Winnipeggers take shot with hockey tune

Go, go Jets, go / The Whiteout is here / The Stanley Cup is so near

A pair of creative Winnipeg Jets fans have turned their passion for the team into a campfire anthem inspired by the NHL playoffs.

Go, go Jets, go! is a catchy, easy-listening piece of fan art with lyrics and melody by Winnipeggers Freya Hansen and Gary Wallace.

“It’s meant to be a light, positive message so we can all get together and get behind the team,” says Hansen, who grew up in Saskatchewan and became a Jets booster when the team returned to Winnipeg in 2011.

This is the amateur poet’s third attempt at recording a Jets-related song. While previous drafts involved hockey-fied lyrics to popular rock songs, Hansen decided to pen an original ditty for this year’s playoff run.

She asked Wallace, a friend from bridge and a hobbyist composer, to come up with some music to accompany the lyrics about her favourite players and their notable skills — from Mark Scheifele skating very well to Kyle Connor scoring goals and goals to Connor Hellebyuck blocking, stopping and saving pucks.

“I’ve always been a Jets fan and I thought, ‘Hey, this is a project which I’d like to try,’” Wallace says.

The song is the retiree’s 148th original composition and his first on the topic of hockey. Wallace — who performs at open mics and with his church choir — typically writes about nature, spirituality and his family, and records the songs in his basement on a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Go, go Jets, go! came together in a matter of days and is now available on YouTube (wfp.to/gojetsgosong). Sharing the song online represents a personal milestone for Hansen.

“It has been a lifelong goal of mine to turn one of my poems into lyrics and have it recorded. I’m really happy with the result,” she says.

Both Hansen and Wallace hope the song inspires others to come up with their own Jets-inspired art.

The gentle, strumming ballad could also serve as a much-needed balm for the frayed nerves of Jets supporters following the team’s recent back-to-back losses in St. Louis.

“I’m trying to stay hopeful that they’ll win two more games,” Hansen says.

“I’ve always been a Jets fan and I thought, ‘Hey, this is a project which I’d like to try.'”–Gary Wallace

Readers are invited to share their Winnipeg Jets fan art, musical or otherwise, with the Free Press. Email your creations to arts@winnipegfreepress.com or send a copy, courtesy of Editorial, to 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2X 3B6.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com