Member Reviews
"101 Fascinating Canadian Music Facts" by David McPherson is an absolute delight for music lovers and trivia buffs alike. McPherson, with over 25 years in the music industry, has compiled an engaging collection of stories that celebrate the rich and diverse landscape of Canadian music.
From Serena Ryder's concert on the ocean floor to the surprising origins of Frank Sinatra's career-launching hit "I'll Never Smile Again," written by Toronto pianist Ruth Lowe, this book is packed with gems that will surprise even the most knowledgeable music aficionados. McPherson's writing is both informative and entertaining, making each fact a joy to discover.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
I'm a music lover from the United States. Even though my country is 'next door neighbors' with Canada, I'm not overly familiar with Canadian musicians - except for popular Canadian acts who have great success here in the U.S., such as Bryan Adams, Rush, Celine Dion, The Guess Who, and a couple of small handfuls of others.
My main hopes when I began reading '101 Canadian Music Facts' were that I would discover Canadian musicians who were brand new to me, listen to some of their music, and hopefully be entertained by it.
I'm very happy to say that I discovered several new artists from the book. As I read it, I took extensive notes and created a long music playlist containing music written about in the book. Along the way, I've heard and enjoyed a lot of great music!
There is a lot of great trivia among the 101 Music Facts covered in the book. I learned a lot. It was a very educational and enjoyable read!
NOTE: I received an advanced reading copy (ARC) of the book from the publisher, via NetGalley. While I'm very grateful for it and I enjoyed reading the book, I was not happy with the formatting in the ARC. Much of it was jumbled together in ways that made it very awkward to read, which lessened my enjoyment of reading it. I hope that the publisher irons out these sorts of issues in their future releases.
This is an interesting and fun book of 101 stories for music fans, especially Canadian music fans. They range from the distant past about Wilf Carter and Hank Snow to recent times about Justin Bieber and Tate McRae, from rock like April Wine and folk like Stan Rogers, and bars like Lulu's Roadhouse in Kitchener and Toronto's Horseshoe. It was amazing to find out how far the Canadian reach is.
I liked the writing style ... the stories were short and snappy. I thought they were interesting and I found myself pausing at times as I was reading to Google to learn more about what I was reading about. I had no idea what a road apple is and "bop bada baa, bop bada baa" was a code with Crowbar ... ha! Some of the stories are well-known and some not so well-known like that of Maritimers MacLean & MacLean.