Move over Bublé. Burnaby has a new crooner who will melt your heart with his smooth voice and classic charm. Henry Thompson, 88, is performing at the Music in the Park series this weekend, organized by EPIC, the Edmonds residents’ group. The show starts at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 27, in the plaza behind the Edmonds Community Centre, at 7433 Edmonds St. It’s free, so bring a blanket and some picnic treats, sit back in the grass and enjoy the show.
Jennifer: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Henry: I’m from India for starters. I’m 88.
J: You’re quite the singer, I understand.
H: I did it as a volunteer in the hospitals … all around the Lower Mainland.
J: What got you interested in singing?
H: I did it in my little hometown in India. There were no singers there, and I was interested in playing music, but I have no patience to play an instrument. ... I was an apprentice on the railway, and I was able to learn the songs. Having no knowledge of music, I just heard the songs and the music and the singers like Crosby and Como and Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. I used to hear all the songs. Of course I don’t know music, but my sister put down all the music in shorthand and transferred it to running hand and gave it to me. When the song came over again, I just had the words to follow the music.
J: So you would sing the old, classic crooners, when you were working on the railway?
H: Yes, then they dubbed me as a crooner. Bing Crosby was my favourite.
J: Do you sing on your own, a cappella, or do you sing with a band?
H: I used to sing with a band, then I came here to Canada, and I sang once or twice with a band, at shows and things like that.
J: For this weekend, what are you planning to do?
H: I’ve got to sing one song; Lindy (McQueen, from EPIC) told me I’ve got to sing her favourite song.
J: What’s that?
H: (He starts humming to himself to remember.) You Belong to Me.
J: Can you sing a little bit of it for me? Just a couple of lines?
H: See the pyramids along the Nile, watch the sunrise from a tropic isle...
J: Oh my, you sound like Frank Sinatra, that’s lovely!
H: And I do one of my favourite songs that no one in Canada knows, I think. It’s an old 1939 song by Berlin Irving. (Starts singing.) I poured my heart into a song, and when you hear it, please remember from the start, you won’t be hearing just the words and tune of a song, you will be listening to my heart.
J: That’s lovely! (laughter) How did you get connected to the Music in the Park series? How did you meet these people?
H: I saw it in the newspaper.
J: What would you like to say to people coming out to the show?
H: People that say they can not sing, they don’t persevere. Most musicians, and I’m not one because I can’t read music, I just sing.
(Postscript: While Jennifer Moreau has no particular plans to get married, Henry Thompson kindly offered to sing at her future wedding.)
