Cape Breton - The Rankins

A short 6 or 13hr ferry ride from Newfoundland you will land on the island of Cape Breton. Before anyone comments, yes I am aware that Cape Breton is not its own province but I have been there many times and it certainly feels like one so its getting some time here. For those who have never been, what are you waiting for? There is the Cabot trail (most beautiful drive in Canada), the Celtic colours festival and of course its home to the Rankin Family.  The east coasts most famous family (of musicians). I was going to do 2 separate posts, one for the Rankins earlier "Family" music and one for Jimmy Rankins solo work unfortunately there is not enough high quality stuff out there to share with you. I grew up with the Rankin Family. I can still picture my mom cooking and baking in the kitchen with the Rankin Family blaring and me always asking if "This a mom coke or can I have some?"  They're niece has also started out on her own. I saw her once. She's great too. Her youtube is also lacking and CBC took off her little concert on demand but her song sunset on the Rankins reunion tour is awesome. If you can find a good live version of this please let me know. Her website is here where you can listen to a couple of her songs http://www.mollyrankin.com/ . Jimmy Rankin on his own is amazing. Its a great combination of Celtic, rock and folk. I think he's one of the best singer songwriters out there. I cannot wait for his show at the Charlotte Street arts center here at the end of may. His website is here: http://jimmyrankin.com/ . His new album is GOOD.  See title song below. You tube certainly doesn't do any of these three projects justice but after 3 days of looking the blog must go on. Please check out this song. Its my favorite Family song but they won't let me add it normally: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKkbeI8hPeA&feature=related

Great song by Jimmy


Whole Family:


New title track

Newfoundland - Wrap up

I have been struggling with a format to follow for my blog. How many bands per province? How many videos per artist? Should I included those you tube video's that are just recordings with only the lyrics?  So far I have stuck with 3 video's per artist and I think its best in the interest of not spending most of the blog on the East Coast and Ontario. It is going to be really hard (that's what she said) to limit it to the 3 and 3 rule but sometimes things in life are hard (yes you can use, that's what she said here too). I will in turn provide smaller posts to wrap up a province and included simply 1 link to my favorite song by the artists that I did not include in my top 3. Deal? So how can I talk about NL without talking about Great Big Sea and Ron Hynes. Circa 1997-2005 GBS were one of my favorite bands (next to The Hip). I remember it being the only good concert I have ever been to at the Aitken center here in Freddy. I have seen them 6 or 7 times along the way. Their new stuff isn't the greatest which is why they didn't make the cut but here is one of my favorite songs by them : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IITf_ZwBVo0&feature=related  . Its amazing how hard it is to find good quality youtube video's for some of these people. Ron is also known of the man of a thousand songs, this is probably his most popular: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byQBsH-iQQs  Folk music in NL would not exist without him.

Newfoundland - The Once

I love the east coast, the people, the scenery, the beer and the music. This band is one of the few bands that are playing traditional maritime music. I grew up in a house that always had the Rankin Family playing (more on them later) so I had the traditional tunes from an early age. Once (pardon the pun) I got to University every Thursday night me and my friends would go down to Dolans to listen to some more east coast music. Gradually they started bringing in different bands that the closest they got to east coast/ irish tunes is brown eyed girl by Van Morrison. Therefore when I first heard The Once for the first time,I fell in love. The first time I heard of them was through my last artist Amelia Curran. The Once is often her background band, so then I looked into them more and found this concert on one of my  favorite websites http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/concerts/20090903tonce  Please have a listen and you'll realize why they are on this blog.  Shortly after I also heard them on the Vinyl Cafe, my favorite radio program. Some of the songs have some real grit, some with beautiful harmonies and some even done  acapella. They have recently won group of the year at the east coast music awards which usually means Canada will soon be seeing allot of them. You can find out more about them here and listen to a few of their songs in full http://theonce.ca/site/music/ . Listen and then go buy the CD. Unfortunately for the sake of this blog the you tube video's available aren't the typical quality I'd like to provide so have a look and then listen to the CBC concert.

My favorite song:


The crowd quiets down pretty quickly with that beautiful voice:


Leonard Cohen cover

Newfoundland - Amelia Curran

Amelia is an amazing singer song writer from Newfounland who has been having a great couple of years including her super fantastic album Hunter Hunter, countless awards and signing with my favorite record label Six Shooter records. Six shooter currently boats some of my favorite artists including Luke Doucet, Justin Rutledge and Jenn Grant (both of whom I am seeing tomorrow night at the Capital in Freddy Beach).  The first time I heard of Amelia was from this cbc site http://www.cbc.ca/eastcoastsessions/  This amazing concert series has allot of my favorite artists all in one spot. The first time I saw Amelia was at the six shooter showcase in Ottawa, probably the best single concert I have ever been too. I will include some video's from that concert  for some of the Ontario artists. Find out more about her here http://216123216456.info/amelia/  Amelia's songs are deep, thoughtful and I am usually listening to them in front of the fire with a glass of red.Here are some of my favorite video's:

My initial favorite for her Hunter Hunter album:


The song that got me:


Not the best visual quality but sure sounds great:

Newfoundland - Hey Rosetta

Here we go on our musical journey (horrible band) across Canada and we going to start in one of the most beautiful provinces, Newfoundland. I won't talk about my first trip there, mostly because I was left there, but I will talk about the great music that comes from "The Rock". The first "Newfie" band I want to share with you is probably my favorite band in Canada, Hey Rosetta. They kick a**.  Much like my first artist I introduced you too,the first time I saw Hey Rosetta was at Harvest. I have seen them in Moncton avec mon ami Eddie, Lee's palace with Doerr, Harvest again with some peeps and one show that I'll discuss with my good friend Jeff Sadler. Jeff is the reason I am doing this blog. Me and Jeff worked together in Moncton a couple of years ago in Moncton and we would have you tube Friday afternoons where we would share our favorite musical artists. We both love Hey Rosetta.  The best show I have seen Hey Rosetta was with Jeff in Sackville in a small dingy pub. It was fantastic. Pretty much a private show for me and Jeff's friends. I cannot talk enough about why I like this band but as this is my first blog I have been told to keep it brief. Here are my top 3 Hey Rosetta you tube videos. Make sure you check the band out asap http://www.heyrosetta.com/tour.html  Enjoy

I wish I was there, so should you:


Probably the best video on the web:


A new one for you. I remember rocking it out with Door live at Lee's Palace:

Harvest Lineup Announced

Hello Everyone

Thanks for stopping by; hopefully you'll do so often. This blog will be about first and foremost music. I know there are a lot of music blogs out there but mine will focus on the Canadian Music Scene and its artists. I will talk about the artists, the venues and the people who helped me discover them. I will start on the east coast and work my way across the country sharing my favorite artists geographically. Before we start our journey across this beautiful country I am going to start in my own backyard. The reason: The 2011 Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival lineup came out today. Check it out here: http://www.harvestjazzandblues.com/

Harvest, as its known by locals, is my favorite thing to do every year and I may be biased but the best music festival in Canada (and I have been to most). Come September I will explain this bold statement further but for today and the risk of my first post being too long I'd prefer to show you starting with one of my favorite Canadian artists who I first saw at Harvest, Ladies and Gentleman, Mr. Matt Anderson.