Canadian Women in Song

Subject: Canadian Women in Song
From: GUEST,James
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 08:33 AM

Got together with a bunch of friends at the weekend just to play some cds and have a few pints. As it turns out all of the cds we chose were by Canadians. Thjat started us talking about how many great female artists have come from a country witha relatively small population. As we started to go throuh the names of some of our favourites, I was amazed at the names we listed and how talented they are. We also discussed the common features of all of them and, with few, exceptions we found that they seem to be perfromers and writers with an introspective bent. They are also very good poets, musicians....is it the climate ? Here is the list we came up with..we were amazed.. Joni Mitchell, Sarah Maclaughlin, Jane siberry, Alanis Morrisette, Loreena McKennit, Laura Smith, Sylvia Tyson, Jan Arden, Anne Murray, Rita MacNeil,Margot Timmins,Mary Jane Lammond,Diana Krall, Shirley Eickhard, Natalie MacMaster Then we got to thinking about other like Celine Dionne, BTO, The Cowboy Junkies,Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, Barenaked Ladies, Crash Test Dummies and so on. Then there are some very famous men..Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Ian Tyson,well the list goes on. In any case , it seems amazing that all of these people come from a place that is paranoid about its giant neighbour overwhelming its culture. Canada seems to be doing o.k. But I see a common feature in many of these artists, a sensitivity and sense of lyricism that is often moving and profound, somewhat like the country itself, I guess. Anyway, I am sure many of you can add to the list and offer some suggestion about what it is in Canadian culture that has shaped so many great preformers.

Subject: RE: Canadian Women in Song
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 09:43 AM

There was a thread about this a few months ago, I'll try to find it.

Subject: RE: Canadian Women in Song
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 10:43 AM

Here are two that I found, Sorry, can't Blueclickeything.

www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=17857&messages=25

www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=25413&messages=116

Subject: RE: Canadian Women in Song
From:
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 11:07 AM

Sonia Wood
Louisa Manuel
Lisa MacIsaac
Stephanie Wills
Wendy MacIsaac
Kendra MacGillivray
Tracey Dares
Jackie Dunn
Monica MacDoughall
Marg Osburn
Cindy Church
Winnie Chafe
Tracey Dares
Cheryl Gaudet
Liona Boyd
Linda Brooks
The ladies in Barachois
Bette MacDonald
Damhnait Doyle
Teresa Doyle

Patricia Murray
Anne Murray

Now some of those may not be household names, unless you either follow Atlantic Canadian or Fiddle music. But I think there are literally tons of females in Canada NOT getting the recognition they truly deserve.

Subject: RE: Canadian Women in Song
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 12:08 PM

I did mention Anne Murray,,I have heard of some of the others, but I don't think that the ones I know have achieved that level of skill and subtlty that many of the more famous ones have. Not to say that all of the famaous Canadians are equally talented, they are not..take Shania Twaine....well, take Shania Twaine. I was just thinking that many of the famous ones deserve the success they have achieved.

Subject: RE: Canadian Women in Song
From: Naemanson
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 12:14 PM

Eileen McGann!

Subject: RE: Canadian Women in Song
From: GUEST,James
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 12:32 PM

I appreciate hearing all these names but I was wondering why Canada has produced such people, introspective and lyrical. There seems to much that Canadian Artists have in common and oh yes, how could I forget kd lang.

Subject: RE: Canadian Women in Song
From: Willie-O
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 02:06 PM

Well, a few original role models in the 60's: Joni Mitchell, Buffy Ste-Marie, Sylvia Tyson, let's say--very different sounding artists, and they took very different paths in life, but all of them proved that they could make it big, in Canada and the world, and the following generations of women certainly internalized that information. Besides, there's not much else to do here in the winter if you don't skate or ski.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: Canadian Women in Song
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 08:25 PM

Anne Murray must be a great role model..she made it big, stayed in Canada and proved you can be an international star and live here, I think she inspired many Canadian artists to the same. As for why they are "intropestive", well, it gets dark early and stays cold a long time.

Subject: RE: Canadian Women in Song
From: Jo King
Date: 12 Dec 00 - 01:10 AM

Mary Margaret O'Hara Heather Bishop Kate and Anna McGarrigle Martha Wainwright Carol Pope ... Okay I've run out

In thinking briefly about this topic, I think that the sparseness of the Canadian population may contribute to the development of these artists. Perhaps it may also encourage some level of introspection. I know a number of these artists are from rural regions, also the cities in Canada tend to be fairly far apart. This would likely allow individual "scenes" to develop. But all of that can be said for parts of U.S.A.

Another possibility is that the pop culture in Canada, while these artists were growing up, was not fully established and tended to be pulled in many directions by the multicultural nature of Canada's population. Without a domninant popculture, perhaps there were fewer expectations constricting these artists as they developed. While Canadian society was (is) somewhat male dominated, the pop culture had very few if any male dominant figures in the world scene. How fearsome could Glenn Gould be? This may have left a few more doors open to women as the music scene developed.

The most likely explaination is that we are looking too closely at this and we would likely find a similar sample of female artists in other countries. This possibility is compounded by the fact that I am up way too late and tend to ramble when I am tired.

Take care. JK