Recently, a very good friend of mine took ill. Meningitis. This was a week ago.

He is doing better but is nowhere out of the woods. That is the magical fuckitude of meningitis. Quality of life comes into play. I’ll end this introduction with an observation: The outpour of love that Mr. Zyp has received is both astonishing and deserved. Praise be to wonderful people. This is dedicated to that beautiful freak and his love of music.

What personal information would I leave my son, if for some cosmic reason, I ceased to be? You know how life it is. Everything is fine and then blammo, a phone call from hell. Or, blammo, it is a personal experience and everything is different and (if you are lucky) you are still around to perceive its difference.

This had me thinking about Little Hell and what I would like to leave for him. Since I’m an artsy fartsy hoser, I would like for him to have the chance to listen to the music that his dad loved. You know, to give him the chance to say, “Wow, my dad’s taste is music sucks”, but in a loving way.

Because I don’t have the time nor the Internet space, I will keep this list to five Canadian albums.

In no particular order:

Sloan: Twice Removed

I was born in Nova Scotia. Sloan is from Nova Scotia. Relevant connection accomplished. And the Album is still pretty effing good.

Stan Rogers: Home in Halifax

The Godfather of Canadiana. I’d love to see him fight Stomping Tom Connors in both their heydays.

The Rheostatics: Introducing Happiness.

This was a toughy. It was either this or Whale Music. Paul Quarrington should also be mentioned in this portion.

The Tragically Hip: Phantom Power

I spent a lot of time in the woods in the 90’s. This album was in my walkman late at night, looking over North Tea Lake. Midnight lightning storms for the win.

NQ Arbuckle: XOK

I moved out West and this was one of the first bands that my new family introduced to me. Wonderful country rock. Little did I know they were from out East. Little did and do know very little.