Celebrating Canada and Newfoundland: The Once

Canada Day: as diverse and different as the landscapes communities, and people of Canada are, July first is a time when celebrations of the country take place from the Pacific coast to Whitehorse to Hudson's Bay to Ottawa to the Maritimes. Here’s music to help you celebrate as you prepare for and enjoy Canada Day.

Andrew Dale, Geraldine Hollett, and Phil Churchill met as three actors working in Newfoundland in the far north of Atlantic Canada. They discovered they all liked to sing and make music, too. The result is their trio called The Once. Hollett’s compelling lead singing fits in with strong support from Dale and Churchill on backing vocals and acoustic instruments including guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and bouzouki

Their first album. called simply The Once (it’s a term that means immediately, imminently, right now in Newfoundland) showed a fine mix of traditional and contemporary material along with a strong, individual sound for the trio. Their second offering , called Row Upon Row of the People They Know, builds on this.

Songs include the well woven story of loss, change, memory and hope called Cradle Hill and the driving traditional story Jack the Sailor. The beat goes on in the traditional song with a couple of aspects you might not expect called My Husband’s Got No Courage in Him, and the quite different, reflective story of another sort of courage, that required to live in Newfoundland in times not so long past, in the song By the Glow of the Kerosene Light.

In the music they create and the music they choose to interpret, the the tree musicians of The Once go beyond the sea chanties and pub songs to a deeper place in the history and present day of this far northern province of Atlantic Canada. It is well worth traveling with them.

From the group’s first album, here is a piece that comes along with images to give you a flavour of Newfoundland landscapes




learn why Hollett’s singing is compelling as she takes on this song based on a true story from Canadian history




you may also wish to see

Le Vent du Nord, from Montreal, brings French Canadian heritage in to the mix with their new recording Tromper Le Temps
the Rockies and plains of Canada's west are the subject and substance of Ian Tyson’s recording Raven Singer
The Once have appeared at the Celtic Colours Festival on Cape Breton in October, a festival not to be missed if you love the music of the Maritimes, and at many other festivals and venues across Canada and internationally as well.

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Songs of the real west: Ian Tyson: Raven Singer

Charles Goodnight’s Grave, Rio Colorado, Song in a Dream, Winterkill, The Circle is Through -- the titles of the songs on Ian Tyson’s recording Raven Singer evoke the rugged landscapes of the North American west, and the complex challenges of lives lived out through their mountains and plains.

That perspective is bone deep for Tyson, a man who says music and horses have always been his loves. He is a rancher in Alberta as well as a writer and musician, a man who has twice risen to legendary status in music, first as half of the duo Ian and Sylvia during the folk revival days and in more recent times as a cowboy poet in song of the real west.

On Raven Singer, Tyson continues that latter role with stories that go back to his early days and early running mates when he first learned guitar, in the song Blackberry Susan, all the way to recovering from a broken relationship in distant lands in Under African Skies. Charles Goodnight’s Graves draws you to the current windswept stillness of the west and to the ghosts of history that play out along its ways, while Rio Colorado heads into the call of landscape and how it might make a space heal old wounds. There’s also a moving revisit to a song from the past with The Circle is Through, which Tyson first recorded twenty years ago in a duet with country singer Suzy Bogguss.

Tyson’s voice is weathered now, the result of a battle a few years ago with a sound
system at a tough outdoor performance and a virus that followed. For a time Tyson thought he might not sing again, but the drive and the poetry remained, and the voice, though changed, works still. It is a weathered voice, indeed, and it suits the songs and stories. Should you need to lean in a bit to hear the words and follow those stories, that’s not a bad thing.

you may also wish to see

from Ian and Sylvia’s folk song revival days, Four Strong Winds

western music from Tish Hinojosa and Robert Mirabal
road trip music: New Mexico

a conversation with Ian Tyson

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Music of Canada

As part of celebrating five years of walking with you along the music road, I am building a series of resource pages about the primary subjects you’ll find here, to help you find your way around and learn more. Main areas you’ll find here at music road have to do with singers and songwriters, Americana music, the music of Ireland, Scotland, and Canada, and creative practice and inspiration


The Maritimes, the Laurentians, the Shield, the prairies, the far north, the rockies, the pacific coast: Canada is a country of great geographic diversity and its people are diverse as well.


a quick introduction to the diversity of Canadian music
holiday gift list: music of Canada
this was first written as a holiday gift guide, and has proved to be an article visitors often seek out

the artists

Ian Tyson cowboy poet of Alberta and the rocky mountain west
Ian Tyson: Yellowhead to Yellowstone

in the folk revival era, Tyson was also part of the duo Ian and Sylvia
Matt & Shannon & Ian & Sylvia


from Alberta, the Canadian Celtic band
The McDades

celebrating Canada from the Maritimes to the plains
Stan Rogers: songwriter of work, change, & sea

legendary storyteller in song Gordon Lightfoot

master Cape Breton fiddler
Natalie MacMaster
Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia in the Maritimes, has a strong heritage from Scotland, a heritage that is informed and touched by land, water, location, and interaction with other musics.

rising Cape Breton fiddler Rachel Davis
Scotland & Cape Breton: tradition and innovation


Cape Breton music from a new generation: The Cottars

The Barra MacNeils are a family group from Cape Breton whose harmonies on traditional songs and original songwriting about their home land have gained them fans for more than two decades
The Barra MacNeils: Album

Leahy, also a family based group whose high energy ensemble work showcases the music of their native Ontario. They’ve toured with another Ontario native, Shania Twain

Leahy: Live in Gatineau
Shania Twain: Why Not?

Eileen McGann, whose music includes traditional music from her Irish Canadian roots and original songs of Canada, inlcuding several on her holiday album
Trilogy: 2000 Years of Christmas

the land

songs of place: Canada
Cape Breton Radio Live take 02
The Celtic Colours Festival


These are just a few of the articles about Canadian music you will find here along the music road, and there will be more to come. If you should not see your favorite Canadian artist here, there’s a search box to the right...your suggestions are welcome, too

Also, many musicians from Scotland and Ireland include music from Canadian artists and the traditions of Canada in their work. Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, The Unusual Suspects, and Manus McGuire are a few of those you’ll find along the music road.

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Celebrating Canada: music & image

Ontario music often finds a mix of tradtions, including Irish, Scottish, German, and French. April Vertch adds contemporary touches of bluegrass as well:
Ontario fiddle player and singer April Verch: Steal the Blue


There's strong Celtic tradition across Canada, from immgrants from Ireland, Scotland, and the Celtic regions of France
Alberta Celtic Canadian band The McDades: Bloom

Cape Breton Island is a music and celebration all its own, with strong Scottish tradition and unique flavors of northeast Canada. Hear many of the best CB players in informal settings on
Cape Breton Radio Live take 02


a bit more about the music of Cape Breton Music road trip: Cape Breton













photos copyright Kerry Dexter, from Cape Breton and Alberta


stay tuned for more music from Canada here along the music road, including a preview of this year's Celtic Colours Festival, which takes place in October on Cape Breton

you may also wish to see:

Music Road: songs of place: Canada

Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Celebrating Canada: Gordon Lightfoot

Though not all of Gordon Lightfoot's songs come from the landscapes of Canada, you can hear the prairie and the plains, the wilderness and the cities, the sea coasts and the forests, through his work. Gord's Gold is a fair introduction, or reintroduction, to his work.

If you are thinking who is Gordon Lightfoot anyway? perhaps the country blues of the song Sundown, the road song Carefree Highway, or the bittersweet love song If You Could Read My Mind will jog your memory. They are all on this twenty one track collection, along with several fine songs anchored in Canadian history and place including Canadian Railroad Trilogy and Early Morning Rain, as well as others you may know such as Cotton Jenny, Cold on the Shoulder, and Bitter Green.


Two other Gordon Lightfoot songs of Canada well worth your listening didn’t make it to this collection: Alberta Bound and Christian Island (Georgian Bay). For those, give a listen to the album Don Quixote.









you may also wish to see

Gretchen Peters: Northern Lights which includes a thoughtful take on Lightfoot’s Song for a Winter’s Night

Ian & Sylvia’s version of Early Morning Rain

Music Road: songs of place: Canada

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Now playing: Cape Breton Radio Live take 02

Cape Breton Radio Live Take 02


The music of Cape Breton is a music of community, a joining of hands, hearts, melody and tradition formed and forged by life in the northeastern reaches of Atlantic Canada. For one thing, that makes it often joyous and lively, an aspect in full force in the CD Cape Breton Live radio take 02.

Internationally known musicians are included here, among them Natalie Macmaster, Buddy MacMaster, Mary Jane Lamond, Jerry Holland, Donnell Leahy, and Kimberly Fraser. The key word, though, might be included: each and all, they join with fellow Cape Bretoners in sets that celebrate and carry forward the Celtic/Canadian mix that is Cape Breton music. There are fourteen sets on this disc, all recorded live at places ranging from the Civic Center at Port Hawkesbury to St. Mary’s parish Hall in Glendale to Andrea Beaton’s house in Judique. All of the tracks are worth hearing, and more than once, for the great melodies and the interaction amongst the players. That is true whether you are an old hand at the music of Cape Breton or exploring it for the first time -- either way, you’ll be drawn in by the spirit, creativity, and generosity of these artists as they share there music. There’s an especially fine set of strathspeys and reels on highland pipes and piano by Kenneth MacKenzie and Jackie Dunn MacIsaac, respectively, a really nice set taken in full energy during square dance, West Mabou Jigs, the voice of Gaelic singing from Jeff MacDonald back by Mary Jane Lamond and Rona Lightfoot, and to close things out, that session in Andrea Beaton’s house, with, among other things, six fiddles.


You may find out more about this CD, and its predecessor, Cape Breton Live take 01 at Cape Breton Live’s web site

There’s more about that earlier CD here too: now playing: Cape Breton Live

Today, 1 July, is Canada Day. In honor of that, we salute all the fine Canadian musicians noted above, along with Ian Tyson, Terri Clark, Maria Dunn, Wendy MacIsaac, Eileen McGann, Eve Goldberg, Garnet Rogers, Jesse Winchester, Brad Fordham, Cathy Smith, Cheryl Smith, Sylvia Tyson, Anne Murray, Troy MacGillivray, Gordie Sampson, Leahy, The McDades, The Be Good Tanyas, Shania Twain, the Celtic Colours Festival, and all those who work in music and call Canada home.

You may also want to see these posts

Music Road: now playing: The McDades: Bloom

Music Road: Now playing: Leahy: Live in Gatineau dvd

Music Road: now playing: Cape Breton Live

Music Road: coming attractions: The Celtic Colours Festival

Music Road: now playing:Matt & Shannon & Ian & Sylvia

Update: Cape Breton Radio Live's website has gone dark, though you may still be able to find copies of these recordings in stock at some retailers.

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.