Music of Manitoba

Manitoba has been well known for producing some of Canada's most famous music ever since the early 1960s.

Manitoba is a center for the old-time fiddling of the Métis people, and the popular tune "Whiskey Before Breakfast" was popularized by the Métis fiddler Andy DeJarlis (1914–1975), who was from the Red River region.

In the early 1990s Susan Aglukark, born in Churchill, emerged as a nationally successful adult contemporary singer.

The Canadian 1960s supergroup "Chad Allen and the Expressions" (later known as The Guess Who) became the first rock musicians to be recognized outside Canada. Their 1965 hit "Shakin' All Over" gave them instant success in Canada and Great Britain. The band was renamed the Guess Who in 1966, and with Chad Allen gone and new keyboardist Burton Cummings on vocals, they began to realize their full potential as rock superstars. Their hits (the psychedelic Billboard Hot 100 #1 in 1970) "American Woman", "No Time", "Clap for the Wolfman", "These Eyes", and "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" made them one of the most successful rock bands to ever come from Canada. A version of the band featuring original members Jim Kale and Garry Peterson continue to perform as the Guess Who, but the band as most fans know it broke up in the early 1970s.

Neil Young was also a product of the 1960s Winnipeg music scene, and has deep family roots in Western Manitoba. Neil played in community clubs in Winnipeg with his band, the Squires, during the mid-1960s. These days are recounted in the song "Prairie Town" recording in 1992 with Randy Bachman. Early in Neil’s career he played with Stephen Stills in the band Buffalo Springfield, and again with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Neil Young is best known as a solo artist, producing landmark albums like Harvest and a considerable string of hits over more than four decades of writing, recording and performing. He is referred to by some as the Godfather of Grunge, having inspired grunge pioneers like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder; and he remains one of the most influential Canadian musicians of all time.

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