The Tragically Hip Launch New Guitar Tutorial Series on YouTube
Each tutorial pairs instruction from one of the group’s members with reflections on the making of the featured track.
The Tragically Hip have launched a new series of guitar tutorials, offering step-by-step instruction in playing some of the Canadian rock band’s greatest hits.
Each video in the series will focus on a different song, and feature one of the group’s members offering the story behind it, demonstrating how to play it, and answering select fan questions. Every episode runs between 10 and 20 minutes.
For the first edition, which debuted earlier this week, guitarist Paul Langlois invited viewers to tackle “Wheat Kings,” a classic ballad from The Tragically Hip’s 1992 record Fully Completely. The song drew inspiration from the story of David Milgaard, a Winnipeg man who was wrongfully convicted in 1969 and spent 23 years in prison before his exoneration. After his release, he became a public speaker, community support worker and advocate for the wrongfully imprisoned.
As Langlois reveals in the video, directed by Summer Figueroa and recorded at Ontario’s Bathhouse Studio, he and vocalist Gord Downie met with Milgaard as they prepared the song. The band recorded it in London and became a staple in the group’s live set. They were even able to perform the song for Milgaard at one of their shows before his death in 2022. Today, Langlois calls the track the “easiest campfire song to play ever.”
“There’s a mystery and a magic to songwriting—you don’t know when you’re gonna get one,” Langlois explained. “Some just pop out, and that [‘Wheat Kings’] riff popped out to me. I just thought, ‘Okay, this feels like us, and doesn’t sound like anything else.’”
Founded in Kingston, Ontario over 40 years ago, The Tragically Hip remain one of Canada’s best-loved rock groups today. In 2022, they were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Last year, a documentary on their career, The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). It’s now available to stream on Prime Video.
