NEW version of "I'll Never Understand Why"
When Edmonton’s Wilfred N & the Grown Men released their (tenth) album, Passing Through Time, one of the key songs on the album was I’ll Never Understand Why. Now here is a fresh new duo version of that song recorded through track sharing with my cyber-friend and now "real" friend in the Netherlands, Rob van der Plas . . . "I'll Never Understand Why" recorded by Wilfred N Meets The Hurryman.
This is somewhat of an extension of the original Passing Through Time album. And the lyrics are even more meaningful now with all the crazy stuff that has happened in our world over the past year. You know what I mean.
I’ll Never Understand Why recorded by Wilfred N Meets The Hurryman
with Wilfred Kozub - vocals, guitars, keyboards
and Rob van der Plas - vocals, Omnichord
Mixed and mastered by Nik Kozub
Here is the back story:
Rob van der Plas had a band in the 80s called The Spivs, roughly the same period of time when Wilfred N & the Grown Men were happening in Canada. Today, Rob is known as The Hurryman. We met on the internet about 15 years ago over our mutual interest in a musical instrument called the Omnichord as well as our shared pursuit of making good indie music.
A few years ago, I contacted Rob to tell him that my wife and I were planning to visit Amsterdam in September 2016 on our way to a holiday in Portugal. I thought it would be great for us to finally meet in person. Rob got back to me right away and told me about a plan he had to put on a live concert near Amsterdam in November 2016 to perform with Facebook musician friends of his in the area. Rob explained, “All these people have one thing in common: I know them through FB or the internet; they are all people I would love to play a song with sometime...” It was kind of a bucket list thing. He wanted me to somehow take part in the concert even though I would already have returned to Canada by concert time.
Rob thought it would be great if we could sing one of my tunes together and make a short movie of it to show on a big screen at his November concert. That meeting did happen in September in Amsterdam. How cool it was to finally meet Rob! When he arrived at our hotel, he greeted me with an acoustic guitar and an Omnichord slung on his back. He brought an extra guitar for me, too. We smiled and grinned and it was like we were old friends. And what a lot of fun it was to perform my song with him. We had a quick rehearsal and then got down to the business of making a movie of it on our iPhones. It was quick work. We had lunch and a walk in Vondelpark. It really made our holiday in Amsterdam special. I was back in Canada when Rob showed our movie of us singing this charming new rendition of I’ll Never Understand Why, filmed in my Amsterdam hotel room, at his concert. It was a big success.
Once I was home, I had an idea that Rob and I might share tracks over the internet to record the new arrangement of I’ll Never Understand Why.
I played the basic tracks in my home studio, and Rob recorded his Omnichord and vocal parts in his town near Amsterdam. The result is our new take on the tune, performed here by Wilfred N Meets The Hurryman. With all the uncertainty in the world, I think the lyrics are even more meaningful now than they were when I wrote the song.
We hope you enjoy Wilfred N Meets The Hurryman performing "I’ll Never Understand Why" as much as we do!
~ Wilfred
