Friday, September 16, 2011

The King of Canada: Stan Rogers

Mountains, Yukon Territory, Canada

Some of my favourite stories as a young boy were those of explorers and adventurers and conquistadores. I went through a patch where I couldn’t get enough of books like Ice Station Zebra and other stories that took place in the ice and snow of Canada’s frozen north.

This fascination with the Arctic continued and became stronger when I went to University in Minnesota where snow and ice is on the ground in large quantities for months on end.

So when I first heard Stan Rogers record Northwest Passage it hooked me instantly. It was as if I had been waiting for this music.  Like Gordon Lightfoot, another old Canadian favourite, Stan Roger’s songs paint glorious pictures of the wild and fabulous Canadian landscape. And the tough people—oil workers, farmers, lonely housewives, fisherfolk--who inhabit it.

What make’s Stan such a wonderful folk singer, beside his storytelling, is his snug baritone that’s as deep and wide as Hudson’s Bay.  You can’t help but melt or sit up straight and listen to Stan Rogers when he sings.

Stan’s music came to an end when he died tragically at the age of 33 in an airline fire in Cincinnati in 1983.



                        Track Listing:

           01 Northwest Passage
02 The Field Behind The Plow
03 Night Guard
04 Working Joe
05 You Can't Stay Here
06 The Idiot
07 Lies
08 Canol Road
09 Free In The Harbour
10 California

Listen here.

3 comments:

Rebecca said...

Thank you for introducing us to Stan how many years ago... Still a listening favorite of ours!

vilstef said...

Anytime I think of Stan, I say Goddamn Air Canada! Stan and Tom Connors are the most Canadian artists!

ajnabi1957 said...

vilstef,
agree! I do 't know Tom Connors. Will check him out.