Travelogue Thursdays: Oh, Canada!

Damn. I now feel obliged to continue this alliterative theme day thing, at least for the start. Funny how we paint ourselves in corners like that… meh, we’ll see how it goes.

Anyhow, this day has been devoted to bringing you a specific artist from some far off locale (generally outside the good old USA). Today, however, we begin close to home with our neighbors to the north. Canada is a land of lush musical diversity, from the hip beyond belief Montreal music scene to Toronto’s much beloved native sons, Barenaked Ladies (oh c’mon, admit it—you liked If I Had A Million Dollars at some point in your life too).

Today, however, I wish to focus on another, much more specific phenomenon of Canadian music: the Kermit the Frog voice.

Recently, my friend Alex mentioned in this blog that the voice of Neil Young, surely one of Canada’s finest, reminds her of Kermit the Frog, if only in the best of ways (whatever that’s supposed to mean). Anyhow, it got me to thinking, and there are a lot of Canadian performers who sound like Kermit the Frog: Kevin Hearn (of the aforementioned Barenaked Ladies), Rufus Wainwright, Ron Sexsmith, my political theory professor… okay, he doesn’t sing, but he is Canadian and the similarities are uncanny.

Further complicating matters is the fact that Jim Henson, the originator of Kermit’s voice, was born in Mississippi. Last time I checked, Mississippi is not Canada.

Anyhow, listen and be astounded:

Kevin Hearn- War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover)
Ron Sexsmith- Lebanon, Tennessee
Rufus Wainwright- April Fools

I guess this will just have to remain one of the great mysteries of the musical world… which reminds me, I’m still waiting for an answer on that Konstantine question.