This week we lost a wonderful Canadian singer and woman. Rita McNeil passed away due to complications from surgery, so unexpectedly, at the age of 68.
She was an intensely shy woman. Her fame did not come until her 40's. She was a pioneer in the women's movement of the 70's. Nothing diminished her love of Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia.
I regret not seeing her perform live.
In 1984 I was in the audience for K.D. Lang and the Reclines as she performed her reincarnation of Patsy Cline at the Jack Singer.
In 1985 it was Blue Rodeo in the Palliser Ballroom for $25 including beef on a bun.
All of these performances were life changing moments.
This is another wake up call for me. When I was in university we were going to go to Vegas and see Elvis. The story is the same. He died before we saw him. Now again, a great artist has left us and I have regrets that I could have seen her perform and didn't.
My condolences to her family. She was a national treasure.
Thank you to the Lyric Theatre who brings wonderful artists to our small town. So many of them have amazing talent. Hopefully I will have no more regrets.
We definitely need to do all that we possibly can so that we have no regrets Sarah. Rita had a beautiful voice. I also saw KD Lang in Calgary back in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteOne of my great grandmothers came from Cape Breton Island. Who knew someone so illustrious came from there, as well? Please, go see someone you've wanted to see soon, so you will have the joy of seeing them to help offset this regret.
ReplyDeleteA Canadian treasure... her reputation didn't filter down to the US. Quite a set of pipes!
ReplyDeleteLiving a life with no regrets is hard in this day and age..Soon I will be 65 I got to live in southern California and saw many rock acts for about $5.00 and usually I was on a date and it was my dates $5.00..I dated people who worked for the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union and the Union Tribune in San Diego, California got to go to many many concerts and my friends interviewed many up and coming artists, Elton John was very interesting, so was Sonny & Cher, but Santana beat them all at the Ventura County Fair grounds..$5.00 entrance fee, free to me with my boyfriend from the LA Times, we listened to him jam for hours, my boyfriend never paid for most concerts, he interviewed many, if they had no manners I got really upset, manners to me matter a lot..Never married any of the boy and friends, married a square guy who loved and loves the movies we go all the time or Netflix, and our only child a beautiful girl works in the film industry, she sends us movies all the time, mostly independent films which to me are better than most blockbusters, they turn into blockbusters because so many go to them..She goes to Sundance in Utah and met Robert Redford who she says is rather shy, but he was a peach to her with his gal pal, sent me tons of dvd's of his movies and wanted her still to work for his Sundance company, we shall see..Love your blog, don't regret anything in life, life is too short, the jewish people always say at funerals, good memories, have good memories and we had good memories of the decedent..ciao
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