The percussion on 'You Me and the B's' (B's as in Boston Bruins) is the tap-scrape-slide of hockey sticks on a frozen driveway, as played by Gord, his brother Patrick Downie and longtime member of the Hip family Dave Koster. Gord Downie was a promising goalie before he was a rock star, and The Tragically Hip provided the soundtrack to many an NHL practice and small town backyard rink. But there is levity and humor too, and there is the sound of hockey. From his lowest notes on 'The North' to his gentlest crooning on 'Yer Ashore' to his absolutely gut-wrenching wail at the end of 'Safe is Dead.' If that sounds heavy, it is. Part of the comfort and joy in listening to Introduce Yerself is the way Downie's voice is eternally preserved, in all its malleability and humanity. If you know producer Kevin Drew (who also co-produced both Downie's previous solo record Secret Path and The Tragically Hip's last album Man Machine Poem alongside Dave Hamelin ) as a fan, either of his solo work or as a co-founder of Broken Social Scene, you cannot be surprised that while processing his own grief, he was devoted to creating an artistic relic to help alleviate ours. If you know Gord Downie as a fan, you know this was a man for whom no act of art was impossible and whose gifts of generosity knew no bounds.

If you do not know anything of Gord Downie, except that he was the lead singer of one of Canada's most beloved bands, and that he died on October 17, you may marvel at how Introduce Yerself was at all possible to build, or why an artist who had already given fans the gift of enough cherished songs to last a lifetime would chose, in his last moments, to give more. Mansbridge's name is etched into the Canadian ethos and no doubt etched in Downie's healthy mind too and yet, as they spoke, Downie confessed that memory, which he said used to be his forte, was failing: 'I have Peter written on my hand, and I say that just to be upfront just because I might call you Doug.' While the details of Downie's health and progress were largely kept private beyond the initial announcement made by his longtime band, The Tragically Hip, to fans in May of 2016, Downie gave an exclusive public interview to Canadian news anchor Peter Mansbridge in October of that year.

It was completed, with help from producer and dear friend Kevin Drew, over the course of two four day sessions in January of 2016 and in February of 2017. Downie's work, which takes the shape of 23 songs, each written about an individual in his life, began less than two weeks after he told loved ones he had an aggressive and terminal form of brain cancer. The carefully curated, technicolor details on Gord Downie's final album Introduce Yerself, out this week, make it easy to forget the walls of Downie's mind were threatening to crumble during construction. Thank you.'Ĭhiefs from across the country brought presents to Downie, but were asked to not present them to him personally due to health concerns as he undergoes treatment for brain cancer.The Two-Way Gord Downie, Singer Of The Tragically Hip, Dies At 53 This is the first day of forever: the greatest day of my life, the greatest day of all of our lives.

We must walk down a path of reconciliation from now on.

'To become a country, and truly call ourselves Canada, it means we must become one. It will take 150 years or seven generations to heal the wound of the residential school,' Downie said after receiving the blanket. 'Soon, in a few days, a couple of weeks, there's 150 years that Canada wants to celebrate, and I will personally then celebrate the birth of our country, celebrate the next 150 years. (Margo McDiarmid/CBC News) Path of reconciliation AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde presents The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie with an eagle feather while he is honoured at the AFN special assembly in Gatineau, Que.

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