The Rankin Family

Our Favourite Songs by Nova Scotians

March 5, 2016March 5, 2016 Paul Andrew Kimball and Ron Foley Macdonald 1 Comment Blackpool, Four The Moment, Joel Plaskett, John Wesley Chisholm, Leonard Conan, Matt Mays, music, Rose Cousins, Sloan, The Rankin Family, Wintersleep

Since Ron and I posted our picks for the top 20 albums by Nova Scotians a few weeks ago, we’ve been having a lively debate between ourselves about individual songs by our fellow Bluenosers. We decided to do things a bit differently – this time out we have tossed critical objectivity out the proverbial window in favour of embracing our own feelings. Accordingly, we each agreed to pick our favourite five songs based solely on our own idiosyncratic points of view… and then we added five more that were “honourable mentions,” because we both found it too difficult to winnow it down to just a quintet!

These are the songs that we love the most, for reasons that we each briefly describe as best we can. It can be hard even for practiced wordsmiths like Ron and me to put feelings into words sometimes – how exactly, for example, do I describe the joy I feel when listening to “You Feel The Same Way Too” by the Rankin Family other than to say “it’s just so irresistibly fun”?

Speaking of the Rankins, it’s worth noting that Ron and I each chose a song by the first family of Nova Scotia music, and then I added another in my honourable mentions. He and I might be rockers at heart, but neither of us can resist the wonderful song craft and pure joie de vivre of the clan from Cape Breton.

Our lists include an eclectic mix of songs by Sloan, Wintersleep, Matt Mays, Four The Moment, Rose Cousins, and more. As always, we view it as a starting point for a conversation. Leave a comment and tell us your “fab five”!

Music Review Reviews

The Top 20 Albums by Nova Scotians

February 4, 2016February 15, 2016 Paul Andrew Kimball and Ron Foley Macdonald 26 Comments Anne Murray, April Wine, Ashley MacIsaac, Buck 65, Denise Djokic, Garrett Mason, Hank Snow, Holly Cole, Joel Plaskett, music, Nova Scotia, Pepper Tree, Rita McNeil, Sarah McLachlan, Sloan, The Guthries, The Heavy Blinkers, The Rankin Family, Top 20

Nova Scotia has always punched above our per capita weight when it comes to creative output, and nowhere has that been more pronounced than in our music. From folk to rock to pop to country to classical, some of the biggest stars in Canadian history have come from this small and sometimes overlooked region of the country, and if more than a few of them had to leave in order to make it big, well, that’s okay – consider them a fifth column sent out to remind our fellow Canadians (and the world at large) that we’re still here. In this list, former musicians and current filmmakers Ron Foley Macdonald and Paul Andrew Kimball take an in-depth look at what they consider to be the best albums ever made by Nova Scotians.