Sam Roberts Honoured As This Year's Custodian Of The "Maple Leaf Guitar"

Sam Roberts has been entrusted with the “Maple Leaf Forever” guitar – a national heirloom. It is a guitar built from the tree that inspired a song that very nearly became Canada’s National Anthem; Maple Leaf Forever.

The song was written by Alexander Muir in 1867 when he was living in Leslieville Ontario when he saw a beautiful Silver Maple Tree – it so majestic that it inspired him to write a song. In July of 2013, a heavy storm took out the tree and a group of wood carvers in Ontario set out to build a guitar from its trunk that would be passed from musician to musician each year. It was given to Sam Roberts by Tragically Hip’s Paul Langlois.