A lot of the iconic sounds of American music have a quiet Canadian hand in them, and “Echoes Across The Border: Laurel Canyon and the Northern Connection” is here to let us in on that secret. The two-day summit marks the first collaboration between the National Music Centre and the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music. From October 4-5 at the NMC headquarters in Calgary, folk lovers from across the continent are invited to hear a storied era in American music with fresh ears.

Talks will take place with experts like Rob Bowman, a Canadian GRAMMY award-winning musicologist, known as York University’s “rock ‘n’ roll professor.” Chatting on the phone from Toronto, Bowman says the Laurel Canyon era was somewhere between 1965 to 1977, in the hilly boundaries of the tucked away Los Angeles neighbourhood of Laurel Canyon – very roughly.

“Some actually didn’t live in Laurel Canyon, but the majority did. Neil Young, for example, moved to Topanga Canyon, which is about 20 miles southwest,” says Bowman. “So we use that term to loosely represent a particular kind of sound.”

He paints the picture of the neighbourhood as haven for creative exchange where a new folk sound emerged – one that was “…personal, self, confessional, and autobiographical – in a way that nobody had written in popular music before.”

It was here that Mitchell bought 8217 Lookout Mountain with the royalties from her debut album Song To A Seagull. She lived and created in that little green-panelled nook,  soon to be joined by Graham Nash, a feeling forever immortalized in “Our House.” Bowman says Mitchell was talked into moving down to LA by David Crosby, of Crosby Stills and Nash. 

“Everybody was dazzled by Joni. She is such a unique artist, as I’m going to be speaking on in my keynote lecture,” says Bowman. “She did things harmonically, melodically, in terms of musical structure, lyrically, vocally, all in ways that are singular, unique and stunned people like Steven Stills and David Crosby. She sets the tone for what Laurel Canyon will become.”

Preceding the Laurel Canyon boom, singer-songwriters flocked to mix, mingle, and create in Greenwich Village, a bohemian corner of New York City. But even this chapter had a Canadian counterpart, explains Bowman. The Yorkville neighbourhood in Toronto, now unrecognizable as a luxury hub of shopping and hotels, was once a hippie hotbed for emerging Canadian sound. The scene there shaped both Mitchell and Young and other countless Canadian artists that never made it “big” down south.

“Places like Yorkville and Greenwich Village provided clubs where people in university or just post-high school could come socialize. It wasn’t a one nighter like they do now – you would play a week, maybe two weeks, in the same folk club,” says Bowman. “Then word of mouth would build up in whatever city you were in, people would flock to check you out, and it would also give you a chance to perfect your craft as a performer.”

The two-day summit is chock full of stories like this – under-appreciated history that throws the deep Canadian roots of American popular music into the light. It’s important to Robert Santelli, Executive Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music, to not only recognize the cross-border musical pollination – but to deepen this connection. This is just the beginning of a series of collaborations. 

The idea for the summit began when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed in Calgary, home of the National Music Centre, and a fated meeting sparked a collaboration that may be just the beginning of many. The free summit will culminate in a live tribute concert, bringing the sounds of the era to life. 

“Music knows no boundaries, right? The sounds are similar because of the easy connection between musicians from Canada and musicians from America,” says Santelli. “Because of the stress that both countries have recently experienced, it’s important that music continues to be that bond that doesn’t break.”

On Oct. 4 and 5, the National Music Centre will host Echoes Across the Border: Laurel Canyon and the Northern Connection, a music summit in collaboration with the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music.

For details, visit Echoes Across the Border | Studio Bell