The Maple Leaf Lounge

Oh right, I guess I'm such a tease, haha! I was thinking of Blue Rodeo, and they do have a clip on Youtube with their Letterman performance and they're absolutely on fire, but I think the situation applies to a lot of Canadian bands in general.

 

Blue Rodeo is one of my main musical influences (the others being Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Alan Parsons Project and Tom Petty).

Great band, great song writing and they never really made it outside of Canada which I can only attribute to them being too... well, Canadian I guess.

 

That might have something to do with it. But then again, I found that anything they've put out could easily beat some of what is heard on American airwaves. But yeah, the two of them, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor are a wealth of talent that I would consider our Lennon & McCartney. They're classified as Country Rock, but I find they're so varied with the type of music they put out, with quite a unique sound at that. The closest I can think that can match them is Wilco.

I mean, you go from this:


to this:


And I constantly wonder how they can not have made more fans elsewhere. But again, I think many Canadian bands have been in similar situations. Seems to me that unless you're the Barenaked Ladies, you're hardly given a second glance. Bands like Great Big Sea, The Tragically Hip, Spirit of the West, and that's just who I can think off the top of my head, but none of them are around anymore. Near the end of GBS's life as a band, Alan Doyle was rubbing shoulders with Russell Crowe and Sting, so it's not as if he and his band were not getting noticed. They at least had a bit of success across the border and in Europe. The Tragically Hip, I note is really a love or hate affair, and while I've never particular cared for their music, I still give them credit where it's due, and the fate of Gord Downie was a sad one. And then you have SOTW's frontman who passed away recently after a bout of dementia at the age of 58.

One thing I've found peculiar from what I've been able to gather over the years via things said from different bands, and this might just be a coincidence, is that Canadian bands seem to have an aversion to doing media tours. They'll often be OK doing radio interviews, but as soon as it's a TV appearance, they'll most likely not do it. I've seen a few here and there, but for the most part it's like, "Forget it!" But I think that sometimes that's a sacrifice one needs to make. There was one American band that I got turned onto after hearing some beautiful music one time. I got up and went to look at the TV and from then on, I was hooked and became a fan. I think visuals can create a powerful association that radio on its own can't establish.

 

Funny you should say that. I've always thought of Keelor and Cuddy as our Lennon and McCartney too. The parallels are there, temperment, style, etc. Lennon/Keelor doing the introspective and anger/pain, McCartney/Cuddy doing the more commercial/pop/ballad stuff (grossly generalising here of course).

But yes, we have so much real talent here in Canada that really deserves wider recognition. Everyone south of the border knows Celine Dion and Bieber but how many know Gordon Lightfoot? Just my taste of course but that's sowrong to me.

Oh, and I always preferred 54-40 to The Hip.

 

One of my favourite Canadian musicians (besides Tegan and Sara) is Lights. She’s been around for over a decade but I don’t think she is known worldwide.

 

Guess the only Canadian artist I've known for quite some time is Daniel Lanois, mostly because of his work with Brian Eno.

 

speaking of Canadian muscians, some might recognise the guy in the picture with my wife (not it's not people's eyes - not one of my better pictures).

My wife's birthday present from her parents was to see his band perform in Kingston this year and he was staying at the same hotel as us.




He didn't however remember a long discussion with my wife at the hall in Barry's Bay about 30 years ago where they talked about fishing.

 

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that There's just so much that is appealing about them, which is why I'm surprised they haven't been better known outside Canada. They really know how to write good lyrics and melodies that tend to be very catchy.

One of the things that has frustrated me was the last time we hosted the Olympics. Considering everyone around the world is watching, I'd have thought it would be the perfect time to showcase the lesser known parts of Canadian culture and entertainment to the wider world, to show that we're actually very different than the mainstream perception. But what did they do? Catered the the mainstream, brought in acts like Celine Dion, Micheal Buble and Nickelback among other already popular acts which only reinforced the notion, and which only fueled us as the butt of many jokes that we've only ever produced artists such as those. And I see a lot of comments like those all over the internet. They could have done much more by digging a little deeper, and while I understand the need for some already internationally popular stars such as Dion, it needed way more cultural diversity. I just felt our representation to the world was so disappointing. How about some deeper cuts for once? Sometimes I feel Canada panders too much to mainstream sensibilities rather than what we really are like as a Country. At least our radio feels way more varied, giving more chances to a wide variety of artists. But I still feel that the system of arts funding is broken. Most of the attention seems to be on already famous artists while the smaller ones struggle, especially on the world stage.

I like Gordon Lightfoot, and I'd have thought he was already quite popular. He's from the previous generation, and he's had to work hard to get to where he is, but now I don't think he performs very much anymore due to his old age. I've come across more people worldwide that know him than most others mentioned in this thread.

I've seen Daniel Lanois in concert at our local summer music festival. He mostly played his French-Canadian material, but he was amazing. Really raw. He reminded me of someone who could be between Neil Young and Bob Dylan with a dash of Johnny Cash. His performance of The Maker, which many artists have covered including Willie Nelson, was mesmerizing. There's nothing better than watching someone who's at the top of their game.

^ Marc, Gord Downie? That's pretty cool, although it doesn't surprise me he wouldn't have remembered given his condition at the time.

 

Not Gord Downie (the wife liked him as well). Alan Frew of Glass Tiger.

 

Hahaha Glass Tiger and Alan Frew.

Years and years ago when I was in high school they were playing at the Western Fair here in London On. I was there with a girl I was seeing, her two best friends and the guys they were seeing. Anyhow... Frew says "We're going to do a cover of an Aerosmith song" and they started the Beatles' I'm Down. Well we all liked the Beatles so they had six 14 year old kids right against the stage screaming "Hey stupid! It's the Beatles!"

 

Oh, my bad. Not familiar with them, but he kind of looks like Gord Downie.

 

Don't know about the rest of you but here in London we're getting a green Christmas. We've had snow and cold weather and... it all ends today. Hitting 5C today and between 4C and 7C through the week.

I remember when I was a kid my folks would sometimes have me in a snow suit under my Halloween costume and when we'd start riding our bikes in April there'd still be a littlw snow on the edges of boulevards and big old dirty piles in parking lots.

 

Well that's Southern Ontario for you

At the in-laws (about 220Km NE of Toronto) at the highest we're gonna get is +4 on Monday and there's too much snow on out back for it to go anywhere

I was home for Christmas it's getting to +7 on Monday after +4 on Sunday (good walk to the gym weather and yeah the snow would be gone.

I am however glad I'm not back in Australia with the temps in the mid to high 40s (me and the heat don't like each other Some-one I know is in Australia for the Christmas holidays. With the heat, smoke and fires when landing in Sydney you'd have to wonder if Air Canada lost it's way and landed in Hell

 

That's just... well, words fail me. Winter is one of my four favourite seasons.

 

Personally, I can't fathom a completely dry snowless Christmas. That scene at the end of the 2017 Jumanji, there are Christmas decorations everywhere on the lawns around them, yet it looks like summer moreso than Winter.

 

There's a geeky history behind my name...

Back in high school and college I played D&D. The last character I ever play was a wild elf ranger I called Thelev Winterwind. The first name was taken from the TOS Journey to Babel episode and the surname was just one of those seasonal/nature names elven characters always have.

Years later when I launched my old website I just went with Winterwind.

And who knows, being born in a blizzard could indeed being why you don't like the season on a deeper level. I was apparently named after a family friend that was killed in a car crash before I was born which could explain why I hate driving and avoid it. Fascinating how things imprint on our minds at such young ages.

 

snow is pain but tolerable ice just needs to fuck off and die.