What a panel of outstanding iconic Canadian musicians they had upon the stage this evening. Host, Jim Cuddy, allowed each performer to do two rounds of one song per round, and he kicked the talent off as he performed a brand new single, entitled Good News, which was written during the beginning of the pandemic and is a positive motivating song. His 2nd round peice was non other than Blue Rodeo’s hit, Try, from their 1987 Outskirts album. 6 years ago, the 1st Juno artist I captured was this man. He’s an Officer of the Order of Canada, 9-time Juno winning, 3-time MuchMusic awarded, Canadian Music Hall of Famer, and SOCAN’s National Achievement Award recipient, Jim Cuddy (of Blue Rodeo fame). What a trailblazing voice. Truly a brilliant beginning to this incredible showcase like no other. My heart is swollen with admiration watching this showcase. https://www.jimcuddy.com

Next, Jim introduced multi-award-winning Dan Hill. Dan is a Grammy and 5 -time Juno winning singer, songwriter, and author. As a songwriter he has written compositions for the likes of Celine Dion, Britney Spears, 98 Degrees, The Backstreet Boys, Rod Stewart, Donny Osmond, Jennifer Rush and Michael Bolton, R&B singers Tina Turner, George Benson, and Jeffrey Osborne and country singers Tammy Wynette, Sammy Kershaw, Mark Wills, Reba, Alan Jackson, and Lorrie Morgan, to name a select few. My Uncle Bill had an album I will always remember him cranking when I visited, called Longer Fuse. I was 5 when it came out, and he introduced me to the music stylings at age 7, of award-winning Dan Hill. To this day, Dan’s song Sometimes When We Touch, literally still gives me goosebumps like tonight!! His 1st round song that he perfected beautifully and solo acoustically, was the 1st song that gave him his start, You Make Me Want To Be, from his 1975 self-titled album, Dan Hill. He displayed his stunning stratiispheric vocal range, nailing the high notes, as if time stood still. Thank you for your engaging us with your 2nd round selection. You mesmerized me and goosebumps were plentiful as you perfected Sometimes When We Touch, from your 1977 album, Longer Fuse. https://www.danhill.com

The gorgeous vocal stylings of 90’s iconic songbird, Deborah Cox. She sang her tune Where Do We Go From Here, off her self titled 1995 album. Her 2nd selected composition in the 2nd round was non other than her peice Beautiful U R from her 2008 album, The Promise, and both were accompanied acoustically by guitarist nsmed TJ, from Caledon, Ontario. https://www.deborahcox.com

Carole Pope is an Emmy Award winning, 3-time JUNO recipient, as well as a Gold and Platinum Legendary Canadian singer, songwriter, and author. Accompanied acoustically by her long time guitarist Tim Welch, she projected stunningly as if the pause button was stuck. Her vocals are pristine, sounding like she’s 20, and she definitely does not resemble her age of 74. Her selection for round 1 was perfection start to finish as she nailed her original, All Touch No Contact from her 2004 Transcend Album. FYI, Carole is working on a musical based on her brothers life in the 80s called Attitude, and her 2nd round choice of song was reflective of this, a truly addictive tune, Viral, from her 2011 Land Fall album. https://www.carolepope.com

Three-time Juno awarded Gold selling artists, July Talk’s keyboard and harmonic vocalists, Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay truly delighted their fans with a compelling selection during their 1st round with, Identical Love, from their 2020 album, Pray For it. The 2nd round brought another lovely peice, Good Enough, off the same album, Pray For it. https://www.julytalk.com

Over all each performer has made a huge contribution to the history of Canadian music, and I am excited to follow them all into the future to see where their adventures take them next.