Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy

Subject: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,Planxty Davis
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 06:04 AM

Does anyone know any good Canadian folk that doesn't sound cheesy?

Great Big Sea is awful to me, and they swagger around like they are kings of the folk scene.

Does anyone know Canadian artists that sound genuine?

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 06:44 AM

Do Newfies count? If so try this CD or this one. (Just two that I happen to have.)

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 06:52 AM

Anything by Stan Rogers.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 06:54 AM

"BAY OF FUNDY" by Gordon Bok.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 08:46 AM

A favourite Stan Rogers song for me Make and Break Harbour

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 08:53 AM

There are SOOOOOOO many, where to start, Natalie McMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, Kate and Anna Macgarrigle, The Rankins, Stan Rodgers, Mary Jane Lammond, Laura Smith...the list is endless.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: bobad
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 09:01 AM

Define folk 😁

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: BobKnight
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 09:34 AM

JP Cormier's "Molly May," is great, great singer and a brilliant guitarist too.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 09:45 AM

Jaysus Bobad, don't ask that question..there be dragons!

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 10:00 AM

Gordon Bok is not Canadian Keith, he's American.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 01:13 PM

Raz de Maree - Tidal Wave

http://home.total.net/~j.saintcyr/index_eng.html

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Effsee
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 01:40 PM

The Barra McNeils

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,Sol
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 01:57 PM

David Francey

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 03:23 PM

French Canadian music never sounds cheesy. Nor of course does Newfoundland music.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,Wm
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 03:46 PM

O.J. Abbott is required listening, and easily accessible from Smithsonian Folkways (YouTube link). A source singer with a strong voice, a brilliant sense for rhythmic phrasing, and a fascinating repertoire of both locally made songs and poetically complex broadsides.

Also LaRena Clark, another fine source singer. You can hear a full album on YouTube here, and another eight songs here.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 05:14 PM

Dan McKinnon. Pressgang Mutiny.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: oldhippie
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 06:12 PM

Kilkenny Krew
Phyllis Morrissey

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: StephenH
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 06:12 PM

Let me add James Keelaghan, and Stan Roger's brother, Garnet. Both have fine voices and are excellent instrumentalists and songwriters.
Can we claim Enoch Kent and Archie Fisher as they both live in Canada now?
Also, have a look at "Penguin Eggs" magazine (yes, named after the Nic Jones album.) which features loads of well-established and new faces on the Canadian folk scene.

http://penguineggs.ab.ca/index.php

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: StephenH
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 06:15 PM

Sorry - I guess Archie actually still lives in Scotland.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: gillymor
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 07:52 PM

Le Vent du Nord, La Bottine Souriante, the great singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot is folk, I guess.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,Planxty Davis
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 08:52 PM

This is why I love you people.


Thank you my friends, I have a full night of listening ahead of me

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 09:58 PM

Aengus Finnan

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: meself
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 01:53 AM

There are, of course, the other Big Names: Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Ian Tyson, Sylvia Tyson, Neil Young, Buffy Ste.-Marie ....

And good ol' Stompin' Tom Connors.

And good ol' John Allen Cameron.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 03:27 AM

"O.J. Abbott"
Many years ago somebody gave me a mass of Canadian field recordings collected by Edith Fowke - several hundred songs, O J Abbott featured on these, but he was only one of many wonderful singers with many beutiful songs.
Cheesy - what have you done to your beautiful tradition - all those beautiful songs that probably originated over this side of the pond alongside those home-made ones???
You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!!
Not that we can be too proud of the mess that calls itself folk song over here, mind you (I now live in Ireland where there are plenty of good songs but not (yet) enough singers who are interested in them).
Dig out the real stuff from wherever it is locked away and enjoy it as much as I did
Fowke's and Helen Creighton's books are invaluable, but they are a small tip of a very large iceberg.
If your interests extends to the real thing, you might try John L Campbell's collection o Scots Gaelic songs from Cape Breton, 'Songs Remembered in Exile' or the two albums compiled by John Shaw and issued on Toopic, 'Songs and Music of Cape Breton' - or any of the Fowke and Creighton stuff issued still available (I believe) from 'Folkways'.
'Real' is an acquired taste, but one well worth acquiring.
It's a shame Bobad's passing comment is a no-go area on a forum that styles itself as about 'folk and traditional music' - the fact we can't dicuss such things is probably one of the main contributory factors in turning beautiful and important music 'Cheesy'
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 04:43 AM

I forgot to mention Kenneth Peacock - a largely unmined source of songs - 'Songs of the Newfoundland Outports' (3 vols) and 'Folk Ballads and Songs from the Lower Labrador Coast' - still available, last time I looked
Peacock also compiled an LP for Folkways
Ediyth' Fowkes, 'Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs' is a nice collection, as is Roy Mackenzie's 'Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia' (rare but gettable'
Abandon vegetarianism and try the real meat
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 07:32 AM

Canadian writers do winter imagery so well;

I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Joni Mitchell

Drive me to the airport, you know my baby's waiting
Way up north in Calgary, the ice will soon be breaking
Ian Tyson

And they can have a great sense of space and distance too;

Blue blue windows behind the stars
Neil Young

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 08:17 AM

I have thought I've worked it out a few times Jim but in this morning's thoughts I probably get more confused as to the answer..

Out of curiosity, where would you place Barrett’s Privateers? It's modern (Stan Rogers) for sure but has a good shanty feel about it and many would join in with the well known chorus.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: bobad
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 08:42 AM

To add to henryp's winter imagery we have this line from Gilles Vigneault's "Mon Pays":

"Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver" ("My country is not a country, it's winter")

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 08:58 AM

Not folk.. well.. let's say 85% not folk / 15% maybe by someone else's definitions...

But still a chilling haunting winter song by a Canadian...

kd lang - Barefoot (lyrics)

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 10:07 AM

Well, I don't think Canada has anything to be ashamed of regarding its musical traditions. In many parts of that country traditional music is thriving. Just go to Nova Scotia and listen, for example. There are also excellent contemporary artists who are helping to revive an interest if folk. Music cannot be and should not be sealed in some overly romanticised past..it exists in the present and reflects present times...nothing at all to be ashamed of.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: meself
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 12:05 PM

I'll leave the question of shame out of it, because I don't have the time or inclination to get into a prolonged knock'em-down, drag'em-out ... discussion. But the fact is that there once were a number of rich, vibrant, dynamic traditions of what could be called folksong/singing by anyone's definition. Everything from the singing of old ballads to the 'writing' and singing of timely, topical songs about local goings-on, all passed around and down orally/aurally. Now, there are still a few people around who were close enough to the last carriers of these traditions that they have, in the recesses of their minds, some of these songs learned directly from 'sources' - but the traditions are long dead, and for the most part, long-forgotten. Witness, on another thread, a poster asking what accent they should sing 'folk' in - since they are Canadian, so obviously their own speaking accent is inappropriate.

Even what's left of the Gaelic song tradition in Cape Breton has been passed into the keeping of revivalists (and more power to them).

There is a thriving commercial Pop music scene, and some of that involves what some people choose to call 'folk'. I'm of an age that I remember when no professional singers/musicians could achieve recognition in Canada before they had been successful in the States, the 'Big Names' I cited above being cases in point. The federal government had to legislate 'Canadian content' requirements to force radio stations to play music with some connection to Canadians in its creation. The more powerful radio stations fought against this tooth-and-nail, and predicted the end of civilization as we know it. In Windsor, ON, CKLW, which was considered the most influential radio station in North America, complied by using 'Canadian' recordings as occasion for ridicule and buffoonery. This was not long after the time that Ronnie Hawkins was assembling his back-up band that would go on to become The Band, and had to pass off his Canadian musicians as Americans in order to get bookings in Canada.

When I go to song/music sessions - in Canada - I rarely hear a song that cannot be traced, in short order, to an American, British or Irish publication ....

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: gnu
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 02:12 PM

Define "Cheesy". >;-)

YO! bobad! Long time, no see. I saw you post on FB today, too. Hope all is well.

Ya know, anyone who can't find uncheesy Canuck folk music must have no railroad near their town.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 02:14 PM

Well, memyself...you must be in Ontario, yes?

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: meself
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 02:33 PM

Nope. Right now I'm in Alberta - but I've lived all over the country. And before you ask, that includes the Maritimes, where I started out, and to where I return regularly ....

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,Uncle John
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 06:00 PM

Cheesiness is in the ear of the beholder (if I even know what the term means!). Stuff I love may be stuff you hate, and vice versa, even though it's all good. Some non-cheesy (I assume) people I like: Norm Walker, Ian Bell, Moira Cameron, Wendell Ferguson, Paddy Tutty, Matthew Byrne, to name only a few. Google them; mostly they don't have national distribution. Or do some research: check out reviews in back issues of Canadian Folk Music magazine, available on-line (http://cfmb.icaap.org/archives.html) and see what jumps out at you. Full disclosure: I'm the reviews editor, but the reviews reflect the authors' opinions, not mine. Good hunting!

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 06:55 PM

What about Finest Kind? Surely we can count them as Canadian!

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 07:31 PM

It's hard to believe that a Canadian folk thread could get to 36 messages without mentioning Finest Kind, or members Ian Robb and Shelley Posen.
I'd like to suggest another performer and songwriter, Katherine Wheatley. We got complaints that there were few songs by Canadian songwriters in the Rise Up Singing Songbook, so we included 50 songs by Canadian songwriters in the Rise Again Songbook. Of those, Katherine Wheatley is my favorite.
Oh, and take a listen to Some Sweet Country by Betty and the Bobs - Wheatley is involved in this group, too.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: StephenH
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 09:04 PM

Well, you're right about that , Joe. I'm red-faced at forgetting to mention them. Only met them once whilst I was stage manager at a festival. They were lovely people, great performers, and committed to their music without a whiff of Camembert about them!

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 01:45 AM

Felix Leclerc, Gilles Vignault

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Ernest
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 02:51 AM

I´d recommend Old Man Luedecke (singer/songwriter playing banjo)

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: David C. Carter
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 04:07 AM

How can we not mention Bruce Murdoch?

I love his music.



David

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 08:11 AM

Eileen McGann.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Willie-O
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 10:06 AM

I just dont care for the premise that opened this thread. ANY song, however great, can be made cheesy in presentation and arrangement.
Yes, music crosses geographical boundaries, and so it should, so what? So do people.
I'm going to stick up for Great Big Sea, who seem to have become the folkie Nickelback...if youse b'ys dont like em, youse can blow me! Er, leave them alone. They brought great Newfoundland and Maritime music to a whole new audience and opend a lot of doors for subsequent performers who appeal to all ages, not just us geriatric folkies. A few names you might look into:
Coig
The Dardanelles
Rawlins Cross
Cassie and Maggie McDonald
and among all the generic and up-and-coming singer-songwriters, which are never in short supply here, I suggest the exceptional Sarah Jane Scouten.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: gillymor
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 10:16 AM

Yep, Bruce Murdoch and another talented, all-around good guy the late Rick Fielding.
Willie-O, your first sentence above is dead on, IMO.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: JMB
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 10:33 AM

Hi Willie-O, kudos to you for making great points. I am familiar with those artists you mentioned. I enjoy Great Big Sea myself. They did influence many great folkies in the East Coast of Canada.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: Elmore
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 10:57 AM

Cheesy is in the ear of the beholder.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: meself
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 10:59 AM

"Great Big Sea, who seem to have become the folkie Nickelback.."

This is news to me. I never hear Nickelback spoken of in anything but contempt or, at best, sarcasm (why? I'm not entirely sure, but I haven't bothered looking into it). GBS, on the other hand, I rarely hear spoken of in anything but wondrous admiration (why? beats me). Furthermore, if someone expresses the least bit of criticism of GBS, in my experience, they are immediately met with incredulous indignation, even, at times, being ordered to fellate their interlocuters, no matter their orientation.

Must be different where you are ....

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 11:03 AM

Our children grew up with Raffi, and I guess we did too. I can't tell you how many miles we drove accompanied by his tapes.

Yes, they're inoffensive. No, they're not cheesy. And he's still entertaining children and, I trust, their parents;

Saturday, April 8, 2017 — Minneapolis, MN — Pantages Theatre — 1:00 PM & 4:00 PM.
Sunday, April 9, 2017 — Chicago, IL — Harris Theater — 1:00 PM.
Saturday, April 22, 2017 — Edmonton, AB — Winspear Centre — 1:00 PM & 4:30 PM
Sunday, April 23, 2017 — Calgary, AB — Jack Singer Hall — 1:00 PM & 4:30 PM

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: oldhippie
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 11:07 AM

I forgot to add Rick Reimer.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,I Don,t Know
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 11:15 AM

Tanglefoot

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,Uncle John
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 11:37 AM

The fact that so many of us mentioned so many different people that others didn't testifies to the breadth and variety (but also fragmentation) of the Canadian folk music scene. Distance is not on our side.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 10:50 PM

I spent Sunday evening at a performance by Ten Strings and a Goatskin. They didn't sound cheesy to me, although they did mention cheese.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,John
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 06:04 AM

Meself,

"Witness, on another thread, a poster asking what accent they should sing 'folk' in - since they are Canadian, so obviously their own speaking accent is inappropriate."


I saw that post, the poster was obviously joking. The joke was that people in North America are not all from the United States.

I can't believe that went over your head.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 06:08 AM

"In Windsor, ON, CKLW, which was considered the most influential radio station in North America, complied by using 'Canadian' recordings as occasion for ridicule and buffoonery. This was not long after the time that Ronnie Hawkins was assembling his back-up band that would go on to become The Band, and had to pass off his Canadian musicians as Americans in order to get bookings in Canada."



Can you explain this further? I live in Windsor and CKLW is definitely NOT one of the most influential radio stations.


Windsor has a problem of being the most southern and secluded medium sized city in Ontario. To the North west you have Detroit, and to the North East you have a two hour drive to London. Everything else is virtually blocked by the great lakes.

This results in most broadcasts coming in from the States (Radio, TV, etc.) so the Canadian identity is weaker here than elsewhere.

Probably a bad idea to mention Windsor in the context of Canadian folk, as Windsor has a culture completely separate from the rest of Canada. (And the United States, I would argue.)

Windsor even has its own unique accent.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,Elfcall
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 09:12 AM

Didn't see this band get a mention Ad Vielle Que Pourra

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: meself
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 12:00 PM

Wikipedia: "It [CKLW] is best known for having been one of the most influential Top 40 stations in the world in the 1960s and 1970s." You can probably read the rest there. Otherwise - Google is your friend.

"Probably a bad idea to mention Windsor in the context of Canadian folk, as Windsor has a culture completely separate from the rest of Canada."

There are, in fact, lots of places in Canada that could be said to have "a culture completely separate from the rest of Canada", and some of them are considered (rightly or wrongly) as bastions of folk music. Oh, let's say, Newfoundland? If Windsor is unique, it is in that it is so thoroughly and determinedly amnesiac regarding its own history and culture, and in its extreme reluctance to celebrate its own. Ever heard of Orlando Bracci, for instance?

Windsor, though, however unique, has every right to be mentioned in the context of Canadian folk.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: meself
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 12:10 PM

"I can't believe that went over your head."

Yeah, well, lots of things go over my head - and under, and right through, for that matter.

Be that as it may, my broader point stands - that is, that most Canadian 'folk'/pop/rock/whatever singers affect, or try to affect, their idea of American accents - or, occasionally, Scottish or Irish ....

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,King Knapperty
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 01:44 AM

What do you think is the solution to this phenomenon, if any?

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 06:18 AM

Canadians may choose to distance themselves from the United States at the moment.

Subject: RE: Canadian Folk That Doesn't Sound Cheesy
From: meself
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 04:20 PM

Solution? I don't know of any solution. Although I don't think it's as bad now as it used to be; a lot of Canadians now seem to be singing in a generic newscaster accent - unless they're doing rap/hip-hop (or whatever they call it nowadays) or C&W ....