26 March 2026 - Triples - Happy April

 This is the last regular post I'm writing for this year's Maple Leaf March. I think.  I may write more stuff.  We'll see. 

Triples is the Toronto-based musical project of Eva Link - singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor.  It wasn't always that way - it started off as a joint venture between Eva and her sister, Madeline.  This song, from their 2019 album Big Time, is from the days it was a duo - and you can see they both appear and sing here.

26 March 2026 - PACKS - Honey

I lied. THIS is the last regular post I'm writing for this year's Maple Leaf March. I think.  I may write more stuff.  We'll see. 

PACKS is the Toronto-based musical project of Madeline Link - singer, songwriter, guitarist and onetime actor.  It wasn't always that way - she started off with a joint venture with her sister, Eva, called Triples - but Madeline left when PACKS became too much of a demand.

There's no acrimony between the sisters, by the way.  They're still very close. 

PACKS's 2024 album Melt The Honey gives the same Liz Phair/Juliana Hatfield vibes, and it is really good.  This is the title song from that set.

Unlike Triples, we have some live material we can share from PACKS.... like this show from 2023, prior to the album release.  You can see that Madeline is an excellent, if not a little shy, frontwoman... and that the rich sounds from Packs is not just one person, but a whole band. 

26 March 2026 - Triples - Be Around

This is the last regular post I'm writing for this year's Maple Leaf March. I think.  I may write more stuff.  We'll see. 

Triples is the Toronto-based musical project of Eva Link - singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor.  It wasn't always that way - it started off as a joint venture between Eva and her sister, Madeline - but Madeline left when the success of her project, PACKS, became too much of a demand.... so it became Eva's project.

It's pretty good, too - her 2026 EP Every Good Story gives solid Liz Phair/Juliana Hatfield vibes. "Be Around" closes the set, and it is a love song that was inspired by Eva's relationship with her boyfriend and the honeymoon period she experienced at the beginning of it. 

25 March 2026 - Laurence Nerbonne - On danse encore

Youtube has made it a lot harder to share videos from there to Blogger.   It makes me worry about the future of this platform.  

So, while I contemplate that, I hope you enjoy this Gatineau-based artist who is making some truly excellent dance music.  

I love it when artists really enjoy the music and the art, and you can tell that she's enjoying playing her song live for this mixed-age crowd.

She is also clearly enjoying herself performing duing the Enfant Soleil telethon on Quebec television.

24 March 2026 - Elisapie - Arnaq

By the way, Inuktitut was a great album, but it wasn't the first time Elisapie had sung in that language.

This song was the lead song and single from her 2018 album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, a multilingual masterpiece, with songs in Inuktitut, English and French - years before Rosalía showed off being a polyglot. 

The album got Elisapie a Juno nomination and her first Polaris shortlist.  The song - the title translates to "Woman" in English and speaks to the strength of women - is absolutely masterpiece level work.

I debated which of the many excellent live performances of this song to share with you.

I chose this one, from CBC Music, which shows 1) it's a clearly guitar-driven song and 2) the song has a slow burn and slow build to an epic conclusion.

But also, I couldn't not share this performance from Seattle, WA, UNITED STATES radio station KEXP - from 2024, when she was touring in support of Inuktitut.  This 2018 song was epic and iconic enough to make the cut for the short setlist. 

24 March 2026 - Elisapie - The Love You Gave

Just because she released an album called Inuktitut does not mean that she doesn't speak English.

Or write her own songs.

Indeed, this song is both original and in English.  Her 2012 album Travelling Love was completely in English.  Of course, as a Quebec artist who also happens to identify as First Nations, she's at least trilingual, and a lot of her earlier music was in English. 

Fun story - she received a 2012 Juno Award nomination timed with this album, in the Breakthrough Artist category...... but she had previously won a Juno in 2005, so the nomination was rescinded.  

This song, co-written by the artist, is one of my favorites from her early career.  It's just a sweet pop song. It is here for you to enjoy. 

23 March 2026 - Thierry Larose - Cantalou

Do I understand every cultural reference in every song I post? Nope.  Especially I don't understand some from Quebec. 

Do you know who does? Quebecois indie singer-songwriter Thierry Larose. 

And I feel like I am missing a cultural reference here. Maybe one of you can tell me what it is.

At any rate, this was the title song from Larose's debut album, cowritten by the artist and a large team, including Charles-Antoine Olivier (who also plays drums on this song) and Alexandre Martel (no joke, he's banging the congas and tambourine here), with whom he won the 2021 SOCAN Songwriting Prize - for a different song, but just to show you that he's got a solid team with strong chops surrounding him. 

I don't care that this song is in French.  I care that it's a great song that would sound in place on any indie radio station. 

This single was from 2021, but he certainly still performs it live, as in this performance from Montreal in 2025. That is NOT Alexandre Martel on tambourine....

I promise you I didn't plan this. I didn't know this performance existed before about five minutes ago. 

Thierry Larose and Lou-Adriane Cassidy will return.