By: Sophie Desrosiers
Throughout their lives people are told to follow their dreams, and one Algonquin professor is doing just that with his recent CD release that has – so far – managed to fly under his students’ radar.
Rod Delcourt is a financial studies professor by day, and secretly a musician by night. Together Delcourt and his musical partner Wendell Wilson, form the charming band that is WilsonDelcourt. They describe their music as a mix of adult contemporary and country, with some rock influence.
Wilson and Delcourt appeared on Valley Heritage Radio on Jan. 21 in Burnstown to help promote their new CD titled Long Time Coming with an on-air interview, and a live three song set.
While this may be their first CD, music is not something new to Wilson and Delcourt. Both received guitars for Christmas as young boys and started playing right away with their families. Eventually they both joined various cover bands before finding each other in the same band in the mid 90’s.
After playing together for more than a decade, Wilson and Delcourt have become close friends. Once their second cover band dismembered, both still wanted to continue to make music. But this time, they knew they wanted to write their own material.
“I think I just invited you over to the back deck one day,” said Delcourt, turning to Wilson as he recalled the story. “I played Long Time Coming for you and you kind of went ‘huh’. Then you pulled out a couple of yours and I went ‘huh’.”
“Then we sort of said ‘Why not? Let’s spend some time working on this stuff and just see what happens.’ Neither one of us wanted to be back in the larger production of a band.”
Wilson was particularly excited about the opportunity to write original songs. “It was something different that neither of us had done,” he said. “The whole idea of doing original material for the first time in our careers was a fun idea.” And so WilsonDelcourt was formed in 2008.
The making of Long Time Coming had to take a back seat to full-time work and family. But students and faculty can finally hear what one of their own has produced through the duo’s website, WilsonDelcourt.com.
During the interview radio host Dai Bassett asked the men why they decided to make their music available for free.
“We didn’t really come into this with the intent of ever thinking we’d make money doing this,” said Delcourt. “As corny as it sounds, we’re giving them away.”