The Saint John String Quartet have made a major shift in gears for their 6th album. They’re leaning into the pop-culture canon with Canadian Hits: Unplugged. The album features 16 pop hits from Canadian icons, including Leonard Cohen, the Arkells, Joni Mitchell and more. Today they’ve released the first single: a special premiere of their take on The Tragically Hip’s “Ahead by a Century.”
In the great scheme of Canadiana, “Ahead by a Century” may just be one of the greatest songs of all time. It first appeared on The Tragically Hip’s 1996 album Trouble at the Henhouse, was nominated for a the JUNO Best Single of the Year, went platinum in 2016, was used as the theme song for CBC’s 2017 “Anne” series, and has absolutely cemented itself into our cultural identity.
To tackle “Ahead by a Century” should be both daunting and mandatory.
“‘Ahead by a Century’ is a terrific tune by The Tragically Hip. We wanted to celebrate the iconic band by choosing one of their songs, and this one spoke to all of us; it has a great groove and listening to it we felt like it would translate really well to string quartet,” explains Saint John String Quartet’s Danielle Sametz (violin).
“I must have heard this song for the first time when I was a kid, listening to the Hip on family road trips across Canada – it reminds me of sunny summer days, reading in the car, knowing we had a long way to go before our destination, but not minding it. Likely an experience many Canadians can relate to!”
The arrangement the String Quartet are performing has allowed for a little personalized flair. It might provide a refreshing change for a song that most of the country are familiar with, or it might be stepping into dangerous territory when it comes to Hip fans…
It’s a risk they’ll have to take for literally every song on the new album.
“It feels like a real honour to be celebrating and performing the music of these modern stars,” says Sametz. “And thanks to our fantastic arranger, Rebecca Pellet, they are not exact replicas of the songs, but have been transformed into wonderful and complex pieces that work fantastically for string quartet. It doesn’t feel like two completely separate worlds, but more like a fusion of worlds, where we still feel like a classical string quartet, and get to take all the intricacies and sonorities of that instrumental combination and use them to put our own twist on ‘pop’ music.
“I think listeners will really enjoy the album. It has something for everyone, and takes you on a real journey through well-known Canadian music. And of course there are no lyrics, and that gets you listening to the harmonies and rhythms in a totally different way than when you’re listening to the words. It’s been a very exciting and interesting project, the way we’ve really made the arrangements our own and taken these well-known tunes and transformed them into something quite special just for our audience.”
Physical copies of the Saint John String Quartet’s Canadian Hits: Unplugged are available immediately at select local outlets, and on iTunes July 5, 2019.
Tour Dates:
09.05.19 – Fredericton,NB @ McCain Hall, STU,
10.05.19 – Sussex, NB @ St Francis Xavier Church
11.05.19 – Moncton, NB @ Resurgo Place
12.05.19 – Saint John, NB @ Saint John Arts Centre