As you cruise along the dusty road, you know you’ve made it once the red and white tent is in sight. It’s like the ‘X’ that marks the spot for what’s been dubbed, “Canada’s tiny, perfect festival.”
Besides its incomparable Northern setting, the Dawson City Music Festival has achieved its perfection status through its diverse, eclectic and astounding line up of Canadian artists each and every year since 1979.
And CBC Yukon has been there along the way, bringing listeners in Dawson and around the territory some sounds of the festival. In fact, the broadcaster is celebrating its own milestone this year – its 50th anniversary.
To celebrate decades of rocking the Klondike, CBC Yukon and the Dawson City Music Festival have joined forces to assemble a limited-edition, two-disc collection of past festival performances.
“It was a real challenge to make the selections,” says CBC Yukon host Bob Unger.
As a freelancer at CBC, I’ve seen Unger diligently working away at putting the collection together just in time for this year’s festival. He sat down with John Bailey, technical manager of the festival, to search through years – not to mention hours – of CBC recorded tracks in order to build an ideal playlist.
“What I wanted to do was reflect the festival on its 30th anniversary. We’re not going to have all 30 years represented because we didn’t have tape from all 30 years, but we wanted to cover as many years, as many venues, and as many genres as possible,” Unger explained in a recent interview on CBC Radio One.
“And I think we did that. I think we’ve got a really nice collection of music.”
The compilation is made up of two-dozen tracks and each disc has its own noticeable nostalgic qualities.
The first is like a mix tape of the ambient, soulful side of DCMF with live recordings of Jill Barber, John K. Samson (of the Weakerthans fame) and Yukon artist Manfred Janssen.
The second disc offers more upbeat tunes, compiling cuts from the Pocket Dwellers, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and the Yukon’s Scotch.
“We don’t have really, really old stuff,” Unger says. “But we do have a cut from 1988 with Sheerin and Steins.”
After a brief cameo track from CBC personality Arthur Black, the first CD kicks off with Song For Clare, performed on the main stage by Scott Sheerin and current Dawson mayor John Steins.
From there, the special compilation takes listeners back to 2005 with Joel Plaskett at the Palace Grand Theatre. Kim Barlow sings of Keno City in 2004 at the Gazebo and Anne Louise Genest thanks the crowd at St. Paul’s Church in 2001 for supporting live music.
The distinct and exotic sound of Tanya Tagaq’s throat singing opens the second disc from the stage at the Palace Grand Theatre in 2005. Autorickshaw provide a touch of jazz with a Dizzy Gillespie tune at the Gazebo in 2004. And ska-punk outfit, the Planet Smashers, close the collection with a lively performance from the main stage in 1999.
Last year was the first time I had the opportunity to soak in all that is DCMF. This collection acts as a history lesson on its musical riches and a taste of what I’ve missed. But for many loyal festivalgoers, it’ll revisit the sounds of summers gone by.
And Unger stresses the double-disc is not a best of.
“It’s not, because the best of would include things we don’t have on tape. So what this includes is some of the best of what we have on tape.”
Only 600 copies of the CD will be available beginning on July 18 at CBC’s kickoff concert in Dawson. Pick it up at the festival’s merchandise booth or listen to CBC Radio One’s morning broadcast on Saturday July 19 to hear tracks from the limited edition collection.
