By Will McGuirk

Wayne Petti of Cuff The Duke once told me Joel Plaskett’s is his generation’s Gordon Lightfoot. That was quite sometime ago and Plaskett has only gotten better. But Joel is too indie I guess to be grouped in with pantheon of Young, Cohen, Mitchell, Lightfoot, Downie, all those greats but there are those of us who know he belongs there and so many of those have secretly secretly secretly recorded a tribute album to the Plasket, presented to him for his 50th birthday (April 18 1975) and available to the public on the usual platforms. The list of contributors includes Sloan, Frank Turner, Arkells, Rose Cousins, Mo Kenny, Matt Andersen, our pal Shotgun Jimmie; Over 20 in all covering tracks spanning his career from Thrush Hermit thru the Emergency.

“‘I Love This Town’ is a song that can be enjoyed by anyone but has special meaning for Sloan because we too had 'shot the shit with Miniature Tim.' We know the guy whose house burned down. We WERE the band that he saw in the early days that went away. It’s a classic. We attempted to do our version like we might have in the early days.” - Sloan on "I Love This Town"