After played their farewell concert on August 20, 2016, in Kingston, ON, I thought maybe I had written about them for the last time. When Gord Downie passed away on October 17, 2017, I thought the same thing again. In January 2021, I put together a 10 Top List based on the streams on Spotify and YouTube... and today, we are back again thanks to the release of Saskadelphia.
That's the thing about a band that is so deeply part of the plot, they never really go away. The Tragically Hip are so much a part of Canadian music and Canadiana that the memories they've created, with and for fans, stays strong. They are so deeply ingrained in our consciousness that we still sing their songs around campfires and celebrate their hits and b-sides with love and admiration.
This year, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Road Apples and now, the release of Saskadelphia, giving us more of what they wrote and recorded in those sessions. We've learned now that their 1991 release had been planned as a double album - but the plan was scrapped. We thought that all of those songs were lost in 2008 during the Universal Studios fire.
Thankfully, they weren't.
Thankfully, some songs survived and last summer, the band (starting with Johnny Fay) listened to them, got them ready (added in the live audio for Montreal) and have given us this EP.
Saskadelphia is simultaneously new and old. It is fresh and nostalgic. It is us listening to Gord sing and Rob and Johnny and Paul and Gord (Sinclair) play songs in a studio in 1990 (and on stage in 2000) and being able to place them in that time - while enjoying them and embracing for the first time, in this time.
Road Apples was the band's first #1 album in Canada, it is certified Diamond for sales, and it is beloved. It gave us hits including Little Bones and Twist My Arm and favourites like Fiddler's Green and Long Time Running. These new songs are an extension of that. They are not a sequel. They are an addendum.
And as we enter a long weekend in Canada, there may be nothing more fitting for so many of us than to put on some Hip and enjoy.
Hit play on each of the songs now to give them a listen. Hit play again on the stream below to listen to the full EP again.
Share them. Enjoy them. Sing along with them when you learn the words. Make the songs from Saskadelphia part of the story of The Tragically Hip, like they've been here all along, on the double album that could have been in 1991 when Gord Downie was here singing, reciting poetry, preaching, dancing and loving his fans the way that they loved him.
Enjoy.
The Tragically Hip - Ouch
The Tragically Hip - Not Necessary
The Tragically Hip - Montreal (Live)
The Tragically Hip - Crack My Spine Like A Whip
The Tragically Hip - Just As Well
The Tragically Hip - Reformed Baptist Blues
The Tragically Hip, Saskadelphia Tracklist
