Ernie's El Dorado Pt 5 - Canada

We have reached stop #5 on our American tour and its another biggie - Canada.

For my travel series I usually spend a lot of time carefully curating the playlist and then researching and drafting the liner notes of each post for the benefit of our esteemed audience. I haven't done that this time though, for two reasons. One is that I'm off on my holidays tomorrow and there is a lot to get done before I go. The other is that there was simply too much good Canadian music to choose from. It made the selection process for the previous post on Brazil seem straightforward by comparison.

In the end I just picked out some personal favourites. I have tried not to choose too many big names, so there is no Joni, Neil or Smiling Len for example. Not even any Carly Rae Jepsen, Loverboy or Bare Naked Ladies (some choices were easier than others). But I had to start with Gordon Lightfoot because he is Mr. Canada as far as I'm concerned.

I won't go through all the tracks individually but will note that a third of them are by immigrants to Canada, proving once again the wisdom of Blue Mink's words. Kiran Ahluwalia, MAR MVP Noel Ellis (son of Alton) and Drew Gonsalves of Kobo Town all arrived in Toronto as children from India, Jamaica and Trinidad respectively. Mr Jo Jo Bennett was already a musician when he also moved from Jamaica but The Fugitives were formed and performed in Canada.

Where the album the track comes from is on Bandcamp I have added a link in the artist's name. That covers half of them. For the rest you are on your own.

For the videos we start things off with the father of Canadian country music and his grandson after which things get a little more random. 

That's it from me for now. Stay groovy, see you in a couple of weeks.

"Canadian Railroad Trilogy" - Gordon Lightfoot

"Anew Day" - Mary Margaret O'Hara

"Whatever It Takes" - Ron Sexsmith

"Chips - Chicken - Banana Split" - Jo Jo & The Fugitives

"Stand Up Straight And Tall" - Jackie Shane

"We Can't Be Lovers With These Guns On Each Other" - Rae Spoon

"Black Stations/White Stations" - Martha & The Muffins

"Kaiso Newscast" - Kobo Town

"Mustt Musst" - Kiran Ahluwalia

"Can't Change the Colour of Your Eyes" - Skinny Dyck

"End Of The Day" - Doug Paisley

"To Hail Selassie" - Noel Ellis