TORONTO — Tom Cochrane, Rush, Stompin’ Tom Connors and Kardinal Offishall were among those honoured by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada at its 20th annual awards gala on Monday night.
Connors, the 73-year-old country-folk legend who issued his 50th album in 2008, was given a lifetime achievement award.
Rush, meanwhile, took the international achievement honour after another successful year of touring and the release of Snakes & Arrows Live, while Rita MacNeil received the national achievement award for success in the Canadian music industry over her career.
SOCAN, which is the Canadian copyright collective for the communication and performance of musical works, also dispensed awards for the songs that received the most domestic radio play in 2008.
Finger Eleven of Burlington, Ont., were recognized for “I’ll Keep Your Memory Vague” while also taking the award for international song for “Paralyzer,” which reached No. 6 on the U.S. charts and was certified double-platinum there in 2008.
Feist was also honoured for her hit “1234,” while the other pop/rock artists acknowledged for domestic airplay were Kreesha Turner, whose “Don’t Call Me Baby” was written by Jon Levine and Anjulie Persaud, and Hedley, for “For the Nights I Can’t Remember.”
In the country music category, Gord Bamford’s “Stayed ’Til Two,” Doc Walker’s “Beautiful Life,” and Deric Ruttan’s “First Time in a Long Time” received SOCAN awards for their airplay.
Kardinal Offishall’s “Dangerous” took the urban music award after winning the Juno Award for single of the year in March. The song, which featured St. Louis-based R&B crooner Akon, reached No. 2 on the Canadian charts and No. 5 in the United States.
Corb Lund took the roots/folk music award for domestic radio after watching multiple singles from 2007’s “Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!” make the Canadian country music chart.
Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter Alex Cuba took the Hagood Hardy award for overall success in jazz, instrumental or world music, while Ottawa-born composer James Rolfe won the Jan V. Matejcek award for overall success in new classical music.
The society also recognized songs that have been played 100,000 times on Canadian radio, including five tunes penned by Cochrane: “Big League,” “Boy Inside the Man,” “I Wish You Well,” “Lunatic Fringe” and “No Regrets.”
Vancouver’s 54-40 had two songs make the cut (“I Go Blind” and “Ocean Pearl”), as did Carolyn Dawn Johnson (“Complicated” and “I Don’t Want You to Go”) and Marc Jordan (“I Fall From Grace” and “This,” which was performed by Rod Stewart).
Glass Tiger’s “My Town,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Race Among the Ruins,” Ian Thomas’s “Pilot” and Stephan Moccio and Aldo Caporuscio’s “A New Day Has Come,” as performed by Celine Dion, also made the list.
Toronto-based publicist Richard Flohil received the special achievement award for his career contributions to the Canadian music industry.
SOCAN will recognize francophone music creators at a gala in Montreal on Nov. 24.