Just when he thought his caper was through, Canadian Tire money started finding its way into Corin Raymond’s hands, and the whole thing rumbled back to life.
In 2011 the folk singer embarked on a quest to pay for an album using nothing but the iconic Canadian “currency.” After collecting more than $7,000 in Canadian Tire money from fans, in 2013 Raymond released Paper Nickels, with the help of Rogue Music’s James Paul, who took the colourful coupons at face value.
With Paper Nickels released, Raymond had figured the caper had been put to bed, but then some of the artists he covered on the album agreed to take their royalties in Tire money, and the caper reared its head once more.
“What I’ve found is that you can’t kill the caper—I thought it was done, I thought we had wrapped it up, but it lives on,” he said in a phone interview at the start of his western Canadian tour.
And Raymond, it seems, couldn’t be happier about that.
He talked about Canadian Tire money at length, and did so with such a joyous and infectious energy it was hard not to get sucked in.
“There is over $100 million of Canadian Tire money out there circulating. How much have we driven past today that’s hiding in garages and kitchen drawers? I mean there’s $100 million out there—I just tapped into a small little part of that treasure,” he said.
Some cursory research on the “tire caper” reveals how much fun Raymond is having tapping into that treasure. The Internet is littered with pictures of the singer posing with piles of the colourful mock currency.
At one live show, introducing “Don’t Spend It Honey,” the song that inspired the caper, Raymond holds up thick stacks of Canadian Tire money. “If you do nothing else, you’ve got to come over and feel the power, and feel the grandeur, there’s nothing like it,” he tells his audience. He throws the stacks to the stage floor, where they land with loud thwacks. “Can you hear that?” he asks, with a huge grin on his face.
Raymond said part of the reason he loves the caper so much is that it’s been a great way to stay connected with his fans. Earlier this year Paper Nickels was passed over by the Junos, and while Raymond was disappointed, he admitted that it was kind of fitting.
He said he’s never been prouder of anything he’s produced, and loves the fact that Paper Nickels, and everything that’s wrapped up in it, has “made a lot of people smile.”
“The beauty of being ignored by the Junos is that it throws the real meaning of what I’m doing back at me,” he said.
“The people who support me are the people whose lives are changed by my music. My relationship is with my fans directly, and that’s the glory of the small time, that’s my world.
“It’s folk music, you know? It’s living music. And Paper Nickels is a living artifact.”
Trevor Nichols
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