OK, so you recently moved into a new community.  You’re trying to avoid making too many waves too soon, so you play by what you think are the rules (though you’ve never seen a copy of the rules, and you’re not sure where you’d find them).  In your front garden, you plant the marigolds and impatiens like everybody else, but you slip in some ornamental kale, a bit of lettuce, and even a small three sisters plot.  Locals start to mutter about the “farm” over at your place.  A neighbour stops by, with his two large and ill-mannered dogs, and confronts you about your plans to get a couple of chickens for the back yard.  “Not in THIS neighbourhood,” he shouts over his shoulder as his dogs drag him away to chase a passing bicycle.  What to do?

We take a keen interest in the people we live around, and we often have definite ideas about HOW they should live.  Whether it be their lawn care, their laundry line, their plant selections, their choice of animal companions, not to mention their family reunions or their shed parties.  A friend once told me how his father slept … ummm… without the benefit of clothing…, but her mother was so worried about what the neighbours might think that she bought a pair of men’s pajamas and put them out on the wash line every week.  Just so the neighbours wouldn’t talk.  But when it comes to the growing of food, to using our collective spaces and our land and yards (back AND front) wisely, what happens if local regulations clash with self-provisioning?  That is a theme for today’s show.

Newfoundland and Labrador should be at the forefront of food production integrated into municipalities.  What, with the stories of the past and all.  But that isn’t quite the case.  At the same time as some of our small hamlets are denying simple self-provisioning actions, large cities like Paris and New York and Beijing and Reykjavik have extensive food production areas – not necessarily commercial – but which provide local food security.  How did this happen?

Today we have the second of two episodes with Nicholas Fairbridge, a researcher who works out of the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University in St. John’s.  He is also very interested in the relationships among community health, local food production and municipal policy.  In his spare time, he has actually read all of the related development regulations of all the municipalities in Newfoundland and Labrador.  We start out with the seeming conflict between urban areas and food production. 
   


Fit to Eat S4N5 Nicholas Fairbridge

Yes, I'm that guy. You've likely seen me in used CD stores. That guy looking at the lower shelves where they keep the celtic material, or the shelves at the back where you need a ladder to get to the world music, or maybe that dusty shelf beside where the cat sits where they keep the bluegrass and appalachian material. Yes, I'm that old guy in the used CD stores. And today, on "Routes & Branches & Beyond" this is the first of three shows on what I've found on such neglected shelves over this autumn. There'll be Irish trad royalty, plooboy laddies, cluckin' old hens, Breton gavottes, jazzy folk laments, retrofitted chestnuts, stark European political klezmer, pig foot BBQ tips, Galician dance hall tunes, sublime concertina mastery, deep south Peterborough blues and new age buskers. From artists like The Bothy Band, Écosse, Joel Fafard, Dougie Maclean, Jean-Michel Veillon, Lily Come Down, Crabtree & Mills, Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird, We Banjo 3, Marful, Noel Hill, Jackson Delta, Mark Knopfler and Nightnoise. Bring your curiousity and join us.

Routes & Branches & Beyond for 2025 09 25 from 252

This week on "Routes & Branches & Beyond," we acknowledge the season with a show called "Songs of Turkey and Pumpkins... and Beyond." I have tunes for turkeys (the bird) that are blythesome, with an Irish swagger, or a gypsy jazz finish. I have tracks from Turkey (the country), including a band whose members have been arrested over 400 times (must be some kind of a dubious record), as well as the Paul Anka of Turkey. Songs of pumpkins, both frosty and funky. Also, an Algerian version of a Clash song that was likely inspired by Algerian music (did you follow that?). And electric ceilidh music, Swedish fiddle music to cook to, and celtic-american songs about bad news at the best of times. Whew! All from musicians such as Máire ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman, The Albion Band, The Foggy Hogtown Boys, Ian Tamblyn, The Shuffle Demons, Grup Yorum, Mustafa Sandal, Rachid Taha, Random, Plommon, Maura O’Connell, and Joe Craven.   Join us.

Routes & Branches & Beyond for 2025 10 02

Have you ever noticed that in many thrift stores the shelves of CDs are almost entirely inaccessible? They may be behind a table that is filled with extremely fragile glassware of no apparent function whatsoever. Or else they are on a bottom shelf in a corner where you'll need a flashlight and a magnifying glass to see the titles! If you think of the demographics of people who buy used CDs - old folks like me - they should display them at eye level near a bright light source!

Nevertheless, today on "Routes & Branches & Beyond" I have another crop of used CDs from this Autumn's harvests. There's Irish slippery sliding, Scottish fishwives, Newfoundland bakery shanteys, southern sad songs, Italian everlasting accordions, Sami yoik dancing, Cuban Convent jazz, wise old market women, cheesy chord organ swing, perilous gravel roads and cowboy songs of the Wild East. With bands like Matt Cranitch & Jackie Daly, Malinky, Dave Penny, Alison Kraus & Union Station, Filippo Gambetta, Moenje, Bomba!, Teresa Doyle, Arrandale, Steve Palmer, Horse Radio, Steve Dawson, Tom Leighton and Trio Dhoore. Don't look at the price, just join us.


Routes & Branches & Beyond for 2025 10 09

Time was, a city wasn't really a City until it had a good used CD store. I think it was a municipal regulation of some sort. The country was dotted with such stores. They were generally independents, set up by entrepreneurial types who cared more passionately for the music than for the strict clang of the cash register. They were little communities. Gathering places for both true believers and doubting searchers.

Alas, with the advance of late capitalism, most of these are gone. A few have survived as used book stores, some are back selling vinyl again. And a few remain. This week on "Routes & Branches & Beyond," I have another crop of music from such holdout stores. There's blistering bluegrass families, darkly hypnotic pre-radio sounds, Atlantic songwriter angst, american primitive guitar, modest Gaelic funk fusion, octave-spanning gymnastics, fanciful harps, Australian protest sentiments, neo-medieval branles, modal Irish guitar, gospel aeroplanes and the foreboding fiddles of post-Brexit times.

All featuring groups like the O’Connor Band, the Crooked Jades, Dave Gunning, John Fahey, Capercaillie, Yodelling Slim Clark, Maeve, Eric Bogle, Skarazula, Bob MacLean, Old Crow Medicine Show, the Watersons and Lankum. There's room for all - c'mon along.



Routes  & Branches & Beyond 2025 10 16

Given the time of the year at the moment in the land where I live, I am focussing on "Honouring the Spirits." I play songs and tunes that refer to that ethereal dimension. I have piano-driven Irish soul, exhibitionist celtic pagan spirituality, Hebridean progressive trad, Oxfordian dance abandonment, a classic from the days when gospel met psychadelic rock and had a child, stewed tomatoes in a love march, an ode to the NL Ghost Rider (Joey Smallwood), high-octane bagpipe punk, exuberant blues positivity, and a remake of a grunge classic that smells like ... nap time.  All from musicians such as Oliver Schroer & The Stewed Tomatoes, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Hothouse Flowers, The Waterboys, Seelyhoo, Magpie Lane, Mike Ford, Tim O’Brien, Dropkick Murphys, Taj Mahal, Eric Bibb, and Rockabye Baby. Curious? Better listen then!

Routes & Branches & Beyond for 2025 10 23

Autumn is a grand time to ramble.  After all, you are much less likely to sweat, the bugs are fewer, there is the calming sound of walking through fallen leaves, there is the poignant sky that just makes you want to devote your life to do oil painting en plein aire, and it is a chance to walk off the excesses of the summer before the excesses of the solstice season begins.  So today on Routes & Branches & Beyond we start a series of Mid-Autumn Rambles.  I'll play iconic Irish, incomprehensible Gaelic, Calgary celtic, Australian convict heroes, Haligonian indie folk rock gets mellow, trans-Atlantic chamber folk, stormy Canadian pioneer odes, Quebec jazz d'hiver, tickles & kissing, and old greasy stringbands.  All from musicians such as Planxty, Annmarie O’Riordan, Fraid Knot,Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, Black Pool, Skye Consort & Emma Björling, Red Moon Road, Christine Tassan & Les Imposteures, Greg T. Brown & Jeremy Keddy, and Red Hen.  Set aside your doubts and join me.


Routes & Branches & Beyond show #385 2025 10 30

Indeed, we are now in the time of year here in Canada when our bodies start to crave root crops.  I'm not quite sure about the science of it all, but we seem to have evolved to yearn for the earthy goodness of beets and turnips and potatoes and parsnips and their ilk as the weather turns cold. 
And the sooner you give up resisting these cravings, the happier you will be as you stir your soup stocks.  And to assist you with that, here is another episode of Routes & Branches & Beyond (#386) with a set of mid-autumn rambles.  You'll hear songs and tunes about cold haily windy nights, ten penny bits, ladies & captains, sorrows away, Irish banks (the fishy kind), religious persuasion, shared beds, blarney pilgrims, and fair & faithful love.  From musicians such as Tüna, Eleanor Shanley, Clannad, Andy White, Cathie Ryan, The Poozies, Scott Macmillan & Colin Grant, Prairie Oyster, Brother, Steeleye Span,Tempest, Shirley Eikhard, and Paul Winter & Friends.  Turn the soup on low and join us.


Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 386 2025 11 06

How boring it must be to live in a land where the weather is the same almost every day.  Sun up and down at the same time, predictable rains (or droughts), and a mostly constant temperature throughout the year.  Those of us in what are called "temperate" regions may go to such predictable lands with constant climates for a brief time, but there is always relief in returning to a land that changes over the year, and even from day to day.  Leaves on the trees one day, the ground the next, and covered with snow the next, and so on...  Thus, today on Routes & Branches & Beyond we have a set of mid-autumn rambles.  You'll hear happy session tunes, intense ballads, languid hornpipes, quirky songs about frogs and mice, laments on the passing of time, foggy politics, rocking stars, fathers & sons, smooth jazz liberties, old school ties, North African blues, and Celtic harps.  

From musicians such as Sean Nua, Touchwood (Christine Crawley & Kerstein Blodig), Eileen Ivers, Miaghread & Triona ni Dhomhnaill & Donal Lunny, Nanci Griffith, Chieftains & Sinéad O’Connor, MacKeel, Cat Stevens, Strung-out Troubadours, Billy Bragg, Djélimady Tounkara, and Alan Stivell.  Let those leaves rake themselves and join me.


Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 387 2025 11 13

Here in my area we are in the midst of the race to change our tires to the snow-friendly variety before the roads get too icy.  The tire shops are busy and the lineups of last-minute motorists (such as myself) snake around the block.  Some of you ay scoff, saying "hey, I've got all-season tires, I'm fine!"  Fair enough, I'll be sure to watch out for you on the roads (and in the ditches).  As they say, an all-season tire is the same as a no-season tire.  But all of this puts me in the spirit of the season to have a few more mid-autumn rambles.  We'll listen to twisty tunes, soppy sentiments. brazen ballads, frank folkies, audacious Aussies, saucy sailors, fanciful fiddlers, quirky quebecois, peripatetic pickers and wrangly reels.  All from musicians such as Patrick Street, Cherish the Ladies, Reeltime, Mick Moloney, Gordie MacKeeman & His Rhythm Boys,  Redgum, Maggie Sansone & Sue Richards & Bonnie Rideout & Ensemble Galilei, Ray Legere, Labess, La ligue du Bonheur, Roy Forbes, and Steve Gilette & Cindy Mangsen.  You can change your snow tires later, join us.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 388 2025 11 20

Ah, the allure of the recent, the novel, the new combination of old sounds, the joy of human creativity here in these days of the ascension of the bland authoritarian straightjacket of AI...  Yes, this week on Routes & Branches & Beyond we start a little series of music that is "Relatively New and Itching to be Heard."  I'll play frosty Manitoba fiddling, crispy cello-violin duets, barnstorming ballads, infectious free-reed verve, variable geometry ensembles,  and brand new nostalgic songs.  All from musicians such as Jocelyn Pettit & Ellen Gira, Scott Duncan, Michael Darcy & the Atlantic Tramps, Jane Cory & Kyle Burghout, Oktoecho, Sussex, and La Déferlance.  Join me here in the real world.


Fit to Eat S4N5 Nicholas Fairbridge

Ivan Emke

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