Today marks the end of National Indigenous History Month in Canada. As we will celebrate Canada’s 156th Birthday tomorrow, July 1, I wanted to talk a bit more about the music of our Indigenous Peoples. There have been some shocking revelations you no doubt would have heard in the news, several from the past few years, and the healing will take a long time. The wheels of the Federal Government’s commitment for reconciliation turn very, very slowly.
In Canada, the three indigenous populations are generally divided by First Nations, Inuit and Métis. I have included several members of these three groups already, but there is more to talk about. Collectively about 1.8 million identify their heritage from one of these groups.
First Nations
There are 50 First Nations in Canada in 630 communities from Coast to Coast to Coast, and the largest population of Indigenous People. Traditionally every society had their own song or songs. Instruments included various drums, clappers, rattles, flutes and several other improvised devices. When it comes to performers there are many of full or partial heritage that have had success in the mainstream genre.
The Band’s Robbie Robertson was from Toronto but his mother was Cayuga and Mohawk and grew up on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. I mentioned a few more names this month such as Shane Yellowbird. But I wanted to present just a few more, after all the first step is just to listen.
Northern Cree
They are from Maskwacis which is near Edmonton, Alberta. While they have not won, they have been nominated for nine Grammys in three different categories. In 2017 they performed at the Grammy Awards Ceremony. They have one nomination and one win (somewhat oddly) in the category for Classical Album of the Year-Large Ensemble at the Juno Awards. If you wanted to hear some incredible Pow-wow singing, storytelling and artistry you can’t do much better.
Logan Staats
He was born on the Six Nations Reserve, but grew up in the nearby City of Brantford Ontario. I had the opportunity to hear Logan when he opened for Buffy Sainte-Marie. I had not heard of him before but I was certainly impressed with his talent.
Willie Dunn
Willie (1941-August 5, 2013) was born in Montreal, but it is his heritage from the East Coast Mi’kmaq People that guided his music and message. He had such a classic Folk singer voice, in this song comparable to Bruce Cockburn.
Inuit
As I mentioned in an earlier post, if you are an Inuk, then typically you are one of the inhabitants of the Artic and Subarctic regions. The names there I’ve talked about were Susan Aglukark and Tanya Tagaq. I’m happy to add one more name, Elisapie (Isaac). Elisapie is from Salluit, Nunavik which is, I neglected to mention in my other post, on the Northeast tip of, and also part of the Province of Quebec.
Métis
Geographically the Métis have traditionally lived in the Northern Territories, all of four of Canada’s most western Provinces as well as Northern Parts of the American West. There are populations elsewhere to the East such as Northern Ontario and Quebec. I mentioned Tom Jackson earlier in our trip across Canada and he is of Métis heritage.
I have to say the only reason I recognized the name of Amanda Rhéaume among a list of Métis singers is because of her father, Eugène Rhéaume. He was from The Northwest Territories and was the first Member (elected) of Canada’s Parliament that was of Métis heritage. As her father was based in Ottawa, that’s where she was born. I gave her a listen, I am glad I found her, she has a beautiful voice.
Note
This is the last post in this Journey across Canada. Tomorrow, July 1 I will also not surprisingly feature a Canadian singer. Perhaps in relief to my subscribers, the once daily posting will come to an end. Thank you to all who read and especially to those who took the time to click on the links and have a listen. To those who commented, I appreciate the feedback and the sharing of your thoughts. And with some of you, there were memories brought about by my discussing just a small bit of the great musical talent of Canada. I don’t mind saying it has been a lot of work but it’s also been fun for me to reminisce a bit myself and to find some new voices as well. Thank you and Happy listening!
This is the penultimate post for the Canada month of June and then a short post will appear on July 1 to mark Canada Day. I have for the most part kept to popular culture for the music I presented. A lot of it from personal experience and I tried to paint with a fairly wide brush, too much Country for some I’d imagine but it’s one of my favorite genre.
I just want to remind you that I tried to steer clear of the big names, so no Rush or Bryan Adams for example, he is a superstar, he has sold about 100 million records and was not on my list because he is just too famous, not that he isn’t blog worthy. There are still so many names that I have not mentioned, and genre I have not discussed.
Dave is music writer from A Sound Day and host of Turntable Talk, is from Canada so he has been the most active in adding some good names in the comments section of several posts, so they are in my notes for the future. I put a good dent into Canadian music but I could post everyday for another year and not run out of quality names.
So it’s not possible to list everyone from Canada, after all I plan to continue to write and as I always, I have included artists from around the world. A Canadian Author and much more Leon Stevens also blogs on Canadian music quite often and well worth checking out. Leon did me the courtesy of a link to my post yesterday on his site.
As for my writing, I am aware that there is a vibrant Hip Hop and R&B scene in Canada. Drake and the Weeknd are just two examples of music I know nothing about. Deadmau5 is from Niagara Falls and is an Electronic Music superstar, apparently? So nothing on those topics and you can read about them in a million other places.
I barely touched on up and coming artists or the Indie scene. While I did cover some guitar players, you mostly heard about the singers. If I also go behind the microphone a bit, adding musicians and music technicians I would have enough names that I could go on years. Not to test your patience, or maybe I am, but here are just a few more names, but I’m still saving some good ones!
Oscar Peterson is someone I have referenced in past posts and there is likely a future one dedicated solely to him. He was born and grew up in Montreal, and won a CBC radio contest at age 14. He then dropped out of high school to pursue a music career full time and the rest as they say, is history. Peterson is one of the best Jazz Pianists to have ever played. That’s eight Grammy’s talking and the legendary Duke Ellington had high praise calling him “the Maharaja of the keyboard”. Maharaja meaning something like Great King or Great Ruler.
Percy Faith was born and raised in Toronto and became known as many things, a conductor and bandleader, an orchestrator and a composer. His first Billboard #1 hit was a version of “It’s April Again’ and also known as the “The Song From Moulin Rouge”. Accompanying his Orchestra on vocals was American Felicia Sanders and the song was on the charts for 24 weeks, ten of them at #1 and it was the top song of 1953. He would do the same thing with the instrumental, “Theme from A Summer Place” it spent nine weeks at #1, setting a record that was not broken for 17 years. It was also the #1 song for 1960. His version of “Delicado” had also hit #1 in 1952, he would post over two dozen charted songs.
Loreena McKennitt was born and raised in Morden, Manitoba and always loved music but attended The University of Manitoba to become a Veterinarian. While in Winnipeg she became enamored with the vibrant music scene. As I mentioned before this is where Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman and The Guess Who and BTO are from, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Lenny Breau among many others launched their career’s in Winnipeg.
She turned from Folk to Celtic music and went to Ireland to study. In 1981 joined the Stratford Festival Acting Company. She has released 10 Studio Albums, all under her own record label, Quinlan Road and has sold over 14 million records. She is, if you listen, a remarkably talented vocalist and plays piano, harp and accordion as we as other instruments. The clip below is called “The Mummers’ Dance” from 1997.
There is a lot of stuff to read and listen to, so I really do appreciate it when people take the time to follow my blog. I have mentioned in this series, a few of the bloggers that I follow. Most I would say I follow because of the music they write about and many have become friends and we have some great exchanges.
I want to acknowledge the support from the WordPress blogging community, I mentioned Max and Lisa in earlier posts. Christian from Christian’s Music Musings has taken interest lately in Canadian artists and I am thankful for that, he writes a great blog. North is an expat now in LA posting some interesting thoughts and some covers I would never have heard of at Spinning Three Ways. I follow John who posts on music daily and has a some deep knowledge related to we in the older crowd, you can find him at The Sound of One Hand Typing.
You should check out Eclectic Music Lover for some more current and Indie stuff, and some Canadian artists in there as well. Check out deKE for some serious metal knowledge, album reviews and a YouTube broadcast. I apologize as I can’t list everyone I follow but I have some good exchanges with Zack at The Musical Divide, and Keith as the Nostalgicitalian and then there is the self described “touch of whimsy” that is Obverse.
Helen was born (1913) and raised in Toronto and as she was growing up she became a lover of Jazz music. It seems almost unbelievable that a young woman from Toronto growing up in the 1920’s would end up accomplishing the things she did. While she had aspirations to become a singer her musical abilities would take her to Okeh Records, a New York label noted for recording Black artists in the early days of Jazz as they were formed in 1918. Helen worked on many recordings in the 1930’s and most significantly she was Duke Ellington’s Producer on almost all of his small band recordings called Small Groups. They were released under the names of his sidemen such as Cootie Williams and Johnny Hodges.
During WWII she left music and joined the the Women’s Army Corps and spent time working in Secret Operations. She organized for her church and was a noted Civil Rights Activist. Helen was a regular contributor to the Jazz publication Downbeat Magazine. She was also the co-organizer for the famed Benny Goodman’s, Carnegie Hall concert in January 1938. This was the first Jazz concert ever held at Carnegie Hall. Count Basie would follow in December of 1938 with the first all Black concert.
Helen Oakley Dance is the author of the first and definitive biography on Blues Guitar Legend, T. Bone Walker. Stormy Monday: The T-Bone Walker Story was published in 1987. She was quite the individual.
Jenna Andrews
Jenna was born and raised in Calgary and showed signs of her musical ability by playing piano at age 5, by 14 she was writing songs. She was heavily involved in music in high school, she would eventually move to Vancouver where she was discovered by Nelly Furtado’s Manager Chris Smith. She released her first single “Tumblin’ Down” in 2010 and it hit #27 on the US R&B Chart.
While having success as a recording artist, she had decided to pursue her passion for writing, publishing and producing. She works on Artist Development as well, coaching Noah Cyrus, Stella Ward and others. As a co-writer her song credits include; Majid Jordan, Banks, NCT 127, BTS, Jennifer Lopez, Dixie, Le Sserafim and Drake. As a Producer or Vocal Producer she has worked with many of the same names as well as The Band Perry and Little Mix.
She worked with BTS on their Grammy nominated song “Dynamite” as well as “Butter” as a co-writer. Both song were #1 hits. Andrews worked with Ed Sheeran on “Permission to Dance” also a #1 smash hit for BTS. On top of this she continues to record but her ability to mentor young artists and work in all areas of writing and production puts her in high demand.
More Producers
Dalbello. I am getting lazy so I just copied this on Lisa Dalbello from Wikipedia “Dalbello has not released another album since 1996 and has primarily focused on producing and writing for other artists such as Heart, Julian Lennon, Nena, and Patti LaBelle, whom she also produced. Some of the artists and writers she has co-written with are her friends Bryan Adams, Julian Lennon and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, as well as David Foster, Carole Bayer-Sager, Holly Knight, Chaka Khan, Branford Marsalis, Damhnait Doyle and Dan Hill”.
WondaGurl was a producer on one of Rhianna’s top songs for 2015 “Bitch Better Have My Money.”
Hill Kourkoutis was a producer, engineer and soundmixer for artists I have mentioned in some of my posts this month such as Amanda Rheaume, Serena Ryder and Jill Barber. She also worked on the album Marthology: In and Outtakes from Martha and The Muffins.
Miriam Linna was born in Sudbury in 1955 and her family would move to Cleveland when she was 12. After a lot of hard work as a drummer she was one of the founding members of The Cramps. Her drumming ability was once recognized by Bob Dylan. She and her late husband Billy Miller started Norton Records in New York City. Miriam still operates the label that has produced a number of Rockabilly artists such as the legendary Link Wray and Gene Vincent. The label has been recognized for work on a number re-releases of classic Rock and Roll artists such as Carl Perkins and Bobby Fuller.
David Foster
David was raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He was born in 1949 and to say he was a child prodigy sounds like one of those platitudes we toss around perhaps too often. How about this, he enrolled in the Music Program at The University of Washington at age 13. As a keyboard player he backed Ronnie Hawkins and then in 1966, still just 17 years old he joined Chuck Berry’s band and played with Bo Didley. He moved to LA with his band Skylark who had a #1 hit with “Wildflower” in Canada and #9 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1973.
He worked with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and he won his first Grammy in 1980 for co-writing “After The Love Is Gone” by Earth, Wind and Fire. It would take me all day to list his song writing credits and how big the hits were for the artists he worked with as a writer and arranger. He began writing film scores and one of his first songs “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” was a #1 hit in 1985. And on and on we can go for his movie work, including The Body Guard as Producer on “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston.
He began as a credited Producer with singer Jaye P. Morgan in the 1970’s, and after that, we once again have a list too long. Just a few of the names include Dolly Parton, Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper and Hall & Oates in the 1970’s to the 1980’s with Aretha Franklin, Glen Campbell and Boz Scaggs. He co-wrote that great song “Look What You’ve Done To Me“. Also in the 80’s he worked with The Tubes, he co-wrote songs and produced Chicago’s album Chicago 16 and Chicago 17 & 18. In the 90’s more writing and producing with names like Barbra Streisand and he started working with Celine Dion. He would Produce “The Power of Love” which was the #1 selling single by a female artist in 1994. He worked on many songs with her over the years, including another worldwide smash written by Diane Warren, “Because You Loved Me” for which she won a Grammy Award. The record sold over two million copies in the US alone. Not that he wasn’t working with amazing talent but it seemed everything he touched turned to gold.
The next decade his torrid pace continued with Mariah Carey, Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli and he Produced Seal’s album Soul from 2008. On to the next decade and more of the same and many hits, and a Christmas Album with Mary J. Blige, albums for Diana Krall and Bryan Adams. You will find he has keyboard and had several vocal credits on much of this work as well.
He has won 16 Grammy Awards with 47 nominations, placing him fourth on the all-time list. He has a Golden Globe and he has won 7 Juno Awards with 27 nominations. Foster is a recording artist as well with eight albums. There are very few in the industry with more wins and nominations in more categories such as Producer of The Year, to Album of the Year and Best Original Song.
Jack Richardson
Jack was born in Toronto in 1929 and he died in 2011 at age 81. He mortgaged his home to pay for his production of the Guess Who album Wheatfield Soul released in 1969. The album was a success reaching #3 in Canada and #45 on The Billboard Top 200. The single “These Eyes” was top 10 in Canada and the US. He continued to work with them on Canned Wheat and American Woman. The lead single “American Woman” would hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was a worldwide hit song in 1970. The B side of that single was the medley of ‘No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature” which also charted #1 for three weeks.
Richardson also produced Bob Seger’s Night Moves album, Alice Cooper’s break through album Love It to Death and also albums for Max Webster, Kim Mitchell, Poco and Badfinger. In total at least three dozen albums. He also produced The Irish Rovers television show. I have mentioned this in posts before but the Music Industry Arts (MIA) program at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario benefited greatly from his tenure as an advisor and eventually a Professor in the 1980’s.
Daniel Lanois
Daniel was born in Quebec in 1951, but grew up in Hamilton, Ontario. As many Producers do his career stared as a musician, he his a multi instrumentalist and is still performing and making new music. He began to work with Brian Eno on some of his projects which led to co production of U2’s album The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree which would win Grammys for Best Rock Performance and Best Album. He produced Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy and the Grammy Award winning Time Out of Mind in 1997.
He produced Emmylou Harris’s album Wrecking Ball and it won a Grammy in 1996. He produced Willie Nelsons album Teatro in 1998. He would win one of his seven Grammys for Neil Youngs song “Angry World” in 2010. Quite the stellar career and he has worked with dozens of other artists and still managed to make 8 solo albums. He is coming to the Music Hall in London, Ontario on July 19, 2023.
Canada has a number of producers including Mustafa and Murda Beatz working with some of the leading Hip Hop and R&B Artists such as Drake, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Chance The Rapper and Lil Wayne.
Torontonian Frank Dukes has produced some of the best artists in the business his first production win for a Grammy Award was with Eminem in 2015 The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Following that he won Grammys with The Weeknd, Cardi B and Motomami (Rosalía). He produced three tracks on Taylor Swifts Grammy nominated album Lover in 2020. Dukes has two Latin Grammys and literally dozens of other awards. Now 39, at age 38 he retired from producing to focus on his own recording career.
There are many more names to discuss but I think you have some idea that Canadians are in the mix with some of the top artists in music and providing some great success.
Note
Tomorrow is the Wrap Up and then a final post to end the ‘Canada’ month of June. There will be a short but I think special post on July 1.
This is one of those genre that is sometimes hard to pin down. For example, some of Joni Mitchell’s songs, at least early in her career are considered Folk. Gordon Lightfoot was a Folk singer though many consider him a Country artist. Neil Young has some folky sounding songs as well. So some songs are folk but the artist may not always record in that genre. There is great depth here in Canada and Stan Rogers for example is one that stayed in the Folk lane. Bruce Cockburn is certainly Folk oriented but he can rock more than a bit, so Folk Rock is a related genre and so is Country Folk, I have snuck in a couple of those today.
No, Robert Plant is not Canadian but he has done songs written by some, see the last video clip for one of those.
Just a name and some truly great songs today.
Willie P Bennett (Blackie and The Rodeo King)
Bob Snider (Anna Marie)
Valdy (Rock and Roll Song)
Gene MacLellan (Snowbird)
Catherine MacLellan (Gene’s daughter with “Water in the Ground’)
Canada has a long list of women that have achieved superstardom. I mean number one hits, sometimes several, sometimes a global smash hit, sometimes songs of legend. These are names that almost everyone knows; Alanis Morrisette. Nelly Furtado, Celine Dion, Anne Murray, Sarah McLachlan, Avril Lavigne and Joni Mitchell. Most will also recognize Alannah Myles #1 Hot 100 hit “Black Velvet” or Carly Rae Jepsen who had the worldwide smash hit “Call Me Maybe”. There are a number of younger singers having success in the R&B genre as well.
However I did not want to overlook some names, and for these you may not know much, if anything about them, but I will be brief.
Jann Arden
Jann grew up in Springbank, Alberta and began her music career in Vancouver. Her second time was the charm as is often said or is that the third, anyway her album Living Under June would reach #7 in Canada and #76 on The Billboard 200 in 1994.
This clip is her single “Insensitive” written by fellow Albertan Anne Loree, it would reach #1 in Canada and Australia and hit top 10 on three major US Charts and #12 on the Hot 100. Unfortunately that would be her last appearance on those international charts.
Jann has continued to record and have great success in Canada with seven more top 10’s and many others in the top 100. Every album she released hit the top 10 in Canada. She is an amazing artist and having seen her perform several times she puts on an incredible show, and she is absolutely hilarious!
“I Would Die For You”, words and music by Jann Arden, from her first album, Time For Mercy (1993)
She is an author, an actor, and a talk show host. She has won 8 Juno Awards, is a Member of The Order of Canada and has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame among many other accolades.
Jill Barber
I found this amazing singer songwriter by way of her collaborations with Ron Sexsmith and later with Matt Andersen.
“Oh My My” I was hooked.
Jill Barber “Where The River Bends” with her very talented brother, Matthew Barber.
Serena Ryder
Serena is from Peterborough, Ontario and released an Indie CD in 1999, but she first came to the attention of many with her third release If Your Memory Serves You Well, this time on EMI Music Canada. Her self penned single ‘Weak in the Knees” became a certified Gold Record in 2007 due in part to my purchase no doubt!
You may recognize this next song, “Stompa” that placed top 10 in Canada and #34 on the US Adult Airplay Chart in 2012.
Feist
I mentioned her in the bit on Ron Sexsmith. Yet another artist from Nova Scotia, but she moved to Calgary at a young age. She would start singing in a Punk band at age 15 and later join the Indie band, Broken Social Scene for a time. She wrote a song with Sally Seltmann and released it in 2007, “1234” was famously used in an iPod nano commercial, it would reach #4 in Canada and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Feist continues to record and perform, she released an album “Multitudes” in April of this year. The clip below is the track “Hiding Out in the Open”. It’s pretty amazing.
Diana Krall
Well I know I said at the outset that I wanted to talk about some of the lesser known Canadian Artists but I have slipped up a couple times and inserted some pretty big names. Oops I did it again. No, Britany Spears is not from Canada, but Diana Krall is one of the best selling Jazz artists of all time. She has released 15 studio albums with sales of over 16 million. Billboard Magazine named her the second greatest Jazz musician of the the 2000-2009 decade. For the year 2009 she was ranked #3 behind Harry Connick Jr. and another Canadian, Michael Bublé.
Still, if this kind of music is not your jam, you may not know of her or her place in the genre. She has won eight Juno and two Grammy Awards, not to mention numerous other accolades.
She hails from Nanaimo, British Columbia and began her recording career in 1992 and I first heard her as a ‘piano’ player on CBC Radio, probably around around 1994 or so. My wife and I became fans and we have seen her perform in person, her piano playing is nothing short of mesmerizing. Her voice is well, you have to listen and decide on your own. “The Look of Love” was written by the amazing team of Hal David and Burt Bacharach and recorded by Dusty Springfield in 1967. Diane’s cover is from 2001.
“Love” from the Jimmy Kimmel Show
It was pretty exciting when she and another musician I had been following since the late ’70’s, Elvis Costello got married in 2003, apparently my invitation got lost in the mail.
Terri Clark
Terri was actually born in Montreal but her family moved to Medicine Hat, Alberta when she was very young. If you ask her she’ll say she is an Alberta girl, thru and thru. To say she was determined is not a strong enough word to describe how hard working she is, her journey to Nashville shortly after leaving high school took her briefly to London, Ontario. She stayed with family from her mothers side, her grandparents Ray and Betty Gauthier were singers that had opened for Johnny Cash and George Jones.
After years of working her craft in Nashville her first single “Better Things To Do” was a top 10 hit in both Canada and the US. The awards and accolade soon followed and she was a bona fide County music star.
She has released 11 studio albums, A Christmas CD, a live album and three Greatest Hits compilations. Terri has had dozens of hit songs with five #1’s in Canada and two on the US Country chart. Seven of her songs crossed over to reach the Billboard Hot 100. She is a great supporter of her home country and has collaborated with Dean Brody, Johnny Reid and Dallas Green, all hitting the Canadian charts. She has written or co-written many of her songs.
Her first hit “Better Things To Do” from her debut album Terri Clark in 1995 peaked at #3 in Canada and the US. She is known for her great video’s as well.
Mostly Music Covers 