Happy Canada Day! Some CanCon recs (hyphenated-folk edition)

[alexbayleaf]

(CanCon is "Canadian Content", which Canadian broadcasters are required to play in a certain proportion relative to non-Canadian content.)

I started out making a general Canadian recs set but wound up posting a whole bunch of folk-hyphen-something genre, and then it got really long, so I'm going to leave it at that. If anyone wants to post other genres of Canadian music today in honour of Canada Day, that would be excellent!



First up, I'm told there are people who are not familiar with the Arrogant Worms. These guys are a comedy/folk act who sing about things like, um, how Canada's really big:

And how it's tough to be a Mountie (with bonus Due South vid!)...

Now I'm gonna segue into Captain Tractor, a folk/rock/punk/??? act from Edmonton, Alberta, with their cover of The Arrogant Worms' "Last Saskatchewan Pirate" because I think their cover is better than the Worms' version:

(ObTallShipGeek: I'm pretty sure the ship they're filming on is the Nonsuch, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which I visited with prairiedaun and pyroclasticgrub back in 2005!)

I also love their cover of the Logdrivers' Waltz (a classic Canadian TV animated vignette, which is worth watching just for the cuteness):

You might also know Captain Tractor from the Due South episode "Mountie on the Bounty" which features their cover of "Drunken Sailor". But Captain Tractor aren't just a cover band. Here's one of their originals, "Here we go again" (no relation to the OK Go song!)

So if we're on the Canadian folk-punk theme, let's look at the Dust Rhinos, out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. If you like the Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, or bands along those lines, you'll love these guys.

Just one video from these guys, their "Jedi Drinking Song", since I can't find any of my other faves on the tubes:

Next up, Ashley MacIsaac, a Nova Scotian fiddler who's recorded a lot of trad folk stuff, but the album of his that I really love is his "Hi(tm) How Are You Today?" which features traditional fiddling mixed with industrial and electronic sounds. My favourite off this album is "Rusty D-Con-Struck-Tion":

Ahem, that was also on the Due South soundtrack. I promise I know Canadian music from places other than Due South fandom, really! /o\

MacIsaac's best known track is probably Sleepy Maggie:

OK, so this is getting long, so I'd better wrap up with some Great Big Sea. Here's their "Mari Mac", which I challenge you to sing along with without tying your tongue in knots:

And finally, what better to wrap up with than "The Old Black Rum"? For those who are interested there's a pretty good Pirates of the Caribbean fanvid (sadly, the Youtube version has aspect ratio problems), but I especially wanted to include the live version in this recs set:

ETA: oops, I forgot links to where you can buy these artists' stuff, so here they are:

Arrogant Worms: Artist website, iTunes
Captain Tractor: Artist website, iTunes
Dust Rhinos: Artist website, iTunes
Ashley MacIsaac: Artist website, iTunes
Great Big Sea: Artist website, iTunes


For your convenience, I saved all these videos to a Youtube playlist so hopefully the following embed will let you just play the whole lot from end to end:

Enjoy!

Comments

[delight]

Hi(tm) How Are You Today? is, basically, my favorite music in THE ENTIRE WORLD. I wish he had more songs that awesome. :(