Photo by courtesy of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame / courtoisie du Panthéon des auteurs et compositeurs canadiens

Paul Piché to be inducted into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame at 2023 SOCAN Gala

Story by Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame / Panthéon des auteurs et compositeurs canadiens | Thursday April 27th, 2023

The great Paul Piché will be inducted to the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on May 7, 2023, during the SOCAN Gala held, once again, at Montréal’s La Tohu. Paul Piché has become one of the most influential songwriters on the Québec music scene. A free-thinker, poet, and standard-bearer of protest song, Piché sings as much about love as he does about social issues close to his heart, such as the preservation of rivers, and Québec’s sovereignty.

The induction will be presented by Julie Snyder, while Pierre Kwenders, Ingrid St-Pierre, and Stéphanie St-Jean will perform during the evening.

Piché contributes to our musical heritage with an impressive collection of songs, including several classics – “Heureux d’un printemps,” “Mon Joe,” “Y’a pas grand-chose dans l’ciel à soir,” “L’escalier,” “J’aurai jamais 18 ans,” “J’appelle,” “Car je t’aime,” “Ne fais pas ça” – songs that are as much campfire classics as cover material for young artists.

Released in 1977, his debut album À qui appartient le beau temps? sold more than 100,000 copies, and is now considered one of the key Québec albums of the ’70s. Music heavyweights like Serge Fiori, Alain Lamontagne, Pauline Lapointe, and several members of Beau Dommage helped to create it. His next two albums, L’escalier and Nouvelles d’Europe, were huge popular successes, and Piché followed them up with a live double-album, Intégral, recorded at Montréal’s Le Spectrum, on which he re-visits his entire repertoire.

In 1988, he released Sur le chemin des incendies, an album that gave us some of his most memorable hits such as “J’appelle,” “Un château de sable,” and “Car je t’aime.” The next year, he embarked on his so-called Tour of Montréal, that saw him play one show in each of the five most important venues in the city: Club Soda, Le Spectrum, Théâtre Saint-Denis, Théâtre Outremont, and Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts. Two years later, in addition to concluding his tour with a recording broadcast on Radio-Canada’s Beaux dimanches, Piché participated in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste festivities on the Plains of Abraham and on Île Sainte-Hélène, in front of more than 200,000 people. In the fall of 1993, he released L’Instant, an intimate and mature album where love is front-and-centre, but where the people of his homeland are not to be outdone. Then, in August 1994, he was invited to participate in the special event La Symphonie du Québec, presented during the FrancoFolies de Montréal, where he performed a few songs accompanied by a symphony orchestra.

In June 1996, Piché released the double “Best Of” album L’un et l’autre, which went Platinum; then, on the ninth day of the ninth month of 1999, he released his ninth album, Le Voyage, containing nine songs.

The spring of 2000 saw Piché’s return to the stage; accompanied by guitarist Rick Haworth, bassist Mario Légaré, Jean-Sébastien Fournier on keyboards, and Pierre Hébert on drums, he played a dozen cities in Québec, before taking over Le Spectrum in Montréal and Le Capitole in Québec City.

In 2002, he cycled 550 km to deliver a letter to Québec’s then-Premier, Bernard Landry, whom he successfully convinced not to build mini hydro-electric power plants on Québec’s rivers. Piché is also one of the spokespersons for the Adopt-a-River cause, and he celebrated the International Year of Water with J’ai trouvé l’eau si belle, a politically charged show presented in 2003 at Métropolis in Montréal, alongside Luck Mervil, Richard Desjardins, and Daniel Boucher.

In 2004, he released Paluche 3.14, a bold project that saw some of the biggest names on Montréal’s electro-urban scene re-mix some of Piché’s great classics.

Piché published his first book, Déjà vu, in 2007. Starting from an observation about the cyclical nature of fashion trends, he draws a parallel with the recurrence of political impulses, whether left- or right-leaning. The book’s intent is to clear the ground of the collective unconscious through the passage of time.

In 2009, Piché completed a series of intimate concerts, during which he performed some of the new songs he was considering recording. Love, friendship, death, and social comment are at the heart of these songs, which appeared on his 10th album, Sur ce côté de la Terre. Following the release of what has so far turned out to be his last album of original songs, Piché embarked on herculean six-year tour, that concluded in 2015.

Two years later, he undertook what he called the Célébration des 40 printemps to mark the 40th  anniversary of the release of his first album, À qui appartient le beau temps? He played great shows at the Bell Centre in Montréal and at the Centre Vidéotron in Québec City, alongside artists such as 2 Frères, Safia Nolin, Éric Lapointe, Vincent Vallières, Koriass and Les Trois Accords. The response from the public was such that he was asked to tour throughout Québec. Piché will tour this show for three years, inviting different artists to play and sing with him onstage at each show. The very last performance of this tour was scheduled at Place Bell in Laval on May 20, 2020, but the pandemic forced its postponement; it was then re-scheduled for May 20, 2022.

SOCAN welcomes the adoption of Bill C-11

Story by Howard Druckman | Thursday April 27th, 2023

SOCAN welcomes the passage of Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, by the Senate.  

Streaming has grown significantly in recent years, but Canadian songwriters and composers have not received their fair share of this growth. Foreign streaming giants have enjoyed unfettered access to Canadian audiences and now, thanks to C-11, they will have to help support our cultural community and our Canadian songwriters.  

“The Online Streaming Act sets the stage for the promotion and support of Canadian songwriters and composers,“ said SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown. “We all benefit when our cultural policies reflect and encourage the Canadian experience and the creation and dissemination of Canadian stories and songs.“ 

“This law is of crucial importance to the success of Québec music culture,” says Alexandre Alonso, SOCAN Executive Director of Québec Affairs. “Our data shows that Québec music creators are having difficulty reaching audiences on digital media, and Bill C-11 will encourage the promotion of their incredible work. “ 

Bill C-11 delivers on the promise of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, to regulate online streaming services while excluding its application to individual content creators.  

On behalf of its more than 185,000 members, SOCAN warmly thanks Minister Rodriguez for his leadership, and assures him of its continued support on any project that will support the growth of Canadian cultural industries. SOCAN also thanks NDP and Bloc Québécois Members of Parliament for their support on this very important issue. 

 

Photo by courtesy of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame / courtoisie du Panthéon des auteurs et compositeurs canadiens

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame to induct rock ‘n’ roll songwriter Myles Goodwyn

Story by Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame / Panthéon des auteurs et compositeurs canadiens | Wednesday April 26th, 2023

In 2003, acclaimed songwriter and April Wine lead singer Myles Goodwyn received the East Coast Music Awards’ (ECMAs) Lifetime Achievement Award for his impact on the music industry of Atlantic Canada.  Exactly 20 years later, he’ll return to the ECMAs to accept his latest distinction as the newest Inductee to the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF).  Considered by many as one of Canada’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll songwriters, Goodwyn will see the CSHF celebrate the catalogue of classics he penned for April Wine, spanning more than five decades.

On May 4, 2023, the CSHF will present Goodwyn with the Award at the ECMAs in Halifax, NS; and later this year, his name will be included in the permanent exhibit at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Museum in the National Music Centre in Calgary, as the organization commemorates 25 years of celebrating Canada’s greatest songs and songwriters.

The 35th Annual East Coast Music Awards will be broadcast across the country on selected community television stations, and also available online at ECMA.com and RogersTV.com.  Announced performers include Jimmy Rankin, Nick Earle, Christine Campbell, and Colin MacDonald, with friend and “Right Myself” collaborator, Lennie Gallant presenting to Goodwyn. Tickets are available at ECMA.com.

“To be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, has been a wish of mine for many years,” says Goodwyn. “It’s possibly the most significant award I’ve ever received. What has mattered most to me, for all my years in the business, was to be taken seriously as a songwriter.”

Goodwyn gave his final live performance with April Wine on March 2, 2023, as the only remaining original member of the iconic rock group.

“After he’s spent more than 50 years touring and performing as the voice and songwriter behind April Wine, we’re thrilled to be able to induct Myles and his iconic body of work into the CSHF,” said Stan Meissner, CSHF Board Chairman. “On behalf of all music fans, we thank Myles for sharing his gift as a songwriter, singer, guitarist, and performer, who’s given us the soundtrack to a generation; and he’ll continue to inspire a new generation as the creative force behind the next evolution of April Wine.”

Goodwyn founded April Wine in 1969 with longtime friend, Jim Henman, and Henman’s cousins David and Ritchie Henman, in Nova Scotia.  Less than a year later, the group moved to Montréal to sign a record deal with Aquarius Records, and embarked on a “Fast Train” to success.

Their first album, released in 1971,  included their first hit single, “Fast Train,” written by Goodwyn; followed by Goodwyn-penned classics like “Roller,” “I Wouldn’t Want to Lose Your Love,” and “I Like to Rock.” Their album The Whole World’s Goin’ Crazy became the first Canadian album to sell more than 100,000 copies.

Goodwyn’s songs have ranged in style from edgy rock to romantic ballads, from country to blues – and his  subject matter was just as wide-ranging, encompassing piano classics such as “Comin’ Right Down on Top of Me,” “Like a Lover, Like a Song,” and “I Wouldn’t Want to Lose Your Love,” as well as the environmental song, “Lady Run, Lady Hide.”

He also wasn’t afraid to tackle political topics in “Some of These Children” (bringing awareness to unmarked residential school graves), and 2022’s “For Ukraine,” which was written in support of the citizens of the war-torn country, garnering him a Social Impact Film and Art (SIFA) Award for Best Social Impact Music/Art 2022.

As a hardworking master of his craft, Goodwyn has said, “I worked diligently and tenaciously on becoming a good, consistent songwriter. To me, it’s the most important part of what I do. Always has been.”

April Wine disbanded in 1984, after releasing 22 studio and two live albums. They re-grouped in 1993 and resumed touring, once again selling out shows continent-wide.  In March 2009, April Wine was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, and received the JUNO Lifetime Achievement Award. Goodwyn and April Wine were also inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2010, and have garnered two Félix Awards in Québec, as well as several SOCAN Classic Awards.

Goodwyn will continue writing and producing for April Wine as the band continues to tour with his artistic involvement; and his third blues recording will be released in the summer of 2023.