{"id":794640,"date":"2026-07-11T08:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T08:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/794640\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T08:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T08:30:21","slug":"pitching-in-tragically-hip-tribute-honours-gord-downies-calls-for-reconciliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/794640\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitching in: Tragically Hip tribute honours Gord Downie\u2019s calls for reconciliation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Wayne Kaulbach, 64, plays in a Tragically Hip cover band in Vancouver and has embarked on a cross-country, one-man tribute show to raise money for the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.Supplied<\/p>\n

The organizer: Wayne Kaulbach<\/p>\n

The pitch: Raising $10,000<\/p>\n

The cause: The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund<\/p>\n

Wayne Kaulbach is a such big fan of the Tragically Hip that he\u2019s seen the band perform 10 times and sings in a tribute act called Bobcaygeon.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been hooked on the Hip since the group\u2019s first album, Up to Here, came out in 1989. \u201cI think Gord was just the best front man of all time,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are the ultimate Canadian rock band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Kaulbach was also touched by Mr. Downie\u2019s Indigenous activism and his call for reconciliation. \u201cHe wanted a better Canada for all of us and it really inspired me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last year Mr. Kaulbach, a 64-year-old retired photographer from Vancouver, started thinking about taking a trip across Canada. He also wanted to do something to honour Mr. Downie, who died in 2017. He came up with the idea of performing a one-man Tragically Hip show in bars and clubs along the way.<\/p>\n

He set out in his 24-year-old Volkswagen Eurovan last April and played his first gigs in B.C., Yukon and the Northwest Territories. He then headed east and plans to visit each province and Nunavut before returning to Vancouver in October. He\u2019s played 15 shows so far and has several more booked.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s donating half of whatever he\u2019s paid, plus tips, to the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund, which promotes cultural understanding. He\u2019s raised around $5,000 so far and hopes to hit $10,000 by October. He\u2019s also asking people, \u201cWhat does reconciliation mean to you?\u201d and compiling responses on a Google doc. <\/p>\n

The trip hasn\u2019t been without a few hitches, including a van breakdown that cost $5,500 to repair. But Mr. Kaulbach has been overwhelmed by the generosity of the people he has met, including the family in Smithers, B.C., who put him up for a few nights while the van was being fixed. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been an amazing trip,\u201d he said during a stop in Ontario. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of blown my mind how kind and wonderful people have been.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Wayne Kaulbach, 64, plays in a Tragically Hip cover band in Vancouver and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341,2922],"class_list":["post-794640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}