In 1977, the first real date I went on with a fellow graduate student, Helen, was to a tiny coffee house in Guelph, Ontario, called the Carden Street Cafe. Helen knew that Stan Rogers, a fabulous singer who sang songs about the Maritimes, would be performing there. She had heard him perform in Halifax. We were very impressed with his music and humour. Helen and I were married a year later and we bought most of Stan’s LPs and a couple of his song books. Helen loves to sing Stan’s songs. As a violinist, I was most intrigued that Stan kept guitars tuned to a variety of note patterns. I was also impressed how Stan moved about the country, learning local material for new songs. “Northwest Passage” and “The Field Behind the Plough” made me realize that Stan was an “all-Canadian” composer. We moved to Saskatoon to pursue more graduate studies and were there when we heard of Stan’s death. I remember being in our little apartment, listening to CBC radio, when the news of his death was announced. He was a great musician and a great Canadian.

—Paul Sharpe