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. 

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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.

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.