CANOESONGS: PADDLING TO SEE WHAT’S THERE

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026

Whether we make resolutions or not at this time of year it’s always worth exploring options and considering possibilities. Today’s post by guest writer and longtime friend Diane Beckett is a poignant and touching example of how a small and decisive act of bravery on the part of her father changed his life and hers too.

PLAYLIST
Canoe Songs Volume 1 – 13 Song album on Youtube
Canoe Songs Volume 2 – 14 songs on YouTube but not an album
See Discogs for the full list

TWO SONGS
When I First Stepped in a Canoe – by Shelley Poson
My Canoe Runs on Water – by James Gordon

Trying something for the first time can be both daunting and immensely rewarding.
This illustration accompanies the song My Canoe Runs on Water.

PADDLING TO SEE WHAT’S THERE

Where will you go in the next year?

My Dad died this year. And because canoes are a big part of my family’s life, I flipped through his CD collection and found a disc of canoe songs we could play at his celebration of life. The album – Canoe Songs Volume One – holds some of the great Canadian folk music about canoes sung by a who’s who of the Canadian artists including Connie Kaldor, Ian Tamblyn, and Bruce Cockburn. The songs range from old campfire standards such as Land of the Silver Birch/My Paddle’s Keen and Bright sung by Fred Penner to the humorous ditty When I First Stepped into a Canoe by Shelley Possen, as well as much loved originals including the modern classic Woodsmoke and Oranges by Ian Tamblyn.

Canoes also have a special meaning for my Dad and me and the CD was a great connector for us. Our family gladly included a couple of songs at his celebration including When I First Stepped into a Canoe.

Dad had left a post-it note on the CD cover saying this one song was worth the price of the disc. It describes the funny mishaps that happen when a novice canoeist first sets out – tipping over, paddling in circles, and struggling with portaging. It captures the novice’s clumsy but endearing experience on the water as they fall completely in love with canoeing.

And that was what happened to my Dad.

Going from fear to a 500-mile wilderness canoe trek

I was 15 and desperate to canoe, so my Mom bought my Dad a canoe for his birthday.

The problem was my Dad was brought up in the prairie dust bowl during the 1930’s depression when even the sloughs had dried out. He didn’t swim and was afraid of water. He refused to get in the canoe. My Mom said she would return it to the store. I was devastated.

But, in an incredible act of bravery, my dad decided he would try out the canoe in Dows Lake which is a slight widening in Ottawa’s Rideau Canal. He wore three life jackets: a floater belt that water skiers wore, a zip up life jacket vest, and a keyhole life jacket. 

Four years later, in 1973, Dad and I canoeed the Nahanni River from the Moose Ponds to Fort Simpson on a six-week, 500-mile self-organized wilderness canoe trip with six people in two canoes and two kayaks. No GPS, no satellite or cell phone, and no guide.

We were among the early non-Indigenous people to canoe the river in modern times. And we ended up being mentioned in a book titled Canoeing North into the Unknown.

Canoeing changed my Dad’s life. It was fitting to recognize its importance as we honoured him. The canoe songs albums were a perfect way to capture the many emotions and memories those songs conjured up for us.

The CDs are hard to find now, but the artists are well-known and many of the songs are available online. This link leads to the set list as well as a songbook of both Volume One and Two of the Canoesongs discs.

And this link takes you to a ukulele arrangement for When I First Stepped into a Canoe.