The latest tier of exceptional Canadian songwriters were recognized for their body of work on Oct. 17 at the induction ceremony for the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF).
Andy Kim, Gino Vannelli, Jane Siberry, Ian Thomas and Triumph’s Rik Emmett, Mike Levine and Gil Moore were all honoured at Toronto’s Lyric Theatre, an intimate 560-capacity venue inside Meridian Arts Centre. It was titled “Legends” for a reason.
Attended mostly by industry peers and family (tickets were available to the public), each songwriter was celebrated in a half-hour segment that included a congratulatory video from esteemed peers, a performance or two of their songs by an emerging or established younger artist, and the induction by a specially chosen individual.
GINO VANNELLI
At the top of the two-and-a-half hour show, a career retrospective video was shown about each of the inductees, then Montrealers Clerel and RÊVE kicked off the night with a duet of Vannelli’s 1981 ballad “Living Inside Myself,” backed by the house band, led by Lou Pomanti, the CSHF’s musical director for the past decade. It signalled the first inductee of the five.
Tara Slone — formerly of Juno-nominated rock band Joydrop and now a hockey and entertainment reporter — then came out to emcee the evening.
Juno and American Music Awards winner Alfie Zappacosta then sang Vannelli’s first chart hit, 1974’s “People Gotta Move” and the tribute video included words of praise from the likes of Michael Bublé, Herb Albert and Burton Cummings.
Frank Davies, the Canadian music publishing veteran who founded the CSHF, then did the honours of inducting him.
Gino Vannelli. (Courtesy: Lu Chau)
In his acceptance speech, the 73-year-old Vannelli talked about how he worked at songwriting, “searching for the elusive formula, the unpatented, captivating melody and lyric we all instinctively sense is special, but are at a loss to find any better description to them than a good song.”
He also offered advice to young songwriters. “Firstly, become a sort of musicologist. Study the best. Investigate the best. The ones who started it all. Try to learn what made the best the best of what they did,” before rattling off a long list from Beethoven to Rodgers and Hammerstein “to the great Canadian songbook with the likes of Leonard, Joni, Gordon and many more.”
IAN THOMAS
Next up was Ian Thomas’ induction, whose songs have been covered by everyone from America to Bette Midler. Winnipeg’s Noah Dirksen and Toronto’s Sam Drysdale then sang 1973’s classic “Painted Ladies” before the tribute video played with congratulatory messages that included his brother, comedian and actor Dave Thomas. Then, another Canadian songwriting legend Murray McLauchlan came out to induct him. The pair have had a side group, Lunch At Allen’s, with fellow songwriters Cindy Church and Marc Jordan, for the past 25 years, which is coming to an end.
“As a writer of songs, Ian is the polar opposite of the classic country trope, three chords and the truth. He might be better described as 25 chords and where the hell is he going with this? Truthfully though, Ian is an amazing writer and his pedigree is ample proof. The people who have covered his work are a virtual who’s who of stars,” he said.
“But I have to say, some of his best work and some of my favourite songs are the ones he has created as part of … Lunch at Allen’s…We’ve made some great music together and I have marveled at his incredible talent.”
Ian Thomas (Courtesy: Lu Chau)
When Thomas, 75, came up to accept the award, he praised the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame for selecting such a varied group of Canadian songwriters and lamented the days when AM radio played everything from Dave Brubeck to the Stones to Johnny Cash. “It was completely inspiring,” he said.
“I have loved where song composition takes me. It’s a basic extension of human sentience. Stamped into our DNA is a desire to express ourselves…What a journey this has been. I wrote my first song at 15 and I was lost in it. I looked up and three or four hours had passed. Where I had been was this abyss of possibility. And the song wasn’t so hot, but the experience of writing it was.
“I’ve been writing songs now for 60 years. And from that sense of well-being comes the notion I could do anything. And so I kept it solid. And it just kept opening doors for me.”
Then, a cool surprise, after playing an old video of Thomas, Emmett and Pomanti, the three performed “Right Before Your Eyes,” aka “Rudolph Valentino,” together — some 40 years later.
ANDY KIM
It was Andy Kim’s turn next. Juno winners Kirk Diamond and Kairo McLean performed a unique reggae version of his smash “Sugar, Sugar,” the song popularized by the Archies and also covered by Tina Turner, Gladys Knight, and Bob Marley. His tribute video included praise from Brian McKnight, Tony Orlando, Nile Rodgers and Sam Roberts.
Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson then appeared on stage to induct him, recalling a story from 1995 when the pop group was paired with the legend at Kumbaya Festival in Toronto to sing his 1974 hit “Rock Me Gently” and was extremely earnest, to say the least, imitating his vocals and moves during their first rehearsal (“I was frightened; I was excited, and I was deeply in love”). The two went on to work together, with Robertson co-writing and producing his 2004 top 10 comeback single, “I Forgot To Mention.”
“There’s so many songwriters in this room. You know that writing something that sounds simple is not an easy thing,” Robertson said. “You take basic ingredients, and you make something catchy, memorable, transcendent. I am so proud to be asked to do this induction because I love you. I love your songs. I love what you’ve brought to the Canadian songbook, to the world songbook. There’s not too many people that have written things that everybody on the planet knows.”
Andy Kim. (Courtesy: Lu Chau)
To help celebrate Kim further, Robertson said, he brought out Broken Social Scene founder Kevin Drew, who co-wrote and co-produced Kim’s 2015 album, It’s Decided. Drew and Robertson then performed his No. 1 single “Rock Me Gently,” with Robertson jokingly imitating his moves.
Kim, who often gets emotional, then gave his speech, talking about the lyric he had asked the CSHF to inscribe on the award: “shady hollow dreamer” – the title of a song on his 1973 self-titled album — reciting the opening lyrics. Then thanking Robertson and Kim for their “love and inspiration.”
“Michelangelo said I saw the angel in the marble and carved them ‘til I set it free,” he said, telling briefly how he boarded a bus for New York City with $40 on “a quest to find songwriters and producers that filled my transistor radio and my heart with the magic of a world only dreams are made of, and here I am, old and honoured to be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame…”
“All I ever wanted to do was write songs, make records and travel the world, live a life that’s bigger than my reality. A guitar and a song, that’s all I needed.”
There was a brief break to play two videos, one on the National Music Centre (NMC), Canada’s version of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, mentioning that the inductees received their Hall of Fame plaques at a pre-show reception that will be on display forever at the NMC; the other spotlighting Palestinian-Canadian artist Nemahsis, winner of the Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year award, which “celebrates emerging artists and songwriters we hope to see standing on this very stage in the years to come,” Slone said.
JANE SIBERRY
Now it was time for the night’s only female inductee to get her flowers. Her tribute video included props from Peter Gabriel, Corey Hart, Carole Pope, Steven Page and Lorraine Segato, then a beautiful performance of 1984’s “Mimi On The Beach” by the Toronto singer Housewife (Brighid Fry), then Chantal Kreviazuk performed 1991’s “Calling All Angels” on the grand piano, revealing it was a “daunting task” to tackle the song.
“Coming up next is an artist who is an inspiration to millions of us, yet she was inspired by Jane Siberry,” Slone said. “Her version of ‘Calling All Angels’ was an instant classic… Please welcome National Treasure, k.d. lang.”
The country music innovator called Siberry “a bastion of equanimity and compassion and spiritualism and humanitarianism,” lang said.
“Jane’s music has changed the way that I approach songwriting. But more importantly, as an interpretive singer of other people’s music, Jane is my favourite songwriter and her song’s ‘incredibly difficult and challenging.’”
Jane Siberry. (Courtesy: Lu Chau)
Siberry’s speech was as creative and unpredictable as her songs. “I wanted to say, when I came to this incarnation, they said I had three choices. You can either be a president, or you can be an Olympic ladies luge, or you can be a songwriter. And I said, ‘OK you choose, surprise me.’ Anyway, so then I said, ‘How am I supposed to be a songwriter then? Tell me how you do it.’
“Well, they said, ‘First of all, you have no limits…And have fun with it and do whatever you like.’
“Anyway, so my experience as a songwriter, too, is like, how do you write songs? Well, it’s an amazing feeling. It’s sort of like this force comes over you and you feel almost like how a pregnant woman might feel, like, ‘Whoa, big, have to pee’ and it’s amazing, this beauty and this golden love, and you haven’t even thought of the words or the music yet. That’s what songwriting is like, I find.”
TRIUMPH
Last but not least, capping the night was the induction of Rik Emmett, Gil Moore and Mike Levine, a.k.a. Triumph, which Slone rightly explained, “when someone puts on Triumph, someone else will always yell, ‘Turn it up!’” The tribute video for them included salutes from Alex Lifeson, Dee Snider, Todd Kerns, Sebastian Bach, Lawrence Gowan, and Kiefer Sutherland. Then powerhouse singer JJ Wilde and rock guitarist/singer Charlie Edwards ripped up the stage for a version of 1981’s “Magic Power,” before Tom Cochrane came on to induct the rock legends, also known for such radio staples as “Lay It On The Line,” “Hold On” and “Somebody’s Out There.”
Cochrane mentioned the band’s stage show — “smoke bombs, massive lightshows, cutting-edge live sound, flame-throwers coming out of kick drums” — and then their well-crafted songs and musicianship. “Triumph songs came at you like a train on the radio, positive, uplifting, inspiring, rocking, for the kids, for everybody else. There was the fuel that drove the Triumph machine and without them, without the songs, none of the other stuff would have happened.”
Rik Emmett, Mike Levine, Gil Moore, a.k.a Triumph, and Tom Cochrane. (Courtesy: Lu Chau)
The trio then took turns at the mic to say their thank yous.
“There’s three of us; there’s one of everybody else, the other songwriters,” Levine said of the band versus the solo inductees. “So, we are going to split it up. So. we’d be like a song, so I’m doing the intro. Gil’s doing the first and Rik’s going to do the chorus. So, on behalf of the band, thank you to the Hall of Fame. I’m so thankful for this fantastic award and congratulations to all the other inductees. It’s been a journey and I don’t think I could have taken this journey without Gil and Rik, my partners in crime.”
Moore mentioned the band’s new manager and the latest incarnation of Triumph, “our six-piece power trio,” and thanked media giant Rogers “for aligning our music with sports in Canada which is a great thing for young people.” He added that “Hold On” was also sung by over 200,000 students across Canada for the Coalition for Music Education in Canada’s Music Monday, which will happen again next May. “We’re very proud of that.”
Before joining current Triumph member Phil X to perform the twin guitar attack of “Lay It On The Line” as the grand finale to the awards, Emmett got his chance to say a few words, summing up Triumph’s career, which could be applied to what the other inductees have accomplished.
“Triumph was about three-and-a-half years in before we eventually arrived at writing some songs that defined what the band was really all about, songs that radio embraced, songs that work on concert stages, becoming a part of the soundtrack of people’s lives. In the end, it’s always the songs that end up telling the story.”