The other day in the paper, I read a headline that stated (as if it were a fact) - "Winter weather continues to plague the country."  "Plague?!"  No.  Winter is a season.  It comes once a year.  Just around this time.  I wouldn't call it a "plague" - and it certainly isn't really news, is it?  Unless your idea of "news" is to state the obvious.  Sure, we're in a deep freeze as I prepare this show, but it IS January, and I'd expect nothing less.  Which is why today on Routes & Branches & Beyond we dress up warm and go out on some January rambles.  Proper thing, luh?!

We'll hear rags (not the kind you wipe up spilled milk with), giants (the friendly kind), chickens (the fried kind), jars (the kind containing whiskey), strangers (the alluring kind), life (the everlasting kind), hotels (the kind you can check out of but can never leave), and love (the kind that conquers hate).  From musicians like Steve Kaufman, Darren McMullen, Lickin’ Good Fried, The High Kings, Medley Folk Band, Susan Aglukark, The Rucksack Willies, North Country Gentlemen, Trio Garufa, Andrew Collins, Ian Bruce & Victor Besch,  and Mary Anderson-Buchanan.  Put on a scarf and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 309 2024 01 18

And the summer continues, here at Routes & Branches & Beyond!  This is episode 11 of "Summer on the Range," which you'll be excused for referring to as "the endless summer."  But there are just a couple more chances to ride the range before heading to more scripted theme shows.  So enjoy the freedom while you can.  I'll have stately morris marches, radically democratic folk rock, Eastern Ontario gopher fiddle, high-tech hoedowns, deperate pioneer Canadiana, west coast trombone revelry, geeky trad blues, post-communist Polish folk tunes, bittersweet country swing songs of relationship implosion (twice), and four Nordy lads with a Limerick lass.  From musicians such as Leveret, The Levellers, Gopher Baroque, Onion Honey, Yusef/Cat Stevens, Beoga, Oh Susanna, Chris Whiteley, Warsaw Village Band, Celtic Social Club, Arlen Roth, and Rick La Riviere and the Best Laid Plans.  Leave the salsa canning until tomorrow and join me.


RBB 383 2025 09 11

What do windy mornings, farmer's daughters, shepherd lads, lemon trees, hedgehogs, beau gallants, shetland reels and the end of summer have in common?  All are on this episode of Routes & Branches & Beyond.  It is now the dozenth show of our Summer on the Range series for 2025.  (I'm not sure if "dozenth" is a word, but I trust that you'll let that slide through.)  To help us with this, we have music from Rawlins Cross, Skye Consort & Emma Björling, Heidi Talbot, Daoirí Farrell, Njacko Backo & Kalimba Kalimba, David Celia, Dave Swarbrick, Old Blind Dogs, Capercaillie, Heron Valley, Les Mechants Maquereaux, and Silly Wizard.  Pack up those cricket bats and join me.


Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 384 2025 09 18

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 # 309 2024 01 18

Ivan Emke