Skip to main content

Sing-along Café 2025-04-24

I love this week's theme: Canadian Artists! 

My playlist keeps growing as I discover more and more music performed and written by Canadians. I know a lot of Canadian music. Canadian icons like Anne Murry, Gordon Lightfoot, and Shania Twain have so many great songs! I love the Barenaked Ladies and Walk Off The Earth. Now, I'm often surprised when I discover that a band is Canadian, but, I shouldn't be. Somehow, I feel that we're always listening to American music, too heavily influenced by the US, and all the big stars from the UK (Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Beatles, Queen,...) too. (Don't we all love a British accent? Another topic for another time.)

Broadcasters have to play a certain amount of Canadian content (CRTC regulation). Wikipedia says that the CBC has a 60% CanCon quota; some specialty or multicultural formats have lower percentages. So, we do get exposed to quite a bit of our own artists' work. (Affirmative action? Another topic for another time).

We enjoyed the big variety of music we picked from my list. We noticed a theme of driving along highways, and noticed percussion, strong and interesting in some songs. We talked about how rhythm, drumming and strumming, the beats we like, are vital to music, and to life. We all have a steady beat in our chests 24/7. Rhythms and patterns are not just in poetry and music but in all life, all around us. 

We snacked on Easter chocolates and rice crackers (a blance of sorts?) with our tea and coffee. It was a lovely evening in lovely company, and we were happy to include new faces, new voices. Now that there's still daylight at 7:00, maybe you'll consider joining us too? 

We're going to continue with our Canadian theme, next Thursday, May 1st, especially appropriate next week with the Federal Election happening on Monday the 28th. But, mostly because there's so much we want to sing on that list. We hope we won't need to dip into my Songs of Comfort and Support playlist. 

Here's a list of some of the songs we listened to and sang along with:

  • Brother Down by Sam Roberts
  • Bud the Spud, The Hockey Song, and Sudbury Saturday Night by Stompin' Tom Connors
  • Closer to the Heart by Rush
  • If I Had $1,000,000 and Lovers in a Dangerous Time by the Barenaked Ladies
  • If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot
  • Just Between You and Me by April Wine
  • Life is a Highway by Tom Cochrane
  • Magic Power by Triumph
  • Man! I Feel Like a Woman by Shania Twain
  • Mon Pays by Gilles Vigneault
  • The Night They Drove old Dixie Down by the Band
  • Nova Heart by the Spoons
  • Snowbird by Anne Murray
  • Sometimes When We Touch by Dan Hill
  • You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman-Turner Overdrive


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Singing Together in July and August

I posted this on my YRCC blog, and I think it applies to my Trinity Singers too. While we’re not singing together in July and August, please find opportunities to sing in other places and with other people.  You can always sing in your car and in your kitchen. You can accept all invitations to cottages, camping, and beach days, and do some campfire singing. Or, sing while you paddle around in a lake. Sound carries over water, so have some buddies join you if you’re not comfortable with a solo performance.  Orchestrate some backyard sing-alongs if you can.  Singing outdoors in the summer is an opportunity you don’t want to miss. I’ve enjoyed the free concerts in Aurora and Newmarket in the past. They have ‘tribute bands’ who perform all the hits you know, and you’ll want to sing and dance along. (would be nice if they projected the lyrics for us, because we're used to having those words now) I’ve added these concerts to my YRCC Calendar to encourage my choristers to go. I’...
Post a Comment
Read more

June 5th, 2025 Sing-along Café is Outdoors!

We're going to be outside, singing along with a cover band, Telltale Sounds, at the 2025 Newmarket Music Series Lineup Launch Party! Then, we'll sing and dance to Glenn Marais and the Mojo Train!  I think we'll want to bring lawn chairs, and maybe a snack and a beverage. There will be a food truck there if you want to get something fun.  We are asked to bring a Food Bank Donation. We'll head down together on foot from the Park Street entrance at 6:15. Hopefully that will be early enough to get parking behind the church and get a spot to sit at Riverwalk Commons.  We'll walk across Main Street, down the stairs to the parking lot, and across towards the community centre, unless some of us have issues with stairs, then we'll go down the ramp at the next block that ends up just behind the community centre.  Wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather (should be perfect, not too warm, not too cool). I'm a big fan of these free summer concerts. Can't wait...
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer Break 2025 Starts Early for Sing-Along Café

I apologize for the short notice, but I've decided to break for summer a couple weeks early. For July and August, you can spend every Thursday at Riverwalk Commons at the free concerts there. Thursday night is still "my singing night". I like to take in as many of those free concerts as I can. If you like, you can send me a text or an email and we can go together, or meet up there.   Aurora has free concerts on Wednesday evenings, so I might go there sometimes instead, or too, depending on the weather, other summer plans, and whimsy.  We'll open the café again in September. I hope to see you then. 
Post a Comment
Read more