Blog
Coronavirus Songs vs. Disaster Songs
I am excited to be participating in a virtual meeting with scholars around the world working on questions related to music during a time of Covid-19. I am grateful to Niels…
Nova Scotia Shooting 2020
A situation is in unfolding in Nova Scotia, where I live and as I write: the heartbreaking mass murder that started in the rural mainland community of Portapique. 22 victims…
The Humboldt Broncos Tragedy
On April 6, 2018, 16 people were killed and 13 were injured when a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos, a junior ice hockey team, slammed into a semi-trailer truck that…
Songs about the Australian Wildfires
The news about the Australian wildfires is absolutely devastating. As I write, they continue to wreak devastation. They began in July 2019 but made international news headlines in late 2019…
Alexander L. Kielland (1980) Song
I recently wrote about my visit with Hans-Jørgen Wallin Weihe and Marie Smith-Solbakken, who are doing work on persistent grief and trauma after oil rig disasters, notably three major disasters in…
Piper Alpha (1988) Songs
I have enjoyed spending the last couple of days with two Norwegian scholars, Hans-Jørgen Wallin Weihe and Marie Smith-Solbakken, who are doing work on persistent grief and trauma after oil…
Predicting the Fukushima Disaster in Song
After the disaster songs project got recent local press coverage, Lloyd Allan MacPherson wrote to me to tell me about a song that he wrote not long before the Fukushima…
Exhibit – Canary in the Mine: Nova Scotia Mining Disasters & Song
I’m delighted to announce the completion of the exhibit entitled “Canary in the Mine: Nova Scotia Mining Disasters and Song”! Housed on four iPads and mounted on four kiosks, it…
Allison Crowe’s “The Water Witch”
Singer-songwriter Allison Crowe, originally from BC but now living in Corner Brook, NL, recently reached out to let me know that she had recorded a new version of “The Water…
Grieving & Mourning IV: Moving On
In previous blog posts (Grieving & Mourning I, II and III), I discussed the first three of four “tasks” or “steps” that occur as part of the grieving process: accept…