31 March 2021 - Nick Carter and Cœur de Pirate - I Want It That Way / Cœur de Pirate - 12:59 Lullaby

I cannot stop smiling at this performance.

CLEARLY Nick Carter's appearance was a surprise.  In her words:

"Comme une jeune fille tremblait"

It doesn't matter that she was already well known enough that she was Cœur de Pirate and NOT Béatrice Martin to the host.  At the end of the day, she's a music fan, and that was her favorite Backstreet Boy.

She does start with a short cover of Bedouin Soundclash tune - "12:59 Lullaby".  Recall that the vocalist of THAT band was also 1/2 of Armistice with Cœur de Pirate.  

27 March 2021 - Corb Lund - Hockey Song

A longtime fan of this page (and by longtime fan, I mean my sister) pointed out that Alberta native and Canadian country star Corb Lund did a cover of the Stompin' Tom Connors classic, even adding an extra verse. 

But Lund is an Oilers fan. I may not be able to forgive that. 

26 March 2021 - Scott Helman x Jann Arden - Lovesong

Canadian up and coming musician Scott Helman teams with huge-voiced Jann Arden to recover a Cure cover in a hotel room?

Yes. Just yes.  

24 March 2021 - k.d. lang - Helpless

A lot of people don't know that Neil Young is Canadian, but he is, and he was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters' Hall of Fame.  At that organization's 2017 induction ceremony, k.d. lang covered one of his best known songs - beautifully.  

23 March 2021 - The Wiggles ft. The East Pointers - Click Go The Shears

The Wiggles (who of course include famed AUSLAN expert Emma Watkins) and The East Pointers teamed up for a somewhat Canadian take on a traditional Australian folk song.

Come on.  This is amazing.  You know it's amazing.   

22 March 2022 - Blue Rodeo - Song For A Winter's Night

Blue Rodeo isn't a band that's well known outside their native Canada or the Buffalo, NY area. That's a travesty, because the country-rock band is a delight.  Their cover of this Gordon Lightfoot classic is a decent introduction to the band.   

22 March 2022 - Glass Tiger - Song For A Winter's Night

Do you think Canadian bands have a lot of respect for Gordon Lightfoot?   This is now the 4th cover by a Canadian artist of THIS song I've posted today.

And I'm not done.

Glass Tiger was a one hit wonder outside of their native Canada, with "Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone", a song we should feature on Wicked Guilty Pleasures sometime.  In 2020, they teams with Natalie MacMaster on violin for a dynamic cover of this classic song.  

22 March 2022 - Sarah McLachlan - Song For A Winter's Night

I swear, I don't intend to post as much Sarah McLachlan as I am lately.   But the Canadian superstar has just too rich a catalog to ignore.

Originally recorded for the soundtrack to the 1994 remake of the movie Miracle on 34th Street, McLachlan has featured this Gordon Lightfoot classic song several times since. Which is a good thing, because she covers it brilliantly.

22 March 2021 - Good Lovelies - Song For A Winter's Night

The Good Lovelies are a Canadian folk-rock band, and something of an award-winning big deal.  The three ladies that comprise the band were all Toronto-area solo artists who came together to form something beautiful and harmonic.

Their take on Gordon Lightfoot's winter classic is something to behold.  

22 March 2021 - Winsome Kind - Song for A Winter's Night

This husband/wife duo from Vancouver turn Gordon Lightfoot's mournful Canadian classic into a beautiful direct love song.  You can see the love in their eyes as they each sing the song to their favourite person.  

17 March 2021 - Mudmen - Home For A Rest

Canadian Celtic rock band Mudmen were not included in the Spirit of Canada single, as far as I can tell.  Which is OK, because this little band from Alvinson, Ontario did their own excellent and very different version of this song - complete with bagpipes.

17 March 2021 - Spirit of Canada - Home For A Rest

I cannot state this any better than FYI Music News did.

Record a track in the men’s room with nearly 50 of Canada’s most celebrated musicians? That is one for the history books.

And history they made as Alan Doyle, Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, Sarah McLachlan, Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies, Spirit Kids Barney and Dustin Bentall, Colin James, Craig Northey and The Odds, Shari Ulrich, Jim Byrnes, Kendel Carson, Daniel Lapp, Spirit of the West with Cory Tetford, Shehab Illyas and Kris MacFarlane and many more of Canada’s top musicians came together to cover Spirit of the West’s “Home for a Rest” in honour and support of frontman John Mann and his battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

So, pretty much every Canadian musician you know got together to record a beautiful version of this Spirit of the West classic song and gave all the money to John Mann for his medical bills.  

The song was, of course, originally recorded live, but there was one more musician involved in that one.  

I'm not crying.  You're crying.

16 March 2021 - Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane

I have to admit - the first time I heard this song, I was confused.  I knew the Velvet Underground song.  Sure, some of the lyrics matched, but this was not the "Sweet Jane" I knew, from Loaded.

I was not yet aware that there was a 2nd version, which appeared on VU's 1974 live album, recorded in 1969 - predating Loaded.  

And really, it doesn't matter what I think of it.  This version, a cover by Canadian band Cowboy Junkies, is Lou Reed's favourite version, and since he wrote the song, I'm going with this opinion.  

This version was recorded at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto, straight to two-track.  The acoustics in the church made for some amazing reverberation that makes this version glow.  

10 March 2021 - Avril Lavigne - How You Remind Me

When a woman covers her boyfriend's (at the time) biggest hit song, she better either make it completely her own, or knock the cover off the ball in her version.

Avril Lavigne did both, with the blessing of Chad Kroeger (the other half of perhaps the most Canadian musical couple ever).   From the soundtrack to the movie One Piece Film: Z, it is a slower, cooler version of the song.

9 March 2021 - Carly Rae Jepsen - White Flag

I just wanted to remind you that Carly Rae Jepson started off her career as a contestant on Canadian Idol. She DID NOT WIN. The song that got her eliminated?  This Dido cover.

8 March 2021 - The Modern Day Warriors - The Spirit of Radio

Rush has inspired an industry of bands just dedicated to covers of their songs.  The Modern Day Warriors, from Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, are one of my favourites.  Rather than trying to completely mimic the original, they adapt it, making it almost their own.  

7 March 2021 - Good Lovelies - Crabbuckit

I don't always write posts sequentially. You'll be hearing from this Canadian trio later - but I can tell you that they chose to cover this k-os classic because it was about their hometown of Toronto.  Their three part harmonies lend the song a depth it did not otherwise have. 

5 March 2021 - Sarah McLachlan - Blackbird

It is said (in the YouTube comments of this video) that Sarah McLachlan could sing the phone book and sound phenomenal.  

So when the Canadian songstress takes on Lennon/McCartney, of course she's going to knock it out of the park.  

4 March 2021 - Common Deer - Drinking in L.A.

Common Deer, from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, are described on their Facebook page as both "indie" and "orchestral".

Which makes them a great choice to cover this somewhat orchestral song originally performed by Montreal music collective Bran Van 3000.

3 March 2021 - Lights - Hotline Bling

Canadian artist Lights goes to New York City. To cover Canadian artist Drake.

She actually brings a lot more emotion and soul to the song than Drake (who admittedly did an excellent job on the original).  Check it out!!!

2 March 2021 - Anne Murray & Chicago - You Won't See Me / Anne Murray & Dionne Warwick - You Won't See Me

Anne Murray covered this Beatles classic and took it to the top 10 in the US and her native Canada.   As I was growing up, I heard this version of the song so much - as my mother was a big fan of Anne Murray - that I thought it was her song, and didn't realize it was a cover.

But, since even John Lennon was a fan - calling it the best cover of one of his songs he'd heard - I think that's OK.

Murray has revisited the song a couple of times as a duet, but this version from 1986 with Dionne Warwick is among my favourites.

1 March 2021 - Alanis Morissette - Crazy

That's right.  Alanis Morissette covers Seal.  And releases it as a single.   

And it's an achievement.  The Canadian adapts the song both to her musical style and vocal range, which isn't the same as Seal's - but is still pretty broad.  I was impressed when I found this gem.