Playlist: Episode 176

This week’s episode of Folk Roots Radio featured an in-studio appearance by singer-songwriters Tannis Slimmon, Jude Vadala and Katherine Wheatley who come together each holiday season for a fabulous series of holiday concerts, “Songs For The Snowy Season”. This year, they are also releasing their first album under their new group name Boreal, “Winter’s Welcome”. As usual, we featured lots of new music, plus a new mystery theme and guilty pleasure.

This week’s Mystery Theme was all about the weather or more specifically snow. Call me snow-obsessed but after being out on the farm three mornings running with the new snowblower and trusty shovel I thought it only right that I played a mystery theme centred around snow. Mid November may be a little earlier than usual, and winter isn’t even officially upon us but I knew I’d be playing this theme sometime in the next few months, so why not now? So step right up… Shannon Kingsbury, Mo’ Kauffey, Catherine MacLellan, Over The Rhine, Tamarack (with James Gordon‘s “Blankets of Snow”) and Katherine Wheatley with “Ninety-Nine Feet of Snow” (for the people of Buffalo, New York who were literally buried in snow last week). The Banjo Mechanics (Ian Pattison and Lewis Melville) again provided the instrumental from their new album “JLP”. This time we played Ian Pattison’s “Snowbound” – a song that definitely doesn’t require further explanation. And, a final postscript… a sudden warm spell has taken away almost all the snow again. I’ll try to resist playing another ‘snow’ theme later in the winter.

This week’s Guilty Pleasure was, appropriately for a ‘snow’ show, Anne Murray with “Snowbird”. According to Marian who suggested the song, it’s the quintessential Canadian winter song. “Snowbird” was written by Canadian songwriter Gene MacLellan and has been recorded by many performers including Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Gene’s daughter a href=”http://www.catherinemaclellan.com” target=”_blank”>Catherine MacLellan. The song is best-known through Anne Murray’s 1969 recording, which appeared as an album track before being released as a single in the summer of 1970. It was a #2 hit on Canada’s, it reached #8 on the U.S. pop singles chart, and #23 on the UK Singles Chart, and, in 2003, it was an inaugural song inductee of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

If you have a guilty pleasure you’d like to share – that song you still love though you think other people would find it unfashionable (believe me, they won’t), get in touch. We’d love to play it for you! And, if you have a good story about why you love that song, so much the better.

Well, that’s just about all the time we have for today. Check out the full playlist with artists links below. Thanks to all the artists who share their music with us, and thank you for listening. We’ll see you next week!

Folk Roots Radio – Episode 176 by Folk Roots Radio on Mixcloud

Mystery Theme: “Snow”

Shannon Kingsbury
Snow
LumionoCity (2010, Self) CDN

Mo’ Kauffey
In The Snow
Watcha Gonna Do (2003, Self) CDN

Catherine MacLellan
Snow Day
Church Bell Blues (2007, True North) CDN

Over The Rhine
Snowed In With You
Snow Angel (2006, Great Speckled Dog Records)

Tamarack
Blankets Of Snow
Blankets Of Snow (1998, SGB Productions) CDN

Katherine Wheatley
Ninety-Nine Feet Of Snow
Habits & Heroes (2009, Hoot Music) CDN

Banjo Mechanics
Snowbound
JLP (2014,Self) CDN

R.P.R.
Hard Road
Trans Atlantic (2013, Self) CDN

Joe Crookston
Impermanent Things
Georgia I’m Here (2014, Milagrito Records)

Shawn William Clarke
Sound Of Ticking & Tocking
William (2014, Self) CDN

Jill Zmud
Compass
Small Matters Of Life & Death (2014, Self) CDN

This week’s Guilty Pleasure;
Anne Murray
Snowbird (1969)
Anne Murray – The Best So Far (1994, EMI Music) CDN

Charlie Angus & The Grievous Angels
Diamonds In The Snow (feat. Andrew Cash)
The Great Divide (2013, Self) CDN

Little Miss Higgins
Snowin’ Today: A Lament For Louis Riel
Across The Plains (2010, Self) CDN

Interview: Singer-songwriters Tannis Slimmon, Jude Vadala and Katherine Wheatley come together each Christmas to put on a seres of Christmas concerts “Songs For The Snowy Season”. This year, they are also releasing their first album ”Winter’s Welcome” under their new group name Boreal. Tannis, Jude and Katherine joined us on Folk Roots Radio to chat about the new album and upcoming Christmas shows.

Boreal
Angel Song
Winter’s Welcome (2014, Self) CDN

Boreal
Winter’s Welcome (Live)
Winter’s Welcome (2014, Self) CDN

Boreal
Shovelling Snow
Winter’s Welcome (2014, Self) CDN

Boreal
So Much Snow
Winter’s Welcome (2014, Self) CDN

Guelph Chamber Choir
The Very Best Time Of Year
Christmas In The Royal City (2010, Self) CDN

Sharlene Wallace
Cold Frosty Morning
Journey Of Shadows (1998, Outside Music) CDN

Ondine Chorus
Into The Dark
Towards A Little Light (2014, Self) CDN

Kate Bush
50 Words For Snow
50 Words From Snow (2011, Fish People)