Canadian Spaces – CKCU – Saturday July 6, 2013

CKCU can be heard at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and ckcufm.com on the web.

This week’s show was co-hosted by Mike Regenstreif and Chris White.

Canadian Spaces on CKCU in Ottawa is Canada’s longest-running folk music radio program. It is heard Saturday mornings from 10:00 am until noon (Eastern time). It was hosted for more than 33 years by the late Chopper McKinnon and is now hosted by Chris White and a rotating cast of co-hosts. Today was my second time in the co-host’s chair.

Guests: Lenny Gallant and Three Piece Sweet (Christine Graves, Chris MacLean & Jennifer Noxon)

Ruth Moody- Trouble and Woe

These Wilder Things (True North)

Doug McArthur- Boots & Saddles

The Dust of Davy Crockett (Tableaux Vivants)

Eve Goldberg- Let Me Rise

A Kinder Season (Borealis)

Dale Boyle- Leaving Dogtown

Throwback (Dale Boyle)

Maria Dunn- Shareholders’ Reel

Piece By Piece (Distant Whisper)

Old Man Luedecke- Song for Ian Tyson

Tender is the Night (True North)

Ian Tyson- Smuggler’s Cove

All the Good ‘Uns Vol. 2 (Stony Plain)

Bobby Dove- Steal Away

Dovetails (Bobby Dove)

Mighty Popo- Kamananga

Gakondo (Borealis)

Tom Russell & the Norwegian Wind Ensemble- East of Woodstock, West of Vietnam

Aztec Jazz (Frontera)

Martha Wainwright- Matapedia

Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle (Nonesuch)

Linda McRae- Gepetto’s Boy

Rough Edges & Ragged Hearts (42 RPM)

The next two songs punctuated Chris White’s phone conversation with Lennie Gallant.

Lennie Gallant- Peter’s Dream

Lennie Gallant Live (Revenant)

Lennie Gallant- Seven Years

When We Get There (Universal)

The next four songs punctuated our conversation with Three Piece Sweet.

Three Piece Sweet- Procrastinator

Live in the studio

Three Piece Sweet- Sparks will Fly

Live in the studio

Three Piece Sweet- Oh Luck

Live in the studio

Three Piece Sweet- Soltarlo

Live in the studio

The show is now available for online listening. cod.ckcufm.com/programs/129/12667.html

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Bonnie Ste-Croix – Canadian Girl

BONNIE STE-CROIX

Canadian Girl

Bonnie Ste-Croix

bonniestecroix.com

I met singer-songwriter Bonnie Ste-Croix at the 2010 Ontario Council of Folk Festivals (OCFF) conference in Ottawa where she told me about an interesting project she had in the works. She was travelling to each of Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories and recording a song there with guest musicians from each locale. It was a highly ambitious project, to say the least, for an independent musician.

Bonnie is a thoroughly Canadian girl. She grew up in the Gaspé, has since lived in Montreal, Banff, Vancouver and, now, Halifax, and, as she sings in the album’s title track, regards the entire country – and its seasons and customs – as home. And, in her various collaborators from west to east and north to south, she’s found kindred musical spirits.

The album’s strongest tracks include the fore-mentioned “Canadian Girl,” recorded in Halifax with fiddler Natalie MacMaster and singer Laura Smith; “Front Porch Song,” recorded in Toronto with Stephen Fearing playing the Six String Nation Guitar that Jowi Taylor has been bringing around the country over the past five years and singers Kate Reid and Lynne Hanson, a catchy, slice-of-life-in-the-neighbourhood tune; “On Était Bien,” featuring the members of Dentdelion and Dale Boyle, which sounds like a Quebec folksong; “If I Could Sail,” recorded in St. John’s with The Once, a lament for a lover at sea; and “October Song,” a lovely tribute to the Canadian autumn featuring fiddler and harmony vocalist Shari Ulrich and fiddler Julia Graff (Shari’s daughter).

Each of the guest musicians brings something special to the songs they contributed to. And while many of the songs are not lyrically or stylistically specific to the places they were recorded, Bonnie has succeeded gloriously in creating a musical tribute to Canada and in recognizing there are excellent and creative musicians and singers in every part of the country.

--Mike Regenstreif