Canadian Recording Artists, Canada

The regular visitors to this blog may have expected to see some Railway stamps today but this train lover has decided for something completely different (partly because it was one of the very few already scanned stuff)

Actually, the main reason I went for this one today is to draw the attention to one of the accepted ways of stamps' cancellation in some countries, which outrages me! I think it is fairly visible that this cover has been crossed with a pen instead the regular way. I don't know who first allowed this and why is it still not sanctioned, but for philatelists this is tragic on many levels.
I received this cover some years ago, but now of course, thanks to the cancellation, I can just guess it was sometime after 30 June 2011, or after the stamps were issued.

Canada presents us with some important Canadians which are not very popular outside its borders, or at least, on this side of the pond. If you ask me to name some famous Canadian Artists, the first one that always comes to mind is Bryan Adams.... alongside with Alanis Morissette, Celine Dion, Leonard Cohen.... but none of these featured here, so lets get a bit familiar with them now, shall we?



- Ginette Reno, (28 April 1946) - a Canadian author, composer, singer, and actress. She has received nominations for the Genie and Gemini Awards and is a multi-recipient of the Juno Award. She is a gold and platinum selling Canadian musician. She has also starred in some movies, which of course, I haven't watched.
I have just listened to her on YouTube, and wow, what an amazing voice! Not the kind of music on my everyday playlist, but for sure it's good!

- Bruce Douglas Cockburn (May 27, 1945) - a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to jazz-influenced rock and his lyrics cover a broad range of topics that reveal a passion for human rights, environmental issues, politics, and Christianity. He has written more than 300 songs on 33 albums over a career spanning 40 years, of which 22 have received a Canadian gold or platinum certification as of 2018, and he has sold over one million albums in Canada alone.

- Robbie Robertson, (July 5, 1943), - a Canadian musician, songwriter, film composer, producer, actor, and author, best known for his work as lead guitarist and primary songwriter for The Band, and for his career as a solo recording artist. His work with The Band was instrumental in creating the Americana music genre.
He is also known for his collaborations with director Martin Scorsese, which began with the rockumentary film The Last Waltz (1978), and continued through a number of dramatic films, including Raging Bull (1980) and Casino (1995). He has worked on many other soundtracks for film and television - well I am well known as a movie lover who totally cannot remember movie titles, actors, directors, songwriters... no wonder I had no idea about him as being part of some of the movies I have watched

-the last stamp is reserved for two sisters, Kate McGarrigle (February 6, 1946 – January 18, 2010) and Anna McGarrigle (born December 4, 1944) - a duo of Canadian singer-songwriters from Quebec, who performed until Kate's death on January 18, 2010.
Their songs have been covered by a variety of artists including Nana Mouskouri, Linda Ronstadt, Billy Bragg, Cyndi Lauper, Pet Shop Boys and others. which had led to the McGarrigles getting their first recording contract in 1974. They created ten albums from 1975 through 2008.

so that would be my contribution for today's R letter, some recording artists (where you also have Reno and Robbie Robertson :))

For more R-related stamps, visit today's edition of Sunday Stamps! 

ps. Thank you Bryon for this cover - turned out into a nice music lesson of the day :)

Rock in Portugal, Portugal

It was not easy to choose today what to post for Viridian's theme of 'art, music, dance'...I mean, it offers you really endless opportunities, and you just dont know what to pick among all those great stamps (esp. the ones I have related to art...but I decided to leave art for some other more-in-the-artistic-mood time). My choice today fell on this Portuguese cover, with a set of 6 stamps dedicated to Portuguese rock...come on, how many of you are actually familiar with the Portuguese music and the Portuguese rock artists? :) (the question does not refer to Portuguese readers...that wont be a fair competition :)))

Anyways, this is a good way for a foreigner to google a bit about the Portuguese artists depicted on these stamps and give a try to some of their music .
The first stamp (top left) shows the cover of the "Ar de Rock",  released in 1980. It is the debut album of Rui Veloso, a Portuguese rock and blues singer and musician, born in 1957. Ok, i dont know what's the definition of rock to Portuguese, but on the overall, this album seems to be too mellow and more like blues/swing/samba/rumba, than rock :) Maybe the "Donzela Diesel" song feels more rocky...funny, the songs in general sound like the Eurovision type of music.
The next stamp shows the cover of the "Herois do Mar" album, released by Herois do Mar, a former Portuguese band formed in 1981 and disbanded in 1990. Cool synth-pop kind of album. Reminds me of the early DM days :)
The third stamp shows the "Psicopatria" cover by the band GNR. Boy, this one gave me trouble in figuring it out. It is a Portuguese band founded in 1981. Liked the album! Might be my favourite among all these :). The sound is just the kind of rock my ears love listening to!

At the bottom, we start with the cover of the "À Flor da Pele" album, released in 1981 by the band UHF, formed in 1978. Sounds rockish...Geraldine is a cool song! There is one called "Modelo Fotográfico", and for some reason at first i thought it may have some resemblance to the Kraftwerk's "Das Model"...dont know why..but anyways, they are absolutely different.
In the middle is the cover of the album called "88". released, of course in 1988, by the Portuguese band Xutos e Pontapés, formed in 1978 and in 2004 the band was awarded a state decoration by Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, for 25 years of career achievements in the music industry. It is not a bad album actually. The Doçuras song is very nice, calm and relaxing. "Prisao em Si" is very nice too.
On the last stamp you can see the cover of the "Woflheart", which is the first full-length album by the band Moonspell, where most of the tracks are actually in English. And there is a drastic difference btw this one and the very first album...this one reminds me of the first Anathema albums when they were into the death/doom metal....though I prefer their latter, ambient/art rock albums.
Out of this, Lua d'Inverno is a beautiful instrumental! Trebaruna is good too. But the others...well, just too harsh for my taste :)
And maybe these stamps should be called "Music in Portugal" instead of  'rock' coz maybe just half of this sounds like real kind of rock music :)

It was nice to have something totally different on my playlist...too bad I dont understand Portuguese though :)

For some more cultural stuff, visit Viridian's blog...and of course, have a lovely Sunday :)