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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


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