Gord Downie
HughFreakingDillon
Winnipeg Posts: 37,350
http://www.secretpath.ca/
Gord Downie began Secret Path as ten poems, incited by the story of Chanie Wenjack, a twelve year-old boy who died in flight from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ontario, fifty years ago, walking home to the family he was taken from over 400 miles away.
The stories Gord’s poems tell were fleshed into the ten songs of Secret Path with producers Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin. Recording took place over two sessions at The Bathouse Recording Studios in Bath, Ontario, November and December 2013. The music features Downie on vocals and guitars, with Drew and Hamelin playing all other instruments. Guest musicians include Charles Spearin (bass), Ohad Benchetrit (lap steel/guitar), Kevin Hearn (piano), and Dave “Billy Ray” Koster (drums).
In winter 2014, Gord and Mike brought the recently finished Secret Path music to graphic novelist Jeff Lemire for his help illustrating Chanie Wenjack’s story, bringing him and the many children like him to life.
The ten song album will be released by Arts & Crafts accompanied by Lemire's graphic novel published by Simon & Schuster Canada. Secret Path will arrive on October 18, 2016, in a deluxe vinyl and book edition, featuring 180 gram vinyl, Lemire’s 88-page novel, a set of ten lyric posters, custom box packaging, and album download.
Proceeds will be donated to The Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation: https://give.umanitoba.ca/nctr
Release date: October 18, 2016
Tracklist:
A/
1. The Stranger
2. Swing Set
3. Seven Matches
4. I Will Not Be Struck
5. Son
B/
1. Secret Path
2. Don’t Let This Touch You
3. Haunt Them, Haunt Them, Haunt Them
4. The Only Place To Be
5. Here, Here and Here
Gord Downie began Secret Path as ten poems, incited by the story of Chanie Wenjack, a twelve year-old boy who died in flight from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ontario, fifty years ago, walking home to the family he was taken from over 400 miles away.
The stories Gord’s poems tell were fleshed into the ten songs of Secret Path with producers Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin. Recording took place over two sessions at The Bathouse Recording Studios in Bath, Ontario, November and December 2013. The music features Downie on vocals and guitars, with Drew and Hamelin playing all other instruments. Guest musicians include Charles Spearin (bass), Ohad Benchetrit (lap steel/guitar), Kevin Hearn (piano), and Dave “Billy Ray” Koster (drums).
In winter 2014, Gord and Mike brought the recently finished Secret Path music to graphic novelist Jeff Lemire for his help illustrating Chanie Wenjack’s story, bringing him and the many children like him to life.
The ten song album will be released by Arts & Crafts accompanied by Lemire's graphic novel published by Simon & Schuster Canada. Secret Path will arrive on October 18, 2016, in a deluxe vinyl and book edition, featuring 180 gram vinyl, Lemire’s 88-page novel, a set of ten lyric posters, custom box packaging, and album download.
Proceeds will be donated to The Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation: https://give.umanitoba.ca/nctr
Release date: October 18, 2016
Tracklist:
A/
1. The Stranger
2. Swing Set
3. Seven Matches
4. I Will Not Be Struck
5. Son
B/
1. Secret Path
2. Don’t Let This Touch You
3. Haunt Them, Haunt Them, Haunt Them
4. The Only Place To Be
5. Here, Here and Here
"Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk"
-EV 8/14/93
-EV 8/14/93
Post edited by HughFreakingDillon on
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Comments
Very intense subject for me too. I love that Gord is so invested in that topic/cause.
Ordered the deluxe package, easy purchasing decision. Thanks for the info.
The Secret Path is an animated film adaptation of Gord Downie's album and Jeff Lemire's graphic novel. Working with Downie's poetry and music, Lemire has created a powerful visual representation of the life of Chanie Wenjack. The film is divided into ten chapters, each a song from Downie's musical retelling of Chanie's story – from his escape from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School, to his subsequent and heartbreaking death from hunger and exposure to the harsh weather. The final product is a uniquely immersive emotional experience - an insight into the life of a little boy who, as Gord has said, he never knew, "but will always love."
The Secret Path was created, written, and directed by Gord Downie, composed by Gord Downie with Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin, and illustrated by author Jeff Lemire. The film is executive produced by Mike Downie, Patrick Downie, Gord Downie, and Sarah Polley. The Secret Path is produced by Entertainment One (eOne) and Antica Productions Ltd. in association with CBC, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. Jocelyn Hamilton is executive producer for eOne Television and Stuart Coxe is executive producer for Antica Productions. Animation is directed by Justin Stephenson, produced at Solis Animation Inc. and composited by Even Steven Inc.
The Secret Path will be broadcast by CBC in an hour-long commercial-free television special on Sunday, October 23, 2016, at 9pm (9:30 NT).
-EV 8/14/93
-EV 8/14/93
Really looking forward to listening to it! It's fun when an entire album is a complete mystery until you get it on the turntable.
-EV 8/14/93
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
(Have mine in my hands now, as expected. Can't wait to get it home and have a look. That was a very well organized and well executed release. One of the best I've ever seen)
Edit: yes it did. Sent it to my work and I'm not there today. Lol
-EV 8/14/93
good on gord telling this story it has helped me personally understand how we need to make things right there. there is injustice.
and the injustice has been going on since the late 1800's until 1996 and it's still going on.
here's gord quote from the postcard included:
"all of these governments, and all of those churches, for all of those years, misused themselves. they hurt many children. they broke up many families. they erased entire communities. it will take seven generations to fix this. seven. seven is not arbitrary. this is far from over. things up north have never been harder. canada is not canada. we are not the country we think we are"
after i followed the instructions, it was very easy to open the 2 pieces to expose the download code.
-EV 8/14/93
Downie's Secret Path both dream-like, heart-wrenching
Gord Downie’s Secret Path
Gord Downie brought the tragic story of Chanie Wenjack to life at the National Arts Centre on Tuesday during a beautiful but heart-wrenching concert.
Secret Path, the newly released fifth solo outing by the Tragically Hip singer, is a multimedia concept album inspired by Wenjack’s story. He was the 12-year-old indigenous boy who ran away from a residential school 50 years ago this month, and died trying to walk home, more than 600 kilometres away.
Downie’s project began three years ago, well before he was diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer. After his brother, filmmaker Mike Downie, heard the story of Chanie on the radio and shared it with Gord, the singer wrote a series of poems. They expanded into songs with the help of the production team of Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew and former Stills member Dave Hamelin. Over the next couple of years, the project grew in scope: a graphic novel was created by Canadian cartoonist Jeff Lemire, and then an animated film.
All of the components of the ambitious project found their place during a magical performance in front of a sold-out audience that included members of the Downie and Wenjack families, indigenous leaders and elders, members of the Hip and fans.
Drew and Hamelin were part of Downie’s supergroup of a band, along with Barenaked Ladies’ Kevin Hearn, Skydiggers’ Josh Finlayson and Charles Spearin, of Broken Social Scene and Do Make Say Think.
The music pulsed with rhythm, but was also brushed into a dream-like soundscape with synthesizers, piano, keyboards and acoustic guitar. In jeans, a buttoned-up jean jacket, wide-brimmed hat and scarf, Downie spoke little, but sang with his usual passion and intensity. He displayed the full range of his distinctive voice, from a whisper to a howl, and even a piercing falsetto.
On a big screen over the musicians’ heads, the animated film depicting Chanie’s journey unfolded as each song was performed. It was a track-by-track reading of the album, from the opening single, The Stranger, when we see Chanie and other students at the school getting their hair cut, being showered and huddling under the covers in a row of beds, to the fade-out of the final song, Here, Here and Here, after Chanie closes his eyes, passing into golden warmth of his home.
The standing ovation that greeted the performance showed the audience was moved. To paraphrase Mike Downie’s words when he addressed the crowd near the end of the evening, listening could be the first true step towards reconciliation.
-EV 8/14/93
i'm just FULL UP of gord love and respect over this project and could never begin to articulate how much
-EV 8/14/93
this gord release is his best yet !!
love everything about this. the atmosphere of the songs are top shelf. singing incredible+
every song is great. especially love haunt them x 3(those drums!) and here and here and here...WOW
-EV 8/14/93
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Gord Downie's The Secret Path
incredible++
Secret Path:
Here, Here, Here: