Episode 191: Charlie Angus

This week’s Folk Roots Radio featured an interview with singer-songwriter, politician and Canadian MP (Timmins-James Bay) Charlie Angus, who joined us to chat about his music, activism and politics. You can find the interview online here. As always, we found time to include some new music alongside our mystery theme and guilty pleasure.

Our mystery theme this week was all about ‘leaving’. I’m not quite sure why I came up with that subject, it just came to me when I was out on my inspirational early morning dog walks.

Perhaps it’s the time of year? It’s finally spring, there’s new growth sprouting up everywhere and it feels like it could be time to make some changes. And in Guelph, at our home base radio station, CFRU 93.3fm, the end of the university year is rapidly approaching and it really feels like it – the semester exams are in full swing and there are notices up, all over the place, for gently-used items that need a new home. And, as every year, there are many university students getting ready to leave their ‘home away from home’ for the final time. So there you are, this week’s mystery theme was all about ‘leaving’ – but I’m not planning on going anywhere, just in case you were worried! I hope that makes sense.

This week’s guilty pleasure featured Fleetwood Mac, a good shout for a band that we all love but may have suffered from some overexposure during their golden period in the late seventies and early eighties. I’m a big fan of their output from the ‘Fleetwood Mac’ album (1975) through ‘Tusk’ (1979). As I was given a choice what to play I went back to the 1977 mega-successful blockbuster album ‘Rumours’, still a favourite of mine though I’ll admit to not playing it much in twenty years because it felt just too familiar. In fact I didn’t pick it up again until I bought the album for the third time as the wonderful and highly recommended 35th Anniversary 3-CD remastered edition from 2013.

The song I chose to play was ‘Don’t Stop’, written by Christine McVie after her break up with former partner and band member John McVie – apparently to encourage him to move on. The song was sung by Christine with Lindsey Buckingham, and, as a single, it reached No. 2 in the US in 1977.

Interestingly, ‘Don’t Stop’ was used to welcome Bill Clinton to the stage at the Democratic Convention during his successful White House run in 1992, which gave it a bit of political cache as an anthem to rouse supporters to think about a brighter future. Although the song has been used to introduce Clinton at several other Democratic gatherings over the years, to date, the song has not been sanctioned for use by anyone else. So, I guess it’s now Bill’s theme song too!

Thanks to Violet for suggesting we play Fleetwood Mac this week. 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 we have time for. I do want to put in a plug for the ‘Men at Words’ tour featuring three great songsmiths James Keelaghan, Jez Lowe and Archie Fisher. They’re sharing the bill on a spring tour of the N.E United States and Ontario. For more information, check out the individual songwriters webpages or while it exists (for those that live online) the Facebook page for the tour. We’ll be catching them in Midland Ontario on April 22, but north of the border they’ll also visit Perth on April 15, Peterborough on April 18, and London on April 19.

Check out the full playlist with artist links below and share your love for all the great folk and roots music out there. Thanks to all the artists who share their music with us, and thank you for listening. We’ll see you next week!

You can listen to this show again on Mixcloud by following the link below.

Folk Roots Radio – Episode 191 by Folk Roots Radio on Mixcloud

Nicolas & The Iceni (Theme)
Lucy She Rises (Demo)
Roll Right (expected 2015)

David Francey
Leaving Edmonton
Right Of Passage (2007, Laker Music) CDN

Eve Goldberg
Leaving Nova Scotia Blues
A Kinder Season (2006, Borealis Records) CDN

Mary Black
Leaving The Land
By The Time It Gets Dark (1987, Gifthorse Records)

David Myles
Leaving
Into The Sun (2012, Little Tiny Records) CDN

Karine Polwart
We’re All Leaving
Traces (2012, Hegri)

Oysterband
Everybody’s Leaving Home
Rise Above (2003, True North)

April Verch
Cruel Willie
The Newpart (2015, Slab Town Records) CDN

Same Latitude As Rome
David Thompson
Early Days (2015, Pre-release) CDN

James Keelaghan
Abraham
History – The First 25 Years (2013, Borealis Records) CDN

Jez Lowe
The Lazarus Dance
The Ballad Beyond (2014, Tantobie Records)

Archie Fisher
Borderland
Windward Away (2008, Red House Records)

Fleetwood Mac
Don’t Stop
Rumours (35th Anniversary) (1977, Warner Bros Records)

Tia McGraff
What A Heart Must Do
Crazy Beautiful (2015, Bandana Records) CDN

Amelia Curran
Song On The Radio
They Promised You Mercy (2014, Six Shooter Records) CDN

Clela Errington
Angels On The Radio (Band Mix)
More Love And Happiness (2014, Clela Music) CDN

Charlie Angus & The Grievous Angels
Village Of The Bomb
The Great Divide (2013, Self) CDN

Interview: Singer-songwriter, politician and Canadian MP (Timmins-James Bay) Charlie Angus chatting about his music, politics and activism.

Charlie Angus & The Grievous Angels
Four Horses
The Great Divide (2013, Self) CDN

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

Molly Pinto Madigan
Bloom
Wildwood Bride (2015, Self)

Dana Sipos
Morningside
Roll Up The Night Sky (2015, Muddy Roots Music) CDN

Peter Katz
When The Day Is Done
We Are The Reckoning (2015, Plaid Shirt Music / Fontana North) CDN