29 March 2024 - Elisapie - Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time)

I was pretty clear that I'd be posting her again this month.

I'm completely captivated by Elisapie's album Inuktitut, which is all covers.  Is this my favorite one?  Nope.  But it's a beautifully done version of a Cyndi Lauper classic, so, yeah.  

28 March 2024 - Megan Bonnell - Try

Folk-rock singer Megan Bonnell from Ontario covers Canadian treasures Blue Rodeo.

You know, these are two artists we have never posted on Wicked Guilty Pleasures.  We really need to do that sometime, soon.  

Anyway, this is a brilliant cover and most of you wouldn't have known it was a cover if I didn't tell you that.

27 March 2024 - The Beaches - Turn Me Loose

The Beaches are an all-girl rock band from Toronto, formed in 2013.

In 2019, they did a cover of the 1982 Juno Award winning Single of the Year by Loverboy.  Jordan Miller channeling the spirit of Mike Reno is a sight to behold.  They have a complete understanding of the shred rock - with the classic guitar solo and iconic bassline - and still manage to put their own style in the song.

Check it out!!

26 March 2024 - The Glorious Sons - Blame Brett

This is the best cover I've ever heard - of the hit song by The Beaches.

The Glorious Sons are a band from Kingston, Ontario.  

The lead vocalist of The Glorious Sons is a man named Brett Emmons.  

You know where this is going, I'm sure.

Brett Emmons used to date a woman named Jordan Miller..... who, funny enough, is the lead vocalist for a band from Toronto called The Beaches and who happens to be a co-writer of this song.

That's right.  He's Brett.  He's the Brett you need to blame.

This is some next-level trolling, but also, they don't do a bad job on the song.

25 March 2024 - Charlotte Cardin - How You Remind Me

Last night's Juno Award big winner (we're writing this weeks before the Junos so we have no way to know if we're right, but we are) covering last year's Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee?

Yes.  Absolutely yes.

22 March 2024 - Charlotte Cardin - Pour que tu m'aimes encore

Charlotte Cardin has gone on record to call Celine Dion one of her biggest influences, and this was one of the first songs she ever sang live.

The nominee of several Juno Awards this year does a fantastic job on this, which is Celine's biggest francophone hit.  

21 March 2024 - Diana Krall ft Sarah McLachlan - If You Could Read My Mind

Gordon Lightfoot is a goddamn Canadian treasure and it good that the next generation of musicians from Canada recognize that.

Diana Krall, the famed jazz musician from Nanaimo, British Columbia, was a bit of a pop/jazz sensation in the 90s, but she's still releasing music.  In 2015, she released an album called Wallflower, which was a bunch of folky and not-really-jazzy covers. The album was a hit in the US and Canada - and there's a reason for that.  It was really good.

One of the covers she did for the album was of one of Gordon Lightfoot's best known songs, and she enlisted then-future Canadian Music Hall of Famer Sarah McLachlan to sing it with her.

Which brings me to my 2nd reason for posting this today.  Diana Krall is NOT in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, despite her 30 year career of bringing jazz to a broader audience, unparallel by any jazz artist in her success worldwide.  Seriously.  She's had more #1 jazz albums than anyone, and she continues to make music.

She very well may be the most successful eligible musician not yet in the the Hall. (Editor's note: Correction - the most successful eligible musician not named Céline Dion)

I am begging you to go to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame website and PLEASE suggest Diana Krall as an inductee here.  

As a reward, here's Krall performing this song live, just her.  No Sarah McLachlan needed.  

20 March 2024 - Avril Lavigne - No One Needs To Know

Avril Lavigne pays tribute to fellow Canadian Shania Twain at the ACM Honors in 2022 (where Twain received the Poet's Award), while wearing her best Shania cosplay.  

It's way better than you expect it to be.  

By the way, not a one-off.  She frequently covers this.

19 March 2024 - Blue Monkey Overdrive - Reasons I Drink

I went hunting for covers of this song for today, given what's going on over at Wicked Guilty Pleasures.

 

There are few Canadian artists bigger than Alanis Morissette.  "Reasons I Drink" is one of her more recent songs.

If you have not noticed, I'm trying to feature Canadian artists over here, too.  I am doing a Maple Leaf March of covers, too. This week, I was especially driven to cover the artists on WGP over here.

Today's post is a special treat for me.  You see, if you don't live in the greater Winnipeg area, you have likely never heard of Blue Monkey Overdrive. I hadn't. And, when I saw that little thumbnail illustrating the band was clearly on Zoom doing this cover, I was concerned it would suck.

It doesn't.  These guys are amazing. The emotion and power that lead vocalist Christine brings could level a corn field.  That's not just us saying that.  Their official bio literally says "Blue Monkey Overdrive is a unique group of veteran performers fronted by a fiery redhead with a voice so powerful it could level a corn field."

With a bio like that, there is no way they were going to suck.  

Also, I love finding local artists out there just killin' it.  

Thankfully, they are also out and performing again, and if we are ever in Manitoba, we are going to check them out.  Guys, they're playing the Rec Room (696 Sterling Lyon Pkwy.) on May 3rd, and you can see their other dates here. 

'

I will absolutely feature these guys again.  I'm a fan now.

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.