Ballad of a Poet

I had the pleasure of attending the Oxford Stomp during the Calgary Stampede this year and was able to check off a “bucket list” band for me which was seeing The Black Crowes live in concert. One of the openers was Canadian band, Our Lady Peace.

Raine Maida (lead singer) told a story about how he, as a young teen, wanted to be “on the stage” but didn’t know how to get there. He and his girlfriend got nosebleeder seats to the Toronto Music Awards and “sat through 2-ish hours of boring.” The last band though, the show closer, played 2 songs. According to Raine, “that band, and that 10 minutes of music is why I’m on this stage today.”

That band was The Tragically Hip.

The song, Ballad of a Poet, off the 2017 release Somethingness is a tribute to Gord Downie and the band that got Raine Maida on the stage.