“Thanks for joining us friends and neighbours and be sure to tune in again next week at the same time, for more songs, jigs and reels from Canada’s 10th province, good old Newfoundland. Until then, long may your big gib draw.”
So says the announcer in his sign off each Saturday night at the end of a very entertaining – and unusual – radio program that can be heard in this area. Each Saturday, about 11:40 p.m. until 12 midnight on CKGL-FM Radio in Kitchener (96.7 on your FM dial), songs from the island come lilting out over the airwaves, complete with accordian accompaniment on most of them, an instrument rarely heard on the radio any more. (This column is 34 years old now; I am certain the program disappeared a long time ago. JH)
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Today’s country music is as slick, sophisticated and highly technological as any pop, rock or beautiful music being produced in studios around the world. Anyone who still associates country music with the “twangy” music of yesteryear and won’t listen to it as a result, really should give it a try again. It isn’t hard to get hooked on it.
But missing from the lineup of songs that make it to the turntables in the studios of most modern country radio stations these days are the old-fashioned tunes that are still being played live in many dance halls and bars across the country, especially in parts of eastern Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces. Modern country music makes heavy use of acoustic guitars, electric guitars, synthesizers and drums and is clearly rock-influenced. Its subjects are love, heartache, trucks, heartache, drinkin’, hurtin’ and heartache.
The old-tyme folk-country sounds of Maritimers like Harry Hibbs (the Beatles and Travelling Wilburys were big fans of one Hibbs’ song called Nobody’s Child) and the late Don Messer and the Islanders rely more on fiddles, banjos, accordions, stand-up bass and piano for the accompaniment to their lyrics about love of home, community and family and their songs about hard times, loneliness and loss.
Canada’s “down east” music is raw, enchanting and unique. Though much of it has its roots in the folk music of England, Ireland and Scotland, it stands on its own. Irish musicians, living in a country with no shortage of great music to play, sing and record, often turn to songs popular in Canada’s eastern provinces. Popular in Ireland are Farewell to Nova Scotia, Song for the Mira (about the Mira River in Cape Breton) and Ian Tyson’s classic, Four Strong Winds.
If you liked Stompin’ Tom Connors, Marg Osbourne and Charlie Chamberlain and early Anne Murray, you’ll enjoy Saturday nights’ shows on CKGL.
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At the same time, more modern Canadian country musicians are producing hours and hours of great recorded music these days and a good place to hear many of them showcased each week – from Marie Bottrell, Carroll Baker and Sylvia Tyson to Terry Sumsion, Eddie Eastman and Terry Carrisse – is on Homespun, an hour-long program of interviews and music aired each Wednesday night at 11 p.m. and repeated Sunday nights at 9 p.m. on CJBX-FM in London (92.7 on your dial). For country music – new and old – on a local AM station, tune in CKNX in Wingham, 920 on the dial. And for golden oldies – pop, country and rock – try CJCS-AM Stratford, 1240 on your radio.
(Update 2020: Some of this information about radio stations is out of date now except for CKNX in Wingham, Ontario. Still an excellent source of wonderful country music.)
©1986 Jim Hagarty
