I find myself continually intrigued by Canada. I know the hype-we’re large and empty and it snows most of the year. We live in igloos, we skate or ski to work, or take dog sleds, (even in the summer) we have bad touque-hair. But I’m finding out Canada is a subtler country than that, with many more layers than I first thought. Especially for such a relatively “young” country. Looking for interesting facts, sometimes I find it frustrating; people remember the Hudson’s Bay fur traders, the coureur de bois, the rough rugged pioneers who found the country huge and cold, and strange when it was new, and no one seems to have updated their views of Canada since the 1800′s. But one fact stood out to me. Canada has pretty much always had a strong musical culture. A lot of Canadian musicians, singers, songwriters have international acclaim, and it’s easy to see why. Our musicians are popular, perform with a high degree of skill and integrity, and are always pushing the envelope.
Closely linked is the tidbit that apparently Canadians have always loved to dance.
This is just a brief, sort of little river of thoughts instead of a nice thick thought-torrent. There’s not a lot of detail in this post, and I expect it will be expanded later, but I just wanted to jot some quick impressions about music in Canada.
West coast music tends to be gentle, an easy walk on the beach with the tide lapping your toes. East coast-Maritime-music tends to have in the beat the memory of waves crashing onto tall rocky shores, harsh seas and constant motion. Music from the plains is mixed, sometimes it’s pretty industrial, concrete cities stretching against big stormy skies, sometimes I feel a sway of wheat and grass in a strong wind. I think generally speaking, a lot of distinct music comes from the coasts, where people cluster and inspiration seems to be more directly influenced by the surrounding landscapes.
Victoria’s SKA fest is one of my favourites-there’s a lot of good mixing of musical styles, great jam sessions, and I can clearly see the influences in some bands; whereas other groups’ musical roots are more directly defined by what individual members bring to the gig.
Just a blurb, I will define this post better later.
~H
Entries (RSS)