had a look, said: "I'll keep it!" and called it Le Roi.

AS time went on they all sold their claims. Centre Star, War Eagle, and Le Roi became household words in the mining world.
TRAIL Creek grew into Rossland; 8000 people in 1901; the Mining Stock Exchange grew the TSE.