18 March 2024 - Justin Rutledge - Building a Mystery

Justin Rutledge is a Juno-award winning alt-country singer-songwriter from Toronto.

As part of the Junos 365 sessions, he covered this huge breakthrough hit by Sarah Mclachlan. It's more country than hers, but also, it's really good.  

14 March 2024 - Tate McRae - Wildest Dreams

This song was a huge hit by Taylor Swift - who is probably the biggest star on the planet right now.

Right now, Taylor Swift is looking up on the pop charts at Tate McRae, As of this writing, "greedy" is at #6 and "Cruel Summer" is at #10.  

So, yeah, there's that.  Also, Tate McRae did this song as part of a SOUND CHECK.  It's this good and she's doing a SOUND CHECK.  

13 March 2024 - Alex Porat - Growing Pains

Nowadays, Alex Porat does original music pretty much exclusively, but before she did that, she was a YouTube channel owner who got her eyeballs there and it was THAT channel that caught the attention of record executives.

She's also from Toronto, and she covers fellow Ontario native Alessia Cara here in this cover from a few years ago.

1 March 2024 - Elisapie ft. The Westerlies - Sinnatuumait (Dreams)

Honestly, I didn't plan this post.  

This video was released 11 hours ago, and as I write this, it is 11:30am.  

She literally released a video today.  

And it's a beautiful Fleetwood Mac cover.

Also, she's performing tonight. So, if you are in Lévis, QC, head on over to L'Anglicane, but be prepared to not get in, because it's a sold out show.  

A little note: the Westerlies are a brass quartet, bred in Seattle, based in NYC, and not Canadian, but I wanted to make sure they got their credit here as well.

1 March 2024 - Elisapie - Qimatsilunga (I Want to Break Free)

Elisapie Issac grew up in extreme Northern Quebec as part of a First Nations community.  She is nominated for two Juno Awards this year - both for her album Inuktitut....

...which, not coincidentally, is the language in which she is singing this Queen classic. The whole album is covers that have been translated into her native Inuk language.  Guys, she covers a LOT of diverse artists and you can bet your ass I'm posting her a lot this month.

29 February 2024 - Harry Styles & Kacey Musgraves - You're Still The One

You know I'm getting excited for Maple Leaf March on Wicked Guilty Pleasures.  

One artist I've never featured in a March on her own is Shania Twain, and she is a Canadian megastar - arguably the biggest.  

I gotta fix that.

Here are an American and a Brit covering a Canadian classic.  Beautifully.  

22 February 2024 - Elisapie - Uummati Attanarsimat (Heart of Glass)

So, this is where I am starting to get excited for March.   On the other blog, I dedicate the entire month of March to Canadian artists - and I say I do it for no reason, but I do it for good reason.  They are a country with two official languages (English, French), a third widely spoken (Punjabi) and a 4th widely recognized and supported (Inuktitut).  It's truly a multicultural country, and there are a LOT more languages spoken there than the four I mention.

Today, though, I'm talking about one of those four.  Elisapie is a native Inuk, and grew up in a First Nations community in northern Quebec.  Her music embraces the traditions and language of her people - and she sings in three languages.  She chose just one for her 2023 album Inuktitut - but she also chose to translate English-language songs from a wide variety of genres - from disco to metal, pop and classic rock, and yes, even Metallica.  It is easily one of my five favorite albums of 2023.

She also covered this postpunk classic by Blondie, and it's delightful.