Singers and Songwriters

Newfoundlanders have always been topical in their songwriting, fashioning lyrics to reflect their lives and their communities, celebrating heroes, villains and characters and recording events from the epic to the comical.

But the best music of Newfoundland and Labrador does much more than simply tell stories or recount history. The music is a reflection of the place and its people, articulating hopes, dreams, myths and fears. It provides a window on qualities considered central to the Newfoundland character: humour, irony, ambivalence and endurance, to name a few.

Musicians Performing, 1979

Newfoundland musicians performing at the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, Bannerman Park, St. John's, 1979.

Courtesy of Archives and Special Collections (Coll - 154), Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL.

"The songs are there behind every tree and every rock," said Harry Martin, one of Labrador's most renowned composers. "It's just a matter of putting it on paper. It's not difficult to write a song about the big land."

In this tradition, the songwriters of the province are popularly seen as the voices of Newfoundland and Labrador. The following are a few of the more prominent among those voices.

Anita Best
Johnny Burke
Byron "Fiddler" Chaulk
Eddie Eastman
Jim Fidler
Harry Hibbs
Ron Hynes
Jimmy Linegar
Harry Martin
Pamela Morgan and Noel Dinn
Dick Nolan
Arthur Scammell

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