Vinyl Cafe Unplugged

Vinyl Cafe #3

by Stuart McLean

Dave and Morley would no doubt tell you that life is what you make it. Unfortunately for them, that means a compilation tape of mistakes, miscues, misunderstandings and muddle. That's not to say there is anything particularly unusual about the family and friends at the Vinyl Cafe. Like the rest of us, Dave, Morley, Stephanie and Sam are just doing their best to respond to the challenges of modern life. After all, who hasn't started a small home fix-it job only to set fire to walls and destroy whole rooms? Who wouldn't try to toilet-train a cat? Who hasn't created mass hysteria and utter pandemonium at a school concert? Who hasn't lost an aging relative while visiting our nation's capital? With Vinyl Cafe Unplugged , fans of Stuart McLean's previous story collections will be delighted to meet again with the folks from the Vinyl Cafe neighbourhood in fourteen hilarious hymns to common foibles and everyday absurdities.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Humor, Canada, Comedy, Contemporary, Adult

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There was more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

From the Vinyl Cafe web site: Stuart McLean was a best-selling author, award-winning journalist and humorist, and host of CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe.

Stuart began his broadcasting career making radio documentaries for CBC Radio's Sunday Morning. In 1979 he won an ACTRA award for Best Radio Documentary for his contribution to the program's coverage of the Jonestown massacre.

Following Sunday Morning, Stuart spent seven years as a regular columnist and guest host on CBC's Morningside. His book, The Morningside World of Stuart McLean, was a Canadian bestseller and a finalist in the 1990 City of Toronto Book Awards.

Stuart has also written Welcome Home: Travels in Small Town Canada, and edited the collection When We Were Young. Welcome Home was chosen by the Canadian Authors' Association as the best non-fiction book of 1993.

Stuart's books Stories from the Vinyl Cafe, Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged, Vinyl Cafe Diaries, Dave Cooks the Turkey, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe and Extreme Vinyl Cafe have all been Canadian bestsellers. Vinyl Cafe Diaries was awarded the Canadian Authors' Association Jubilee Award in 2004. Stuart was also a three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged and, most recently, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe.

Vinyl Cafe books have also been published in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

Stuart was a professor emeritus at Ryerson University in Toronto and former director of the broadcast division of the School of Journalism. In 1993 Trent University named him the first Rooke Fellow for Teaching, Writing and Research. He has also been honored by: Nipissing University (EdD(H)); University of Windsor (Lld) and Trent University (DLH). Stuart served as Honorary Colonel of the 8th Air Maintenance Squadron at 8 Wing, Trenton from 2005 to 2008.

Since 1998 Stuart has taken The Vinyl Cafe to theatres across Canada, playing in both large and small towns from St. John's, Newfoundland to Whitehorse in the Yukon.

Close to one million people listen to The Vinyl Cafe every weekend on CBC Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio and on a growing number of Public Radio stations in the United States. The program is also broadcast on an occasional basis on the BBC.

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some real down home humour!

If Pierre Berton is lauded as the premier Canadian historian then we have to give the laurel leaves to Stuart McLean as the quintessential Canadian storyteller!

VINYL CAFE UNPLUGGED, the third in a series, is a series of short tales about a generic but lovable Canadian family - Dave and his wife, Morley, plus their kids, Stephanie and Sam. More a hobby than a real business, Dave puts on a game face and likes to pretend that he's gainfully occupied with his used record business, the Vinyl Cafe.

The stories are anything but deep and complex. In fact, they positively reek of politeness, simplicity, candid joy, love and the plain old down home niceness that typifies the Canadian that is unabashedly stereotyped the world round. The humour is wry, sardonic, ironic and subdued - only rarely of the out loud belly laugh variety. But McLean's tales in this witty collection never fail to amuse while they're providing the odd underlying moral text that never even sniffs in the direction of preaching.

Perhaps a comparison to Garrison Keillor's LAKE WOBEGON DAYS would provide a potential American reader with a better idea of the flavour of Stuart McLean's impressive repertoire of stories.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

[Ian M. Pyatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderful book full of humorous and sentimental stories by Mr. McLean.

Divided into five sections, each with two or three stories that will make you laugh, cry, re-live memories from various stages of your life.

Favs included: Arthur, Christmas Presents, Morley's Christmas Pageant, Love Never Ends.

If you've read or listened to Mr. McLean's work, I recommend this one.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

As fun as Mclean's radio show or seeing him in concert (usually he is touring his native CA). While most of the stories caused me to smile or laugh, I'm proud to say that the final short story, called Love Never Ends, had me in tears. Not sad, just a glimpse of love well shared. If it does not get to you too, sorry, but I recommend that you start caring about life.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stuart McLean was one of Canada's top humourists--even better orally than in writing, but it's great in print as well. He had a radio show for years on CBC radio, which was apparently also aired on the American NPR. I had no idea. If you google vinyl cafe you can still find podcasts of a few of his stories, You might even be able to score a CD with some of his stories on it.

It was my sister who first lent us my niece's Vinyl Café CDs when we were driving our kids on a long day from where I grew up to Osoyoos. It was love at first listen. I had no idea there were books at first since these had come from the broadcast.

In addition to humour, there are also at least two poignant stories in this (they also have humour). This book focuses on Dave and Morley along with their two kids and their dog, Arthur, although naturally some of his neighbours, et al, show up in it. Some stories in other books don't feature Dave, even though he actually owns the Vinyl Café, but then most of the stories aren't set in that store, either.

This is a rather disjointed review because with my migraine I can't even come close to McLean's humour. Start with a podcast or two--they are easy to find with online searching, and, unlike Dave's Truly Canadian Dictionary (NOT the same Dave--no relation to Stuart McLean that I know of other than that they are both Canadian), you can still access these from Firefox.

[Liv Neale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to stop picking up random books in hostel book exchanges and hoping for them to be 5 stars! But this was a lovely easy read with some good humour, just nothing outstanding I guess

[Jason Pereira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the hell out of this, it was naturally smooth story telling, the stories of Dave and Morley are ones that will leave you rolling around laughing with tears in your eyes. For those of you have heard The Vinyl Cafe on CBC Radio, you'll know that Stewart's narrating of the story comes with that McLean twang to it, and while reading this I couldn't help but hear Stewart's voice reading along with me. This was great!

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously, I can't get enough. I am just loving these books-I purchased 4 of them and I can't wait to read them all. They are just so sweet and funny and relatable. It almost makes me want to move to Canada. I love Dave!

[❀ Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the heartwarming, nostalgic stories in the Vinyl Cafe unplugged is like listening to Stuart McLean tell the stories in the readers mind. The stories make the reader laugh, reflect and chuckle at the antics of Dave, Morley, Stephanie and Sam, as well as Arthur the dog and Galway the cat.

These are always positive stories to read and make you smile! I will always regret not going to see Stuart McLean when he shared his tales at our local theatre but am glad that his stories live on!

[Grace Scheel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly ADORE vinyl cafe. Reading about Dave, Morley, Stephanie, and Sam’s life feels like coming home. Stuart McLean is a national hero.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as cute and heartfelt as I expected! I read most of this aloud to my elderly client, or she read it to me, and we had some excellent moments. Thank you Stuart McLean!

[JoeK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. It's hard to review a series like this when each entry is so similar to the others, and yet, still so good on its own and when compared to the main body of word. Mr. McLean was always very consistent.

This being an earlier volume, I noticed that there was a lot more text that got edited out from the live performance versions that I have. I wonder if it was due to timing, or if maybe Stuart thought the extra was just superfluous.

The biggest omission was the story called "The Last Kind Word Blues". I tried to track down an audio version of this story and couldn't find it. I wonder if it was ever performed live. I can see why maybe it wasn't. Of all the stories about Dave, this is the one where he deviated too far from the Dave I know and love. He was covetous and deceitful. Dave may have committed many grievous offenses over the years, but when Dave was lying about the sale of this record, he wasn't the same Dave for me anymore. Stuart tries to let Dave off the hook at the end by having him do a good deed, but it didn't work for me, and this is probably the weakest story for me in his whole canon. I think he has trying to grow the character into something more complex, but ended up diminishing him in the process.

The rest of the book was very good, as expected. The last story tore my heart out and had me tearing up for a character we had never heard about and told by another. I know Stuart was trying to tell a story about true love, but man.... much truer love than you can get in any fable or Disney movie, and so much more heartbreaking at its loss. Worth reading.

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never actually read a Stuart McLean collection before, but used to listen to him tell these stories on CBC radio every Saturday morning. Some of these pieces then I already knew, having heard them. Reading them, McLean’s voice follows along in my head. He is a skilled storyteller, and these tales seem written to be performed— that is, they are simple and direct, but not too simple or too direct. A touch sentimental at times, but that is the smoothing effect of having a mass audience in mind. One imagines that the Mother Corp, as the state media CBC is sometimes called in Canada, had a hand in the editing.
These stories are enormously popular in our northern homeland.

[LDS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely. Having just read and been disappointed by the first Vinyl Cafe story collection, this one felt like coming home. Many of the stories I'd heard before on the radio show, and I enjoyed reading the extra bits that I presume were cut for length on the radio. Perfect mix of heartwarming and ridiculousness.

[Gregory D'Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did prefer the organization by the seasons in the second book more, but this is probably the best writing in the series so far. This book is instead organized into categories/sections named after different famous songs/records, which makes sense for the Vinyl Cafe. There's lot of funny moments naturally, but the best section is the last one, Someone To Watch Over Me, with two very sentimental shorts about growing old and love, which may have got me teary eyed, especially the short Love Never Ends. The funniest shorts though, are probably Galway (that cat is a goldmine for humour), Harrison Ford's Toes or Morley's Christmas Pageant.

Sidenote: its funny that I can't relate at all to the whole thing about men loving power tools and fixing things, and it's even to the point of being ironic considering I literally work at Home Depot. But at the same time, they had like 7 guys and 5 different power tools and all they really did was make holes in the wall and destroy the place. So maybe I can relate on a skill level, just not a passion one.

[Emma Grace Blumer · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite compilation of Vinyl Cafe stories- in turns hysterically funny and deeply poignant

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute in parts but not something I would want more of.

[Zoey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Cobaltdragon]

Classic Stuart McLean and wonderful revisit and stories about Dave, Morley and their various neighbours. A much needed laugh out loud collection in these challenging times.

[Felicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot read these stories without grinning and feeling warm in my heart.

[Dawn Quilty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it . Great short stories thar make you laugh and cry 😢

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small carefully-wrapped parcel arrived in the mail with stamps on it which said things like "Air Mail / Par avion" and "Small Parcel / Petit paquet." They say things twice in Canada; it is a matter of public policy. It was too late for Christmas and too early for my birthday but inside the brown-paper wrapping there was gift wrap, also meticulously applied to what looked undisguisably like a book. I unwrapped The Vinyl Cafe Unplugged by Stuart McLean. It was a gift from my Canadian friend Elizabeth Creith in Thessalon, Ontario. I unwrapped it and I found a tear in my eye. Years ago, Elizabeth introduced me to The Vinyl Cafe -- the radio programme on the CBC -- by sending me a CD onto which she had somehow dubbed about six of the hour-long shows. I became instantly addicted. Fortunately, the programme was also broadcast here in the Colonies on KUOW-FM. I became a regular listener and found it every bit as good as "Prairie Home Companion" and Garrison Keillor. In each programme, McLean would tell a story about Dave and his wife Morely, their children Stephanie and Sam, their dog Arthur and some of their interesting neighbours: Kenny Wong, the owner of Wong's Scottish Pies, Emir and Rashida Chudary and their daughter Fatima, Eugene and Maria Conte, the ancient couple who live next door and make their own wine. The stories are a sort of parallel to Keillor's "News from Lake Wobegon" but different. Stuart McLean was a soft-spoken, gentle, accomplished author and broadcaster. He toured the show, broadcasting from one small Canadian community or other, in which he and his crew would spend most of a week. The live local audience loved it; so did I. The Vinyl Cafe stopped touring when its host was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. When I heard about it, I had a tear in my eye. I really didn't want him to die. I really wanted him to continue traveling around to little towns in Canada and writing Dave and Morely stories and broadcasting from the biggest auditorium in town ... pretty much forever. Instead, he died about a year and a half after he was diagnosed. Now there will be no more of these stories. My favourite was the very first Vinyl Cafe Christmas story about the year that "Dave Cooks the Turkey.” I won't say more about because I don't want to spoil the delight for anyone who wants to hear or read it. I read the fourteen stories in this book like a person with a box of variety chocolates. I didn't want to consume them all at once because I didn't want them to run out. Today they ran out ... and I have a tear in my eye.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great find (thanks Janee!) and just the sort of book to grab on a fall afternoon. My library didn't have the same book that Janae recommended but I found that there are several books by Stuart McLean with collections of essays about Vinyl Cafe. It took me a couple essays to feel the rhythm of the author (and I really wished I could hear him tell the story; I feel like I'm missing part of the depth) and then I found I was laughing aloud or snickering at parts in each essay. My favorites were "Christmas Presents," "The Bare Truth," and "Odd Jobs."

The final section in this collection were more reflective stories and I was caught off guard after so many funny essays. My favorite of those was the final story of Art Gillespie, an older friend of Dave's who died. And perhaps because we recently had a friend die and mortality is close on the mind, I really enjoyed the following paragraph. I felt McLean said it well.

"As the months passed Dave's anxiety slowly faded-slowly Art joined that woolly corner of Dave's brain where sorrow and regret hung out. It was a corner Dave tried to avoid, a place he was pushed into from time to time, sometimes by something someone did or said, but just as often by a smell, the wind, the color of the sky."

And now I feel the need to have a chocolate bar in my bedside drawer. If you read the book, you'll understand.

[Jay Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating - 8.3

A very light read that provides some good laughs along the way - every once in a while it is good to read a book like Vinyl Café - can find myself relating to a lot of the events that occur

Dave comes across as the prototypical male goof, with his good-natured flaws providing many an experience; a literary Curb Your Enthusiasm and the motivation for the Memories database

Top Stories
The Fly
Odd Jobs
Morley’s Xmas Pageant
The Bare Truth

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfect book to bring along on a vacation! I can never focus long enough for long stories while on the beach, so these stories are perfect! Short, totally sweet and always leave me appreciating the people around me much more.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming, funny, sad, real-life story about living. Just the sort of life that many of us lead. I really enjoyed this.

[amy]

Elaine just gave this one to me. I have never heard of Stuart McLean etc...So something very different for me to check out!

Well--I didn't finish this book. It was just not cup of tea. Too folky.

[jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed (A LOT) while reading this book. It read like a memoir, yet it was purely fiction. Stuart McLean is a fantastic storyteller.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd only heard McLean on the radio, and wondered if his stories would transfer to the written page. It's every bit as good. McLean truly is the Canadian Garrison Keillor.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vinyl Café is a charming collection of stories based on the radio show by the late Stuart McLean. 

The stories all focus on Dave and Morley, as well as family and neighbors, so there is a definite cohesiveness to the collection. 

I had never really listened to the radio shows, but I knew a lot of people who did. Much of the material from the radio broadcast is available to listen to on Spotify. In fact one of my favorite episodes appears in this book; titled “Odd Jobs". If you have ever loved a man who could turn an odd job into a major project, or if you are a man who has either done that, or helped a friend who has done that – listen to that episode! You won't regret it. 

The book opens with a story titled “Arthur" that literally had me chuckling out loud.  Arthur is the family dog, and like any dog, he is quite the character.  

Despite this book being categorized as Humour,  some of the stories Will tug at your heartstrings. I think for me that was part of the real charm of this book. In life, there is always joy and sorrow. Neither exists alone. 

Seriously though read or listen to “Odd Jobs" and “Arthur” if you haven't already, because everyone can benefit from a good laugh once in a while.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book of collected stories from Stuart McLean’s iconic radio show chronicling the lives of Dave and Morley, their two children, and the happenings at the Vinyl Café, Dave’s used record store, billed as The World’s Smallest Record Store! (Slogan – We may not be big, but we’re small!) Using humour and pathos, McLean recounts stories that most people can easily relate to, stories that could happen to everyone (OK, maybe not all to one family!) There are laugh-out-loud stories of Dave trying to toilet train his cat, and Dave installing an electrical outlet that turns into a complete renovation. And there are heartwarming stories of Dave’s relationship with his elderly neighbours and with a mentor from his younger years. Any Vinyl Café book is worthwhile reading, but this one in particular contains some gems.