From Georgia to Ontario

I was so excited to see a package waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday. Avalon sent me my prize! I won Charlotte Hawkins' "The Tempest" on Avalon's blog a couple of weeks ago.  I see she mailed it on June 9th and it arrived on June 23rd. That's 2 weeks to go from a small place in the state of Georgia, U.S.A. to an even smaller place in the province of Ontario, Canada. Snail mail indeed!

Dear Avalon,

It was so neat to see your address and imagine what it might be like where you live.  So I got to thinking about Georgia -- which immediately brought to mind the song  Georgia on My Mind.

I love when Willie Nelson sings the Blues. You have to wait a bit until Ray Charles comes in, but he's worth waiting for. What I like most about this video is it shows how much fun they seem to be having as well as their mutual respect for each other.
As far as biopics go, one of my very faves has to be Ray with Jamie Foxx deservedly winning an Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles. If you would rather hear just Charles's version of this song, please follow this link. It's worth clicking on just to read the introductory blurb below the video!


One of my favourite songs to sing at Karaoke Night down at our local Royal Canadian Legion Hall is Gladys Knight and the Pips' Midnight Train to Georgia. I am always looking for a few good Pips!

How romantic is that? "I'd rather live in his world, than live without him in mine."

Then I remembered my all-time favourite song about Georgia! Brook Benton's 

version of Rainy Night in Georgia.

This is the live version, which is very nice but I still  prefer the original radio hit as it had a more bluesy feel to it. Brook Benton has such a deep and emotional voice, I can't enjoy anyone else's version of it.
The lyrics are wonderful too: "A distant moaning of a train, seems to play a sad refrain to the night..."


Aren't there a lot of wonderful songs about Georgia? Those are my faves, but some of you Country music fans may prefer "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", or how about the theme music for the Harlem Globetrotter's basketball team, "Sweet Georgia Brown". The Globetrotters actually visited my High School way back in the day! There were only a few of them, not the whole team, but they were very impressive and entertaining indeed. ...But I digress...

So now my train of thought has arrived with the book to the hinterland of Ontario. Unfortunately there are not as many songs about Ontario as there are about Georgia. And even less about my neck of the woods -- Northern Ontario, which is as different to Southern Ontario as the proverbial North and South miniseries I keep blathering about!

But luckily, two of my favourite songs by Neil Young are about places in Northern Ontario (or it is at least mentioned).

The first is Helpless from the Crosby Stills Nash & Young album Deja Vu (1970). **UPDATE: I had to replace that video with a LIVE performance from The Last Waltz (with The Band.) I hope this video doesn't disappear too, from the video police! :p

This might well be my very favourite Neil Young song, probably because it does have special meaning for me. But k. d. Lang does a fabulous job of her cover version of this song, performed when Neil was recovering from surgery. Listen to her version here.

 The second offering I have from Neil is Long May You Run

Yeah, I know it's only about his car...(you know how goofy guys are about their cars)! But did you catch the lyrics "Well, it was back in Blind River in 1962..."  That's Blind River ONTARIO, near Elliot Lake where Neil came from before he moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba and his music career took root.  Blind River could arguably be the halfway point between Northern and Southern Ontario (on the TransCanada Highway).  It's still part of the North, but it's within a looong day's drive to Toronto. Ontario takes about 3 days to traverse, if you are not a crazy driver. I've known some people to do it in a 24 hour driving stint without stopping. (That's 2 drivers with one sleeping while the other drives.) Which makes me think that Neil Young's paean to his car is not really so silly. A reliable car that won't break down (literally) in the middle of nowhere is a very good thing indeed!

So now, I get to settle down and read Charlotte Hawkins' lovely alternate ending for the Guy of Gisborne story. If you would like to win a copy, you can visit her blog here and leave your email address.
What a treat! Gisborne...here I come!

I can't help it! This picture makes me melt!
Or you could say, it leaves me helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless...

(Source: Richard Armitage Central)