Tag: canadian roots music

The Show On The Road – Celeigh Cardinal

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week host Z. Lupetin speaks with the high priestess of Canadiana soul, Celeigh Cardinal.

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Growing up without having much connection to her Indigenous heritage, Celeigh recently reconnected to the vibrant native community in Edmonton and has become a role model for young singers who may never have had the courage to make a name for themselves in Canada’s rich festival and concert circuits. In 2018 she was named the Indigenous Artist of the Year in Western Canada, and she just became the first Indigenous DJ to get her own show on CKUA radio, which reaches far across the Canadian prairies.

MIXTAPE: The Bills’ Canadian Roots

Posted on by Editor

Asking the five of us Bills to agree on which tunes we'd put on a Canadiana folk/roots Mixtape was brilliant fodder for heated tour van debate. We're an opinionated bunch and we think Canada quite simply offers up enough amazing material to fill 15-20 Mixtapes, so this was a tall order that we dove into with happy enthusiasm. The Bills have always been inspired by a broad range of international musical flavours, but we're fundamentally grounded in our homeland's deep and diverse folk/roots traditions and modern talents. You'll hear nods to all kinds of these different influences on our latest disc, Trail of Tales.

We narrowed down our Mixtape picks, but it wasn't easy! Here are some Canadian favourites for your listening pleasure:

David Francey — "Red Winged Blackbird"
We met David for the first time at the Jasper Folk Festival in 2001. We'd never heard of him, and he'd never heard of us. We were both new on the folk scene, having come from somewhat different directions, but there was an immediate kinship. Somehow his first album, Torn Screen Door, became a part of our sonic fibre. He is as good a person, and as good a folk music craftsperson, as they come.

Coeur de Pirate — "Berceuse"
Béatrice Martin, otherwise known as Coeur de Pirate, is an insanely talented Québécois and Canadian treasure. This song shows at her boiled-down best, with some classic francophone sounds in 3/4 time. Wow.

Stan Rogers — "The Mary Ellen Carter"
What more can you say? Stan. He set the standard for folk writing and performance in Canada. Gone too soon, but what a wealth he left for us all. "The Mary Ellen Carter" lays it down, as heavy as it gets.

Jim Bryson — "Oregon" (with Oh Susanna)
Jim is one of Canada's secret weapons. He wrote, produced, and performed on this lovely song with the incomparable Oh Susanna for her album Namedropper. You'll be so into Jim (and Suzie!) after you hear this.

Ed McCurdy — "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"
Try not to be deeply moved by this classic of classics. (Okay, okay, Ed was born in Pennsylvania, but he married a Canadian and ended up a CBC broadcaster in Vancouver!) As best we know, he wrote "Strangest Dream" in 1950. Everyone has covered it, and it has the best qualities a folk song can have: simple, beautiful, poignant, profound. As important now as it was nearly 70 years ago.

Bim (Roy Forbes) — "Tender Lullaby"
I (Chris Frye of the Bills) grew up with Bim as a part of my family circle. These early Bim songs were the soundtrack of my childhood. Someday I hope to record an album of these beautiful, rocking, truly northern Canadian classics.

Sam Roberts — "Canadian Dream"
Following in a long tradition of incredible writer/rockers from the Great White North, Sam and his band from Montreal are simply irresistible. This tune has so many great lines that maybe only a Canadian can truly relate to: "Everything moves real slow when it's 40 below."

Wilf Carter — "My Old Canadian Home"
Wilf. He did it all. He was the cowboy hero everywhere. A yodeler extraordinaire and even a double agent — they called him "Montana Slim" Stateside! In this, one of his scratchy vinyl classics, he gets about as patriotic Canadian as you'll ever hear any of us get.

Joni Mitchell — "A Case of You"
She stands alone at the top of the mountain. Glorious, untouchable Joni. "…and still be on my feet" … we all still bow and weep in awe.

Steve Dawson — "Tractor Part" (with Zubot and Dawson)
Steve is a purist and an adventurer at the same time. The Bills like to think of ourselves as having that same spirit — rooted in the traditions, but always seeking to bust down barriers and make whatever music we want to explore. Steve has always done that, and this tune is one that helped make his name.

Alan Doyle and the Beautiful Gypsies — "1,2,3,4"
Alan has always inspired with his powerful voice and stage presence. Try and sit still as he and his band of Beautiful Gypsies rip through this one!

Oliver Schroer — "Horseshoes and Rainbows" from the album Jigzup (1993)
An extremely influential tune from a truly innovative Canadian fiddler. You'll hear young folks from coast to coast jamming on this melody, and the recorded version exemplifies Oliver's ability to create layered soundscapes outside the normal bounds. ᐧ

Kacy & Clayton, ‘Brunswick Stew’

Posted on by Editor

There's something happening north of the border these days. From Corb Lund's dreary Albertan cowboy to the serene melodies of Toronto's Doug Paisley, Canadians are currently pumping out some of our strongest, most mood-evocative roots music — which is rather humorous, being that the genre we're really talking about here is "Americana." Turns out, you don't have to be American at all to have a master grasp on the folk tradition. Actually, if you look at Lund, Paisley, Lindi Ortega, Whitehorse, Daniel Romano, and now, Kacy & Clayton, it's almost better if you're not.

A duo of second cousins from a remote region in Saskatchewan, Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum grew up five hours away from the nearest record store — but that didn't stop them from becoming students of the great blues and country storytellers like the Carter Family and Lead Belly, even if it required prying copies from their neighbors or enduring numerous long drives. Strange Country, their first release for New West, is a set of murder ballads, eerie exploits, and haunting snippets in time, driven by Kacy's high, pristine quiver and Clayton's fast and fertile plucks which render the need for bigger orchestration utterly useless. Like Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence," their folk songs always hover on the line of beauty and unease, a lullaby to the dawn of one day but a precursor to an uncertain future lingering right on the horizon.

One of their most compelling tracks is "Brunswick Stew," a jauntier version of their melodic palate, which is not the least bit jaunty in subject matter: It's about a girl who hid her pregnancy from her parents and dumps the resulting newborn in the river. Cautionary tales of small-town scandal have made a bit of a comeback lately, thanks to the likes of Kacey Musgraves or Brandy Clark's brilliant "Big Day in a Small Town" (a song which, coincidentally, also tells of a growing belly that turned out not to be a bunch of donuts, but a baby). Many new interpreters of folk get caught up in the urge to confess — the intimacy of voice and guitar bends well to that, and it's a tempting place to land. But Kacy & Clayton aren’t interested in making a musical diary; they prefer to dig deep into their imaginations, not their memories, for material. The result is Americana magic, regardless of their passport.