Canadian Folk Music

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: sian, west wales
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 05:53 PM

Two reflections on the above:

I remember being taught about the Fenian Raids in high school; particularly interesting as, again, they were slipping across 'our' border along the Niagara River. My history teacher's comment was that their attacks were rather like the terrier that lurks along the roadside and attacks the wheels of passing vehicles with rabid enthusiasm. "What," he mused, "did the terrier think he'd DO with the car if he caught it?"

And on the Metis front, in one of the rebellions (the second, I think) the menfolk of my mother's village in central Ontario - Ulster Protestants to a man - marched out to the Prairies to do the whole 'god & country' malarky. (N.B. until well into the 20th century the village's main cash crop was moonshine. This is not an insignificant factor in their Long March.) They made it out there, and back without, as far as we know, actually getting into any battles. Possibly also without ever sobering up, as they came back with spoils of war: the bell from a prairie town hall. (Pause for a minute to imagine the wives' reactions.)

I remember hearing the bell. It was kept in a tower in mum's village and was used as a fire alarm.

A few years ago a deputation of Metis visited Mum's village to commemorate the ancestors' visit "out west". It was all very civil and the local Legion did good business for the duration.

So, all was forgiven.

Strangely, the bell went missing some months later.

There's another Canadian song in there somewhere.


sian

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Big Mick
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 04:39 PM

Yes, the Metis are another interesting as hell story. They were, indeed, put down. But to me it is a uniquely Canadian story that they would develope as a culture at all. In the States we surely had a mixing of cultures, but ultimately it was about making them "white" or WASP's (white/anglo saxon/protestant). In Canada they became a distinct culture that survives to this day. Canada's history with indigenous peoples is not perfect, but when compared to the way the US handled it, the Canadian's showed, and continue to show, a great deal more respect for indigenous folks.

bankley, I would love to see a picture of that sash.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 04:37 PM

Hey anyone heard owt of "Peace" lately?
Seems mighty quiet.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: sian, west wales
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 04:32 PM

Thinking of Rogers' rhymes, I remember the first time I heard Macdonnell On the Heights, and specifically the line, "You brought the field all standing with your courage and your luck." I sucked in my breath and held it quivvering in anticipation at what a songwriter would do to complete the couplet - who has the nerve to end a first line with "luck"????? He had me going for a few seconds...

sian

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Big Mick
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 04:31 PM

Yes, I am well aware of these sentiments, and the UEL's are who I was referring to when I made the distinction between the ours being founded in a revolution. We rebelled against the Crown, and your folks were loyalists. There was a great deal of disagreement on the Revolution in New England and, in fact, many of the New England settlers left the US for Canada. I am also very aware of the repelling of the "Yank Invasion". In fact, if this is the one you are referring to, it was actually a Fenian Invasion made up of the Irish Ex pat veterans of the US Civil War from both sides of the conflict, and it occurred in June of 1866. Clinton Hammond used to talk about this difference in the roots of our two countries music.

Billy Green is a pretty good song, great story, but not one of Stan's best in my opinion. Macdonnell on the Heights is much better.

I love the song "MacDonnell on the Heights" and used to perform it at times. I find the story fascinating. And john, you old cynic, these songs get a great deal of play among folk fans in the US. You really must give us a bit more credit. We are not all mouse ear wearing folk cretans. Most of the folkies and average folks that I know do not fit at all into the box that I think you have painted us in.

As we apply that history to the current discussion, one can see how these historical influences have shaped the music. When I refer to this hard to describe attraction though, it is not just one or the other of these things. The whole of the influences together kind of leads the Canadians down a path that is tied to the unique character of that land. There is, at once, excitement and joy, rebelliousness, a very strong pride and identity, a demand to be seen as something other than a neighbor to the USA, and this all adds up to great music. Another example is Bill Gallaher's "Shadow Boats". It thumbs its nose at the US laws, but also exhorts that it's "not for the money or whiskey, but for making those shadow boats run....".

I wish the hell I could get out what I am trying to say here. Bottom line is that I have great respect, and get great enjoyment out of the music that comes out of my Canadian friends.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: C. Ham
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 04:23 PM

I'm looking forward to hearing Willie Dunn at Apple Hollow. I have an old LP from 35+ years ago with some excellent songs but have never seen him live. My turntable hasn't worked for years, but the songs that still stick in my mind are "Louis Riel" and "The Ballad of Crowfoot."

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: meself
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 04:21 PM

Some of those lyrics are pretty clumsy for Stan (e.g., "With great confusion in the camp, two Generals were caught./The Colonel and his men made their artillery as naught.") Seems like a bit of a rush-job.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 04:16 PM

Tyson's new CD is great... "From Yellowhead to Yellowstone" he blew out his voice a couple of years ago and is raspy now.... but loads of character and fine songs...

The Metis... well, they had a hard time for a long time... not full blood, not white.... fought a war of resistance in present day Saskatchewan in the 1880's... lost at Batoche... Louis Riel was hanged for treason... although he is one of the founding fathers of the country (Manitoba)... we're still waiting for him to be pardoned.. they finally took the hanging rope out of the RCMP museum in Regina due to public pressure... I'd recommend listening to Laura Langstaff or Willie Dunn for a feeling of Metis.... also Calvin Volrath the fiddler.. a proud culture coming back strong.... I was given a beautiful sash a few years ago and am honoured to have it....

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: john f weldon
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 04:08 PM

Very little unites Canadians.

However, it remains a simple fact (which we are often too polite to mention)... ...that as Americans are defined by having rebelled against the British, our ancestors fought and died NOT to be American.

I think this fact is misunderstood by most Americans; they tend not to dwell on the losing battles.

Subject: Lyr Add: BILLY GREEN(?) (Stan Rogers?)
From: Rasener
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 03:50 PM

Do you mean this one.

Attend you all good countrymen, my name is Billy Green,
And I will tell of things I did when I was just nineteen.
I helped defeat the Yank invader, there can be no doubt,
Yet lately men forget the name of Billy Green, the Scout.

'Twas on a Sunday morn' in June when first we heard the sound,
Three thousand Yankees on the road to camp below Greentown,
Two Generals, Artillery and Company of horse,
With many rank and file afoot, they were a mighty force.

Says I to brother Levi, "Well, we still can have some fun!
We'll creep and whoop like Indians to try to make them run!"
Which then we did both loud and long, much to the Yanks' dismay.
They fired their 'pop-gun' muskets once and then they ran away.

Well, first they plundered Stoney Creek and then John Gage's farm.
They cut his fences for their fires although the day was warm.
They bound my brother Isaac up and took him from his home;
They pillaged all the countryside, no mercy there was shown.

Then says I to myself, "Now Billy, this will never do.
Those scurvy Yanks are not the match for Loyalists like you".
My brother's horse I quickly caught and put him to a run,
And reached the British camp upon the heights of Burlington.

Says I to Colonel Harvey, "Now, let there be no delay,
If we're to reach the Yankee camp before the break of day.
I'll take you through the woods by night where I know every tree,
And ere the dawn you surely can surprise the enemy."

With men and guns we then set forth the enemy to seek,
Across the beach at Burlington and then to Red Hill Creek;
We came upon their sentries; we surprised them every one.
One died upon my sword, and all the others off they run.

And so it was we were in place one hour before dawn.
We fired three times upon the camp and then we marched along.
We fired again and charged as Colonel Harvey gave the word,
And put the enemy to fight with bayonet and sword.

With great confusion in the camp, two Generals were caught.
The Colonel and his men made their artillery as naught.
We killed over two hundred and we captured all the rest;
Nor did we lose but eighty men; of them we had the best.

And so it was I played the man though I was but nineteen.
I led our forces through the night that this land would be free.
I foiled the Yank invaders and I helped put them to route,
So, let no man forget the name of Billy Green, the Scout.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: john f weldon
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 03:46 PM

Yes, and a real favourite Stan Rogers song "Billy Green" is about a real-life hero who was responsible for thwarting an American Invasion, in which 200 "Yank Invaders" died.   I wonder how much play that one gets in the US of A?

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Rasener
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 03:37 PM

Tanglefoot June 27th 2009 @ Faldingworth Live, Lincolnshire, LN8 3SE in England on their last tour in the UK.

http://www.faldingworthlive.co.uk/

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: sian, west wales
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 03:33 PM

Agree 100% John. It's like having a walk-in wardrobe where everything might not 'match' but it all goes together 'sort of'. Love it!

I quite liked PET. I always think of him as someone who turned our definition of Canadian from "anti-Americanism" to something more proactive. (I bet he could make love in a canoe, too.)

Big Mick, there are a lot of areas in Canada - including the Niagara Penninsula where I was born and raised - which were settled by United Empire Loyalists . So, part of our mindset is rooted in the fact that our early settlers were in Canada because they specifically did NOT want to be 'Americans'. And as they settled mostly along the borders, they would have provided the militia in the battles between Americans and British (Canadians) in the War of 1812; indeed, our Laura Secord was a UEL - as well as a purveyor of reasonable chocolate. To bring it back to music, I would imagine that Macdonell On the Heights (Stan Rogers) had a fair few UELs under his command.

For that matter, a lot of Stan Rogers' songs prop up Atwood's survival/victim theory.

sian

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: john f weldon
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM

Sian -

I think it was quite healthy that we had multiple-identity-disorder. If you're Quebec-Canadian-NorthAmerican-BritishCommonwealthian-Scottish-Caribbean-Martian-Weldonian, whatever, you can be comfortable with a little uncertainty...

We used to make "National Unity" films (Trudeau, eh?) but there's only so far you can go with that concept in Canada. Not very far at all.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: C. Ham
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 01:58 PM

Reading through the thread I didn't notice any mention of the man I think of as the greatest Canadian folk singer and songwriter for almost 50 years: Ian Tyson.

From his early days as half of Ian & Sylvia, through to his recent recordings, Ol' Ian has a mighty body of very-Canadian work.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Big Mick
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 01:53 PM

Absolutely fascinating and starting to give me a line on this thing that I have been struggling to define. It is very interesting to me to start to look at the differences in how these two countries evolved. For example, I am quite certain that the effects of the US Revolutionary War played a large part in how these two cultures evolved differently. Because the US, as we now know it, was born in revolution, it seems to have spawned a central idea that being "American" was an ideal. Whether that idependent idea that has evolved in so many good, bad or inconseqential ways was a positive thing.... well I don't know. But the Canadians didn't have that same experience and it produced a different mindset. I think on things like the Metis. That cultural experience of melding the various ethnic and native peoples into a distinct culture doesn't really happen here. Our expansion and growth came at the expense of native cultures, for the most part. The melting pot here meant that everyone was supposed to become WASPish and American. Whereas in Canada, there was recognition of the various peoples, and an attempt to allow them some measure of autonomy. Saying that, I am not unaware of what became of the Metis, but what I am speaking of is the actual creation of them from disparate groups, and not the rebellion and quashing of them. In fact, let me make it clear that I am speaking in broad oversimplifications here for the sake of the larger discussion of how the music developed.

I think that when one takes into account the earlier comment by Bruce Murdoch about eschewing labels and just letting the influences (historic, ethnic, wilderness) that are out there effect the music, you come up with this unique take on things.

Mick

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: sian, west wales
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 01:35 PM

Now, John, that's something I find incomprehensible here in the UK. People keep asking me if I consider myself to be Welsh or Canadian. They don't 'get it' that I'm quite happy being both. Similarly, you get the Media doing a vox pop in the streets, asking if you consider yourself Welsh, British or European; what's with the "or"? Canadians are quite happy being hyphenated; when I was a kid my friends were Romanian-Canadian, Italian-Canadian, French-Canadian, Hungarian-Canadian (and then me, Welsh-Canadian). And I'm sure the songs I learned reflected those hyphenations.

Eve, I'm glad that made sense. I was afraid that maybe it didn't. I quite like the idea that our identity is still fluid (within parameters). It's like we haven't so much nailed our colours (coloUrs) to the mast as hung our washing out to air.

sian

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: bankley
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 11:39 AM

"Canadian history isn't boring, the historians are" Pierre Berton

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: john f weldon
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 10:51 AM

When I was a kid, we were Canadian. We were Quebeckers. We were North American. We were part of the British Commonwealth. We were also whatever our parents and grandparents had been. In no particular order. We were less chauvinistic than Americans, because we were never sure what to be chauvinistic about!

Our history teacher used to read to us from an American history text, for laughs. It was all written in the first person plural, which seemed ridiculous! "We (Americans) bravely and nobly did this, while they (whoever) wickedly did whatever..."

We couldn't use "we" because we wouldn't have been sure who the we was.

(Secret stuff: Recently a major initiative by a government organization attempted to create a Canadian History web-site. It fell apart, because nobody could agree on what Canadian history was!)

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 10:29 AM

Sian,

What you wrote is very interesting and I think right on the money.

I really was nodding my head a lot when you said:

"Canadians, on the other hand, don't have that kind of definition; we don't have a pledge of allegiance (I'm Joe and I am Canadian, doesn't count, does it?) and we've only recently 'brought the constitution home', and our flag isn't that old and we keep changing the words to our national anthem."

This is partly what I meant when I said that Canada is still working out what it means to be a nation in a way that the US settled a long time ago.

And I loved this:

"We don't have a definition of what Canadian is so a lot of our music explores what it's like to be 'in' Canada and maybe by 'describing' what that is, it will be like 'almost' having a definition - but better. And it's the musicians and poets and artists who are best placed to do this."

Amen!

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: sian, west wales
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 07:23 AM

Just to please balladeer ...

... this thread made me remember Margaret Atwood's 1972 book, "Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature". It's her opinion, elaborated upon in the book, that the central themes of Canadian poetry and fiction are "survival" and "victims"; all interesting stuff and worth reading.

In the first chapter, she makes an interesting point about "Who am I?": 'But in Canada, as (Northrop) Frye suggests, the answer to the question "Who am I?" is at least partly the same as the answer to another question: "Where is here?" "Who am I?" is a question appropriate in countries where the environment, the "here," is already well-defined, so well-defined in fact that it may threaten to overwhelm the individual. In societies where everyone and everything has its place a person may have to struggle to separate himself from his social background, in order to keep from being just a function of the structure.'

She does discuss how people in the "Old World" exist in extremely defined cultures - everything from class structures to built environment. The "New World" must have been a seriously discombobulating experience for settlers (early, late,even 'current') because the tangible and intangible landmarks just weren't (aren't) there. There's probably tons of stuff written about the psyche and the 'pioneer spirit'.

I feel that American's do work to an overall definition of, "What is American"; you've got your pledge of allegiance and written constitution and even concepts of "un-American activities" (which means there must be a definition of 'American' to begin with). If there's one thing I've learned from Mudcat, it's that there are a lot of Americans who aren't completely on-board with at least parts of this definition (bless you all!) but still ...

Canadians, on the other hand, don't have that kind of definition; we don't have a pledge of allegiance (I'm Joe and I am Canadian, doesn't count, does it?) and we've only recently 'brought the constitution home', and our flag isn't that old and we keep changing the words to our national anthem. My mother talks of her generation being the first to demand the right to put "Canadian" for nationality on government forms rather than "British" - although, being Canadian, it was more a matter of digging in heels rather than open revolt. Canadian history has never been shaped by bloody conflict; if I remember correctly the closest we ever came to civil war started in a pub up 'round Hogs Hollow in Toronto and was over in a couple of hours. The big decisions have mostly been made through compromise rather than knock-down-drag-out-winner-takes-all action.

So, in terms of our music and to return to Jed's query, I think we take a lot of this on board. We absorb the bits of our fellow Canadians' cultures that we like. We don't have a definition of what Canadian is so a lot of our music explores what it's like to be 'in' Canada and maybe by 'describing' what that is, it will be like 'almost' having a definition - but better. And it's the musicians and poets and artists who are best placed to do this.

My 2 cents worth anyway.

sian

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: bankley
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 03:55 PM

thanks..john... it's a classic....

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: john f weldon
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 03:34 PM

Sheldon Cohen's animated version, read by the author....

The Sweater

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: bankley
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 03:30 PM

and back to the arts, quotation on the back of the $20....

"Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?"
                                        Gabrielle Roy..

funny money, pretty and poetic... but hard to hold on to....

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: bankley
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 03:12 PM

from the back of the $5.oo bill....

an excerpt from 'The Hockey Sweater' by Roch Carrier

"The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons.
We lived in three places- the school, the church and the skating-rink
but our real life was on the skating-rink"

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: balladeer
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 02:56 PM

I'm sorry about the drift also. Let's just put the asides aside, shall we? I know perfectly well why y'all love hockey. I just like to tease.
We now return to CANADIAN FOLK MUSIC. Anyone?

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: gnu
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 02:36 PM

Sorry for the thread drift. I suppose I should go find a clip of Stompin Tom for the hockey stuff in an attempt to justify it.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: gnu
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 02:34 PM

Grown-ups? We ARE talking about men under the age of about 35. >;-)

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: balladeer
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 02:13 PM

Yes, Gnu, I'm talking about moron jokes disguised as Newfie jokes, Po-lock jokes, blonde jokes, etc.

You cannot beat the eastern provinces for unusual variants of the ancient ballads - and for uproarious modern humour.

And I still don't understand why people pay tons of money to watch grown ups beat each other senseless on skates. I'm sure the speed and skill part of the sport would be fascinating If I could keep up with it, but my brain moves at the speed of baseball.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: gnu
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 11:39 AM

Hockey? Because just skating is like jogging... no fun. Newfie jokes? I assume you me the ones made up by Mainlanders. Real Newfie jokes can't be beat.

I am always taken aback by the wealth of talent in this little backwater, southeastern New Brunswick. I am especially taken aback by the mix of Celtic and Acadian music. Same in many parts of Atlantic Canada. I haven't travelled much west, but it's obvious from the above posts that the same talent exists, as it seems to everywhere. A thousand lifetimes....

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: balladeer
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 10:34 AM

I'm a proud citizen of Canada, but I began my life in England, and at bottom I am still British. There are things I will never understand about the culture of my home and adopted land - hockey, for instance, and the very concept of Newfie jokes. But I do love hearing Canadian variants of the old ballads. They can be found all over the country.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: bankley
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 09:28 AM

As Mr. Beer said....there are so many really fine performers/writers, outside the mainstream. You have to look for them, or stumble across them at a festival or local show.
April Vertch, Pierre Schryer, Kelli Trottier, (Ottawa Valley fiddlers)... Red River fiddle master, Calvin Volrath, plus Dennis Lakusta, Laura Langstaff (all Metis).... lots of talent coming from the Prairies and Yukon... The East Coast has it's own music awards, as does Quebec.. it goes on and on... This is the common language and sound that respects regions more than recognizing borders. A most important part of our national DNA, whether or not the governments and their agencies understand. Here's to all the folks who still choose to work things out with songs, revealing something special in the process..

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Beer
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 07:19 AM

Thanks Mick. Must look him up.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 12:58 AM

Well I knew 4 out of your 7, Beer, so maybe I'm doing okay. I probably know more about Canadian folk music than the average person on the street, but not growing up here there are bound to be some gaps. Never saw the Don Messer show, for example. Ditto for Mr. Dressup and The Friendly Giant. There's a way in which certain aspects of Canadian culture are not in my bones.

And I'll second that emotion, Mick. Rick Speyer is an undiscovered gem.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Big Mick
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 10:58 PM

Add Rick Speyer to that list, Adrien. Writes wonderful lyrics and has great baritone voice.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Beer
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 10:01 PM

Eve,
There are still so many unknowns in Canada. Those that are great and yet still have not had their true recognition. Here are a few that I think should be known from province to province:
Ron Bankley
Joe Grass
Brent Titcomb
John Mann as mentioned above.
Ray Materick
Willie Dunn
Terry Joe Banjo
and oh so many others that I don't even know.

But here is one from the U.S. (Chicago area I think) that you should Google or go on You Tube and have a listen.

"Joe Pug"
I hope to book him for our festival next year before he becomes to much of a name so I can afford him
Adrien

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: GUEST,Golightly
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 07:58 PM

I've never been to Canada, but here in the UK I saw Canadian band 'Spirit of the West' several times. Although their music was celtic-inspired at that time, the band wrote their own songs. I loved their intelligent writing on sensitive social issues. In fact, I regard John Mann as one of Canada's most important songwriters and really quite distinct from American counterparts.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 07:12 PM

Mick and Beer, I'm glad you liked my feeble attempt to articulate myself about Canada.

And Beer, I have to agree with you about influences, it's never cut and dry. I think I'm mostly influenced by folk influences from the southern US-- bluegrass, blues, country, gospel, old-time, jazz, etc. At least those are the styles I feel most comfortable in, and those are the styles I turn to for my own musical inspiration.

I know there's Canadian influences in there -- after all, I've lived here since I was fourteen. Certainly Rick was one, and Ken Whiteley is another (ironically, both of them brilliant musicians in a wide range of American folk and roots styles).

But what I hear when I listen to myself is pretty darned American. Guess I can't help it, 'cause that's where I'm from (never mind that I grew up in a secular Jewish household in New England and somehow I love all that southern music...)

And I'm loving this discussion about Ward Allen and King Gannam and Hank Rivers, et al. I wish I knew more about THAT kind of music, maybe I'd feel more authentically Canadian...

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Magpie
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 04:36 PM

What about Quebec?
I just love La Bouttine souriante and Le Vent du Nord. (Spelling...?)Especially the latter. Great tunes, and the turluttes! They are really something!

Magpie

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 03:50 PM

Yeh, only the worm is in any great danger!

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: meself
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 03:49 PM

An "under-achiever", eh? I bet the trout love you, though!

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 03:47 PM

No George, not me. My fishing has been limited to the local trout streams where I am considered an under-achiever. :-}
I do faintly recall a namesake being a spokesman for the Dept. of Fisheries though. Also Sandy Cameron would have been Nova Scotia's minister of fisheries about that time. Probably one or the other of them.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 03:39 PM

Sandy

Are you that feisty former Fisheries official who attended ICNAF meetings in Rome 1976 ?

Just curious

George

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 01:48 PM

In some parts of Canada, particularly Nova Scoria I think..music comes by way of osmosis..if you have a kitchen you know the tunes.Is it folk ? Is it Canadian..No, it is just us...it goes in and out of us like breath and I never think of defining it..it just is.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 01:06 PM

It was also recorded by Australia's great Slim Dusty. His is my favourite version.

Slim Dusty

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: Beer
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 12:56 PM

Hank Rivers did a great song which I still sing when the crowd is right. It was titled "Hank's Centennial Travels". In fact I still have his Album. Must look for it and see what else was on it.
ad.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: bankley
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 12:40 PM

Maple Sugar Sweetheart was first recorded by Hank Rivers (Henri Lariviere) from Hawkesbury Ont...Ward was on the session.. It's possible that Hank could have written the words as well...he was prolific... when I was playing at the Gilmore Hotel in Ottawa, Hank would show up on Sat. afternoons and do a few songs.... he was a storied character... signed early by RCA Victor, toured with the other Hanks, Snow and Williams... I loved sitting around and listening to him talk about those days... he played a big Martin and would show up in a Western suit....he died not long after that period...

man, this topic pulls out some memories... all good ones

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: bankley
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 12:19 PM

cool, just one of those tunes that really 'stuck' around.. I believe Mac Wiseman sang it with lyrics as well.. I saw Ward playing once at a smalltown concert in the Ottawa valley long ago.... I heard that he had been kicked in the face by a horse in his younger days.... it didn't affect his playing at all...

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: balladeer
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 12:04 PM

Bankley:

The Toronto folk-show host, Steve Fruitman, who has a weekly show on CIUT, uses the following as his theme.

WARD ALLEN: Back To The Sugar Camp (W. Allen)
Ward Allen Presents Maple Leaf Hoedown Vol. 3: Sparton Records SP 213
circa 1961

Joanne

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk Music
From: bankley
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 11:13 AM

so if King Ganam / Ameen Sied... was of Syrian heritage, did he play 'Country and Eastern' ?

speaking of fiddlers, anyone remember Ward Allan who wrote the classic Maple Sugar?
he was with "The Happy Wanderers" out of Ottawa with a regular live show on CFRA radio... the theme was Maple Sugar..