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Dozens of Canadian songwriters, composers and music publishers were among the throng of guests at this year’s 19^th annual SOCAN Awards gala, Nov. 17 at The Carlu in Toronto, celebrating the wide-ranging success of Canada’s music creators over the past year. The show was hosted jointly by award-winning film and TV composer Rob Carli, Toronto-based hip-hop artist Abdominal and country singer-songwriter George Canyon, and kicked off with a knockout performance by Winnipeg’s own The Weakerthans, including their winning 2008 SOCAN ECHO Songwriting Prize number, “Night Windows.”

SOCAN president Pierre-Daniel Rheault welcomed all with a reminder that, even in our strained economic climate, we can look back on a year that gave considerable cause to celebrate. In addition to receiving record revenues for performing rights, SOCAN members can collectively rejoice in a number of judicial victories of the past several months, including the newly approved Tariff 22 covering performance and communication via the Internet. In a reminder about next year’s SOCAN board election, he urged members to visit www.socan.ca and sign up for online voting, another first for SOCAN in its constantly expanding suite of web features.

Legendary country music composer, producer and recording artist Ray Griff captured SOCAN’s top honour, taking home the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his 48 Top-100 singles and more than 700 songs featured on recordings by the likes of Jim Reeves, Jerry Lee Lewis, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. Accepting on Ray’s behalf was his wife, Trudy Griff.

Chantal Kreviazuk won a Pop Music Award for her song “Wonderful” at the 2008 SOCAN Awards. (Photo: Grant W. Martin Photography)

Nickelback, the mega-successful West Coast rock band, won the International Achievement Award for the second consecutive year, while East Coaster Ron Hynes (who also performed during the show in a solo outing and in a duet with George Canyon of Hynes’ “Sonny’s Dream”) was fêted with the National Achievement Award. A longtime fixture in folk and roots music circles, Hynes has crafted a repertoire of songs that are by turns humorous and highly evocative, and which have been covered by dozens of artists, including Emmylou Harris, Prairie Oyster and The Good Brothers.

The late, highly influential jazz pioneer Oscar Peterson was the recipient of this year’s Special Achievement Award, in recognition of his more than 65-year career as one of the true legends in his field. Oscar’s wife, Kelly Peterson, accepted on his behalf.

The Pop Music Awards category was dominated this year by powerhouse women: Nelly Furtado (who won two awards), Avril Lavigne (who won three), and Chantal Kreviazuk, with Michael Bublé, Daniel Powter and David Usher taking the remaining honours in that slate.

Other multiple-award winners during the evening were Jeff Danna (International Film Music Award and, with his brother Mychael Danna, Domestic Feature Film Music Award), the inimitable Leonard Cohen (who won three SOCAN Classics awards), Dan Hill (also winner of three SOCAN Classics), Arnold Lanni and Fred Turner (each a double Classics winner), Amanda Marshall (who wrote or co-wrote four Classics), Steven Page (who wrote or co-wrote five Classics) and the latter’s Barenaked Ladies partner, Ed Robertson, who wrote or co-wrote four of this year’s Classics.