‘Sweet Kisses From Mommy’: An introduction to an old friend

(Ray Brandes queues up a revelatory new documentary about Gary Heffern.)

For more than 30 years, Penetrators vocalist Gary Heffern has been celebrated as a local legend. He is known to most as a dynamic performer, a captivating storyteller and poet, and a tireless networker and promoter of music and art in all of its forms. Charismatic, gregarious and easily approachable, he has good friends and admirers who number in the tens of thousands.

Nearly every article that has ever been written about him suggests his life story would make a incredible book. Few who know Gary, however, know the burdens he has shouldered for his entire life. His real story is one which is reminiscent of the novels of Thomas Hardy, perhaps even Charles Dickens. This past decade, it has led him back to Finland, a few kilometers from the Arctic Circle, a land of desolate beauty and the setting for his remarkable childhood.

I am both flattered and honored to have been chosen by Gary to tell that story, and the two of us are currently collaborating on a book which we hope to have published by the end of the year. Recently, more than a half-million homes in Finland were treated to “Sweet Kisses From Mommy,” a magnificent and moving documentary by Erkki Maattanen that details Gary’s early years in a Finnish orphanage. Courtesy of YLE, the Che Underground here presents the documentary in three parts. It serves as a sort of introduction to an old friend.

— Ray Brandes

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