Oh Canada's twin odes

Perhaps today's hint of autumn weather prompted me to scroll the iPod to two of my all-time favorite songs about Canada. Whatever the reason, today I have been listening to Stompin' Tom Connors' "The Hockey Song" and Hank Snow's "My Nova Scotia Home."
Stompin' Tom's song is (overly?) familiar to hockey fans throughout North America. Lines such as "They storm the crease like bumblebees!" sum up Canada's national obsession with palpable glee.
Snow's song might be less well-known south of the border. Too bad... it is absolutely beautiful.
"There's a place I'll always cherish, 'neath the blue Atlantic sky," he sings, "where the shores down in Cape Breton bid the golden sun to rise. And the fragrance of the apple blossoms sprays the dew-kissed lawns back in dear old Nova Scotia, the place where I was born."