TORONTO - Perhaps it was because they were in the hallowed place that was the scene of Neil Young's seminal 1971 live recording that turned Friday night's concert by Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller at Massey Hall into one big Canadian love-fest.

Launching the two hour and 10 minute show, part of Luminato's opening night festivities, with Young's Birds was the opening salvo in what became an ongoing joke about which one of the three female artists (from the U.S. south, eastern seaboard, and midwest respectively) could claim to be more Canadian.

Griffin said her great-grandparents were from the East Coast while Colvin scored major points for having gone to Grade 6 in London, Ont, even spontaneously belting out the provincial song, A Place To Stand, while Ontario Premier Dalton McGinty was in the audience no less.

But it was Harris who had the best line of the night.

"I did have a daughter with a Canadian," mugged the striking silver-haired 62-year-old singer with the ethereal voice, referring to ex-husband and producer Brian Ahern.

Canadian content aside, the idea of the concert, coined Three Girls and Their Buddy, is a relatively simple, if effective one, now in its second year of touring.

Get four distinguished singer-songwriters who have all collaborated together in the past and currently - Miller produced Griffin's new gospel collection, Downtown Church, due later this year - and assemble them on one stage, seated in a semi-circle and taking turns to sing lead on one song after the other (both their own material and covers) on mostly acoustic guitars.

It helped that, in this case, the three female artists possess some of the most distinctive voices in acoustic country-folk-pop - Harris' otherworldly instrument, Griffin's heartbreaking sound, and Colvin's rich, warm tone.

They were heard both alone and in glorious harmony while Miller, who recently recovered from a triple bypass after a show with the ladies in Baltimore back in February, provided the rock-blues backbone on electric instruments, a huge voice of his own, and some comic relief.

"Wanna see my scar?" said Miller, as Harris explained it was their female road manager who practically threw him over her shoulder and got him to the emergency room at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

"I wouldn't miss this for the world," added Miller with a big, broad smile.

Some of the most striking songs were covers, like the Griffin's take on the gospel song, Wade In The Water, Colvin's version of the The Band's Twilight, and Arcadian Driftwood - "I could sing Band songs all night," she claimed - and Lefty Frizzell's That's The Way Love Goes, and Miller's animated rendition of The Left Banke's Walk Away Renee.

As for their own material, Harris' Blackhawk, a collaboration with Canadian Daniel Lanois, Love and Happiness, featuring lyrics by Mark Knopfler, and All I Left Behind, co-written by Canadian folk duo royalty Kate and Anna McGarrigle, were stunning, as was Griffin's Making Pies, I'm Going To Miss You When You're Gone and the show-ending Mary.

The two women joked about their love of "super sad songs" and shoes after Harris performed the heartwrenching Prayer In Open D and Griffin trotted out the equally somber Top Of The World.

"Shoes for the blues," said Harris. "Super sad songs are good. I know I've made a career out of them."

Also effective was the group's take on the gospel number, We Shall Be Reunited, and the encore a capella version of Go To Sleep Little Baby, featuring Harris, Colvin and Griffin standing up and gathered around a microphone, bluegrass style.