to see night become day

never too late to change

if we were loved from birth

and i'm wearing a false fur white coat like Ken from Barbie

which way now

"There is nothing new under the sun."  "And behold, all things shall be made new."  I read these competing visions in some sacred scripture somewhere - maybe the Upanishads, or the Qur'an, or the Ghagavad Gita, or the Tripitaka, or maybe the slimmed-down Bible after they banished the apocrypha.  Who knows?  That's the trouble when you get very ecumenical in your sources of inspiration - the scattered bits of wisdom all start to look alike - often because they are constantly borrowing from each other.

"What does this have to do with music," you ask?  Well, today on Routes & Branches & Beyond I'm playing a set of music that is relatively new to this world.  Yes, it is all new, but it often borrows from the past and from other traditions.  So it is new, but it is not new.  OK?  Got that, Grasshopper?  

We'll hear about dewy dells of Yarrow, fire walking, new jackets, yacht money, flying beetles, torn calico (there's a story there...), lonely roads, and advice for the wicked.  From musicians like Rum Ragged, Sultans of String, Wayne Muggridge, David Francey, James Gordon & his Exceptional Ensemble, and Reverie Road.  Turn off that canned muzak and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show #323 2024 04 25

Inspired by the gonzo reporting of @owensoundlivearchive, Georgian Bay Roots walks you through one weekend of live music (plus some road tunes along the way) in this corner of the world.  

Friday night kicks off with a Thresher (Owen Sound) live show, a Saturday afternoon at Four Winds Festival's Emerging Artist Showcase means songs from Equal (Oshawa), Isla-Maria (Gravenhurst), Odd Marshall (Port Elgin), Jessie Corrigan and the Neustadt Sound and Taylor Abrahamse (Peterborough). 

 Road tunes back to the Scenic City are supplied by Natlak (Vancouver), fronted by former Summerfolk Youth Discovery winner Sterling Mackenzie, and The Apes Have Landed (Taiwan), an far flung outfit of Owen Sound, think Clock Strikes, expats.  Saturday night is Jazzmyn's with Larry Jensen and Pete Devlin and Sunday afternoon is wiled away with a Katie Gleiser recital of Debussy and Ravel masterworks, spoken for on today's show with a Ravel piece for piano and strings, performed by Sweetwater Festival performers Philip Chiu and Cameron Crozman. 

New tracks from Drew McIvor (Walter's Falls) and Bodies of Water (Meaford) ease you into Sunday evening and, hopefully, a great week.

Chapter 1 (A Road To Somewhere)

Georgian Bay Roots #393 April 28, 2024 (Tom)

If you live in the upper part of the Northern Hemisphere and you have any interest in growing things, this is a busy time of year for you.  And like me, you may be spending a lot of time in the potting shed, working on garden plans, mixing soil and amendments, nursing the tender shoots of your transpants, revising your earlier garden plans, and generally trying to balance the hopes and fears of the northern gardener.  So today on Routes & Branches & Beyond I have the first of a couple of shows of Music for the Potting Shed.  

You'll hear Welsh triple harp & pibgorn, percussive mariners, close New England harmonies, upstate New York history, reggae pioneers meet outlaw country, prairie roots meet Appalachian old-time, Saskatoon blues angels, St. John's rebels, and chamber folk from Daniel's Harbour.  From musicians such as Crasdant, Steve Knightley & Seth Lakeman & Jenna, Fairport Convention, Meridian, Joe Crookston, Ed Miller, Toots and the Maytals & Willie Nelson, Bill Bourne, Len O’Neill, Oh my darling, Patty Griffin, Suzie Vinnick, Suzie LeBlanc, and Ferintosh.  Pick up that trowel and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show # 324 2024 05 02

can I cut your hair with goose breath

If you like music made in and played in Grey and Bruce counties, then, Friends -- you are going to *love* this week's edition of Georgian Bay Roots Radio. Picking up where Tom left off last week talking about local music, this week's show is almost exclusively featuring local musicians, with music from Youth Discoveries Finalists, information about upcoming shows you can get to AND a track to get you amped up for Summerfolk 49! Catch it all here. 

Featuring tracks by Amanda and the Paper Cranes, Jaret Koop, David Hartt, Martin Cooper, Bill Dickson, Deep Blue Honey, Garnet Rogers, Gordon Lightfoot, Dave Hawkins, Richard Ebbs, Bill Monahan, Bella Frances, Kevin Couch and Sandy Harron!

Georgian Bay Roots #394 May 5 2024 (with Kailey)

Which would you choose for your backyard - a snowmobile, or an earth sheltered greenhouse?  And which would you guess pays itself off within 5 years?  This week we find out the answers to these and other alluring questions on "Fit to Eat: the NL Farm and Food Show" as we head to the Homestead at Flatrock.  Dan Rubin and I visit with David Goodyear, who has built an earth-sheltered greenhouse, a passive solar house, a root cellar and more.  His family is now self-sufficient in vegetables.  Year round.  Innovations around season extension are alive and well in the province, in this post-Sprung (thankfully) era.  Join us in the kitchen.

Fit to Eat, David Goodyear, Episode 2 Season 2

Ivan Emke

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