The performances
- Neil Young at Massey Hall (1971) — the (see our features) solo acoustic (see our Massey feature) night (see our Young features): the (see our features) songs (see our features) naked (see our features), the (see our features) audience (see our features) breathless (see our features).
- The Trinity Session (1988) — the (see our features) single-microphone (see our single-mic feature) church (see our Trinity feature): the (see our features) Cowboy Junkies' (see our features) quiet (see our features) masterpiece (see our underrated feature).
- Leonard Cohen's later tours — the (see our features) elder Cohen (see our Cohen features) whispering (see our features) the (see our features) anthems (see our features): the (see our features) quiet (see our features) as (see our features) the (see our features) power (see our features).
- **Feist's *Look at What the Light Did Now*** — the (see our features) quiet (see our Feist feature) holding (see our features) the (see our features) festival fields (see our festival features).
- The folk-club tradition — the (see our features) Yorkville (see our Yorkville feature) and (see our features) coffeehouse (see our coffeehouse feature) apprenticeships (see our features): the (see our features) unplugged (see our features) as (see our features) the (see our features) default (see our features).
The unplugged's truth
The truth (see our features): the (see our features) song (see our craft feature) either (see our features) works (see our features) stripped (see our features) or (see our features) it (see our features) doesn't (see our features). The (see our features) unplugged (see our features) performance (see our features) removes (see our features) the (see our features) hiding places (see our features) — the (see our features) production (see our features) gone (see our features), the (see our features) distortion (see our features) gone (see our features), the (see our features) voice (see our vocal-coaches feature) alone (see our features). The (see our features) songs (see our features) that (see our features) survive (see our features) the (see our features) stripping (see our features) are (see our features) the (see our features) songs (see our features) that (see our features) matter (see our features). The (see our features) quiet (see our features) exposes (see our features). The (see our features) craft (see our features) endures (see our features).
Frequently asked questions
What are Canada’s greatest acoustic performances?
Young at Massey Hall, the Trinity Session, and Cohen’s later tours lead the canon.
Why do unplugged performances matter?
They remove the hiding places — the songs that survive the stripping are the songs that matter.
Where does the unplugged tradition live?
The folk-club and coffeehouse apprenticeships — unplugged as the default.