Summertime
If you’d asked me two weeks ago who wrote the song Summertime, I’d have said the Gershwins. Music by George, lyrics by Ira. And I’d have been wrong. Well, half…
John Prine
When I hear the name John Prine, I think of Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. Yesterday, John Prine died from Covid-19. Yesterday was also the 26th anniversary…
Sam Anger, Fiddler
Sam Anger was "the best durn fiddle player in seventeen counties." That's what an ad for Winger's Crescent Park Entertainers called him. He worked as a blacksmith in Ridgeway, just…
Boogie-Woogie Piano
Today, the 88th day of the year, is Piano Day. So CBC Radio q told me. One or another piano has kept me company almost all my life. And one…
Canadian Songs
So, for Canada Day, I looked for Canadian songs that evoke a sense of place, of history. Those songs that everybody knows a few lines of, to sing at public…
Four Strong Winds
I've been thinking about Ian Tyson lately. With the recent death of Leonard Cohen, the songs and the songwriters of Canada - and an era - have been heard a…
Arias for All Seasons
Pillorikput Inuit (Blessed are the People): Inuktitut Arias for All Seasons is a cd of beautiful music. Soprano Deantha Edmunds-Ramsey, tenor Karrie Obed and the Innismara Vocal Ensemble sing sacred…
Iry LeJeune
In James Lee Burke's novel Cadillac Jukebox, a New Orleans mob guy brings a gift to Detective Dave Robichaux. A jukebox filled with 45s of classic Cajun recordings from the…
She Loves You
Some things you will never ever forget. One, for me, is Ed Sullivan introducing “these youngsters from Liverpool.” Hands clenched on head, pulling at hair, “eek, aah, oohh.” In the…
A Nation’s Songs
Whatever one might think of the US of A, they got good national songs. Watching Monday’s Presidential Inauguration, the high point for me was the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir giving it…