How dare I write a melancholy song about one of the greatest and most spectacularly beautiful countries on Earth?  I'm firmly in the camp of those Americans who sort of secretly wish they were Canadian.  So much to love, and why would I do such a thing?  Well, je ne sais quoi I really liked this one a lot when I wrote it.  I wasn't that thrilled with the way I ended up recording it, and even though I could've made it more fully produced, it's not bad in its understated release version state.  This combines several experiences from my past which influenced my writing the song, but a lot of it is made up.  First of all, I should say I've never found anything to not like about Ontario or anywhere else in the great white north.  I once went on a canoe trip on Lake Wabatongushi, and stopped in Wawa, Ontario as part of the trip.  It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I've also been to "the Soo" and "Gitche Gumee" before, and I've enjoyed Labatt's beer too often in my reckless youth.  I've also ridden on the Algoma Central Railway train, and the train that takes you from Michigan over to Toronto as well, and I generally love riding on trains.  Since the music was blues, I wanted to combine all of these experiences somehow in the lyrics while making it sad.  So, despite me personally loving all things mentioned in the song, the sad take on heartbreak seemed to work well for blues.  I just imagined being alone on a train up there, trying to get over a lost love.  There was no particular girl in mind, although while writing it for some reason I thought about a girl I met once at a songwriter retreat who was from the northern shore of Lake Superior.  So, there you have it, the story behind the song, which probably now has ruined your interpretation.  As is obvious from all the song pages in this site, I thought it might be interesting to some to read these, even though it's probably better to be intentionally mysterious about what you were thinking when you wrote a song, like Bob Dylan maybe would.