http://www.canada.com/topics/enterta...671d12&k=33506
John Kennedy, canada.com
Published: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Article tools
Printer friendly
E-mail
Font: * * * * Some of Canada’s best songwriters gathered in Toronto last month to pay tribute to their own – and stars like Willie Nelson, k.d. lang and Rufus Wainwright were there to sing their praises.
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame gala was taped for broadcast on CBC Television on Monday, March 6th.
Back to Entertainment
See interviews with the stars
See performance highlights
Honoured during the show were songwriters Leonard Cohen and Gilles Vigneault, big band artist Carmen Lombardo, ragtime composer William Eckstein and composer and lyricist Lionel Daunais.
Legacy Awards, recognizing outstanding support of Canadian songwriters, were given to singers Anne Murray and Lucille Dumont as well as record industry pioneer Herbert Berliner.
Former governor general Adrienne Clarkson praised Cohen, 71, for “the complexities of his sadness, the breadth of his love” in songs like Suzanne and Bird on a Wire.
“He gets inside your brain, your heart, your lungs,” she effused. “You remember him, you feel him, you breathe him. He is our connection to the meaning of ecstasy, our access to another world we suspected existed, but which he puts into song."
Cohen was visibly touched by the tribute, which featured video testimonials from stars like Bono and live performances of Bird on a Wire by Willie Nelson and Hallelujah by k.d. lang.
“If I knew where the good songs came from, I'd go there more often," said a tearful Cohen. “So it is that we shuffle behind our songs into the hall of fame - shuffle awkwardly, not quite believing that we wrote them but happy that you do.”
After the show, Wainwright described how it felt to sing Everybody Knows in front of Cohen. “Yesterday and today – not nervous at all, feeling like I was in a country cabin ready to sing with the folks,” he said.
“Two seconds before I got on stage it hit me like a ton of bricks and I was struck with blood-curdling nervosity… but I got through it. I think I needed that little adrenaline kick.”
Iconic performer Anne Murray, who has recorded 80 songs written by Canadians, also received a warm reception when she went on stage to accept the Legacy Award.
“It’s a real honour to receive this Legacy Award from the songwriters who have been the backbone of my career,” she told the audience. “I am grateful to finally have the opportunity to say thank you to all of you.”
Later, she told canada.com she was surprised by the ovation she got.
“It was a real thrill,” said Murray. “I’m always embarrassed whenever that happens. At those times you don’t know what to do. But it was very flattering.”
At the pre-show reception, singer David Usher said he was excited about having met Cohen, one of his idols.
“That was one of those moments when you’re not quite sure what to say,” he admitted.
“I think it’s important to recognize people who have done so much work – people like Leonard Cohen, who has contributed so much as a poet, writer and songwriter.”
Veteran Canadian singer Murray McLaughlin said recognizing homegrown songwriters is essential.
“Often times people don’t realize, for instance, it wasn’t Rod Stewart who wrote the song (Rhythm of My Heart), it was Marc Jordan,” he said. “To honour that is important.”
Jordan, who attended the gala with his singer/songwriter wife Amy Sky, agreed.
“There are some amazing songs that you wouldn’t think were written by Canadians,” he said.
Among the 26 songs inducted into the Hall of Fame were Andy Kim’s Sugar, Sugar, Sweet City Woman by The Stampeders’ Rich Dodson and Gene MacLellan’s Put Your Hand in Your Hand.
Jully Black, whose strong vocal performance Put Your Hand in the Hand – backed by the Faith Chorale – was overshadowed by a see-through top, could barely contain her excitement.
“The most pressure was that my mom was here, and being the youngest of nine kids we were singing that song at a very young age,” she said following the gala. “It was just a huge honour and blessing. Seeing Leonard Cohen stand up for someone he probably never heard of in his life was a huge honour.”
Andy Kim did little justice to his hit Sugar Sugar with a wobbly rendition backed by Bedouin Soundclash, Esthero and an out-of-tune all-girls choir. Still, Kim said he was delighted that his peers chose to honour his song.
“Songwriting has always been kind of one of my favourite things to do and songwriters have been my favourite people to be around,” he said.
Kim insisted he never worries about how his songs are interpreted. “I’m okay because I start off by giving my personality to the song and then it’s there for the world to, number one, decide if they like it and, number two, if there’s another artist who feels they can interpret it in another way, I’m more than happy to listen.”
So what makes Canadians such great songwriters?
“I think the cross-current of British and American influences, in rock anyway, just seem to have a great crossroads here in Canada,” said former pop star and current lead singer of Styx, Lawrence Gowan. “I think that’s how we blend a lot of the two together.”
Dahmnait Doyle, solo artist and one-third of Shaye, credited Mother Nature for the wealth of songwriting talent in Canada.
“I think it’s the cold. I think it’s the cold and we have a great sense of freedom here,” she explained. “And the cold. I have to go back to the cold.”
But perhaps the most credible theory came from Esthero:
“We’re cold and miserable and uncomfortable,” she said. “And we have good liquor available to us.”
