The Keepin’ It Real Book Club

This is the first Canadian singer/songwriter I fell in love with, and though I don’t listen to her as much as in my high-school days, this song always restores me and gives me space to breathe.

Elsewhere, by Sarah McLachlan

I love the time and in between
The calm inside me
In the space where I can breathe
I believe there is a
Distance I have wandered
To touch upon the years of
Reaching out and reaching in
Holding out holding in

I believe
This is heaven to no one else but me
And I’ll defend it as long as I can be
Left here to linger in silence
If I choose to
Would you try to understand

I know this love is passing time
Passing through like liquid
I am drunk in my desire…
But I love the way you smile at me
I love the way your hands reach out and hold me near…
I believe…

I believe
This is heaven to no one else but me
And I’ll defend it as long as
I can be left here to linger in silence
If I choose to
Would you try to understand

Oh the quiet child awaits the day when she can break free
The mold that clings like desperation
Mother can’t you see I’ve got
To live my life the way I feel is right for me
Might not [...]

I’ve been feeling kind of guilty because in the last crazy week I haven’t been able to finish a book, but as I grooved at the incredible Blue Rodeo concert at Molson Amp tonight, I thought of some other Canadian writers I could write about here: Canadian songwriters. So, over the next 5 weeks, my 5 favourite Canadian songs that I couldn’t live without. And in honour of tonight’s killer performance, to kick off this top 5 (which will go in no particular order):

Five Days in May, by Blue Rodeo

They met in a hurricane
Standing in the shelter, out of the rain
She tucked a note into his hand.

Later on they took his car
drove on down to where the beaches are
he wrote her name in the sand
never even let go of her hand

Somehow they stayed that way, for those five days in may
made all those stars around them shine

funny how you can look in vain
livin’ on nerves and such sweet pain
loneliness that cuts so fine
find the place you’ve seen a thousand times

sometimes the world begins to set you up on your feet again
and no one wipes the tears from your eyes
how will you ever know the way that circumstances go
Its gonna hit [...]