Bruce MacDougall had never written a song before in his life, but his first attempt has been picked up by the province’s tourism marketing campaign.
MacDougall got his inspiration for the song after being called to work, in Borden-Carleton, one evening in late August. When he got to the top of Hammil’s Hill and glanced the Confederation Bridge, he said he realized people take the beauty of the Island for granted.
“Everything just seemed to look a whole lot clearer to me.”
“It just hit me. We’re so fortunate in P.E.I. to have so much beauty all around us.”
The next day he went into his office and wrote down a line of a song, then another and another.
MacDougall wrote the song in 15 minutes. He called it, “A beautiful Island.”
Later, he went home and put some music together and recorded the song in his garage.
“It was pretty rough. But just with the lyrics, beat and the melody, every time I played it for somebody they said you have to take this to tourism (department).”
A couple of months down the road he was encouraged to record the song regardless if Tourism P.E.I. was going to use it or not.
“I thought I’d record it myself at Dunk River Sound.”
He met with Chris Gauthier to record it and Catherine MacLellan sang backup.
MacDougall talked to the tourism department about the song, though he didn’t specifically write it for them.
Now it’s going to be used in a video comprised of different Island scenes to launch the 2018 P.E.I. tourism marketing campaign, he said.
“It’s kind of interesting, kind of humbling.”
It’s very visualizing as you listen to the song, MacDougall said.
“If you know anything about P.E.I., it probably pertains to people who live here, or people who have moved away from here and would love to be back.”
