What a joy it is to have festival season upon us once agin!  Sure, any time of the year is good for going to concerts and rejoicing in the ability of our species to extract pleasing (and sometimes emotionally bracing) sounds from all manner of objects, including their own voices.  But there is something special about summer music festivals.  As we lay out our blankets on warm grass or struggle to set up our lawn chairs, ever joyful in the sun and mildly grumpy in the rain, gathering as a community of music lovers.  (And why do I see that same old guy with the tie dyed shirt and white straw fedora at every festival?  Maybe that old guy is me...?)   So this week, I'm playing tracks from artists I saw this past weekend at the Celtic Festival in Goderich, ON, a lovely community-infused, human-scale festival with dandy music.  

I'll play songs and tunes about larks, meadows, false lovers, long houses, midnight robbers, birthdays, police requests, wild nights, Christmas Day weddings, the coming of spring, and transatlantic proposals.  From musicians such as The Kane Sisters, Fiárock, Rachel Davis & Darren McMullen, Conor Mallon, Grosse Isle, and Rachel Hair & Ron Jappy.  Get out the patchouli incense and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 379 2025 08 14

Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter Guitar Cover

Milk Demo

Another weekend, another folk festival.  That's how the summer rolls here in paradise  as the days slowly get shorter and the future gets dimmer.  This week on Routes & Branches & Beyond I'm playing a very small slice of artists who I heard and saw at the 50th Summerfolk festival in Owen Sound, Ontario.  Now, I will admit a bit of a conflict of interest here.  Summerfolk has a particularly strong thread in my life as a festival.  I've attended off and on (but mostly on) over the past 45 years.  It is located not far from the homestead where I grew up; it is a festival where my kids experienced the joys of a weekend live music event; it is a touchpoint that I'd return to at the "end" of the year and the beginning of another.  (I was an academic, so my year always ended in August and rose from the ashes again in September.)  But it is a space, a geography, a tradition, a community - that tends to bring out the best in performers and all of us who attend.

You'll hear music from Ryan Young, Boreal, Al Simmons, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Luke Wallace, Mary Frances Leahy, Kobo Town, Danny Michel, and The Barrel Boys.  Get out that lawn blanket and join me.


Routes & Branches & Beyond show #380 2025 08 21

Here on Routes & Branches & Beyond we continue with our series of "Summer on the Range."  Though, to be honest, there has been a nip in the air this past week, which portends that the end of another summer is imminent and we will soon be careening into autumn (my favourite season - well, one of my three favourite seasons).  I'm hoping that the cooler weather gives a message to my tomatoes and peppers to speed up and ripen while there is still some time to set their fruits and possible reproduce (so that I can tear those sweet and spicy fruits from their stems and imprison thm in jars for winter eating - it sounds a tad cruel when I put it like that, doesn't it?).  

Today we have precision Irish dual violins, Scottish bedlam, Newfoundland random jigs, Cape Breton twisty tunes, West Coast old-time odes to spiritual heroes, Quebecois fonctionnaire shanties, hybrid grand-yet-simple jigs, and the odd subliminal Buddhist koan.  All from musicians such as The Kane Sisters, The Dardanelles, Old Blind Dogs, Eric McDonald, Karine Polwart, Brenda Stubbert, Fish & Bird, Harry Manx, Bette & Wallet, Fásta, and Bill Heffernan.  Get a jacket and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 381 2025 08 28

a cry to this world, sung from a rock so huge, I've still not finished walking the perimeter

But I Always Came Back

It's another day on the range here at Routes & Branches & Beyond.  Saddle up and join us for Atlantic Coast blues, middle-aged musicians playing tues from the Middle Ages, Donegal neo-pioneers, the dark soul of Americana, the community of Klezmer, Ukrainian nu-folk from former street buskers, Estonean accordian-driven folk orchestras, bluegrass from the Cloak and Dagger, Cape Verdean island blues, Appalachian friends, everyday kindnesses, and Venezuelan harp from Newfoundland.  All from musicians such as Altan, Hot Toddy, Ensemble Anonymus, Mary Gauthier, Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, Ludy Dobri, Tuulelõõtsutajad, The Barrel Boys, Gabriela Mendes, Si Kahn, Joël Fafard, and Gayle Tapper.  Get your sunglasses and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 382 2025 09 04

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 show # 379 2025 08 14

Ivan Emke