Playlist: Episode 171

DJ MacDee stepped up for another Folk Roots Radio fill-in on October 18 (Episode 171) while we were at the 2014 Folk Music Ontario Conference in Toronto. You’ve listened to the show, now enjoy his playlist!

As we were in the midst of municipal election campaign on October 18, I decided to begin Folk Roots Radio on October 18 with James Gordon with “This Poor Old Village”, a song about ‘monster homes’ taking over rural areas. James has composed many songs lamenting excessive development (sprawl), big box stores, and small businesses disappearing with the arrival of Walmart. As James is running for city council in this election, I wondered aloud what his stance would be were he to be elected to Guelph City Council. (Update: James Gordon was elected to serve Ward 2 on Guelph City Council on October 27 2014)

This week’s mystery theme was “cows”. I figured I wouldn’t end up repeating any of Jan’s mystery themes if I decided to do one about cows. Not surprisingly, there is not a lot of material to choose from. There are lots of cowboy songs, just not too many about cows. Even though Corb Lund feels things are always better with cows around, I prefer horses.

Later in the show we played up and coming blues/roots singer Steph Cameron‘s “Pappa You Can Take Me Home”. You’ll definitely hear more from her in future shows. I took the opportunity to sneak in a Hank Davis tune, “Annette”. Hank is a Professor Emeritis of Psychology at the University of Guelph and has been making and recording music since the mid 1950’s. He is better known in Europe than here, so I like to feature him occasionally.

Leading up to this week’s Guilty Pleasure were two old favourites I haven’t heard in a long time: Danny O’Keefe‘s “Magdalena” and Tim Harden‘s “If I Were A Carpenter”.

It is a bit early for Halloween, but I couldn’t resist “Monster Mash” as my Guilty Pleasure. And, after using that as a starting off point, the rest of the hour was pretty much taken up with graveyards, ghosts, and witches. Contributing to the Halloween theme was Loreena McKennitt‘s “All Soul’s Night” and a beautiful track from Jeff Wayne’s “War of the Worlds”, “Forever Autumn” with vocals by Justin Hayward. Orson Welles’ Halloween 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was occurring.

We wrapped up the show with a couple of Sam Turton songs. Sam will be performing with Eve Goldberg and Jane Lewis as “Gathering Sparks” in Kitchener on Thursday October 23.

Well, that’s about all we have time for this week. Thanks again to DJ MacDee for sitting in!

You can find the full playlist for the show below. And… 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 in the CFRU 93.3fm archive HERE.

Mystery Theme: Cows

James Gordon
This Poor Old Village
Farther Along (1990, SGB Records) CDN

Steely Dan
Black Cow
Aja (1997, ABC Records)

Ella Fitzgerald
Cow Cow Boogie
100 Jazz Essential Masterpieces (2002, The Restoration Project)

Ernestine Hatpin & The Prairie Dogs
Bernice the Party Cow
Act Your Age (2010, Self) CDN

Will Stroet
Chloe the Utterly Cool Cow
Just Imagine (2013, Self)

Corb Lund
Cows Around
Cabin Fever (Deluxe Edition) (2012, New West Records) CDN

Steph Cameron
Pappa You Can Take Me Home
Sad Eyed Lonesome Lady (2014, PheromoneRecordings) CDN

Marcia Ball
I Want A Tall Skinny Pappa
30 Years Stony Plain (2006, Stony Plain)

Caro Emerald
Paris
Shocking Miss Emerald Acoustic Sessions (2014, Web release)

Hank Davis
Annette
Work Songs (Lewis Melville (2000, DROG) CDN

Danny O’Keefe
Magdalena
Breezy Stories (1973, Atlantic)

Tim Harden
If I Were A Carpenter
Hang On to a Dream (1994, Verve)

Guilty Pleasure
Bobby “Boris” Pickett
The Monster Mash
Single (1962, Garpax Records)

Scott Ellison
Whistlin’ In the Graveyard
Cold Hard Cash (2001, Burnside Distribution)

Jesse Winchester
Evil Angel
Gentleman of Leisure (1999, Sugarhill Records)

The Stanfields
Ghost of Eastern Shore
Vanguard of the Young and Restless (2010, Groundswell Music) CDN

Cowboy Junkies
Witches
the caution horses (1990, BMG Music) CDN

Stan Rogers
The Witch of the Westmorland
Between The Breaks … Live! (1979, Fogarty’s Cove) CDN

Mike Bloomfield / Al Kooper / Steve Stills
Season of the Witch
Super Session (1968, Columbia)

Sam Turton
Yes Indeed
At Home (2011, Self) CDN

Jeff Wayne
Forever Autumn
War of the Worlds (1995, Columbia)

Loreena McKennitt
All Souls Night
The Visit (1991, Quinlan Road) CDN

Sam Turton
You’re My Friend
Feel (2004, Self) CDN