In the middle of a hot day, a normal human body starts to close down - to protect key organs.  Kind of like when your laptop decides to upgrade right before that big cofernece presentation!  In some cultures, there is an attempt to ignore the body's pleas for rest, and people strive to produce at the same level as always.  On the other hand, in many civilized coutnries they close down for several hours every mid-day during the hot season, or sometimes massive numbers of workers take 4 or 6 weeks off during the hottest months.  So here on Routes & Branches & Beyond we are observing these laws of the universe by relaxing into our Summer on the Range series.

Today I'll have Atlantic Canadian moose avoidance fiddles, Irish poteen anthems, nordic folk noir, Danish world travelling music, bagpipe-driven blues, pleas for peace from the voice of the 60s, odes to the transfixing solitudes of northern Ontario, heart-wrenching Latinex love ballads and Scottish dance club jigs.  All from musicians such as Mark Sullivan,Viik,Baltinget,Altan,Back Alley John, Joan Baez, Hart Rouge, Rodney Brown & the Northern Roots Band, Maná, and Capercaillie.  Set up that hammock and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 375 2025 07 17

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.


Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 389 2025 11 27

You hear it every day down at the corner coffee shop.  A person comes in and is greeted by a couple of friends with "hey pussycat, what's new?"  Not "what's old and comfortable and well-worn?"  Or "what has been around for awhile, but you've just recently discovered it?"  No, they ask, "what is new?"  I'm as guilty as anyone to sometimes privilege the new over the old, even at my advanced age!  So on this episode of Routes & Branches & Beyond (#390), I have another set of music that is Relatively New and Itching to Be Heard.  If you've joined us before, you know the drill.  I'll have a bit of prog-trad, a touch of neo-cape-breton, a tad of quebecois acadian, a smattering of ottawa valley magic fiddles, a helping of haligonian harp, and a full dose of singer-songwriters.  From musicians like the Aerialists, Cassie and Maggie, Garçons à marier, The Fitzgeralds, Adrianna Ciccone & Ellen Gibling, Celtic Routes, The Southern Residents, and Scott Duncan.  Shine up those wireless ear buds and join me.


Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 375 2025 07 17

Ivan Emke

Related tracks