Jann Arden
In 1997 and 1998, back when we still had dial-up Internet, I used to get a lot of those chain letter email personality quizzes for teenaged girls sent to me by my friend Suzanne. Suzanne and I were in different cliques in school, but we had been in elementary school together and we were both quiet academic kids and we got to know each other very well by exchanging these filled-out questionnaires at least once a week or so throughout Grade 7 and Grade 8 where we told each other everything from our favourite teacher to our biggest crush to what we were going to name our future children. One question that continually came up, of course, was ‘what is your favourite song.’
I was supposed to get up between 6:00am, when my clock radio alarm went off thus turning on C100 radio, and 6:30 so that I would be ready and in the car by 7:30am, but I often lay in bed until closer to 7:15am listening to the music that was playing and having the ‘Breakfast Club’ hosts’ conversations weave themselves along with the music into my dreams. I have a visceral memory of one morning overtly deciding, after both came on the radio within this hour, that my two favourite songs (for the questionnaire) were “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell and “Insensitive” by Jann Arden.
It would be a long time before I would know any more about Joni Mitchell and Jann Arden, beyond that they sang these two songs that I loved, even that they were both Canadian, but choosing these songs and remembering this exact random moment feels prophetic because the musical canons of both these extraordinary Canadian women played a huge role in my life over the following decades.
Last night I attended Jann Arden’s Mixtape Tour, which kicked off at the Scotiabank Centre, which is a celebration of the 1990s, and indeed, many of the cover songs she sings, from her new album of the same name, capture much of what I remember hearing on the radio during those mornings before school. Arden came out looking iconic in tight ripped jeans, a very sparkly Anne Murray oversized tee under a plaid shirt, and with a wallet chain. She immediately transported me back to Grade Eight. And if there is a time when you want to be able to be transported back to the 1990s, especially if it was the decade when you were a teenager, I think that moment is now.
Arden released three albums in this decade: her debut Time for Mercy (1993), Living Under June (1994), which launched her to international stardom with “Insensitive,” and Happy? (1997), and last night we were treated to an array of gems from all three inter-spliced with the songs from Mixtape, which often accompanied a quick outfit change.
I have seen Arden perform live a handful of times, beginning with a performance I happened to catch by chance during the PanAm Games when I lived in Toronto ten years ago, but as such I haven’t had the opportunity to hear her sing a lot of songs from Time for Mercy or Happy?. It’s incredible how she seems to bring even more power and emotion to songs like “I Just Don’t Love You Anymore,” “The Sound Of,” and “Wishing That” than she did on the records. The 90s were a time of big earnest and heartfelt emotions that were expressed without the irony that has pervaded so much of our culture since. It was a great time to be a teenager because the music mirrored so much of the sweeping intensity of feelings that we were also experiencing. One need look no further than the lyrics of “I Would Die for You” to see what I mean: “I’ve never seen this kind of love/The kind that won’t slip away/Yes I’m soaring through your heart/Don’t you know I could not survive/Without you in my life/I would die for you.” Musically, there is something in “The Sound Of” that I connect with Cookie Rankin and Gordie Sampson’s “Maybe You’re Right” from the same time period that I associate so nostalgically with the late 1990s. “Could I Be Your Girl” as well, from the very first note, makes me think of the theme from Dawson’s Creek, butterfly clips, the TGIF lineup, and, aptly enough, mixed cassette tapes. This is the kind of nostalgia that is strong enough to make me tear up.
Many of the songs that Arden covers on her new album Mixtape, which was released January 31st, are more distant memories for me, as they were hits when I was in elementary school or earlier, such as “Missing” by Everything But the Girl, a hit from 1994, “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak, which is from 1989, and “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley, which actually goes back to the year I was born. I really enjoyed being introduced or re-introduced to these songs as well. “The Boys of Summer” is especially suited to Arden’s storyteller style of performance, and I absolutely love her rendition of “Missing.” She also does a rendition of Joan Osborne’s “One of Us” (1995), which was one of the biggest time travelling trips for me; we had that song on a mixed CD we played all the time in our classroom in Grade 8, and apparently I still know all the words. Similarly “You Gotta Be” (1994) by Des’ree was certainly on rotation in that classroom as well. I love that Arden covered this one. On her record she also covers TLC’s “Waterfalls,” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” with Kyle McKearney and “There She Goes” by the La’s.
I loved learning that Arden’s gorgeous song “Unloved” was inspired by one of my favourite novels John Steinbeck’s masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath, which she received as a gift from her dad. Of course there is nothing like getting to experience this song, “Insensitive,” and “Good Mother” live. These songs are so formative not just for generations of Canadians, but also in our cultural landscape, and musical history. I cried a bit during “Good Mother,” thinking of my own mama who loved Arden as much as I do- and of all the road trips we took where we sang along to her entire discography- all the Christmases where we listened to A Jann Arden Christmas while we decorated the tree, and how, when Nanny was struggling with Dementia and mama and I were helping take care of her she read every single one of Arden’s Facebook posts about caring for her own mother through her Alzheimer’s. She used to send me texts saying, “Did you read Jann’s post?” “Read what Jann said.” I think she helped my mom find the words to express how she was feeling as a caretaker during those long and strange years. Shirley Campbell certainly was a good mother, and her strength IS what keeps me here.
Connecting to the repeated refrain in “Good Mother”, which of course says, “be yourself” Arden ended the evening by encouraging us to not just be ourselves, but to honour and protect the individuality of others, by being allies to those more marginalized than we are, and protecting trans folks specifically. The Scotiabank Centre erupted in loud and immediate cheers when she said this.
We can’t live in a 90s reverie forever, but in that moment 2025 didn’t look so bad either.
Jann Arden’s Mixtape Tour continues tonight in Moncton, New Brunswick at the Molson Canadian Centre at Casino New Brunswick. She then keeps moving West across the country with dates announced through until Christmas. Check her website for more information.
Her new album Mixtape is available wherever you stream or buy your music. Consider shopping for your vinyl or CDs locally at TAZ records (1521 Grafton Street or 1239 Bedford Highway) or, buy directly from Jann Arden’s website. She has cassette tapes and shackets!
