Go Thistles!

Here's a confession. I've never written a historical song, and I've never written a song about hockey.

Two risky admissions for a Canadian roots music performer.

That all changed this week, when I had to write another song for Take5. I think this is week, uh, 14? No, it's 15. I'm starting to lose track.

This week the pickings were looking a little, well, serious. Should I write about Rumi, the ancient Persian mystic (who is being commemorated in a concert this weekend)? Does anything rhyme with Rumi? Hmmm...

Then I visited the classy and inviting website of the Kenora Thistles, the team of seven speedy sportsmanlike players who won the Stanley Cup in 1907. Could I (non-hockey playing person) write a good song about that?

Turned out, I could. And I had a great time doing it.

I enjoyed fitting the players' names into a verse.

I enjoyed singing the phrase "right here in Kenora". (That's a lovely, lyrical name for a town. Much better than the previous name, "Rat Portage", which would have killed the song right there. So, where did the name "Kenora" come from anyway? Here's what Wikipedia says: "Rat Portage transformed into Kenora after amalgamating with the two neighbouring townships of Keewatin and Norman in 1904. A name change was in order for the new town; something encompassing all three of the new areas. Kenora formed from the first two letters of each area: KEewatin, NOrman, and RAt Portage: Kenora." I did not know that.)

And I enjoyed linking that 100-year old event with today in the song, by suggesting that the singer could possibly be the child of a player on the original team, now a grandparent of a young hockey player. The circle of life...the circle of hockey.

Here's something I meant to say in the interview which we pre-taped tonight.

"Go Thistles!!"

Because on Saturday, January 20th, 2007, they'll hold a commemorative game, with special guest players including Bryan Trottier, Dale Hawerchuck and Hayley Wickenheiser. Having lived and breathed this song for the past 36 hours, I am so there...

Here's the song.

Meltdown

This was the first week that I thought I might not be able to achieve my weekly song.

We took a break over the official holiday period (they ran the studio-recorded version of "Vessie Outshining the Moon") but this week was "business as usual"...for everyone but me it seemed.

This week, all of my responsibilities seemed to barge in at once like guests to a Christmas party: freelance writing work for the YMCA and a condominium developer, children home from school and parents visiting from Winnipeg, holiday parties to attend, gifts to buy and distribute, friends to host for dinner...and a song to write for Take 5.

I felt, as I always do when I host a party of any kind, that I couldn't give adequate attention to any of these. In addition, and putting my relatively minor stresses into perspective, we learned that a friend had died after living with AIDS for many years, and that a couple we know is divorcing.

When it came to song topics, the one most on my mind was International Polar Year and global warming, which had been covered in depth on Tuesday's show. As the icecaps melt, temperatures in Toronto continue to soar well above freezing. Ski hills remain closed. And we're all walking around in a state of low-level anxiety.

On Wednesday, all the pressure of everything became too much for me. I cracked, and started to write an email saying that I had to take the week off. I couldn't possibly write a song this week, because I was much too busy.

That's when it hit me. I was having a meltdown.

The only thing to do was stop, breathe, observe. Make the connection between the state of my life and the state of the planet's. Write the song.