Get your motor runnin'
A Canadian road trip playlist for a summer of rediscovery
Summer road trip season kicks into gear this week (maybe you’re already on the road, for that matter) and this year many Canadians will rediscover our country as a travel destination, for reasons I don’t need to spell out here.
So if you’re one of millions of Canadians hitting the Trans Canada or the less-travelled routes across the country, I present to you my selections for the Great Canadian Road Song Playlist, arranged east to west by artist’s origin or subject matter.
1) Sonny's Dream by Ron Hynes. A song of longing and small-town isolation (covered by Valdy, Liam Clancy and more) that’s kind of the unofficial anthem of Newfoundland, this is one to kick off a long-anticipated escape.
2) Barrett's Privateers by Stan Rogers. What says “Canada in 2025” better than the story of a broken man on a Halifax pier who got into a fight with our neighbours to the south? Every road trip needs a sing-along song and this modern sea shanty will keep you going from ocean to ocean.
3) Acadian Driftwood by The Band. Though Canadians Rick Danko and Richard Manuel share lead vocal duties with Arkansan Levon Helm, this song about the expulsion of the Acadians in the 18th century is still perhaps the most Canadian song The Band did.
4) Wake Up by Arcade Fire. This one, from Arcade Fire’s debut album, Funeral, is more than a reminder to the driver to avoid sleeping at the wheel. If there were a movie of your road trip, Wake Up, with its soaring vocals, would play as we see your car approach the scenic and emotional high point of your trip.
5) Lovin' You Ain't Easy by Michel Pagliaro. This Beatlesesque hit from 1972, with its refrain of “just keep ridin’ your way,” seems at first to be the perfect fun road song, until you listen more carefully and realize it’s a breakup song. But that’s okay. Sometimes you feel like taking a break from your fellow travellers.
6) Goin' Back Again by Sass Jordan. Even if it’s your first trip to Montreal, you’ll have to give a listen to Sass Jordan’s bluesy rock reminiscences about the separate cultures of the east and west side of the city’s St. Laurence Boulevard. The Two Solitudes with a hint of Janis Joplin.
7) Oh Canada by Kathleen Edwards. You might think a song about racism, climate change and Canadian complacency is an odd selection for a carefree road trip playlist, but does it sweeten the deal if I say it has scorching-hot guitar work?
8) Hand in Pocket by Alanis Morissette. A song about setting out on the road of life with confidence and a spirit of acceptance of the challenges ahead is a perfect fit for anybody of any age who’s hitting the road. But keep your hands at 10 and 2, okay?
9) This Beat Goes On/Switch Into Glide by The Kings. If your road trip takes you anywhere near Canada’s largest city you simply must play this song, featuring the best dumb lyric in rock and roll this side of The Ramones. (“Hey little Donna, you still wanna? You said to ring you up when I was in Toronna.”)
10) Cynthia by Blue Rodeo. A song about camping beside a lake and staring up at the stars (Blue Rodeo are from Ontario, but I’m pretty sure the Pyramid Lake in the song is the one in Jasper National Park). Bonus points for awesome honky-tonk piano and steel guitar solos.
11) A New Day by Mary Margaret O’Hara. Every day on the road is a new day. Get out of your car and, as Mary Margaret says, “everybody walk in brightness.”
12) Oh My Love by The Small Glories. A song about journeying across mountains and oceans for love that just feels as big-hearted as the prairies that these artists (Cara Luft and J.D. Edwards) call home.
13) Thrasher by Neil Young. Some of you will no doubt pick one of Neil’s northern Ontario songs for a list like this (personally, I’d go with Long May You Run rather than Helpless), but if you’re driving during harvest season, I’d recommend this song about following your own road and accepting your own fate. But don’t burn your credit card for fuel. You’ll need it for gas.
14) Runnin' Back to Saskatoon by The Guess Who. Not only does this classic from Winnipeg’s gift to the musical world offer up a sing-along list of western Canadian cities and towns, it contains the Great Canadian Mondegreen. (As a kid I thought “and Moosomin too” was “and a moose saw me too.”)
15) At the Hundredth Meridian by The Tragically Hip. I could have saved us all a lot of time by simply recommending that you download the collected works of the Tragically Hip, but if you only have one Hip song on your list I’d suggest playing this number about the mythology of the west and its influence on rock music. Put it on just after you pass the Hundredth Meridian, at Brandon.
16) Coyote by Joni Mitchell. Joni has a number of songs about being a footloose wanderer, but they’re mostly set in Europe. This one, with its references to ranches, roadhouses and charismatic rural bad boys on two or four legs, should be played some time when you’re in Saskatchewan, Mitchell’s home province.
17) Four Strong Winds by Ian and Sylvia. Alberta’s unofficial provincial song. That line “weather’s good there in the fall” has a whole new meaning when you hit August snow in the Rockies or September snow on the prairies.
18) The Truck Got Stuck by Corb Lund. Road trips are full of mishaps. I had flat tires three September road trips in a row, two of them on Labour Day weekend. Sing this one as a hex to ward off the towtruck.
19) Working For the Weekend by Loverboy. From Paul Anka to Drake, Canada has specialized in internationally successful recording artists who are, well, kind of embarrassing. Blast this tune on any weekend getaway and revel in the goofiness of this summer anthem from the 1980s.
20) Canadian Railroad Trilogy by Gordon Lightfoot. Commissioned by the CBC for Canada’s centennial in 1967, this seven-minute history lesson became an unofficial national anthem. You could play it anywhere along your route, but I’d opt for Craigellachie (west of Revelstoke), where the Last Spike was pounded in November, 1885. Fortunately, tourism facilities have improved since the 1880s, so you won’t need to be “living on stew and drinking cheap whiskey” on your cross-country adventure.
POSTSCRIPT: I didn’t want to go over 20 but I realize I forgot to put Stompin’ Tom Connors on the list. What kind of Canadian am I? So take it as given that Bud the Spud should come up when you’re heading west from the Maritimes and Sudbury Saturday Night when you’re driving through the title city.
Very fun. But what, no BTO?
Interesting playlist, Bob. But you've activated a pet peeve of mine. Invariably, all Great Canadian Playlists or Best Canadian Songs I've ever seen are more accurately "Great Anglo-Canadian...". It's understandable that Canadians who've not been exposed to much if any Quebecois music would not include French songs. A musical Two Solitudes, I guess. A born-and-raised English Quebecer like me would exchange the 3 Montreal-based artists (admittedly, Arcade Fire has done some bilingual songs and Pagliaro is French) for anything done in the 70s-80s by the likes of Beau Dommage, Harmonium (my fav Canadian band of all time). Robert Charlebois, Gilles Vigneault, Diane Dufresne. ..... Fun Fact: did you know Pagliaro, who didn't know a word of English at the beginning of his career, sang his English songs phonetically, and the 1st Canadian to have top-40 hit songs in both English and French? Keep on truckin' Bob, in whatever language you choose.