Tonight, we listen to Canada

Canadian music dances me to my patriotic place

Gord’s Gold: Gordon Lightfoot’s 1975 mixed studio and compilation album

On Saturday nights, we really listen to music.

It has become such a tradition, along with perhaps a glass or two of wine, I regret to admit that we rarely go out on Saturdays, if at all possible. Eep.

We have a number of playlists: jazz favourites, a Mark Knopfler-Dire Straits-infused one, a Jethro Tull-inspired one, et cetera.

Tonight, we’re going all Canadian. Not for the first time. Not for the hundredth time. But it is, again, time.

It is also a time I thought I would never see, when a foreign threat comes from, historically, a close and dear friend. To be accurate, that friend’s “administration.” I won’t call it a government. I’m all in on buying Canadian (and Mexican and European, as necessary) goods. I’m opening my big mouth everywhere I can and every chance I get about tariffs and annexation. And I’m especially all in on Canadian art — literary and musical, particularly.

I need my culture around me. Now.

On the brighter side, this is turning into an I Love Canada moment across the nation. And not before time. Some of our politicians, and to be fair our citizens, have been profoundly affected by foreign interference, social media siloing and the frightening swing to the extreme right, especially from the south.

But let me tell you this: Canada is not broken. It never was. We have our issues, but in the main, we are not divided. Do not listen to people who tell you this is so.

We live in a massive country, we Canadians, bounded by three seas and beautified by endless lakes and rivers, far-as-the-eye-can-see farmlands, soaring mountains, and the bluest skies (on the Prairies, at least) you have ever seen. Our geography is bloody daunting, but somehow, we have stayed together despite our problems, our distances and our separatist factions. We have never, in living memory, been more together. And we are culturally truly distinct.

And so, to celebrate my beautiful country yet again, tonight we listen to Canada.

Every Canadian songlist includes Gordon Lightfoot’s Canadian Railroad Trilogy. The version, linked here, is from Gord’s Gold and is my favourite. Lightfoot brilliantly, without shying from the terrible related issues, sings of the railroad being built across the nation, a place where once “wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun . . . and the green dark forest was too silent to be real.”

At the end, after a long pause, he laments “and many are the dead men, too silent to be real.” The pause is his moment of silence, to remember those lives lost. It is beautiful.

Lightfoot, for those of you unfamiliar, is known as Canada’s troubadour. But he was even more than that. He musically crossed the American border with his song about the 1967 Detroit Riot, capturing the shock and horror so many experienced — including on this side of the 49th Parallel — over this event. So yes, we are connected with our American friends and family. Very. Sometimes, passionately.

The Tragically Hip, a truly iconic Canadian band, covered Lightfoot’s Black Day in July and I rather feel it’s the best version.

On a lighter return to Canada’s cultural distinctiveness, we will also pop in at a Newfoundland and Labrador kitchen party, listening to, for example, Great Big Sea. Wanna dance? Play this: When I’m Up. If you never caught a concert, oh maaaan, you missed a great time. Also, friends of mine have met Alan Doyle (be still, heart) and that is on my bucket list. Yup. And I interviewed Sean McCann once for a newspaper preview article. So there.

Sean McCann, Bob Hallett and Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea. Lookit those guys.

No Canadian playlist is complete without Blue Rodeo. This is my favourite song of theirs: It Hasn’t Hit Me Yet. The snow falling on a December night, the reference to Lake Ontario in the final cadenza . . . it just puts me here, at home. Also, it has this brilliant chorus, in which they use words in a strange, unique, captivating syncopation.

Once you master it, you just can’t help but sing along with great personal congratulation. Ha.

I also interviewed Jim Cuddy once, in Toronto shortly before the Juno Awards came to Saskatoon. He’s tall, and was standing on a step just above me in the theatre, so I was really staring up at him, possibly with my mouth gaping. I’ll never forget that, actually. I’ll never forget the whole Juno experience, tbh. What a ride.

BTW, Cuddy won the Juno for Adult Alternative Album for The Light That Guides You Home that year.

You know, it’s not just Canadian songwriters and singers who have produced Canadian-themed music.

The great Johnny Cash — I kid you not — loved the province of Saskatchewan. He, with his wife June Carter Cash, went fishing several times up in Lac La Ronge, which is I guarantee one of the most beautiful spots on Earth. And he also co-wrote and sang Girl in Saskatoon. Saskatoon is the province’s largest city, and my home. Yup. I love that.

I figure he’s an honorary Canadian.

Other music on our playlist? It’s just too long . . . but here are a few more Canadian musical artists whose names you might recognize.

Joni Mitchell, who attended the same high school I did (several years before, but still.) Yes, her formative years were spent here.

Celine Dion. Bryan Adams. k.d. lang. Shania Twain. Leonard Cohen.

The incredible Robbie Robertson — you know, Bob Dylan’s guitarist for a while, and lead songwriter for The Band. Neil Young, once of America’s Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

The Weeknd.

Nickelback. (Don’t start with me. They’re great. Especially this song.)

The Stampeders. Oh My Lady. Ohhhhhh my.

And yeah, some of them went to the States to seek their fortunes, like Mitchell and Young. Many didn’t and still kicked butt internationally. Just saying.

I’ve gone on too long yet again. Expect further blathering about Canadian writers in the near future, and some visual artists as well.

But tonight, we listen to Canada.

Join us.