Ed Whitcomb

Compiled: Dr. Ed Whitcomb
Format: Book, Spiral Bound
Instrumentation: Piano, Vocal, Guitar

The Great Canadian Songbook is designed for adults, kids, schools, musicians, choirs, and sing-a-longs at home, the cottage or the camp-fire. Volume I fills a huge gap in the books of Canadian music. Currently there are collections of music from different provinces and regions, by individuals and bands, music on some themes, old collections of folk music, and books with assorted music. But there was no single volume that brought together national anthems, provincial anthems, the most famous historical pieces, the most popular traditional songs, songs about the whole country and its regions, and all the basic Canadian themes like love, the climate, war, immigration, the environment, and hardship, and the activities like fishing, ship-building, smuggling, the fur trade, farming, mining, railroads and trucking, travel, dancing and hockey. This book includes music on all of these topics.

It contains music by many of Canada's best composers, Oscar Brand, Bim, Bruce Cockburn, Stompin' Tom, Connie Kaldor, Lennie Gallant, Roy Griff, Wade Hemsworth, James Keelaghan, Darryl Landry, Gordon Lightfoot, Allister MacGillivray, Murray McLaughlin, Rita MacNeil, Jimmy Rankin, Stan Rogers, Alex Sinclair, Hank Snow, Stevedore Steve, and Ian Tyson, just to name a few and with apologies to the others.

The book includes: L'Acadie, Alberta Rose, Ballad of the Bluenose, Ballad of St. Anne's Reel, Barrett's Privateers, The Blackfly Song, Boom Gone to Bust, Canadian Pacific, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, The Canadian Trucker, Farewell to Nova Scotia, The Farmer's Song, Forever My B.C., Four Strong Winds, Donkey Riding, Going Down the Road, A Golden Age of Wind and Wood and Sail, Heading for Halifax, Hillcrest Mine, Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor, the Log Driver's Song, Manitoba Man, The Maple Leaf Forever, The Hockey Song, My Nova Scotia Home, Nellie J. Banks, North Country, Northwest Passage, Now That the Buffalo's Gone, O Canada, Once a Canadian Lad, Rocky Mountain Suite, Prince Edward Island Shanty, The Red River Valley, She's Called Nova Scotia, Something To Sing About, Song for the Mira, Squid-Jiggin' Ground, Sudbury Saturday Night, Summer Wages, Saskatoon Moon, Teamwork, This Land Is Your Land, Train of Dreams, When the Ice Worms Nest Again, Will Ye Come Away, Woman of Labrador, and Workin' on the Railway.