Impact of iconic Cape Breton song 'Rise Again' transcends borders

(As seen in SaltWire, Jan 23, 2023. By Ian Nathanson)

SYDNEY — It began as a song its author described decades ago as one of resilience and hope amid the downfall of Cape Breton’s two big economic drivers: the steel plant and coal mines.

Written by Englishtown’s Leon Dubinsky, who passed away last week at age 81, “Rise Again” soon became a vocal showcase for the late Raylene Rankin, whose soprano soared whenever she delivered the song as part of "The Rise and Follies of Cape Breton Island" and "Cape Breton Summertime Revue" in the 1980s, and later with her sibling group The Rankin Family on their 1993 effort, “North Country.”

Cape Bretoners would often describe “Rise Again” as the unofficial anthem for the island itself whenever local musicians, schools or chorales would perform the song. Cape Breton University noted it would often use it to close its convocation ceremonies. 

But away from the island, the song — sometimes referred as “We Rise Again” — has travelled globally and taken on different meanings beyond what audiences have heard from the likes of Rita MacNeil, Anne Murray, The Men of the Deeps and the Rankins themselves. 

Holocaust Remembrance Day services

Diane Lewis, an art educator at Riverview High School in Coxheath, spent years spearheading Holocaust education programs in schools served by the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education. She said she recalled first hearing “Rise Again” close out annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) services at the Temple Sons of Israel synagogue on Whitney Avenue, often led by Dubinsky.

“He would always end the service with this,” Lewis said. “And if he wasn’t well enough to do, his daughter would come in and sing this for us.”

In 2008, Lewis travelled to Poland as part of a Holocaust teachers tour, in which the group visited the site of a Nazi concentration and extermination camp, set up when Germany occupied Poland during the Second World War. 

“This came from a Holocaust museum in Toronto that put this trip together,” Lewis said. “And for part of the service that we would have for deceased people, that was a song they had chosen for us to sing. I remember the person who was organized this approached me and said, ‘You’re from Cape Breton. You must know this song. Can you start it for us?’

Diane Lewis, right, watches as Kara Doyle lights a candle during a 2019 Yom HaShoah (Holocaust memorial day) service at Temple Sons of Israel in Sydney. Lewis first heard "Rise Again" sung at the finale of Yom HaShoah services, often led by the song's author, Leon Dubinsky.

'Different vibe to it'

“It had such a different vibe to it: It was beautiful and it gave you some kind of hope into the future. It had such a powerful impact on all of us … and there were a few of us from Cape Breton there .. but I remember the emotion in me just in trying to sing it.”

When she returned home, Lewis couldn’t wait to tell Dubinsky what she discovered. 

“I thought he might already knew about it,” Lewis said. “He was certainly fine with it, but he didn’t know his songs were used for that particular reason. It turns out he didn't know anything about this at all. 

“He was really moved by it and very happy to learn this when I told him.”

Lewis said she couldn’t recall how the Toronto Holocaust educators group first got wind of the song. “I just was fascinated to find out that they would even know that song existed, as it’s essentially a Cape Breton song,” she said. 

Selected for all-physicians choir

In another instance, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada in early 2020, Toronto palliative care physician Dr. Susan Thouin organized a group of fellow female doctors to form Voices Rock Medicine, who collectively chose “Rise Again” to reflect the strains they faced after the province’s public health-mandated lockdowns.

Thouin remembered hearing “Rise Again” during summers spent at a Boularderie Island cottage her parents owned, on a property bought by her grandparents from Glace Bay.

“When I was old enough to go, my parents would take me to the Cape Breton Summertime Revue shows, and I’d go with my whole family,” she said. “We heard it there twice. But also we loved the Rankins’ version, and when Rita MacNeil sang it. And we knew then it was an anthem for the island.”

Good choice for community choir

Thouin said she started listening to the song again when the pandemic forced Ontario to declare its state of emergency in mid-March 2020. 

Years before that, her daughter had taken part in a kids’ choir with a community group called Voices Rock Canada. Her husband, Justin, later joined an adult choir from the same group. Eventually, Thouin herself also joined, saying she needed a hobby to offset her busy work schedule.

In 2019, Thouin approached Voices Rock Canada founder Cheryl Bower about forming an all-physician choir comprised of women doctors interested in joining, what would ultimately become Voices Rock Medicine. When the first case of COVID-19 was discovered in Toronto in February 2020, the group recorded a video as part of a handwashing challenge. 

After lockdowns were mandated, choir rehearsals took place via Zoom.

“I sent the idea of singing ‘Rise Again’ to our choir director Anthony (Bastianon), with my husband saying, ‘You should totally do this as a choir,” Thouin said. “Initially, I didn’t hear anything back but in our next Zoom rehearsal, the director said he had a new song for us to learn. 

“Anthony, his wife and one of his kids did a recording of it in their home, so we could learn all the different parts.”

Overwhelming response from video

Despite Zoom’s platform limitations of not allowing everyone to sing at once, Thouin said Bastianon collected individual recordings of choir members singing their parts and, editing these together, produced a video posted on YouTube in April 2020. It has gone on to be viewed at least 599,000 times, at last count.

“The messages we were getting back from this, all of a sudden you realize this is helping other people, whether they’re in health care, working in a grocery store, or home with their kids doing online schooling, or just scared of what was going on,” Thouin said. “It just really hit people, then they felt uplifted by it.” 

One of those responses came from Dubinsky’s daughter, Ella, who wrote: “We're INSPIRED by these female physicians. Thank you for adding your voices to this song in this time. Love from the songwriter and his family.”

“They seemed pleased that we were using it, and it’s become an anthem now for us as well as others finding hope and calm during this difficult time,” Thouin said. 

'Forever grateful'

Poignantly, the most recent performance of “Rise Again” came via Ella Dubinsky herself, who, along with her mother Beth MacCormick, quietly played and sang it among family, relatives and friends who attended Leon Dubinsky’s funeral at the Sydney Memorial Chapel on Friday.

“Our choir and Voices Rock Canada were very sorry to hear of Mr. Dubinsky's passing and are forever grateful to be able to sing his song and share it with others during the early and uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Thouin said. “It kept us going ... a lifeline of sorts.

“It will always be our choir's special anthem and I know it will lift us up many times in our future practice of medicine and our everyday lives.”

Ian Nathanson is a political reporter at the Cape Breton Post. Follow him on Twitter at @CBPost_Ian.