Nostalgia has a poignant way of folding in upon itself. That’s what’s happened with “Summer Dreams,” the 2013 duet between Canadian guitar icon Liona Boyd and Australian pop superstar Olivia Newton-John. When it was first released 11 years ago, the song was a simple, heartfelt ode to weekend vacations past. Now that it’s been rereleased in a remixed and updated production, the record has taken on the extra dimension of a moving tribute to a friendship not even death could dim.
“Back in 2013, I asked my dear girlfriend of many years, the late Olivia Newton-John, to be my guest on a song for an album I was releasing that year,” Boyd says. “She happily agreed, and I flew down with my producer, Peter Bond, to record her near her home in Jupiter, Florida.
“It was a great experience,” Boyd recalls. “In 2013, she was absolutely at the top of her game vocally, and the entire session lasted little more than an hour. At the end, Olivia did some improvising that was so beautiful it gave us both goosebumps.”
You can get those goosebumps yourself just by listening to the track, which teams Newton-John’s exquisite vocalizing with Boyd’s own vocals and elegantly plucked guitar lines for a lullaby-like throwback to gentler times. With heartbreaking delicacy and sincerity, “Summer Dreams” recalls the serene pleasures of therapeutic getaways to a cherished lakeside refuge:
Canadian summer dreams
Cottages and lakes and streams
Lemonade and soft ice creams
Canadian summer dreams
As we had all learned from Grease, Newton-John knew a thing or two about summers going in. But hearing her famous voice lilting down through the ages is profoundly affecting, especially when it wraps itself around an outwardly innocent observation that can’t help but feel bittersweet in hindsight:
How could anyone have asked for more?
Those were simple, happy days for sure
“Although I liked what we did originally with the song, Peter told me recently that he always wished we could reimagine the production now, years later, in a different style—with a larger soundstage and one that would feature her vocals even more,” Boyd says. “I agreed, and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to re-release the song internationally, along with a lyric video, as a single for this summer of 2024. I could not be happier with this new version that pays tribute to one of the most beautiful souls and voices I have ever encountered.”
Newton-John was one of a kind, all right. But to Boyd’s own credit, she’s never had much trouble making friends anywhere she goes. Known as “The First Lady of the Guitar,” this classical/folk/world music triple threat has performed for England’s Royal Family (several times) and the President of the United States—not to mention millions of paying concertgoers. She’s worked with the esteemed likes of Sir Andrew Davis and the English Chamber Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma and Georges Zamfir. And if it seems unlikely that a player who was championed by as notorious a purist as the great Andrés Segovia would mesh both personally and professionally with a pop icon like Olivia Newton-John … well, Boyd has a long history of fruitful collaborations (both on stage and in the studio) with chart-toppers like Gordon Lightfoot, Tracy Chapman, Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson and Rik Emmett.
Her versatility is a big reason Boyd has hit gold and platinum repeatedly with her more than 30 albums, including her latest, Once Upon A Time, and racked up over 50 million streams. The tastemakers haven’t exactly been silent in their admiration, either: She’s won the JUNO five times, which is the exact same number of times the readers of Guitar Player magazine have voted her Best Classical Guitarist – she’s now a member of the publication’s “Gallery of Greats” and has been honoured with three Lifetime Achievement awards. An unquestioned national treasure, Boyd has received five honorary doctorates, the Order of Ontario and the Diamond Jubilee Medal, and was recently upgraded from Member to Officer of the Order of Canada.
When she wasn’t playing solo and orchestral concerts across the globe, she was working on the latest of the hundreds of pieces she’s composed and arranged for her beloved guitar. As a writer of a different stripe, she’s hit the best-seller list with her autobiography, In My Own Key … My Life in Love and Music (which inspired the follow-up No Remedy for Love). She’s even authored a children’s book, The Cat Who Played Guitar.
Childlike wonder suffuses every note of “Summer Dreams,” though the context in which it’s been dusted off and held up to the light can’t help but reveal an added layer of adult loss. That’s when we should take the words at face value and focus on the good times. That weekend lake house it still ours as long as we can picture it vividly in our mind, and summer never has to end if we don’t want it to. Pass the lemonade, and let’s all toast to absent friends.
