Today’s stop on the Great Canadian Road Trip finds us in a lovely part of the world…Hudson, Quebec. Hudson, Quebec is the birthplace of one of Canada’s most artistically inventive and creative musicians, Patrick Watson. For those who love a good map reference, Hudson, Quebec is located along the banks of the Ottawa River and sits almost directly across the water from a place you may have heard of before called Oka. Hudson acts as a suburb of Montreal and, as such, many residents of Hudson travel to the city to work. Not surprisingly, for a musician like Patrick Watson, the allure of the Montreal Arts scene drew him in as well, to the point that now many fans and music critics view him and his band (also named Patrick Watson) as being synonymous with Montreal. Patrick Watson (the solo artist) was co-nominated for a Genie Award for Best Song in 2007. As a band, Patrick Watson was nominated for a Juno award in 2007 for Best New Artist. The band won the Polaris Prize that same year and has been shortlisted and long listed several times since. For many people, the success of Patrick Watson (the band) is best assessed through their consistent recognition from the Polaris Prize nominating committee. The Polaris Prize is awarded for creativity (as opposed to the Juno Awards, which often are influenced by sales figures, digital downloads and concert ticket sales.) And if there is anything to know about Patrick Watson (the band), it is that they have been, and continue to be, at the forefront of creativity when it comes to the music that they produce. So let’s dive into today’s song “Adventures in Your Own Backyard” and why it is arguably the single most appropriate song for the times we currently find ourselves in as Canadians on the world stage. Here we go.
“Adventures in Your Own Backyard” is the title track from Patrick Watson’s fifth studio album. It was released in 2012. On the previous four albums, the band had garnered a reputation for experimentation. They often made music using found instruments. Many considered the band to be avant garde. Initially, Patrick Watson (the singer) was a solo artist. However, as is often the case when artists first begin their career, Watson got to know many other musicians who performed in and around Montreal and would often find himself in the company of all manner of other artists and bands. At one point, he and a few friends were asked to contribute backing music to an audio visual exhibit featuring photographs. After the exhibit took place, Watson and his friends played the soundtrack live a few times. Those early sessions were met with wide public acclaim and helped establish within the group a belief that, perhaps, they could be more than simply backing musicians for other artists. Thus, Patrick Watson (the band) was born. Throughout the early 2000s, the band released four albums (including the Polaris Prize winning Close To Paradise in 2006). They toured with Canadian acts such as The Dears and Leslie Feist. But they also toured with an eclectic mix of international performers that ranged from Philip Glass to James Brown. Not only did they work with an exciting array of dynamic, passionate and talented artists but the band also toured all over the world in the process. They traveled all throughout Europe and even became popular in China. In fact, Patrick Watson has a song called “Beijing” that is partly played by creating music using a bicycle! In any event, if you have ever traveled to far flung locations, you will be able to appreciate the desire to return to the familiarity of home. It is nice to be abroad, seeing new sights, eating new foods, experiencing cultures that are different from your own but, in the end, there is just something comforting about coming back to the place you are from. So, in 2010 the band moved back to Montreal. The members of the band settled into their old lives. Some married and became parents. Through it all, each band member was able to look at the place they called home with new eyes. This perspective allowed them to appreciate the subtle nuances and cultural influences of their home city of Montreal in ways that would have been impossible had they never left it to explore the world. This reinvigorated sense of inspiration infused itself into the lyrics of the songs that would come to form the album Adventures in Your Own Backyard.
While Patrick Watson (the band) may have earned a reputation for being eclectic in the pursuit of musical performance in the past, for this homecoming album, that sense of musical experimentation gave way to a more refined musical approach that can best be described as cinematic. Adventures in Your Own Backyard is an album filled with songs that speak to the stories found in the world around us. It is an introspective exploration of a world that we often take for granted. One that we fail to appreciate for the beauty and vibrancy that it possesses. When I listen to the title track that I am featuring in today’s post, I like to close my eyes. When I do so, I am reminded of movie scores where every note is the equivalent of a painter’s brush stroke or a cinematographer’s framed scene. The opening line to this song is “Twelve steps into your backyard”. You may be familiar with twelve-step programmes (the most famous of which would be the one in the self-help programme sponsored by Alcoholics Anonymous). By their very nature, twelve-step programmes are sequential journeys of introspection and self-awareness. In the case of this song, that process of self-awareness includes the realization of the joy of being in familiar surroundings, with people you know and cultural influences you understand. Sometimes you have to go away in order to fully appreciate and understand just how special it is to be home once again. The song “Adventures in Your Own Backyard” takes us on that journey in a way that is unlike almost anything you will hear in terms of contemporary Canadian music. Simply put, “Adventures in Your Own Backyard” is lovely and mesmerizing and intense and placid, all at the same time. Again, feel free to view the linked videos below with your eyes but I strongly recommend closing your eyes at some point and letting the music influence your imagination. As a band, Patrick Watson is a national treasure. If this is your first experience listening to them then, you are most welcome for the introduction.
It is that joyous reclamation of the idea of being home that is also so relevant to us as Canadians at this very moment in time. In my lifetime, I have always been proud to be from Canada. However, being a Canadian citizen, with all that entails culturally and historically, is something that I have taken for granted. I feel as though I was not the only Canadian citizen to think that way about our homeland. For most of my life, my feelings toward Canada could best be described in terms of comfort, consistency, dependability and stability. It really and truly took the electric shock of Donald Trump’s musings regarding annexation to force me to realize precisely what was at stake and how precious Canada actually was to me. Again, I know I am not the only citizen who was snapped back to attention by this external threat to our national sovereignty. The reaction among Canadians from coast to coast to coast was immediate and it was uniform. As Canadian citizens, we have been undergoing our own twelve-step journey ever since. As a result, we have begun the process of divorcing ourselves from our longtime beau and are beginning to see other people, as it were. There are far fewer Amazon delivery trucks on the streets of my hometown. Airlines are reducing flights to America because of huge decreases in demand. Furthermore, border crossings are way down because it appears to all outsiders that it just isn’t safe to be in America at the moment with the rule of law seemingly being dismantled in real time. Prior to Mr. Trump’s public covetous declarations toward Canada (as well as Panama and Greenland), we were slated to have a Conservative government sweep into power in our general election. It was a political party that was said to have ties to the same forces backing Trump. But once the Orange One opened his mouth, he caused a groundswell of patriotism to emerge across the country. Our new Prime Minister ended up being an internationally-respected banker with some serious Mr. Rogers vibes. Since then, Australia voted in a new leader who defended democratic values and the Catholic Church elected a new Pope who is said to embody anti-MAGA values as well. Everywhere I go in Canada, I see “Made in Canada” signs on storefronts and maple leaf stickers on store shelves. When we travel as a family this summer, it will be within our own borders. I have no doubt that the memories we will make will be ones we cherish for the rest of our lives.
With the possible exceptions of Paul Henrson’s goal in 1972 and Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope a few years later, I can’t recall a time when Canadians have been so united in a single cause as we are today. In some small, strange way, I am grateful to the U.S. President for prodding me and my fellow Canadian citizens into realizing how fortunate we all are to be able to call Canada our home. For there is beauty and wonder in our own backyard.
The link to the video for the song “Adventures in Your Own Backyard” by Patrick Watson can be found here. ***The lyrics can be viewed here.
The link to the official website for the band Patrick Watson can be found here.
The link to the official website for the town of Hudson, Quebec can be found here.
The link to the official website for the Polaris Prize can be found here.
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