Music for everyday folk
Published Tuesday October 13th, 2009
Music: Nathan Rogers rounds out foursome of talent coming to New Brunswick for Canadian Songbook tour
The Canadian Songbook is real, but you won't find it in a library or a bookstore.
Like the Great American Songbook, it is a concept rather than a definitive list or volume.
For folk musician Nathan Rogers, he knows it when he hears it.
"There is a group of songs in this country, no less than nine and no more than probably 40, that get sung daily in some part of this country, either in a bar or onstage in a show or around a campfire or (by) someone putting their kids to sleep," he says.
"When you hear the names of these songs, they're obvious, you say, 'Oh yeah, that's a Canadian song.' "
Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy comes to mind for him, as does Molly May by J.P. Cormier and Northwest Passage by his father, the late legend Stan Rogers.
Rogers, 30, is part of the second annual Canadian Songbook tour, which kicks off Thursday at The Playhouse in Fredericton, with other New Brunswick shows Saturday at Louis Vermeersch Theatre in Saint John and Oct. 24 at Moncton's Capitol Theatre.
The acoustic evening features original music by some of the country's top singer-songwriters: Rogers will be joined by Murray McLauchlan, the seasoned veteran of the group, who got his start in the Toronto coffee-house scene of the '60s and now has numerous Junos to his credit, as does Barney Bentall, former leader of the Legendary Hearts, who released his first solo album in 2006.
The foursome is rounded out by Prince Edward Island singer-songwriter Catherine MacLellan, who, like Rogers, is heir to the Canadian folk music establishment, as daughter of iconic songwriter Gene MacLellan, author of classics such as Snowbird and Put Your Hand In The Hand.
The acoustic show takes a songwriters' circle format, with the musicians sharing the story behind the songs they play. Some of the music that night might be new, but many of the themes will be timeless.
"Folk music has, and hopefully will continue to have, a long-standing tradition of songs with a great deal of social impact and meaning," Rogers says. "Pop music is sort of infinitely forgettable; folk music is infinitely remember-able in its ideal state."
While the Canadian Songbook varies from person to person and even between regions - Ian Tyson's Four Strong Winds has deep meaning in Alberta, while Make and Break Harbour resonates more in Canso than Calgary - the struggles of the working class is a common theme, Rogers says, and it is that group that largely determines a folk song's endurance.
"Does the common person want to sing that song? Does the everyday Joe, does he want to share that song with his buddies when they're sitting around picking a tune?"
Still, there is no predicting which tunes will persist through the ages.
"There's something kind of mystical about it," he says. "You can't just write a song about Canada and have it enter into the regular jukebox of the Canadian consciousness... it needs some time to filter through."
With that distance comes nostalgia, especially as the rugged, rural way of life so many of these songs celebrate dwindles.
"The power of myth is much stronger than the power of history in the human heart," Rogers says. "The human mind is a different thing."
Rogers, who is based in Winnipeg where he lives with his wife and two-year-old daughter, has an idea of the ultimate songwriters' circle.
"I am 80 years old, I am at a folk festival in, oh, let's say Alberta. My wife is there. It's about 7:30 and the announcer comes on and says, 'Well folks, we have a rare treat, from all over Canada, we've gotten these folks together. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the Rogers family.'
"And my children and perhaps my grandchildren and perhaps my great-grandchildren come on and they do their own songs, and they maybe sing one of mine and they maybe sing one of Stan's and one of Garnet's.
"There's an understanding in the crowd at that point that the musical tradition that has been going on in this family for several generations is not going anywhere.
"That's success for me."
More Magazine
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
