Archive for the Category ‘News’

Coronavirus Songs vs. Disaster Songs

Monday, May 18th, 2020

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

Tuesday, April 21st, 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

Sunday, March 29th, 2020

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

Wednesday, January 15th, 2020

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

Sunday, July 28th, 2019

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

Saturday, July 20th, 2019

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

Tuesday, March 15th, 2016

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

Monday, September 7th, 2015

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”

Sunday, December 21st, 2014

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

Tuesday, September 30th, 2014

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…