Al Oster (1925 - 2017)
Al Oster grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan. He worked in Alberta logging camps in the winter and cattle ranches in the summer before serving in the Second World War. He picked up playing the guitar when he was young and after he was discharged in 1946, he played restaurants and dancehalls in Calgary and Edmonton. He was touring the Peace River country in 1957 when he and another musician decided to travel up the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse. When he returned to his home in Langley, British Columbia Oster asked his wife Mary to move north with their two children.1)
In Whitehorse, Al worked at a lumber yard and in Hougen’s hardware department while playing western and rock and roll music with Johnny Hutsul, John Irwin, Andy Donais, and Cal Waddington. Later he worked for Husky Building Supplies and wrote ”Next Boat” referring to an oft-repeated delivery date. In 1958, WHTV started a cable service and The Al Oster Show ran for two years. Al worked five nights a week at WHTV as their first announcer/operator after his day job at the RCAF base as a clerk. In 1961 the CBC started a three-year run of Oster’s 15-minute show called Northland Echos.2)
Al played at the Kopper King and the Bamboo on the weekends and after the release of his first LP he was asked by Jake Doell’s Vancouver-based band to tour through northern Alberta. It became the Yukon Gold Show Tour and lasted three and a half months. Oster wrote “Paddlewheeler” during the tour. In the mid-1960s, Oster was the headliner for a radio show Northern Jamboree with Les McLaughlin as host.3)
Al and Mary Oster lived in the Yukon from 1957 to the 1970s, and Oster wrote ballads that celebrated northern life and lore. His first album was called Yukon Gold. His better-known songs include “Buckets of Steel,” “Paddlewheeler,” “Blow Northwind Blow,” My Yukon Book of Memories,” and “Spell of the Yukon.” “Buckets of Steel” was written for a radio documentary about the shutdown of the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corp and was produced by Cal Waddington. Hank Karr sang and recorded many of Osters songs and they performed together at Expo 67 in Montreal. The Expo performances were recorded on the LP The Yukon Stars. His albums were released in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Belgium. In the 1980s, he filmed a 30-minute music documentary about the Klondike gold rush.4) By 1987, Oster had recorded and released fourteen LPs in Canada, USA, Germany, and Belgium.5)
Al Oster was named to the Order of Canada in 1999 for his contribution to Canadian heritage.