Canada Day 2011 in NYC: The Great Canadian Songbook Concert At Joe's Pub

Joe's Pub will be full of Canadian song tonight for its annual Canada Day shows.

Today is Canada Day, that nation's independence day, and in New York City that means it's the day of the annual "Great Canadian Songbook" concert at Joe's Pub. This show features a number of Canadian singers from different genres performing songs written by many of the famous Canuck songwriters of the last few decades.

There are two shows tonight, at 6:30 pm and 9:00 pm. You can find more information and buy tickets here).

Canada does indeed have a long and deep pool of excellent musicians and songwriters, and it goes well beyond Rush, the Guess Who, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. At the Great Canadian Songbook concert you might hear songs from such greats as Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, and many more... including Nelly Furtado, Gino Vanelli, Lighthouse, and Bryan Adams. And yes, probably some Burton Cummings, Guess Who, or BTO tunes.

The performers for tonight's show, from the Joe's Pub website:

Tyley Ross (East Village Opera Company, The Who's "Tommy"), Greg Naughton (The Sweet Remains), singer-songwriters Jamie Leonhart, Joe Hurley, Anthony da Costa, and Kate Schutt, cabaret spitfire Shelley McPherson, Tony Salvatore (BETTY, Pleasuredog), Shannon Connolly (Lez Zeppelin), and chanteuses Lezlie Harrison, Melissa Stylianou, and Victoria Cave (Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata, Cabaret, Steely Dan), all backed by the all-star "Workin' for the Weekend House Band" led by Music Director Peter Kiesewalter (Brooklyn Roadfunk Orkestrata, East Village Opera Company).

If you're in New York and want a fun musical way to celebrate Canada Day, check out the Great Canadian Songbook concert at Joe's Pub.

(Unfortunately, the NYC City Parks' SummerStage series no longer holds a Canada Day concert; this was a tradition for a while but there hasn't been one for several years.)

And as always, I want to thank CBC Radio 3, and especially Grant Lawrence's podcast, for keeping us all up to date on the latest in Canadian indie music.