WCEH Playlist

“Just as the Canada C3 voyage is a journey of reconciliation, the song itself is a journey of reconciliation too. Where else will you get such various voices and languages coming together in unison? It’s a traveling song created by three different musicians who used their various talents to shine a light on this wonderful journey and the beauty and diversity in this country. As an Indigenous woman, who witnessed profound awakenings in my fellow shipmates, I have hope for the rest of Canada. If we are lucky, our song River of Nations will awaken others to the hope generated on our Leg of the Canada C3 Expedition.”
Andrea Menard, Canadian actress, singer, and Leg 2 participant

Arcade Fire’s debut album Funeral was ground breaking. It catapulted them into what’s proven to be a long and worthy career. This cut is a classic, capturing songwriter Win Butler’s childlike whim, angst, and rebellion

She’s from Ottawa!

Because Winnipeg has the best music, and no one else will represent us Winnipeggers if I don’t.

Because I love fun and this song makes me feel energized and excited, as well as nostalgic. I love to support female artists!

Because the east coast has the second best music in the country… and Joel Plaskett.

Because it’s so fun and maybe I’m not the only millennial that has memories of Scott Pilgrim filming in Toronto?

It’s a solid song, originally sung by a Canadian artist (Bruce Cockburn). This version is a cover by a different Canadian artist.

The reason for this suggestion was not specified, but Ria MacNutt, known professionally as Ria Mae, is a Canadian singer and songwriter from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This is one of my favourite tracks from a new album born out of both the grief of personal tragedy and the more universal grief experienced during Covid. The album might have been dark and heavy but it’s not, though it is about feelings. I find this track particularly poignant and beautiful.

As one of Rolling Stone‘s “200 Greatest Singers of All Time”, Leonard Cohen really has to be here, though I think his importance is almost more as a songwriter and poet.

This is a great pump-up song (for me anyway) and may not immediately be recognized as a Canadian artist.

I really wanted to add this live show link to “If You Ain’t Got a Story” but “Eight of Spades” is the only song Dreamcar has released on streaming services. They’re a great local (Edmonton) soul, roots, and blues band — and also friends. I’m looking forward to hosting them for a show on the roof of my building on August 2. If you’re in Edmonton for August Long Weekend (or later for the Edmonton Blues Festival), don’t miss this band.

Aysanabee has some really beautiful music and I think fits the vibe of your playlist so far and brings out Indigenous talent too. This is my fav from him.

From his days as Bob Dylan’s guitarist to his triumphs with the Band and as a solo artist, Robbie Robertson was a legend! He has to be included in a Canadian playlist. It’s hard to choose just one song given the range of his work and a career spanning over 60 years. This comes from his Juno award winning debut solo album (1987).

One week is one of Barenaked Ladies most popular songs. Did you know they formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario?

“Stompin’ Tom” Connors was a Canadian folk/country singer who devoted his entire career to writing songs about Canada. His songs are an integral part of Canadian culture with The Hockey Song being played at almost every hockey game in Canada from the NHL to the minor leagues. He is one of the great storytellers in Canadian history having written songs about various historical events and geographical areas

Feist is a Canadian national treasure! Three of the best concerts of my life were Feist shows.

This sends shivers up my spine. In mid-life, in his 50s, Tom Wilson learned that the parents who raised him were not his birth parents; that, in fact, he was adopted and that his biological mother and father were Mohawk from the Kahnawake reserve, just outside of Montreal. This track tells the story of finding his way home to meet some of his relatives for the first time.

Kim Mitchell’s songs were either really deep or just really fun. This was one that I don’t think anyone ever disliked as we were growing up. Just good fun.

It’s by a true Canadian band, and it envelopes much of cottage life in Canada

No Canadian playlist would be complete without the inclusion of Joni Mitchell, one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk-music circuit. Born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, she started singing in small clubs in Saskatoon and Western Canada before moving on to Toronto and from there to California. She has released 19 studio albums in a career spanning over 40 years, winning multiple awards along the way.

Alex Puentes, stage name Alex Cuba, is a Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter (and multi-instrumentalist) who sings in Spanish and English. He constantly explores, pushing the boundaries of the Latin genre and frequently collaborating with musicians from a variety of backgrounds.

His is a wonderful immigrant story of a young Cuban musician who met and fell in love with a Canadian girl and ultimately followed her to settle in Smithers in northern B.C. Many of his albums have been produced from his studio there. Alex recently quipped that, having now spent more than half his life in Canada, he should perhaps change his stage name to Alex Canada!

He won Juno awards in 2006 and 2008 (World Music Album of the Year), and has won four Latin Grammy Awards as well as the 2022 Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album (Mendó).

The conference is taking place in the summer, and that means we have to listen to songs about the summer. Bryan Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario. The album this song is on became the first album by a Canadian to be certified diamond in Canada, two of those songs become top ten hits in the US and Canada.

This song comes from a bad time in the main writers’ life, when they had broken up with their boyfriend, whose name is actually Brett. And they are saying how they can’t really date and don’t feel like normal, and to blame Brett for that. The Beaches is a Toronto-based band, whose independent and yet has travelled across North America and been on US late night tv.

Dizzy, no that’s the name of the band. Yes twist does sound like a weird song name, but it was one of my favourite lyrics in it “Thought I saw you on the GO last night. I followed you through the cars westbound” and if you’re from Durham Region, you know exactly what they are talking about.

Kingston may not have been the hippest place to grow up, but it certainly was The Tragically Hippest. Gord and the boys put a little bit of Canadiana in every song they wrote. If you ever want to see what giving it your all means, watch their last live performance from Kingston.

They made a movie once, in my hometown.

Canada’s songwriters songwriter. From Stompin Tom to Leonard Cohen, there is a long history of Canadian singer-songwriters dropping references to places, cultural and significant events into their lyrics and this haunting, powerful ballad is that to a T. If WordPress is all about democratizing publishing, we could do worse than to embody Gordon’s goal to ‘just tell a story’.

Félix Leclerc (1914-1988), a French-Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, writer, actor and activist, is an icon in Quebec, known to many as the originator of the “chansonnier” tradition. Quebec’s annual music awards, Prix Félix, are named in his honour. This version of one of his most famous songs, Le p’tit bonheur, comes from a 2015 album, Duos Félix, on which all songs but one feature the original voice recording of Félix, but with modern arrangement and a guest artist. This album was my starting point for an exploration of Canadian Francophone music.

Oscar Peterson (1925 – 2007), a Canadian jazz pianist and composer, is considered a virtuoso and one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. Hymn to Freedom is among his most significant compositions, embraced as the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. I first listened to Oscar Peterson over 40 years ago, long before I became Canadian.

The Esquires were a Canadian band, based in Ottawa, active from 1962 to 1967. The band is notable as the recipient of the first Juno Award (then known as the RPM Awards) in Canada, as well as being one of Canada’s earlier pop music recording acts, reputedly the first to be signed to a major label. The first Canadian music video ever made is said to be that of an Esquires song, The Man from Adano. This is a piece of Canadian music history that I discovered when I met the group’s founding member, Clint Hierlihy.

k.d. lang is recognized as one of Canada’s most versatile and gifted singer-songwriters and performers. As noteworthy as her multiple Juno and Grammy awards is her contribution to the LGBTQ community. k.d. publicly came out in the early 1990s, at the peak of her fame, helping to shed light on the issue of gay rights. I remember how significant this felt, as well as being blown away by the quality of her voice when I first heard Constant Craving, back when I was still a Brit.

Jeremy Dutcher is a Two-Spirit song carrier, composer, activist, and ethnomusicologist from Tobique First Nation in Eastern Canada. He gained international acclaim for his album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, which earned him the 2018 Polaris Music Prize and Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the 2019 JUNO Awards. His musical style blends the songs of his community with neoclassical, jazz, and pop influences. Mehcinut (literal translation, “I’m running out of time”), was his first single. His beautiful vocals intertwine with piano melodies and a recording made over 100 years ago of a speech by Wolastoqiyik ancestor Jim Paul. I am awe-struck every time I listen to this.