Ridge

Often called “the battle that made Canada”, Vimy Ridge resulted in over 10,000 Canadian casualties.

In RIDGE, Brendan McLeod and The Fugitives examine misconceptions and varying perspectives around the battle of Vimy Ridge, while drawing parallels to other formative events in our nation’s past. Featuring innovative musical interpretations of WWI soldier songs (often referred to as ‘Trench Songs’), RIDGE probes difficult yet necessary questions about how and why we grieve. Trench songs were written by frontline soldiers during WW1. Essentially protest songs, they were often parodies of well-known tunes. The Fugitives perform their 5th and JUNO nominated album Trench Songs to accompany the WWI storytelling and thought-provoking narrative McLeod provides. Based on the writing by WWI soldiers, the band wrote new melodies and music for these words. The result is a poignant and stripped-back collection of work that emphasizes the emotional content of the lyrics and continues the long tradition of folk music reshaping songs over time — the same way soldiers reshaped these songs in the trenches.

A vivid, kinetic ride through history, as well as an intimate, personal examination of our connection to the past, RIDGE is a visceral work that passionately argues against the exploitation of young lives.