It's time for Natabaloo's second installment of Diggin' fer Treasure, aka Found Gems...Y'ar!! I'm on the tail-end of finishing up the Canada section, the last half of which mainly covered the eastern cost.

FOUND GEMS, PART II

We are moving a fair chunk of the Canada section into R3, or North America Misc., to accommodate our collection of First Nations music (which is often border-less). So far, this one caught my eye the most:

Inuit Throat and Harp Songs
Eskimo Women’s Music of Povungnituk
- Tagaq, the not-so-traditional throat singer is coming to the Edmonton Folk Fest this year, so of course it has piqued my interest in throat singers. I think what I like best about throat singing is how often the women break down into laughter at the end of a song, which is quite common in this genre, from what I understand.

More from the R1 section: The Canada LP section is more or less complete, just a few loose ends to tie up. Here are a few more treasures I’ve come across:

In the Dawning – A Story of Canada
Various artists
- This collection includes some intriguing collaborations and many notable artists, such as Christopher Plummer with The London Symphony Orchestra, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Connie Kaldor, and many more. The arrangement of the songs constructs a story, which follows a narrative that is interspersed through out the liner notes.

Musique du Quebec
Various artists
- A compellation in six volumes, this collection is a veritable who’s who of 1970’s French-Canadian musical artists. Originally released in 1979, it celebrates the first thirty years of “The chanson (that unique manifestation of popular music in Quebec)” (liner notes, first page).

Songs of the Iron Trail: The Canadian Railroad Experience in Song
Performed by Barry Luft and Tim Rogers, with Grit Laskin
- I knew I’d have a soft spot for this album as soon as I saw the title, because my grandfather worked on the Ontario railways for many years after the Second World War. He actually worked right on the ‘iron trail’, fixing the ties to the ground with a hammer, just like the folk song Johnny Cash recently made famous, “John Henry”. The amazing thing about this album is that the melodies feel quite upbeat, even though the subject matter is about harsh working conditions and the melancholy that comes with desperately low pay. I suppose that, as with many folk music traditions, sympathetic lyrics are paired with a sweet tune in order to uplift or to soothe its disaffected and malcontented audience. I’m particularly fond of track 6, “Hobo’s Song to the Mounties”, and track 9 (side 2), “The Kettle Valley Line”, the two least cheerful sounding songs.

The songs I came across the most this week:
Le Six Grande Pieds
Money Musk
A La Claire Fontaine
Un Canadien Errant (English translation: A Wandering Canadian) – A google search of this title may pull up lots of Leonard Cohen links. Don’t be fooled! It was originally written over a century before he covered the tune.

If I’m not being too optimistic, next week I should be able to start giving updates on the United States (R 2) section. It’s a big one, so that will probably be the focus of this log for the next couple of weeks, at least!

Happy listening!