Were you listening to CBC Radio 2 yesterday afternoon?
No?
Why ever not?
The Great Canadian Song Quest debuted at 3:30 p.m. on the afternoon show Drive, introducing a new set of Canada-themed songs into our collective musical landscape. The concept is this: Radio 2 listeners were invited to select, through a nomination and voting process, some of their favourite places throughout Canada, and some singer-songwriters to create timeless classics about those places. One locale – sometimes as specific as the Black Sheep Inn (Wakefield, Quebec) and sometimes as broad and large as Algonquin Park (Ontario) – was selected from each of the provinces and territories, and matched with one of the nominated artists, who was asked to write, record, and perform a soon to be epic tune about it.
We’ve been following the progress of the Great Canadian Song Quest since a number of our fave artists were nominated, and especially since Catherine MacLellan was selected to write a song about PEI. In addition to Catherine, other friends of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall are participating, including Hawksley Workman (who performs at Massey Hall in April), Joel Plaskett (who played Massey last spring and just won two Canadian Folk Music Awards and four Music Nova Scotia Awards for his triple album, aptly named Three), and Chantal Kreviazuk (who is taking the stage at Massey Hall next Tuesday).
The complete list of songs:
- Tough City (Tofino, BC), by Oh Susanna
- The Ballad of Mary White (Hoodoos/Badlands, AB), by Jay Sparrow
- Charlie’s (is coming down) (Good Time Charlie’s at The Plains, SK), by The Deep Dark Woods
- In Waskada Somewhere (Waskada, MN), by Chantal Kreviazuk
- Where They Left it Wild (Algonquin Park, ON), by Hawksley Workman
- Four Black Sheep in the Night (The Black Sheep Inn, QC), by MarthaWainwright
- Don’t Drive Through (Hopewell Rocks, N.B.), by David Myles
- Singing Sands (Singing Sand Beach, PE), by Catherine MacLellan
- On the Rail (The Cabot Trail, NS), by Joel Plaskett
- Old Crow Black Night Stand Still (Gros Morne National Park, NL), by Hey Rosetta!
- Time Before Bones (Tuktoyaktuk Pingos, NT), by Dana Sipos
- Dawson City (Dawson City, YK), by Kim Barlow
- Road to Nowhere (The Road to Nowhere, NU), by Lucie Idlout
If you missed yesterday’s broadcast, CBC Radio 2 will be thoughtfully playing the songs all week long, so you too can join in our favourite new national musical pastime. Want to hear even more? All thirteen artists will be performing their newly crafted songs at Glenn Gould Studio on December 15.
Stefania Paterak is the Programming Coordinator for Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall.
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Very cool idea.
Although it’s not part of the quest, I’m partial to Valley Town by Elliot Brood. It’s a bluegrass-ish tribute to lovely litte Dundas, Ontario.