Sounds of the Ocean

Music has always been an intregal part of my life. I remember walking to school and the like when I was as young as 5 or 6 and making up songs in my head. That was also the beginning of my writing career. Since then I've always had music around me. Like so many things, I find a great deal of 'magic' in music. Music like all art is about passion, and thus about life. Many songs, albums, artists, are intricately woven into moments of my life, all part of the soundtrack.

The least important thing about music to me is genre. Having never been formally trained in music, its difficult for me to define specifically what makes some music 'great', some 'good', some 'dreck'. It is for a variety of things, passion, heart, and honesty. For instance honesty isn't a definable quality perhaps, but we know when we hear it. I think mayhaps that's why so many formula bands come and go every generation and leave behind nothing truly memorable, they're playing to a commercial template, they are the 'Big Macs' of the music world. Then there is the artist who genuinely care about their art, sometimes they're not even technically good. If you listen to Don McLean's American Pie, recorded when he was still a very young artist, you'll notice he really isn't a great guitar player, but the collection of writing on that album is extraordinary.

So ok, genre isn't important, heart is. Thus my collection of music over the years has been ecclectic and diverse to say the least, and is ever evolving... and yes, there is even some pop I enjoy. Still having said that there are genres that I enjoy more than others. Blues, rock/blues, country blues, ... seeing a pattern here? LOL Yeah the day I learned to play minor chords on my guitar (A Yamaha SJ180) was the happiest day of my life. For me, there is something about a minor chord that reaches inside your guts and grabs you by the place where all your hurt is stored. Music I can close my eyes and FEEL, is always what I'm looking for. Sometimes that feel is something bright and shining, sometimes its tears flowing unbidden, sometimes its belting it outloud as you sing along, and sometimes its drifting off to a gentle dream state, but always it must move you. What moves me, isn't always going to be what moves you, but maybe one or two will make you go YES!

Soooooooo... without further ado.... some of my favourites and others... in no particular order:

The Sounds of the Ocean


  • Natalie MacMaster A brilliant and energetic Cape Breton fiddle player.

  • Great Big Sea A great bunch of boys from Newfoundland, mixing traditional with rock, VERY high energy, always a great pick me up, if you get a chance to see these boys live don't miss it.

  • Chris Isaak That voice, those eyes... *melt*

  • Tom Waits An amazing storyteller.

  • Ani DiFranco An amazing voice for the women of her generation, and many generations.

  • Tom Petty What more needs to be said? Tom has been a constant companion for over 20 years. So many songs have a permanent place in the soundtrack of my life.

  • Bob Seger That ol'time rock and roll.

  • The Eagles Nope sorry won't apologize for this one. They created and defined a sound. Hotel California like it or not is an important piece of musical history.

  • Rush Intellectual, smart hard rock. But a NICE bunch of Canadians. 30 years... they must be doing something right.

  • April Wine Classic canadian rock from the 70's... ok I grew up with this stuff

  • Trooper Ditto :)

  • The Hackberry Ramblers cajun/Country boys 90+ yrs young and still rockin'

  • The Guess Who Who can forget Burton Cummings belting out American Woman of the grounds of the White House?

  • Boston .. Yeah :)

  • Ron Sexsmith Amazing Canadian guitar player with not nearly the recognition he deserves. Named as Elvis Costello's (among others) favourite guitar player.

  • Loreena McKinnett A pure amazing celtic voice.

  • The Crashtest Dummies A wonderful irreverent sound.

  • Peter, Paul and Mary First record I ever owned was a 45 of Leaving On A Jet Plane, a christmas present from my sister Connie when I was 4 or 5. I still have a picture of me with her guitar.

  • Holly Cole A voice that can make a children's lullaby THAT sexy cannot be ignored.

  • The Beach Boys For you Ken, you KNEW I wouldn't leave em out!

  • The Beach Boys Cause saying it once ain't enough

  • Don McLean American Pie is one of my most played albums.

  • Melissa Ethridge Raw emotion unleashed.

  • The Rankins I didn't like the country direction they were taking in the end, but their celtic tunes are beautiful especially Portabello. John Morris Rankin's untimely death was a terrible loss to the music world.

  • Stan Rogers Legendary Canadian storyteller, and another bright and shining star taken from us before we were ready to give him up. BTW... sign the petition to put him in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (I can't believe he's not there yet)

  • B.B. King He is ... the KING.

  • Eric Clapton Rock? Blues? .. does it matter?

  • Supertramp A sound that has never been duplicated. And I love a good saxaphone player.

  • Joni Mitchell A GOOD Canadian female singer!!

  • Janis Joplin The greatest artists were always a little mad weren't they?

  • Johnny Cash The man in black is timeless. Knew what he did best and was still able to take a chance. A Nine Inch Nails cover? Wow.

  • Robert Mirabal A Fabulous Native Artist!!

  • Joe Tex Gimme a little soul man!

  • Eidentic These boys from Saskatchewan have a wonderful sound! Instrumental Metal... you'd better be good, cause you can't cover it up with lyrics!

  • REO Speedwagon You Can Tuna Piano, But You Can't Tune A Fish... say no more

  • Styx I'm a child of the 80's.

  • Queen. There's a special place in heaven for Freddy Mercury

  • Stuart Hamm Seriously one of the greatest bass players ever.

  • Kenny Wayne Shepperd That guitar thing... *purrrrrr*

  • REM The made the 80's great!

  • Phil Collins Who said a drummer can't be a front man? Or have a solo carreer?

  • Ashley MacIssac He makes celtic fiddling COOL. Who'd have thunk that the grunge crowd would discover traditional music?

  • Joe Satriani One of the great guitar GODS.

  • Stevie Ray Vaugan Did I say guitar GODS? If the music world was Mount Olympus... meet Zeus

  • Steve Vai And if it were Vallhalla, he'd be Thor.

  • Yngwie Malmsteen ... and Hades *grins*

  • Pat Benatar My first real introduction to women who RAWK.

  • The Arrogant Worms These Canadian boys are always a laugh... and a good show.

  • The Moody Blues There was a time in my life when you couldn't go to a social, or a school dance where Nights In White Satin was NOT the last slow dance.

  • Asia Yeah they were formula, yeah they really didn't last long, but damn some of those songs will never leave my head.

  • Don Henley His writing was a big part of why the Eagles, were the Eagles.

  • The Tragically Hip They are The Hip, too bad they don't get the attention south of the border they deserve.

  • Peter Gabriel He made Genesis, and Collins took up the torch.

  • Stevie Nicks I always wanted to be Stevie Nicks.

  • The Grateful Dead Dead heads never forget.
  • The Kinks Always a classic, how can you NOT sing along?

  • Led Zepplin Every guitar player for the last 30 years knows why this is here.

  • ABBA Ok I don't know how to explain this being here accept to curse you Michael!

  • Diana Krall Connie was a chanteuse, I always wanted to be, Diana Krall IS.

  • Enya Celtic music magic.

  • Van Morrison Ken - thank you for this.

  • Frank Zappa What can you say about Frank Zappa, weird? yes. Brilliant? Yes. Intelligent? Yes. Vocal advocate? Yes. ... and so much more.

  • The Beatles No explanation required.

  • The Doors Jim Morrison was the archtype of the tragic poet, not many of them to count in the 20th century.

  • The Who Voice of a generation, and they're NOT the Rolling Stones.

  • Jann Arden Canada does produce some female singer/song writers with REAL talent.

  • Nickleback Still a little undecided on these guys. But they do have a couple really playable singable tunes.

  • Matchbox20 For a young alternative group, these guys actually kinda turn me on. Catchy stuff.

  • Sheryl Crow Another one I'm undecided on, but I'm still listening.

  • Bruce Hornsby A musicians' musician. And besides he made mandolins COOL.

  • Weird Al LAUGH!!!

  • Moxy Fruvous Ken, you said they sounded derivative of They Might Be Giants, but the evolution was simultaneous and independant of each other. Both deserve their place. And Fruvous brings a uniquely Canadian perspective.

  • The Barenaked Ladies See I was right! You ought to listen to me more often. *snerk*

  • O Brother Where Art Thou? Not a band true, but a wonderful, wonderful sound-track album to an what is probably one of my favourite films of all time. Rent the DVD, buy the CD.... its pure fun.

  • Saga Another great Canadian band that never quite got the attention I felt they deserved.

  • Alanis Morissette Not all Canadian women singers are sappy saccharine pop artists.

  • U2 Somehow I always picture these guys as "The Committments... "Boys we're gonna play IRISH blues!"

  • Dire Straits An interesting sound, well written. No one but Dire Straits sounds like Dire Straits.

  • Sarah McLachlan Great music AND Lilith Fair. OK so she's not a celtic artist, she's still Nova Scotian.

  • Tracy Chapman I've always been very impressed with this young woman's inroads in a genre that's traditionally old men. But the blues are the blues, and anyone can have em.

  • A better Tracy Chapman Link

  • Pink Floyd Gawds, is there any music on earth as sexy? Maybe it's just me and that heavy beat and raw guitars that just seems so... so... feral.

  • Meat Loaf A perfect voice for Jim Steinman's storytelling

  • Bonnie Tyler Also an excellent foil for Steinman.

  • John Cougar Mellencamp All American Boy

  • Black Sabbath My first real introduction to hard rock.

  • Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat was a great album.

  • Susan Aglukark An Inuit singer, who mixes traditional sounds with pop beats, and does it well. A must hear!

  • Neil Young Lynard Skynard may not like him... but I don't think much of Lynard Skynard.

  • Crosby Stills Nash and Young Of course

  • Sarah Marshall "This Young Man" is the CBC Radio One's Afternoon Roundup's most requested song... watch for a lot more from this young woman.

  • Chris de Burgh A great storyteller. Although honestly "Lady In Red" leaves me cold. Give me "Spanish Train", or "Ferryman" any day.

  • Ray Stevens Everyone has a favourite Ray Stevens song.... mine is Mississippi Squirrel Revival.

  • Kenny Loggins Loggins, Loggins and Messina, it's all good.

  • KISS Aww come on.... you remember being 12 don't you?

  • Rod Stewart How can you resist a man in plaid?

  • Neil Diamond This man in the late 60's... there was no one better.

  • Jim Croce His death was a terrible loss to the world.

  • Blue Oyster Cult Don't Fear the Reaper... worship it instead.

  • Jesse Cook A classical guitarist who will break your heart.

  • The Cars Yeah... who's gonna drive me home?

  • Fleetwood Mac Does anyone NOT own a copy of 'Rumours'?

  • Alison Krauss Discovered her on the "O Brother Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. She makes me melt!

  • Caroline Lavelle I broke out in tears from the sheer beauty of the album 'Spirit' when I first heard it. I broke out in tears again when someone stole it. I MUST replace this CD, it breaks my heart it's out of print.

  • Jewel An interesting artist, never allowing herself to be pidgeon holed.

  • Muddy Waters Grand-daddy of em all!

  • John Lee Hooker He IS the blues.

  • Roch Voisine French can be such a beautiful language.

  • Jimmy Buffet And Parrot Heads never remember, ... at least how the heck they ended up under the coffee table.

There are so many songs, so many artists who haven't been mentioned here with a link. Either because it's so far just a single song, or because I haven't heard enough of them to really decide. Some of those..... Avril Lavigne, yes I do like Skater Boy; Stone Temple Pilots - Sour Girl; Mary Chapin Carpenter - 10,000 miles from the Fly Away Home soundtrack, Lionel Ritchie - Hello .. that one always gets me.. right here; Henry Mancini - Moon River, gods I love the movie Breakfast At Tiffanys; Allanah Miles - Black Velvet, Bruce Guthro - Falling, Adam Cohen - Cry Ophelia ... although I've never seen a single episode of Dawson's Creek; Julie London - Cry Me a River... why have more modern chanteuses not done a cover of this?; Train - Calling all Angels; Sting and the Police - yeah I'm an 80's child; Player - one album wonder, but I did love that album to death when I was 13... yeah Baby Come Back; Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant; The Straigh Lines - Breakfast Club soundtrack; The Star Canyon Band - Ken's Dad's group - damn fine bluegrass, and of course... Yes, Journey, Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Guns and Roses, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen ... before the 80's, Steve Earle, and always a love for aboriginal music, particularily traditional drumming.

One of the interesting phenomenons I've come across lately is band members blogging for their fans, especially while on tour. Some of them, like Alan Doyle of GBS or Ra Mcquire of Trooper actually write fairly well. They detail the normal life of a well known Canadian working musician both the occassional glamour of it, and the 'real life' stuff. No they aren't superstars, but that makes it all the more interesting. Yes, they've both achieved a fame of sorts, but still lead very ordinary lives. However their work is a world we rarely get to see on such a personal level. As a bit of a music geek, it's an interesting perspective. And a final note... no discussion of music could be complete without one final last link to Rolling Stone Magazine.

I hope you've enjoyed this trip through my world of sound. There's a lot more I could say about the music and bands listed here, but I'd rather let them speak for themselves. I could explain a lot more about what my taste says about me, but I'd rather let you decide what my taste tells you about me. Come back soon, and drop me a line, lemme know what you think about the list, what's there, and what you think is missing, I'd love to hear from you.

Ocean's Edge