Whispering Pines The Northern Roots of American Music from Hank Snow to the Band

by Schneider, Jason

• ISBN13: 9781550228748
• ISBN10: 1550228749
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-07-01
• Publisher: ECW Press

Summary

Providing the first comprehensive history of Canada's songwriting legacy, this guide traces a distinctly Canadian musical identity from the 1930s to the end of the 1970s. The discussion shows how Canadian musicians have always struggled to create work that reflects their own environment while simultaneously connecting with mass audiences in other countries, particularly the United States. While nearly all songwriters who successfully crossed this divide did so by immersing themselves in the American and British forms of blues, folk, country, and rock 'n' roll, this guide reveals that Canadian sensibilities were never far beneath the surface. Canadian innovators featured include Anne Murray, Paul Anka, Hank Snow, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, and superstars Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Lively anecdotes and interviews round out the history, but the emphasis is always on the essential musichow and where it originated and its impact on the artists' subsequent work and the wider musical world.

Author Biography

Jason Schneider is one of Canada’s most respected music journalists and a music editor at Exclaim! magazine. He is the coauthor of Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985–1995 and the author of 3,000 Miles. He lives in Kitchener, Ontario.