CANADA ROCKS! is a celebration of Canadian pop and rock songwriters, musicians and singers. It is a full length production that has been performed in the 2005 and 2006 season of the Charlottetown Festival

Charlottetown Festival

The Charlottetown Festival is a seasonal Canadian musical theatre festival which runs from late May to mid-October every year since 1965.Named after its host city, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, since its inception the festival has showcased Canada's most popular and longest-running musical,...

, hosted by the Confederation Centre of the Arts

Confederation Centre of the Arts

The Confederation Centre of the Arts is a cultural centre dedicated to the visual and performing arts located in the city of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.-History:...

 in Charlottetown

Charlottetown

Charlottetown is a Canadian city. It is both the largest city on and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, Charlottetown was first incorporated as a town in 1855 and designated as a city in 1885...

, Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...

.

The production features Atlantic Canadian blues artist Matt Minglewood

Matt Minglewood

Matt Minglewood is a Canadian musician whose style can be described as a blend of country, blues, folk, roots and rock.-Career:...

, former Rawlins Cross

Rawlins Cross

Rawlins Cross is a Canadian Celtic band. With members from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Ontario, the band took its name from an intersection in St. John's, Newfoundland.-Formation and early history:Rawlins Cross was formed in St...

 vocalist Joey Kitson

Joey Kitson

Joey Kitson from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island is the three-time ECMA Award winning vocalist for Rawlins Cross. Kitson is currently starring in a production of "Stan Rogers - A Matter of Heart" a musical review of the legendary Stan Rogers at the Mackenzie Theatre in downtown Charlottetown...

 and vocalist Terry Hatty.
Canada Rocks! was created by Doug Gallant, Wade Lynch, Hank Stinson and Terry Hatty.
The production was workshopped at the Charlottetown Festival's David MacKenzie Theatre in 2004 to overwhelmingly positive response and brought to the festival's main stage the following season.
The show's creators considered more than 700 songs from 50 years of Canadian rock, pop, folk, country and traditional music before editing that list down to a more workable 200.
In the end the show featured some 75 songs from artists as diverse as Bachman Turner Overdrive, Ron Hynes, Buffy St. Marie, Dr. Music, Mandala and The Rankins.
By the end of its second season at the festival in 2006 it had sold more than $1.2 million worth of tickets to become the second most successful musical in the festival's 40-plus year history, second only to Anne of Green Gables which has been playing since 1965.
Three of the show's creators, Gallant, Lynch and Stinson, are currently collaborating on another musical property for the stage and have two others in waiting.