Honouring Black History Month: Singing Pictures: The Musical Lives of Jim and Sheila Johnson
The inspiring story of Jim Johnson's musical legacy and the remarkable choir he and his wife, Sheila, founded in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island
You can also download the podcast on all major platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Also of interest:
In honour of Black History Month, the deeply moving story of Jim Johnson and his passion for music. Growing up in the Cowichan Valley, Ashley discovered the amazing Concenti Singers, one of BC’s most highly regarded amateur choirs that Jim started with Sheila Johnson. For this unique story, Ashley visited with Jim and Sheila to capture some special history and stories of their lives.
The Concenti Singers:
(Singing).
Jim Johnson:
I grew up in a family of eight. There were five girls and three boys, and it was a singing family. From the time I was three, I didn't know that I couldn't sing. I thought singing was like breathing and it was for me, so I can't see where there was any beginning. And the frightful thing is that I can't see where there's an ending.
Ashely Daniel Foot:
In charting the story of a community, it's funny to think that we'd be focusing on the son of a Southern Baptist preacher and a refined English teacher, who kept the sharps and the flats in the right place and started one of the most celebrated amateur choirs in British Columbia's history.
Sheila Johnson:
I think one of the special things about the Concenti singers was the acapella singing and the way the sound used to surround us, and we were just bathed in this beautiful, beautiful music. It was special for all of us.
Concenti Singers:
(Singing).
Sheila Johnson:
You know, music, if it doesn't move you, if you don't bring those words alive, if you don't put the audience where you are in the song, then you might as well give up and go home.
Ashely Daniel Foot:
Starting a choir is a bit like starting a family, except more stressful because you have to keep 30 plus people interested in working together once a week or twice a week. Can you imagine an amateur choir that has met twice a week for almost 30 years? Choir member Judy McLeod.
Judy McLeod:
Because they don't have a family up here, we’ve sort of become their family. We don't pay dues. We all do it because of our love of music and the love of doing a good job.
Ashely Daniel Foot:
And making sure that it's a good job can be hard work.
Jim Johnson:
How do you tell someone who's been singing for 20 years or so that they can't sing anymore, that they can't add anything? I said, "You can't just do as the farmer does, and take them out in back of the barn and shoot them."
Jim Johnson:
Sometimes you find when you work with groups who are older, that you must remind them that we must sing pictures. We must sing human experiences. We must sing things that are universal, but somehow they haven't been taught that or they've forgotten it. And once they get that, you separate choirs from a group of singers.
Concenti Singers:
(Singing).
Ashely Daniel Foot:
Singing pictures, not words, have become tenets of Jim and Sheila's musical philosophy. Choir member, Pat Gunn.
Pat Gunn:
They want you to sing from the heart and with emotion, not just with technical ability. They're always saying sing pictures, sing stories. Don't just sing the words. What do you think the song's about?
Concenti Singers:
(Singing).
Jim Johnson:
There was a lady on my street, Mrs. Barnes, when I was about nine. I used to pass by her house all the time singing, and she used to call me the singing boy.
Sheila Johnson:
I was born and grew up in a town called Hitchen in Hertfordshire, just, oh, 30 odd miles north of London.
Jim Johnson:
I went back to visit 15, 20 years ago, and she was still living, but she heard me coming out and inadvertently I was singing and she said, she couldn't see. "Is that you? Is that the singing boy?" I said, "Yes, Mrs. Barnes, it is me and I'm visiting my parents." Oh, she did a little dance. I tell you, it was such a part of me.
Sheila Johnson:
My father had never had very much opportunity to learn music. He did have a few violin lessons when he was a small child. I don't know how they managed that, but it didn't go on for very long. But he could play just about anything by ear. And all through my childhood, I remember him playing the piano by ear. Everything was in F Sharp major, and I can't remember him ever playing anything in a minor key. I guess maybe he couldn't figure it out in F anyway, and played that and he played the piano accordion. So we had music going on around the house for the whole of my childhood.
The Concenti Singers
(Singing)
Ashley Daniel Foot:
In the last few years, in addition to the Concenti singers, Sheila has started a youth choir.
Sheila Johnson:
I always tell them the choir is like a cake. With a cake, you start with all sorts of different ingredients. They all have a different texture. You have to blend. Well, that's what we have to do, you are all the raw ingredients.
Ashley Daniel Foot
In the end, it's the story of a journey across borders and into hearts.
Jim Johnson:
Music can be or is like a disease. Once you have got it, you've got it. The Singing Boy that went past by Mrs. Barnes's house every day had been completely infected with a desire to continue with music. And I don't apologize for that, mind you. And every other school where I have taught, since I started teaching, I have started a choir, every other one. And most of them I go into town and there'll be people say, "Hey, Mr. Jay, oh, I remember you. Yeah, I was in your choir in grade, this, that, and the other."
And so something happened, something affected me that caused me to say, Mrs. Barnes, who called me the Music Man was right. I was exactly where I should have been.
A little post script to the story. Jim passed away in 2012, and Sheila retired from The Concenti Singers last year.
Produced, edited and hosted by Ashley Daniel Foot
All about Black History Month in Canada