With the recent release of “Nahanni Song” credited to a certain British songwriter by the name of Jagger, it’s no longer a secret that a big-name British rocker paddled the northern river in 2005.
That summer, the Rolling Stones were in Toronto rehearsing for their upcoming North American tour. Late in the summer, the 59-year-old vocalist Jagger covertly jetted to the Northwest Territories for a week-long trip on Canada’s most famous canoeing river.
Starstruck guides schooled the aging rocker in river safety and bear protocol before escorting him down the South Nahanni.
“I decided it was about time to visit Canada—the real Canada, not the cities but the wide open country of lakes, mountains and rivers,” said Jagger, whose father wrote books about canoeing and nearly raced at the 1948 Olympics.
Jagger was so inspired by the Canadian wilderness that he penned a song about the river. A lucky audience got a sneak preview of “Nahanni Song” when Jagger dropped in for a post-trip jam at Yellowknife’s storied Wildcat Café.
The lyrics (Beautiful river/Running so free/But it’s goodbye/To the Nahanni) combine Jagger’s post-trip melancholy with his fear for the river’s future. “The song came along when I was at the landing after the trip was all but over… I guess it’s an offering,” Jagger says of the song.
The lyrics provide a rare glimpse at the nature-lover behind Chris Jagger’s public persona as lead vocalist, guitarist and occasional washboard player for the zydeco-funk band Atcha!
You can hear “Nahanni Song” as a bonus track on import copies of Atcha!’s latest album, Act of Faith, alongside a rare duet with Jagger’s older brother, Mick, who also visited Canada in 2005 and is a successful musician in his own right—albeit a less accomplished paddler. Download “Nahanni Song” and read Chris’ trip journal at www.chrisjaggeronline.comgeronline.com.
This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.
