Sweet Sounds of Summer

There is a song of summer that plays in everyone’s heart. It sings to us and takes us back to our favourite people and places. From concerts and cottages to first loves and fireflies, what memories does your summer song bring back?

We put that same question to eight musicians ranging from classical artists to an electro dance jockey and found their answers revealed a lot more than musical tastes. Some chose songs of peace and reflection, others went for fun and connection, but a common thread was a feeling of freedom and joy. Summertime is a sweet time, especially for Canadians, so tunes that give you good vibes and make anything seem possible are tunes to cherish. They’re summer songs!

CALE CROWE is an Indigenous singer/songwriter who blends influences from Aerosmith to Ed Sheeran into his own mellifluous, mostly acoustic sound. He lives in Cobourg.

MEMORY

Last day of exams, June 2009, one of my favourite summers. We all got together and did a beach day, ate extra-large pizzas and jumped off the Cobourg pier; then trekked across town to the Northumberland Mall movie theatre to see whatever movie was big that month. My skin was red as brick by the time my folks picked me up, but it was so worth it. That whole summer felt like I pulled it from a teen romantic comedy.

SONG – Feeling This, by Blink-182

This song brings back that feeling of getting out of school, you feel free, the weather’s good and exams are finished. You can get a bunch of friends together and walk on the beach instead of being stuck inside a schoolroom. The song came out about the time I was getting into my own musical tastes. Before that I listened to my mum and dad’s music, then latched on to my sister’s stuff, who was two years older and getting a taste of life outside the Rez.

Even now, if the sky is blue and I can go outside without a coat, I get that free feeling, that summer feeling. Feeling This makes me feel good, but sometimes a sad song makes you feel good, too. I’ve been listening to different genres to inspire me, and I now know even the saddest song can make you feel something you didn’t know you could feel.

I just finished recording new work, and I was saying to my producer, “I want this to sound like the last sliver of sun before it slides below the horizon,” or “like rain falling on lake water,” and he understood, which was a breath of fresh air. I think very visually and worry that I’ll sound pretentious or like a lunatic! To me, Feeling This is like a bright colour photograph of the last day of school.

photograph by Sarah Tanner

EMILY FENNELL, Maple Blues Female Vocalist of the Year, was born and raised in Prince Edward County and now lives in Kingston where “Miss Emily” holds the record for most sold-out performances at the Isabel Bader Centre for the performing arts.

MEMORY

I remember summer days being a kid in the car with my dad, driving around with the windows down, blasting ZZ Top or Paul Simon’s Graceland. We might be heading to the ferry, or just driving for the sake of going somewhere. My dad took pride in his cars and I remember we had a Saturn when they first came out that was a gorgeous blue green. It seemed so exotic at the time.

SONG – On My Way, by Grace Potter

I’ve loved her since she was Grace Potter and the Nocturnals about 15 years ago, but this one is from Daylight, which is her divorce album. Ironically it was my ex-husband who told me about it. This song gives me a good feeling, a summer feeling. I’m a big fan of things that feel good to drive to. She’s singing about being on a long, solo road trip and one review said it “telegraphs a moment of unhinged joy.” Driving is a huge thing in my life. I can be driving 11 hours to my next show, and the experience changes with the weather, the mood, whether I have people in the car or I’m alone.

This song has a passionate rock/soul nature and a feeling of freedom, which is what driving is to me. I can take myself back to the time when I had no licence, no car and I would hitchhike. Before becoming a mum, I used to pick up hitchhikers, because I remembered that feeling of not having the ability to just up and go. The freedom of travel is so awesome, even if it’s just one town to another.

On My Way is what, four minutes long? But in that time you can drive from Bloomfield to Wellington, be in a new space with a whole new batch of opportunities, just four minutes down the road. Every trip is exciting, and this song captures the sense of exceptional freedom you get just by getting in your car and moving.

photograph by Suzy Lamont Photography

JUSTIN RUTLEDGE has been nominated four times for a Juno award and won for his album Valleyheart. Before moving to Picton he was voted Toronto’s Songwriter of the Year by NOW magazine.

MEMORY

When I was 20 I was tree planting in Northern Ontario, and I tag that summer as the tipping point from teenage to adulthood. I learned the value of hard work and early mornings, getting up at 5 and falling into bed by 8 and I’ve never been in better shape. We’d work 6 days straight, spending 10 hours in the sun, avoiding bears, then on our day off we’d take a shower and party hard. It took months to get the dirt out from under my nails. I didn’t make much money, but I made good friends.

SONG – On a Beach by Hayden, featuring Leslie Feist

Can I just tell you what we used to sing on the crew bus? Barrett’s Privateers by Stan Rogers! We had half a dozen guys from Antigonish who taught us that, it’s like a chant and sounds great sung a cappella. But my actual chosen summer song is by a fantastic Canadian artist called Hayden. He’s been around since the 1990s and has put out about 10 albums, and this is from his latest album called Are We Good?

There’s just something about it. There is a real playfulness to Hayden’s lyrics. He’s a very intelligent songwriter, and there’s actually a somber quality to his songs, a kind of lament that has always drawn me to his stuff. But he also has a knack for playfulness. On A Beach is beautiful and quaint and sort of mischievous. It’s a sweet little song that has just the right amount of longing, and there’s a fantastic video that goes with it. If you haven’t seen it, look it up. The song features Leslie Feist who’s a great singer/songwriter herself, and I wouldn’t say it’s like a classic summer jam, but I think it’s a really appropriate beach song.

photograph by Jen Squires

LENKA LICHTENBERG is a singer/songwriter originally from the Czech Republic who fronted a punk rock band in the 1980s and won the 2023 Juno for Global Music Album of the year for her haunting Thieves of Dreams.

MEMORY

I was six years old. I remember so well because it was the last summer my parents were together. A blessed time for me. We stayed at a cottage, just an old house my father fixed up in the countryside, with rolling hills, like Northumberland. I remember it was hot and we would walk a long, long way to swim in a lake that was actually an old quarry. They would hold my hands and swing me again and again. It’s a happy memory.

SONG – Summertime by George and Ira Gershwin, sung by Ella Fitzgerald

I know it’s a classic, but I am old fashioned and a vocalist and there is a story behind my choice. When I first came to Canada I needed a repertoire to be a lounge singer. Summertime was a good choice. I had the sheet music, but I had only heard it sung by Janis Joplin, a gut-wrenching version! There are a zillion ways to sing it, but this was before YouTube or Spotify and I couldn’t listen to them all, so I learned the song from the page, the notes and the chords. Straight from the source, you connect with the composer and the lyrics, and I created my own style. I connected to the lullaby in the song. It’s summertime, the birds are singing, but it’s a third person cradling the baby, not mummy or daddy. They are trying to soothe the child, telling them not to worry. It’s a jazz standard, a bluesy song, but there is real sweetness in it.

(Note: It’s not surprising Lenka finds intense feelings in a familiar song. Thieves of Dreams is based on her grandmother’s poems written in Theresienstadt concentration camp. Lenka is currently working on a follow-up project, Feel with Blood, this time with English translation, and awaiting the arrival of her first grandchildren – in the summertime!)

photograph by Bo Huang

AMBER WALTON-AMAR is a freelance cellist, cello teacher and session musician contributing to everything from film scores to electronic dance music. She lives in Belleville.

MEMORY

Practising the cello on my grandmother’s porch overlooking the water on the road that leads to the ferry in Prince Edward County. She was always working hard on garden chores and such, but when I visited she would stop to sit with me as I practised. I probably sounded awful then, but she was fiercely supportive of me learning the cello. So I would play, and she would listen, and we would just enjoy being together. In my mind there’s a connection between summer and peace and my grandmother.

SONG – Rêverie, Claude Debussy

My grandparents were sailors and I remember an old photo in their hallway of a beautiful wooden boat. Its name was Reverie. I discovered this song years after those days, but the name made me smile and the song is so soothing. Being in a reverie means being pleasantly lost in your thoughts and drifting, and this kind of music allows you to daydream. I’m quite busy; I play parties and weddings, I teach and perform, but now I want to carve out time to create music in my own authentic voice – the voice I want to express. Music like Debussy’s Rêverie feels like a beacon in the distance, a feeling that I am reaching for.

I compose music under the name Echoes From the North. It’s well suited to yoga or meditation, to restorative things, but it’s low priority, even though it’s my passion, because I don’t want to monetize it. That’s partly because I don’t usually write it down! I did recently write some down for a recording session with my string quartet. We played one piece for what felt like five minutes, but the engineer said it was 21 minutes! Apparently, as performers, we had gone into a reverie, with no concept of time, just easy and dreamy. Which is ideally how you feel in summer!

photograph by Stuart Lowe

SHANNON LINTON is a singer/songwriter who says she “narrowly avoided a career in opera,” to write and perform folk/pop tunes. She’s a climate activist, too. Her debut EP is called In Spite of Everything.

MEMORY

One of my favourite parts of every summer is getting together in August with my cousins up north in Timmins. It’s beautiful there; it’s hot and the nights are cool and they’re surrounded by forest, so we do things like pick blueberries. There’s my cousins and my sister and our parents and our collective nine children aged 4 to 17, just hanging out and feeling connected. It’s buggier up there, but who cares?

SONG – My Good Friends by Carsie Blanton

I started following her a year ago and I love her songs. She has a sort of throwback voice, all light and girly, but she’s very outspoken. She lives in the States so there’s a lot to speak out about, and she’s not afraid to do it in her songs.

But My Good Friends is not like that, it’s about how friends can lift you out of darkness. I love the sentiment and it feels summery and bouncy. When she says “when the darkness descends … I call up my good friends … they come down to the river-bend … and crack me up until the light gets in,” it feels nostalgic. It evokes stuff that happens in summer. It’s a cheery song, but she’s saying something I feel strongly. “Don’t let the world get you down!” Yes, it’s a crazy time, but there have always been crazy times, and connecting with people, talking to friends, making each other laugh just makes everything better for a while. I guess that’s all easier to do in summer.

photograph by Jeanette Breward

ELISSA LEE is a classical violinist who lives in Wellington. Her quartet, Ensemble Made in Canada, won a Juno for Classical Album of the Year for their album Mosaïque. Elissa is also the Co-founder and Executive Director of BIGLAKE Arts – a festival bringing exceptional musical experiences to audiences in Prince Edward County.

MEMORY

Summer 1997 was my first time in Europe. I had the honour of being one of the concertmasters of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and I travelled all over Europe for nearly three months. We rehearsed in a huge barn, lived in a castle and I bonded through music and parties with young musicians from all over the world. The first time I swam in the sea I was shocked that the water was salty! Somehow that fact had evaded my knowledge. It was embarrassing, but so memorable.

SONG – Sekundenglück (Seconds of Fortune) by Herbert Grönemeyer

I spend a lot of time working in Germany where Herbert Grönemeyer is a music industry legend, an inspiring artist who could rest on his laurels but just keeps on reaching and creating. Sekundenglück is a pop song, but what he’s saying is important, and it sounds like summer to me. It’s upbeat and positive and talks about fleeting moments of happiness that come out of nowhere. He’s reminding us how those precious moments can come unexpectedly and sometimes only last for seconds, so we must cherish them. It’s buoyant and boisterous and you hum along, even if you can’t understand the words. But in case that is a bit obscure, I chose a second song. Song to a Seagull by Joni Mitchell is very different but also makes me think of summer, especially if I’m away from home. In my mind it brings me to the vast, open view of Lake Ontario from Wellington, where I live. That endless view of water is beautiful and also a little lonely, gazing out at emptiness. But for me the most beautiful songs have a tinge of melancholy mixed in with happy vibes. I would definitely say I like a mix of emotions in music.

photograph by Geneviève Caron

SPENCER HOYT lives in Demorestville in Prince Edward County. He’s a DJ and produces music under the name goodcry. Why goodcry? “I want my music to evoke feelings. Music has transformative power, and a good cry is about emotional release, even if it’s from laughing hard!”

MEMORY

Our family goes camping every year to Presqu’ile; we just relax and enjoy being together. It makes me happy to see my young son run free in the woods, climb on rocks, then come back to the comfort of fire and family. I grew up in California and have happy memories of family camping. Now we’re making new memories.

SONG – I Am Free by Coco & Breezy

It’s a dance tune with a lot of affirmations in it. A great tune for the dance scene where nights can be very long. DJs are up there doing their thing for hours, and it’s different from live music, it takes you on a kind of journey, so they pace it with songs for the beginning and middle and end of the night. There are peaks and valleys in the energy on the dance floor, and this song has great rhythm and feeling. It’s perfect just before the final build of the night. It has peaceful moments that pull at your heartstrings. It feels like summer, because summer is about being with people, not just being cool, driving around alone with the top down. It’s about loving what you do with friends, being with people you care about. This song makes me think about all that.

I also considered Music to Heal To, by Elkka. It’s a straightforward dance song with a ton of energy and atmosphere. It’s energizing and allows you to connect with people. I love that non-verbal communication. I truly believe it helps to heal, and if we’re going to succeed in this human project, create a world we love and that’s healthy, we can’t just go inside ourselves and ignore others.

These are feel-good songs. Good summer songs.