Canada's Music
Many French Canadian Musicians are folk artists. There are many French-Canadian Traditional folk songs. O Canada, presently Canada's national anthem, started out as a nationalist Quebecois Song. The music was writen Calixa Lavallee (A cousin of an ancestor of mine) and the words were by
The Atlantic or Maritime Provinces also have their traditional music influenced by their Irish and Scottish heritage. Some modern groups play traditional influenced music like Great Big Sea or the Ranklin Family.
More recent Quebecois songwriters would include people like Felix Leclerc, Gilles Vigneault, Michel Rivard, Robert Charlebois. Felix Leclerc had, before 1970, the best international career (for a French Canadian). Most of French Canadian folk artists are (or were for those who died) strongly for the independence of Quebec.
In the 1950s there has been very few Canadian Artists. Paul Anka is probably the most famous Canadian musician of the '50s with songs such as "Put Your Head on my Shoulder," "Diana" and "That Doesn't matter anymore," which was later covered by Buddy Holly.
The '60s brought Bands like Steppenwolf, The Guess Who, the Stampeders, and The Band.
Steppenwolf was only partly Canadian. Its founding members are John Kay (1968-76; from Tilsit, East Prussia, Germany, but migrated to Toronto), Goldy McJohn (1968-74; Canadian born), Jerry Edmonton (1968-76;Canadian Born) and Rushton Moreve (1968), who was replaced by Nick St. Nicholas (1969-71) and he by George Biando (1971-76). Steppenwolf is known mostly for "Born to be Wild" and "Magic Carpet Ride." Steppenwolf was recreated in 1981 as John Kay and Steppenwolf.
The Guess Who is a Canadian Band from Winnipeg. They had early hits because of their English sound and because Canadian Radio Stations assumed they were British (they stopped playing Guess Who when they found out they were Canadian. Weird eh?). Their biggest hits were "These Eyes" and "American Woman."
The Stampeders was a Calgary band formed in 1964 by Rich Dodson, Len Roemer, Kim Berly, Brendan Lyttle and Race Holiday. They had a few hits including "Sweet City Woman" and "Hit the Road Jack."
The Band might be one of the most famous of the bunch, having recorded with Bob Dylan. The original members were Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel. Danko, Manuel, and Hudson were from small towns in Ontario while Robertson was from Toronto and Levon Helm, the only American, was from Arkansas. Their best single was "Up on Cripple Creek". Another good song was "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (Was a big hit for Joan Baez).
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