The big reveal... 

on CBC Radio 2 Drive with Rich Terfry happened this afternoon. I adored the way the songs were revealed, I loved the conversations between Rich and the artists that happened. Congrats to CBC and to Rich for putting on a great show this afternoon. Wow!

Some absolutely incredible pieces of work... some artists that really got the spirit of this contest... who clearly researched the places they were writing about and who wrote some very heartfelt songs. Oh Susanna's "Tough City"... Dana Sipos' "Time Before Bones"... Deep Dark Woods' "Charile's (Is Coming Down)... Hawksley Workman's "Where They Left it Wild"... etcetera. I was blown away by the incredible musical talent and the heart that was put into some of these songs.

It has been a bit hard for me to listen to these other great songs and hear the artists talk about how the places inspired them. The difficult part is knowing what beauty and what magic there could have been in the song about Waskada, if we had the good fortune to have an artist who clearly cared about the spirit of this great contest.

I enjoyed all the songs... some more than others, of course. I will even go so far as to say Chantal's song is 'pretty'. It just happens to be about Winnipeg and not about Waskada. Truth be told, we were expecting something like this, after reading the following article in the Winnipeg Free Press. But even the article stated that "she changed the words to be about the winning place". I never in a million years dreamed that it would blatantly reference Winnipeg so many times. Could she perhaps have gone to the effort of replacing Win-ni-peg with Was-ka-da? Two fairly similar, three syllable words. Too much to ask? I guess so.

We couldn't hear Rich Terfry talk with Chantal about the song because she's off 'on a jet plane'. Every other artist took the time to speak with Rich personally. That also says something about her commitment to the spirit of the contest. Her recorded message before they played the song didn't mention Waskada once... she did say she loved having this 'assignment' because she has always enjoyed assignments from her early school days.  I'm thinking that Chantal gets an "F" on this assignment for lack of research and being completely off topic. Agreed? I think I could hear the strain in Rich Terfry's voice when he was speaking after the song about how Manitoba got a "two for one" deal with Winnipeg, the runner up, also being immortalized in the song. I actually feel for CBC... I suspect this situation was not easy for them to deal with. You've done well, CBC. This contest has only raised my level of respect for you and the organization.

Just an FYI... CBC is asking for feedback on the songs. I've posted on their Facebook group as well as on their Website. Some others are echoing similar sentiments to mine. If you want to add your voice, feel free.

CBC - you ran a great contest. It was incredible, really. What an awesome experience for Waskada and thank you for the exposure. So amazing!

Maybe Waskada will get a song from someone who wants to take the assignment seriously someday (any takers?)... but in the meantime, we will continue to celebrate our achievement in being number one in this contest and the fact that this allowed us to get coverage nationwide... so much thanks to CBC for helping to make this happen! :)

Thanks for listening... it feels good to get all these thoughts and feelings out there. To the people of Waskada - I'm sorry that we didn't get our song, but I'm not sorry about any other aspects of this amazing experience. Hope you've had fun too...

Signing off... thanks again everyone!

Bryna