2 April 2025 - Soccer Mommy - bloodstream

The hardest part of Maple Leaf March is the great music being made in the other 190-odd nations in the world. 

And usually, if you look at my Spotify stats for March, my most listened to artist is almost always going to be Canadian.  

Not this year.  

2-10, absolutely Canadian.  

#1 was an AMERICAN artist and I'm frankly a little surprised, but not a lot. My family would not be surprised, I would assume.

3 of my top 4 listened to songs in the last month are by one artist - Soccer Mommy. 

And two of them are "Driver".  Yeah, one of them is the stripped version from Jimmy Kimmel Live. 

The third is this song, the opening track and 4th single from her experimental and groundbreaking 2020 album color theory, where she incorporated a bunch of chunky downstroked chords with a number of weird samples and unusual synth choices.  They all work, by the way - the entire album is incredible, end-to-end, with this being my favorite of a great collection. 

Hey, if you end up loving this song as much as I do, you can sing along with the official karaoke.

Anyway, you know we're coming at you with a couple of live versions, and this first one is something of a historic doozy.  color theory was released at the end of February 2020. As part of the promotional tour, Soccer Mommy was supposed to do an NPR Tiny Desk Concert.

Then a pandemic happened. And, well, NPR stopped hosting these. However, they had the idea to have artists do these concerts from their own homes..... and THIS was the FIRST one, in March 2020.   

"bloodstream" was the first song she played and it's beautiful in its acoustic format.. 

Live music did return, and this performance from 2021 of the song - with Sophie in a cape! - is one of my favorites, truly illustrating the chunky guitar rifts.  

1 April 2025 - Laura Branigan - Gloria | Umberto Tozzi - Gloria | Jonathan King - Gloria

Well, #MapleLeafMarch is over for another year.  Guess it's time to get back to the American artists we all love.

Never mind that I'm writing this in January the same day I wrote this post.   I should really be working on a Monday post.  Oh well.  

The reason I wanted to put this today is that my birthday is in March.  And, because of what I do in March, I posted this song on my birthday.  This year, as I was researching the other post, I realized that I was the same age as Laura Branigan was when she passed away in 2004.   Which means I'm older than she was now.   

This cover - of an Italian song - was her biggest hit by far, and at the time of its release, it spent 36 weeks on the Billboard chart, which, at the time, was longer than any song by a female artist had ever been there.  It peaked at #2 in 1982, kept from the top spot by the juggernaut that was [checks notes] Toni Basil.  

I mention it was an Italian cover.  The original was performed by Umberto Tozzi, who also was co-writer on the song.

It should sound really familiar, but lyrically, it's very different. This is a love song.   Branigan's version was about a woman out of control.  

Tozzi DID record an English version of his song, with lyrics translated by Jonathan King.   THIS retained the love song aspect of the lyrics.

It's not the same song exactly as the Italian version, either - it's very much an imaginary woman here.

By the way, Jonathan King recorded his version as well, and it was a minor UK hit.  It's barely worth mentioning.  His songwriting was good, though.  

But back to Laura Branigan.

In January 2019, the St. Louis Blues were in last place in the NHL Western Conference, so they.... adopted a theme song and went on a 19-game winning streak.  They ended up making the playoffs, and won the Stanley Cup in seven games that year.

So, yeah, "Play Gloria!" is a thing in St. Louis now. 

31 March 2025 - Pixl Girl ft Sophie Powers - STFU

I lied.  But for a good reason. 

I am all about bookends.

We opened this month with Sophie Powers. Great.

I end with Pixl Girl, but really, I'm pretty sure Pixl Girl is Sophie Powers.  I just can't be 100% sure, but really, Ms. Powers has had snippets of this song on her social media for months.   It was only a matter of time before she released it.   

And she - well, whoever - released this portait-mode video in landscape, which is a weird choice, but also, visually interesting.

The song is really about people needing to be told to, well, shut the fuck up.  Listen closely, French people. 

The reality is, Sophie Powers appeared on American Idol this month, performing this song for the judges.  THAT is why this was a MUST-post. 

Luke, shut the fuck up. 

But also, she declares that she's literally Canadian at 1:28. 

31 March 2025 - Nemahsis - You Wore It Better

OK, fine, one more.  But I promise you, I'm not writing anything else for March.  This is the last one until tomorrow.  (Edit: I changed my mind on this but that doesn't mean Nemahsis does not deserve your attention).

Nemahsis is a proud hijab-wearing Palestinian-Canadian woman who is making fantastic music.  She won a couple of Junos last night, including one for Breakthrough Artist of the Year.  

She frequently sings about the hijab and the unique struggles of being Muslim in Canada in the 21st century. That is NOT what this song is about, though.  It's about a girl who liked a shirt she saw her friend wearing and, well, she got her own.   

Anyway, she's young and cool and different and I encourage you to check her out. 

31 March 2025 - bbno$ - check

With literally one day left in #MapleLeafMarch, I just could NOT ignore this guy.  He won a JUNO Award last night - the FAN'S CHOICE award, in a stunning upset.   He also had some things to say.

Fun fact: The Beaches had won an award earlier in the evening and he was the presenter.   So, guess they are trading awards :D

Anyway, besides not being a fan of Elon Musk, bbno$ (pronounced "baby no money") is a pretty accomplished and prolific hip hop musician in his own right.   It was hard picking a song for today, but I felt one of his 2025 singles - this song, which heavily samples "Low Rider" - would be an excellent choice.  It is a fun and energetic single that deserves your attention. 

And yes, he's touring, so there are live versions ALREADY! And they are just as much fun and just as energetic, if not more so. 

31 March 2025 - Once A Tree - Small Town Dreams

It was two weeks ago today that I got all maudlin about how much of a bummer this March had been.  Normally, I am spending the month enjoying Canadian music, but in this month of #ElbowsUp, it's been more difficult.

Also, I was at the point of making some tough decisions about artists to leave out and artists to include this month.  There were some that I had wanted to post that I still hadn't - and a lot of those are coming in 2026.  That's right. I'm not stopping this.  I seriously, TODAY, have enough material to go through at least 2028 without breaking a sweat.  

Then Spotify delivered me two gifts.  The first, I posted about on Saturday.  The second is this ABSOLUTE gem, which seems to be at least semiautobiographical, by Once a Tree.  Co-written by Hayden and Jayli Wolf (who are Once A Tree), it is a mature and compelling song that is the best new music I've heard this year.

(By the way, they also did this for me - I'd like to think it's for me, anyway - last March)

So, I'll be promoting the hell out of this, the last post of #MapleLeafMarch 2025. PLEASE, share this one.  PLEASE, tell your friends about this amazing song and this incredible duo.

30 March 2025 - Anne Murray - Snowbird

We've giving you a bonus post today, because no one has won more Juno Awards than Anne Murray, with 26.  This Canadian Music Hall of Famer is quite probably the biggest thing musically coming from Canada. 

Tonight, she is being awarded only the second JUNO Lifetime Achievement Award. The first guy who won it was Pierre Juneau, the guy the awards are LITERALLY named after. 

Born in Nova Scotia, I'd love to tell you that she wrote this song, but, as we know from Family Guy and Stewie Griffin's reaction, it was written by Gene MacLellan. 

Yes, she voiced that.

And she sang Gene's beautiful song, which he wrote in twenty minutes on Prince Edward Island.  That's not a joke.   Anyway, she sang it to the top of both the pop and country charts in the US and Canada.  It was the first US gold record awarded to a Canadian female solo artist. 

And really, listen to the lyrics here.   It is a sad song.  It's a lonely song. 

Here she is singing it live on David Frost's show in 1972.  The accompanying music is very light, so it is pretty close to acapella, but she was equal to the task. 

In her day, Anne Murray was an icon.  In 1980 - when she was still making hits that my mother LOVED, she appeared on the Muppet Show performing her huge 1970 hit.