two doves meet - they are both named Lydia, but if anything, it's made them closer

Having spent most of my life in an academic setting (the first 12 years against my will, then another four decades with my willing consent...), I've always felt that September was really the beginning of a new year.  There were new mentors, new books to read, new courses to take, new friends to meet, new random and obscure rules to learn to sidestep, and new hoops to jump through (after your "mentors" set them on fire).  So Happy New Year everyone!

As a way of celebrating, here's another episode of September Rambles!  I have frenetic Slovak dances, Scottish rural romantics, Irish "pure drop" session tunes, school holiday trad bands, appalachian old-time inspirations, Waterloo bluegrass, East Coast fiddle stylings, harmonious odes to fall fairs, Glasgow hipster prowess, and Newfoundland thrash-trad.  From musicians such as Radim Zenkl & Leo Chern, Malinky, Kevin Rowsome, Seamus Shannon, Fiárock, Tim & Mollie O’Brien, Rescue Junction, Kendra MacGillivray, Quartette, ímar, and Kelly Russell & the Planks.  Set aside that homework for an hour and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 336 2024 09 12

Folks mark the beginning of autumn in a variety of ways.  Some mark it by the onset of the school-based cold and flu season.  Some mark it by the start of exhibition pro hockey games, or the slow and molasses-like drive toward the merciful end of pro baseball.  Some mark it by the first frost that wilts their basil and blackens their tomatoes.  Or maybe some mark it by the ghoulish and macabre Hallowe'en bric-a-brac that litters the stores and soon the neighbours' yards.  But here at Routes and Branches and Beyond, we mark it by finishing off a set of September rambles.

There are forest strathspeys, fair and tender ladies, saints and angels, an austerity alphabet, extra miles, sweet pies, yeterday's news, clever foxes, lonely buskers and poignant waltzes.  All from musicians such as Ferintosh, Martin Simpson & Thomm Jutz, Valdy, Jez Lowe, Tom Russell, Murray McLauchlan, Gaberlunzie, Lake of Stew, Draba Trio, Florent Vollant, David Francey, Runa, Lennie Gallant, and Laura Risk & Nicholas Williams & Éric Breton.  Get a dance partner and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 338 2024 09 26

One of the very concrete reminders of the coming of autumn is... leaves.  Or, more accurately, the increasing absence of them on many trees.  Their absence from limbs and branches and their presence on lawns and sidewalks is one of the prevailing themes of our northern hemisphere autumn.  As one of the first tracks of this show notes, this time of year is when all nature is saying, "fall, leaves, fall" (which comes from a winter-loving poem by Emily Bronte, but I didn't have to tell you that, I'm sure).  And so this week on Routes & Branches & Beyond we'll celebrate leaves, as they are represented in song and tune titles.  Just don't get me going on gas-powered leaf blowers, or we'll be here all day.

I have Canadian barn dance chestnuts, poet-driven chamber folk, new versions of old national anthems, cabin fever tunes, hippie countercultural gems from your dimly-remembered past, updated medieval morality tales, Congotronics lullabyes, jazz classics from Perthshire and Germany, and progressive Loungegrass.  From musicians like the Beckett Family, Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra, Afterhours, Finest Kind, Anne Lindsay, the Mamas and the Papas, Pat Kilbride, June Tabor & Oysterband, the Kasai Allstars, Tim Edey, the Ziroli Winterstein Ensemble, the Wayfaring Strangers, and Cole & VanDijk.  Put down that leaf blower and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 339 2024 10 03

"Hey ho, it's off to leaf-raking I go!"  That is a common yardwork shanty at this time of year in the northern hemisphere.  Unless you live among only conifers, but then you don't get the beautious display of colours - just before the leaves fall.  And then, in some short-sighted neighbourhoods, you hear the leaf blowers start up.  Which amuses me a great deal... until it disappoints and angers me.  How silly.  Use a bunch of energy to move some leaves around -- only to have the wind return them to your lawn within minutes.  Oh well, it takes all kinds to make a quilt.

On this episode of Routes & Branches & Beyond we feature "leaves" again, with old-time two-steps, resilient folkies, patriotic dogs who save the country, swirling Czechgrass, Alberta-reared celtic rock, country banjo pioneers, Chattanoogian fancies, ballads from the most Canadian of US states, whistle wizardry, Cajun kitchen parties, and leaves of Ivy & Poppies & Clover.  From musicians like Troy MacGillivray & Shane Cook, Joan Baez, The Kickin' Grass Band, Stringband, Scatter the mud, Druhá Tráva & Peter Rowan, Johnny Whisnant, Norman Blake, Pine Leaf Boys, Keith Murphy, Loretto Reid & Brian Taheny, Tony DeMarco,  and Taraf de Haïdouks.  Set down that rake and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 341 2024 10 17

Shelves can be pretty handy things.  They can introduce order to chaos.  On the other hand, they can sometimes result in being a touch random as well - I have a few shelves like that.  One of them is piled with various slips of papers, old theatre programs, notes about upcoming events, and CDs that I stuffed there thinking, "I should play this on the show someday!"  This is finally that day here on Routes & Branches & Beyond, when I do show on "Clearing the Shelf."  

We'll hear Djangoesque Newfoundland fiddle on guitars, Irish circus trad, Norfolk County bluegrass, Western homecoming folk, Appalachian gospel, genre-crossing stories of the human race, early French electric folk Stan on the Island, and Irish clear-cutting laments.  All from musicians such as Duane Andrews & Craig Young, Kíla, Northern City Limits, The JD Edwards Band, Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike, Maura O’Connell, Malicorne, Joey Kitson, Eileen McGann, Rawlins Cross, and The Chieftains.  Put down that book on de-cluttering and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 342 2024 10 24

Today on Routes & Branches & Beyond it is another episode of "Clearing the Shelf" - where I play some CDs that have been lounging on a "to be played on the radio" shelf.  It is a bit of a cluttered shelf.  Maybe reflecting the cluttered shelf of my mind?  Who knows.  But I have heard that a clean office is a sign of an empty mind.  So I'm not sure about the clutter-to-creativity correlation - I think the science is still not sure of that relationship.

That said, today you'll hear the usual mix,including climate change tunes from Scotland, the cello of resilience, Bach goes to a Cape Breton kitchen party, songs to remember Ron Hynes, reels on the tin sandwich, Irish piano hornpipes, evocative rural roads, inter-celtic siblings, bagpipes on the rave floor, and symphonic abandon.  From musicians such as Breabach, Jocelyn Petit & Ellen Gira, Puirt a Baroque, Silver Wolf Band, Alan Doyle & the Dardanelles, Tommy Basker, Geraldine Cotter, Clancy, O’Connell & Clancy, Relativity, Rare Air, and the Barra Macneils & Sympony Nova Scotia.  Pull up a stool and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 343 2024 10 31

[lyrics]
in this endless spiral of time,
A fractured world, a fault that's mine.
Every prayer, every cry,
Fades into the empty sky.
The gods won’t answer; they only stare,
A twisted game, a silent dare.


Chains of fate wrapped tight around my soul,
Breaking free, losing control.
If this is the path I must endure,
I’ll carve my truth, raw and pure.


Can you hear me through the silence?
A faint and trembling cry?
I’m not asking you to save me,
Just to see me as I die.
I’m tired of this aching,
This fight I’ll never win.
And though I want to stay,
The end is pulling me in.


A flicker of hope burns deep inside,
In the shadow where my fears reside.
Every choice, every scar,
Led me here, no matter how far.
The gods may laugh, but I won’t fall,
I’ll defy them and destroy it all.


Chains of fate wrapped tight around my soul,
Breaking free, losing control.
If the answer lies beyond the pain,
I’ll bleed to break this endless chain.


Can you hear me through the silence?
A faint and trembling cry?
I’m not asking you to save me,
Just to see me as I die.
I’m tired of this aching,
This fight I’ll never win.
And though I want to stay,
The end is pulling me in.


The threads of time begin to fray,
The gods’ illusions start to sway.
A voice within screams loud and clear,
“This is your world; take it from here!”
No more prayers, no more regret,
I’ll rewrite the end they set.


I trace the blade against my skin,
A fragile line, a crimson hymn.
Each breath I take feels heavier now,
I wonder if this is my final bow.
The walls are painted with my despair,
A silent witness, no one there.
I scream, but it’s a hollow sound,
My voice gets lost, I’m breaking down.

Will they find my body here?
Will they find my body here?
Will they find my body here?
Lying still beneath the fear?
A hollow shell, a lifeless cry,
Begging for release tonight.
The blade is cold, but I don’t care,
It’s warmer than the world out there.
If I fall, will they even see?
Or will I fade to a memory?


The knife reflects the faintest light,
A fleeting hope swallowed by the night.
I wonder if the scars will speak,
Of a soul too tired, broken, and weak.


This isn’t a plea for someone to save,
I’m sorry for the love I couldn’t return,
For the fire I let burn.
If they find me here, let them know,
I just wanted the pain to go.

Whispering Goodbye.

We've been focussing on randomness this month.  "Who do that in January," you may ask?  "No particular reason - the idea just popped up out of the blue."  You kind of expected that answer, didn't you?  And throughout the series we have enquired as to why randomness is frowned upon and disrespected.  You may hear people refer to "random" acts of violence, as being particularly unkind.  But I am more worried about "non-random" acts of violence, when someone knows me and makes a conscious choice to hurt me.  At least as a victim of random violence, I could be slightly comforted that nobody spent time PLANNING to cause me harm - it just unfolded.  But that is likely an obscure and unconvincing allegory.  Sorry.  It was just a random thought, and you know how dangerous they can be!

Today on Routes & Branches & Beyond we have northwest voyages, gypsies, causeways, cross-dressing drummers, shoals of herring, rubber folk, a harvest moon, and wonderland itself.  All from musicians such as the Métis Fiddler Quartet. Jim Fidler, Mary Beth Carty, Michael Jerome Browne, Banshee, Ceolbeg, Richard Thompson, Martin Simpson, Waterson: Carthy, Show of Hands, Neil Young, Coco Love Alcorn, and Bùrach.  Turn off the news and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 356 2025 01 30

The other day while listening to an erudite program on a radio station that regularly uses words like "erudite," I heard an intriguing example.  They were talking about the speed at which infectious diseases are now able to move around the world.  You see, the homo sapiens sapiens species (that's us) is about 20,000 generations old.  But the last four generations have exhibited astounding changes.  Your great-grandparents likely travelled mostly by foot, and so came to know a geography of several communities.  Your grandparents maybe travelled by horse and train, then car, and knew a geography of many counties.  Your parents entered the airplane age, and knew a geography of maybe a few countries.  Whereas, you may be global, and exposed to a much wider swath of world geography.  What a remarkable change in only four (of our 20,000) generations.  And the same is true for our access to music (not just the spread of infectious disease).  We are so blessed to live in a time when we have ready access to so many styles of music from around our blessed planet.

So today on Routes & Branches & Beyond we continue a series on compilation albums - those attempts to capture a whole genre of music in about 15 tracks.    We'll have Irish folk, English Roots, Music without Frontiers, Ultimate Musical Adventures, Americana, Fado,Unwired Acoustic Music, Italia Nova, African Disco, and the Undiscovered World.  All from musicians such as Sharon Shannon, Frankie Gavin, Michael McGoldrick, Jim Murray, Barely Works, Korrontzi, the Cuban Cowboys, Robert Earl Keen, Marco Oliveira, Máximo Jiménez, Rafi Naabzada & Hameed Sakhizada, Tazenda, Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens, Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba, Fanfara Tirana, and Choir Invisible (Desmond & Leah Tutu's Peace Choir).  Get the wax out of your ears and join me.


two doves meet - they are both named Lydia, but if anything, it's made them closer

linda sarah

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