While others prefer Hobo's Taunt (including Bob Mersereau in The Top 100 Canadian Albums) or Blackie and the Rodeo King (adapted as a band name by roots supergroup Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing and Colin Linden), my Facebook friends chose Tryin' To Start Out Clean, the debut album from legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Willie P. Bennett, as the pinnacle of his craft. The album features two of Bennett's best known compositions, "White Line," which was released as a single in 1969, and "Music in Your Eyes," which has been covered by Stan Rogers and others.
If memory serves me well, and it often doesn't, I first became aware of Willie P. Bennett when I saw him with The Flying Squirrels at a folk festival in London, though that doesn't make sense, since he didn't join that outfit until 1991, so it may be that this was one of the albums that I inherited after the guy who lived upstairs from me in Edmonton passed away. I have since picked up his second (Hobo's Taunt) and third (Blackie and the Rodeo King) albums as well.
| Hometown: | Toronto |
| Label: | Posterity-Woodshed |
| Release Date: | February 1975 |
| Producer: | Dave Essig |
| Style: | Country, bluegrass |
| Mar*Star 125: | did not rank |
| Mar*Star 150: | 115 |
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Track Listing
Personnel