Hair Canada

You’d be forgiven if the vision of Canada’s rolling plains, shoulder-high wheat, and farm country didn’t immediately send you to thoughts of southern rock. Canada’s prairies aren’t exactly Alabama or the bayou, but this is exactly where The Sheepdogs hail from, and southern rock is exactly what they do. It’s their bread and butter. Saskatoon’s favourite sons have made a living on albums dripping with Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. However, their latest album, Changing Colours, goes further.

Ancient Wars
In a week it will once again be Remembrance Day, November 11th, 11:00am. For two short minutes we will be asked to put down our tools and pay a silent homage to those who fought for our freedoms. Most of us do not remember the sacrifices our fathers and their father made and how brave they must have been. I know my father joined at the age of 17 and spent 2 years as a tail gunner on a RAF Lancaster. I also know that all but one of my uncles served in various services and that 2 remained in Europe forever. My grandfathers both served in the 1st World War and my mother’s father lost 2 of his brothers at Vimy Ridge. My own father served for 25 years in the Canadian Air Force and for 4 long years worked as a bomb disposal expert on the Maginot Line. In many ways he never came back from the war.

To put it in perspective, over 15 million people were either killed in the 1st war and over 62 million died in the 2nd war. Germany lost over 10 percent of its entire population, Poland over 16 percent and Russia over 13 percent . In Vietnam, 58,000 US Soldier, 552 Australians, 1,000 ROK and 1.3 million North & South Vietnam soldiers were killed. Another 2 to 4 million civilians were also killed.

To remember my father, grandfathers and all those others who fought so bravely I have assembled a large collection of music that commemorates Ancient wars, the world wars, Vietnam and the future wars. This is not done to glorify war but to remember the brave men and women who stand watch each and every day so we can be free.

I have also included John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields” and some of the history behind how the poppy became the symbol of remembrance, along with one other poem.

If you love the keyboard saturated, yet ballsy sound of Biloxi’s debut, as well as Tour De Force (World on fire), with the slick AOR charm of Simon Says and 1st Avenue, look no further than massively produced- harmony backing/lead vocal drenched indie hard rock/AOR debut from THE CAST. Essentially, one could say this was the Canadian version of Mark Free’s “Long way to love” album… almost too similiar in style/vocal/keyboard/guitar delivery. Ignore the cover art- I know, it looks boring… open up the case and you see a band that not only had the 80s hair metal look but the absolutely perfect late 80s AOR/hard rock/glam sound. From start to finish one of the best indie AOR/hard rock albums of 1993. “Do You Feel” and “Look Out” are simply incredible.