Stuart McLean returns to Sackville

He's been opening the doors of Dave and Morley's house to Canadians for years, keeping fans coming back week after week with tales of their lives - their laughter, tears and, often enough, some horrible misunderstanding.

Regarded as one of Canada's finest storytellers, Stuart McLean lures 700,000 listeners each week to The Vinyl Café.

While it may pale slightly to his love of writing, McLean says sharing his stories with others is one of his favourite things.

"There's always fun with the audience...it's maybe the thing I'm most proud of," he says during a telephone interview from Toronto.

"I love being in a theatre and reading my stories. There's a connection between the audience and I at that moment, and they become not only audience members but collaborators, because the way they receive the stories I am bringing affects the way the stories are."

His hour-long CBC Radio program not only follows the fictional lives of Dave and Morley, their children Sam and Stephanie and, of course, the goings on at the world's smallest record store, but also showcases some of the country's best young musicians.

Keeping with the tradition of taking The Vinyl Café to towns big and small, which began in 1998, McLean will bring his program to Sackville on Feb. 25. The two-and-a-half hour show will feature Halifax's Jill Barber and former chart-topper Dan Hill.

Sackville is also close to McLean's heart. It was one of seven towns the best-selling author featured in his book Welcome Home.

"I spent three or four weeks living in the Marshlands Inn and tramping up and down those streets and talking to so many people and hanging in Mel's Tea Room and the saddle shop and all of these places," he recalls. "It always feels special to go back there because I feel I left a little part of me in Sackville."

The Vinyl Café comes to Convocation Hall at Mount Allison University on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are available at Gordon's Ladies Wear, Amherst Centre; Tidewater Books and the university bookstore.