Northern Journey 2: A Guide to Canadian Folk Music
by Gene Wilburn
Reference Press, 1998. 368pp. ISBN 0-91981-64-X, $28 Cdn
Northern Journey is a guide to the traditional and contemporary acoustic music of Canada released in CD format. It is similar in scope to a Canadian folk festival, featuring artists who embrace a mix of styles ranging from traditional Scottish/Cape Breton Celtic music to contemporary performing songwriters, plus a sprinkling of blues, bluegrass, First Nations music, and Canadian-based worldbeat music.This second edition of Northern Journey features nearly 1000 albums recorded by over 500 Canadian artists. The guide is divided into three sections: Artists, Compilations, and Record Company Addresses. The alphabetically-arranged Artists section describes the type of music an artist or group performs and presents a discography of the artists' recorded work, including each album's song tracks. Suggestions are made on which albums make good purchases and albums marked with a tick [a red asterisk * in the online edition] indicate albums that are highly recommended for building a core collection of Canadian folk music. The Compilations section covers anthologies of folk music recorded by various artists. The Record Company Addresses section provides information on where the CD's in this guide can be obtained.
Readers of this guide are invited to visit the Northern Journey Online website (www.NorthernJourney.com) for updates and additional information on Canadian artists, clubs and festivals. The NJO website, which includes an electronic version of this publication, also features an extensive set of artist and song title indexes that complement this guide.
Canadian "folk" music is alive and thriving in clubs, concerts and festival stages. It is my hope that this guide will encourage you to seek out the fine musicians listed here and support them by attending their performances and purchasing their albums. You will be well rewarded.
Acknowledgements
My foremost thanks to the artists in this guide who have created a treasure trove of music. Thanks too to those artists and record companies who were able to support me in this project by sending me albums and biographical material.
From the start, many individuals have given me help and encouragement, but I would like especially to thank the following individuals who have gone far beyond the call of friendship or duty: Derek Andrews, Ossie Branscombe, Gary Cristall, Steve Fruitman, Susan Martinez, and Les Siemieniuk. I have also received continual assistance from the members of the Cdnfolk-l and Maplepost Internet listserves who, for several years now, have answered my many queries promptly and with good humour.
Extra thanks to Canadian folklorist and radio host Steve Fruitman for conceiving and implementing the annual CIUT-FM Porcupine Awards, the only comprehensive folk music awards in Canada. Porcupine Award winners are noted throughout the guide.
Special thanks, too, to Gord Ripley, my publisher at Reference Press who, twice now, has believed enough in the concept of Northern Journey to bring it to print.
And to my wife, Marion, and my son, Trevor, thanks for your patience and your unfailing support. This project could not have happened without you.
--Gene Wilburn, Port Credit, Ontario, November 1998