Stories & Lyrics

"Penticton Herald"

Duo‘s tune strikes a chord with military
By John Moorhouse
Saturday, March 1, 2008

It was an “other world” experience Ted Shumaker will never forget.
Now, a song spawned by a deadly roadside bomb in Afghanistan last summer – and the Penticton songwriter‘s unexplained encounter a few days later – has gained the ear of Canada‘s troops in Kandahar.

I Beg to Take My Leave, by Ted and his wife, Katie, who perform as the country-folk duo Tekatie, impressed Canada‘s top soldier enough to be aired on Canadian Forces Radio for the troops serving in Afghanistan. As Shumaker explained Friday, the song‘s origins could strike some as bizarre.
It came to him in early July 2007, a couple of days after a powerful roadside bomb claimed the lives of six Canadian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in southern Afghanistan. The explosion was among the deadliest attacks against Canadian troops in the strife-torn country. Shumaker recalled being distraught over the blast, which tore into a heavily armoured Canadian Forces patrol vehicle. “It just seems like every time you opened up a newspaper or magazine, another kid is dead,” he said. “They‘re real people – they‘re not just soldiers.”

Then, at home alone in the couple‘s music room in the middle of the afternoon, Shumaker felt a “presence.” “Like in a dream, you don‘t see stuff, but you know what it is,” he said. “This being was a fallen soldier. Behind him was a triangle of other fallen soldiers.” Grabbing a pen, Shumaker said he felt the presence guide him in writing the song. “It was like he said: ’This is what I want you to say,‘ so I just wrote it out.” The song flowed onto the paper, but the experience left a definite impact on Shumaker.
“At first, Katie said, ’Don‘t tell anybody,‘” Shumaker recalled. “She could see I was visibly shaken.”
However, by that night, the couple had already written the music to accompany the lyrics. A few weeks later, they recorded the song at Crosstown Recording Studios in North Vancouver.

While efforts to distribute the song were unsuccessful at first, that turned around when the Shumakers‘ friend Kevin Ritcey contacted Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the defence staff. The song was forwarded to the Canadian Forces Support Agency, which put it on the playlist of the Canadian Forces radio network, accessible by the troops in Afghanistan, for three weeks over the holiday season.

In a letter to the couple, Hillier thanks them for their efforts. “I have listened to your song with great interest,” he said. “Initiatives such as these are very inspiring to our troops, for they clearly show that Canadians encourage them in their tasks, successes and challenges.”

Even now, some eight months after his original encounter with the presence, Shumaker said the experience leaves him wondering. “You start to fear for your own sanity, but as you talk to people, it‘s amazing how many times that kind of thing happens,” he said. “Is that in your own mind? Is that just an outpouring of compassion? “In the end, I guess, it doesn‘t matter. The words are not profound, but they really do seem to come from a 19-year-old or 21-year-old, just doing what he thought he should do.”

One copy of the song was sent, through acquaintances, to the mother of one of the Canadian soldiers killed in last summer‘s bombing.

The song also received some airplay through a two-week Victims‘ Services ad campaign in Alberta to show solidarity with the troops. A Saskatchewan branch of the Royal Canadian Legion also sent a letter of thanks.

Shumaker said, ideally, he would like to have such renowned Canadian recording artists as George Canyon or Aaron Pritchett perform the song. Copies will also be sent to Legion branches across the country for possible play on Remembrance Day.

I Beg to Take My Leave is available on a free CD offered with a purchase of the Shumakers‘ 14-song CD Tekatie, Lines of Time, released last June. The song can also be heard as a sound clip at www.tekatie.com along with a full explanation of Ted‘s experience.
Below are the lyrics to the song:

I BEG TO TAKE MY LEAVE

I beg to take my leave
I am gone not forgotten
I can say what I believe
I am gone not forgotten
Now, I beg to take my leave
I believed what I was doing
Was the thing good men do
I stand in pride with those who've fallen
What we’ve done was done for you.
For the things that we believe in
For the things that we hold dear
Truth and freedom, take some courage
I thank you for your tears.

Though we fallen in this battle
For a cause that we believe
Because of us and what we stand for
Many good men will fight and leave
Fight then leave to see their families
Live with them in times of peace
The price we pay. Please don’t forget me
Now I beg …. To take my leave

LINES OF TIME

From the opening song, “Lines of Time” invites the listener to consider themselves old friends and listen
in to heartfelt and beautifully crafted story songs which effortlessly paint mental pictures illustrating Ted and Katie’s love letter to friends, family and, unmistakably, to each other. Their own compositions speak from the heart, and selected old standards get deeply personal touches, ideally suited to their seasoned voices.

This collaboration traces the wistfulness of the passage of time and revels in the wonders of the lives most of us live – or wish we did. Resort town romances remembered in “Fever of Summer,” the Similkameen valley-inspired “River Rock Choir (from Tekatie’s recording debut as members of Dundeel), and the laid-back “Sunrise Cactus Garden,” are love songs in their own right – to the couple’s cherished Okanagan Valley. Ted and Katie Shumaker craft deeply meaningful songs in their intimate yet accessible style of Canadian west coast folk, here polished with the evocative artistry of extraordinarily talented backing musicians. Taken together, this is an infectious and varied collection that demands to be
enjoyed time and again, with friends or as a welcome escape into a world where lines of time are
but a frame of mind.

Imagination gets some free rein here. The complexity of the hand-crafted originals is breathtaking
delights while the sing-along simplicity of some familiar chestnuts makes the easy transition from
concert to campfire -- comfortable yet compelling.

The beauty of the songs is in both their telling and in their lively presentation, but these are no empty candy-coated treats. These are stories of lives well lived, with some hearts broken, others mended
and lessons learned, and they deserve a thoughtful listen. Of course, if you just want to roll down the window and get lost in great melodies and an ever-changing tapestry of musical texture on the road,
this one’s for you too!