The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony was always going to be bittersweet this year, since the Tragically Hip were finally getting their due, but Gord Downie wasn’t there to witness it.
Still, Saturday’s star-studded ceremony at Massey Hall had plenty of highs, too, as Toronto indie musician Leslie Feist, Loverboy members Mike Reno and Paul Dean, and Quebec pop singer-songwriter Roch Voisine also joined this year’s class.
Here are some of the night’s highlights, from the red carpet to the performances.
Loverboy gets the room working
Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that Loverboy’s boisterous arena rock broke the first sweat of the night. Amanda Marshall jump-started the evening with a lively rendition of “Turn Me Loose,” dashing onstage and calling everyone to their feet.
The Toronto blues/soul singer said she usually shoots down offers to perform at these shows, but relented when she learned Loverboy was being inducted. She threw her name in with the condition she could sing this particular song, citing its two backing vocalists as the draw.
“Nancy Nash happens to be Canadian and Katie Kissoon is from Port of Spain, Trinidad, which is where my mom is from, so I just felt a connection,” Marshall said on the red carpet, dressed in a black T-shirt with the band’s name emblazoned in hot-pink letters.
“This era of music was so hyper-masculine…so to have a woman singing seemed fitting — and it seemed fitting that it be me.”
Other acts got into the Loverboy spirit just as quickly, including Todd Kerns, guitarist for Slash’s band, who shook the room with his energetic take on “The Kid is Hot Tonite” which had the night’s co-host George Stroumboulopoulos dancing on the sidelines.
Loverboy co-founder and guitarist Paul Dean accepted the Calgary band’s induction solo, telling the Star that bandmate Mike Reno had to miss the ceremony due to “severe vertigo.”
Dean still found a way to bring him into the evening, revealing that Reno was the one who came up with the idea to change the lyric, “Everybody’s waiting for the weekend” to what became “Working for the Weekend,” and secure a rock classic in the process.
Gord Downie looms over Hip induction
No induction carried quite the same emotional heft as the Tragically Hip’s, whose distinctly Canadian songs helped shape the country’s modern identity, a point driven home throughout the show.
The Kingston, Ont. band’s lyrics proved timeless across performances by Sebastian Gaskin and Tia Wood, who covered “Bobcaygeon,” and Dallas Green and Ruby Waters, who chose “Ahead By a Century.” But the most poignant moment came when Downie’s purple fedora was hung on a microphone stand at centre stage, a reminder that the late Hip frontman was the missing piece of the celebration.
Downie died in October 2017 of brain cancer.
Allison Russell began “Wheat Kings” by blowing a kiss to the hat, an item that became recognizable on the Hip’s final tour and through the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.
Before her performance, Russell called the Hip “foundational, generational and defining Canadian auteurs.”
“Not just as artists,” she added.
“But as humanitarians using their platform to do whatever they could to address the inequalities and harms they saw around us.”
Hip guitarist Rob Baker delivered the band’s acceptance speech alongside Gord Sinclair and Paul Langlois. Drummer Johnny Fay could not attend due to family obligations.
Baker opened with what he framed as a message from Downie, which turned out to be lyrics from “Songwriter’s Cabal,” off their 1998 album “Phantom Power.” In the song, Downie sings about the immense pressure of creation.
How Downie himself might have received the induction is anyone’s guess. His brothers say he was famously uncomfortable with awards adulation.
“I think he’d come around,” said Patrick Downie. “He had his lines about awards and being honoured, but I think with this one … it’s pretty great company and he worked damn hard as a songwriter.”
Feist’s return on a wedding favour
If Leslie Feist performs at your wedding, the least you can do is induct her into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. That, at least, appears to have been Finneas O’Connell’s thinking.
Feist, who he says is his all-time favourite guitarist, played his wedding last month, and so the musician and brother of Billie Eilish showed up to return a favour. He sang “My Moon My Man” and ushered her into the songwriting pantheon by dropping to one knee. Feist responded in kind, by accepting her trophy at his level.
“Leslie is so many of your favourite artists’ favourite artist — I know, I asked them,” Finneas said.
Based on the tribute video alone, he might be right. Sam Smith, Carly Rae Jepsen, Olivia Rodrigo, Joe Jonas and Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker were among the artists who offered lavish praise. Then there was Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, who performed a tender rendition of “The Park” before slipping offstage.
A visibly moved Feist took in the applause before offering perspective on the songwriting process.
“I’m really careful about the words I choose because words have power,” she said.
“The rulelessness (of songwriting) is a kind of alchemy,” she added. “I can write from confidence I don’t actually have, and maybe I’ll be lucky enough to sing it until it’s true.”
Roch Voisine gets heavy on Lightfoot
Leave it to Roch Voisine to crash his own party. While it’s not exactly a strict rule, the way these ceremonies usually work is that the honourees watch from the audience while other artists perform their songs. Not so for Voisine.
Halfway through Quebec singer Isabelle Boulay’s rendition of “I’ll Always Be There,” Voisine waltzed on stage as a surprise guest, joining Scarborough’s Powerhouse Fellowship Soul Choir.
Maybe Voisine just wanted to enjoy time at Massey, the hallowed home of Gordon Lightfoot, one of his influences. He said Lightfoot’s 1975 album “Gold” was the first record he bought.
“I would listen to Gordon Lightfoot in my room and try to sing like him and play guitar,” he said on the red carpet.
His admiration for the late Toronto folk legend inspired “The Lightfoot Sessions,” his latest album out next month, and a Canadian tour that starts in November.
