blog post Up Close, Hockey Day in Canada

I have to admit that I know very little about hockey. When I was a kid you were either in to hockey or you were in to music. I chose music; it seemed safer, less violent and somehow more rebellious. I will say that what little I do know about hockey I learned from reading Dave Bidini's books. Not his books about hockey but his books about music, which always have a hockey subtext. You see, Dave was lucky enough to grow up in an environment where a kid could love both hockey and music.

Dave has taken his love for both and has turned it in to the now annual Hockey Day in Canada, Stolen from a Hockey Card concert. This year the concert is being held in PEI. The idea for the concert is to bring together songwriters from around the country with the aim of writing the next great hockey anthem. The inspiration for the songs is the stats and stories found on the back of hockey trading cards.

We got a preview of a couple of the songs when Dave Bidini brought his band Bidiniband in for an "Up Close" session. The first song up was Chris Murphy's "The Ballad of Forbie Kennedy." You will know Chris from his day job with Sloan, and this song is definitely in that Sloan style. This was the first time I ever heard of Forbie Kennedy and I have to say his story is incredible.

Check out Chris Murphy's "The Ballad of Forbie Kennedy":

The second song in our session is by The Lowest of the Low's Stephen Stanley. Now here is a musician that knows his hockey. Stephen's hockey song, "Fourteen and Me," name checks at least a dozen NHL super stars I've never even heard of: Bobby Clarke, Orland Kurtebach or Dave Keon.

Here is Stephen Stanley's "Fourteen and Me":

And last up for our Hockey Day in Canada session is Dave Bidini. Of course Dave didn't have his hockey song written in time for our "Up Close" session. (What a slacker.) If you want to hear that song you will have to tune in to Canada Live on Radio 2 or catch it on Concerts On Demand. For this session we are treated to this awesome rendition of the Bidiniband's "Last of the Dead Wrong Things".