Kurated No. 234
Readers’ Choice 2024
Part 5
PLAYLISTS
• 3-Song Playlist from Cat L’Hirondelle
• Man Machine Poem by The Tragically Hip on Spotify and YouTube
The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie bids adieu to the audience at the band’s final concert in Kingston, ON on August 20, 2016. Contributor Ron Verzuh, while never a fan of the group, credits them for their quintessential dedication to Canada.
CONTRIBUTORSToday’s writers are Vancouver’s Cat L’Hirondelle and Victoria’s Ron Verzuh, both regular contributors to Readers’ Choice.
• L’Hirondelle is a visual artist with a broad interest in music ranging from top pop hits to the jazz classics she’s presenting today. As her name might suggest she is deeply fond of cats. Read more below!
• Verzuh is an author, historian and avid film buff. Captivated by a four-part documentary about the band – No Dress Rehearsal – he observes that the Hip have earned a unique and important place in our country’s music through their dedication to being quintessentially Canadian.
The 7th Annual Readers’ Choice
One of Kurated’s aims is to share music with you. In turn, readers often mention new music, upcoming concerts, offer musical opinions and more.
Once a year you’re invited to act as guest curators to highlight music that’s caught your attention during the last year in the annual Readers’ Choice series. Anything musical is welcomed whether its new, an old favourite, something self-composed and more.
Thanks to all of you contributors for participating!
12 January 2025
Cat L’Hirondelle
Vancouver BC
Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Aaron Neville
3-Song Playlist
• Black Coffee by Ella Fitzgerald
• Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday
• Everybody Plays the Fool by Aaron Neville
My cats are named Ella, Billie, and Neville. These are their namesakes.
As usual my bio is that I am a crazy crip artist who loves cats!
My partner Colin and I have an agreement I am not allowed to play Aaron Neville when he’s within earshot.
Cat’s email sign off: “Don’t think about making women fit the world – think about making the world fit women”. ~ Gloria Steinem
Ron Verzuh
Victoria BC
The Tragically Hip’s final concert in their home base of Kingston, ON was viewed by 11.7 million viewers
Man Machine Poem (album)
The Tragically Hip’s last album, Man Machine Poem, released after a tribute tour to celebrate
leader Gord Downie, who died of brain cancer, is my sole choice this year.
After all of it, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, the ever-present Paul McCartney and even the release of
new salutes to Leonard Cohen, I was bowled away by the Hip not so much by the quality and
style of the music itself (I was never a fan), but by the band’s dedication to staying
quintessentially Canadian.
The four-part Amazon Prime documentary, No Dress Rehearsal, seemed to capture the spirit of a
group of young teens from Kingston, Ontario, who shared a dream. They were going to be rock
stars and play rock ‘n roll songs. But most of all they were going to have fun. Thanks to Downie,
the creative songwriting genius, they did just that.
They did what they loved, did pretty well at it, and managed to stay true to the True North Strong
and Free. That can’t be easy when the star-maker machinery to the South beckoned with its
promise of fame, a massive fan base and big money.
Ahead by a Century may have been the band’s highest charting single ever, but Man Machine Poem, released in 2016 as the band’s 13th and last studio album, ensured their legacy. The title tune, Machine, caught Rolling Stone magazine’s eye as “a beautiful vehicle for Downie’s poetry and an apt summation of his artistic mission for all these years: “I write about words/I find
treasure or worse /I watch the end of man/And I dream like a bird.”
The Hip is not listed among Billboard’s “top artists of all time”; in fact, no Canadian artist is on
that list. But the five high school friends from Kingston have earned their own immortality partly
by reminding us to be proud Canadians.
About Ron: Ron Verzuh is a writer and historian who is trying to learn to listen to hip hop. He lives in Victoria, B.C.
