Gowan, McLachlan take top songwriting awards

Canadian Press - Nov 17 1998

TORONTO (CP) -- Larry Gowan and Sarah McLachlan were honoured by their songwriting peers Monday for their contributions to Canadian music.

Gowan, who had a string of hits in the mid-'80s including A Criminal Mind and Strange Animal, was given the SOCAN national achievement award for outstanding success in the Canadian music industry.

McLachlan, who gained huge fame creating and organizing the 1996 and 1997 all-girl Lilith Fair tours, received the Wm. Harold Moon award for bringing international recognition to Canada through her music.

"Quite honestly I was shocked," Gowan said in a telephone interview from Rhyl, Wales, where he was appearing in concert.

"The public are a great measuring stick for what you do, but getting respect from other songwriters -- especially ones that I have a lot of respect for -- is quite gratifying."

McLachlan was not on hand to accept her award but sent a videotaped acceptance. Ironically, she is currently embroiled in a copyright lawsuit in Vancouver launched by a former collaborator who claims he was denied credit on four of McLachlan's early songs.

Gowan also accepted his award by video.

"In my career I've been up for 12 Juno awards, and not one of them has ever been for songwriting and I consider myself first and foremost a songwriter," he said.

"It always kind of bothered me, so I was really happy that some of the songwriters thought it was OK to give me this."

SOCAN, or the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, is a non-profit performing rights society owned and administered by composers, lyricists, songwriters and music publishers.  It licenses public performances of copyrighted musical works in Canada and distributes royalties collected when its members' works are publicly performed, which includes play on radio and television.

The group also lobbies governments to promote the interests of its membership of about 18,000 Canadian musicians and composers.

Gowan said he's grateful to the organization for its continuing efforts championing the cause of Canadian songwriters.

"After all, they're the ones that are looking out for songwriters' interests," he said.

"They're the ones that are collecting the money. Let's call it what it is -- without them songwriters would go broke."

Jack Richardson, a musician and producer who has worked with the likes of the Guess Who and Alice Cooper, and Keith Kelly, past president of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, received the society's special achievement award.

Quebec singers Roch Voisine and Corey Hart were chief among pop artists honoured for the amount of airplay their songs garnered last year.

Country songwriters recognized for having songs with the greatest number of performances on radio and TV in 1997 included Paul Brandt, Julian Austin, Jason McCoy, Shania Twain and Prairie Oyster.

Here are the winners of awards handed out Monday night by SOCAN, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada:

Wm. Harold Moon award: Sarah McLachlan

SOCAN national achievement award: Lawrence Gowan

SOCAN special achievement award: Jack Richardson and Keith Kelly

Pop music awards:

Pop music songs that achieved greatest number of performances in 1997.

1. Dark Horse (performed by Amanda Marshall), composed by Amanda Marshall, Dean McTaggart, David Tyson.

2. Building a Mystery (performed by Sarah McLachlan), composed by Sarah McLachlan and Pierre Marchand.

3. Till you Love Somebody (performed by Amy Sky), composed by Amy Sky and Anthony Vanderburgh.

4. Tell Me (performed by Corey Hart), composed by Corey Hart.

5. Deliver Me (performed by Roch Voisine), composed by Roch Voisine and Amy Sky

6. Kissing Rain (performed by Roch Voisine ), composed by Roch Voisine, Christopher Ward and Ali Thompson.

7. Third of June (performed by Corey Hart), composed by Corey Hart.

Country music awards:

Country music songs that achieved greatest number of performances in 1997.

1. Take It From Me (performed by Paul Brandt), composed by Paul Brandt and Roy Hurd.

2. Little Ol' Kisses (performed by Julian Austin), composed by Julian Austin.

3. Born Again in Dixieland (performed by Jason McCoy), composed by Jason McCoy, Naoise Sheridan, Denny Carr.

4. Love Gets Me Every Time (performed by Shania Twain ), composed by Shania Twain and Mutt Lange.

5. One Way Track (performed by Prairie Oyster), composed by Russell deCarle and Willie P. Bennet.

Most performed international song:

Don't Speak (performed by No Doubt), composed by Eric Stefani and Gwen Stefani.

Awards presented to artists whose complete repertoire of creative works achieved highest number of performances in 1997:

Hagood Hardy jazz/instrumental award: Brian Hughes

Jan V. Matejcek concert music Award: R. Murray Schafer

Children's music award: Sharon, Lois and Bram

Urban music award: Carlos Morgan

Domestic Television music award: Danny Friedman

International television music award: Milan Kymlicka

Domestic film music award: Maribeth Solomon and Mickey Erbe

International film music award: Lou Natale

SOCAN lifetime achievement award, film & television music: William McCauley