Episode 205: Ian Foster & David Ross MacDonald

Episode 205 of Folk Roots Radio features interviews with two fabulous singer-songwriters – Ian Foster from St. Johns NF and Australian (but no stranger to Guelph), David Ross MacDonald. They’ll be sharing the stage, and swopping songs and stories at the great Guelph listening venue Silence on Thursday July 30. It promises to be a great night. I hope you’ll consider joining us! BUY TICKETS. As usual we also found time for our mystery theme, guilty pleasure and lots of new music.

This week’s mystery theme was all about Elvis. And why did we choose to make Elvis the mystery theme this week? Well, the Elvis Presley Festival is taking place on the last weekend in July in Collingwood Ontario… and its all about Elvis, with more Elvis Presley impersonators than you’ll ever, ever see in one place. And apparently it’s really good, especially if you’re a really big fan of ‘the king’! This week’s background instrumental featured Joao Frazao, a specialist ukulele player from Protugal from his new album of instrumentals blending Portuguese folk, world rhythms and instrumental jazz together. It’s worth checking out.

Elvis also featured as this week’s guilty pleasure. This week’s we played Elvis’s version of “Can’t Help Falling In Love” from 1961, a song that originally featured in his movie Blue Hawaii. The song written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore and George David Weiss reached number 1 in 1962 in the UK, and No. 2 in the US. UB40 recorded a great reggae version of the song that topped the charts in 1993. It’s a favourite of mine, but I decided that this week, in honour of the impact of Elvis on popular music, we should stick with the original.

Thanks to Byron for suggesting we play Elvis on this week’s show. 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.

Lots of new music on this week’s show including “In Bocca al Lupo” from Albertan singer-songwriter Wendy McNeill‘s new album “One Colour More”. Wendy, who now lives in Europe, will be at this year’s Summerfolk. We hope to have an interview with her on a future show. We also played “Mama Sings” the new single from the Australian ‘difficult to categorize’ multi-instrumentalist – harmony driven sibling roots band Perch Creek. They are a great live band, and produced the wonderful album “Jumping On The High Wire” in 2014. We already have a great interview with them in the can – taped just prior to their appearance at this year’s Hillside Festival. We hope to bring it to you on a future show.

Well, that’s all we have time for this week. 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 205 by Folk Roots Radio on Mixcloud

Mystery Theme “Elvis Presley”

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

Chris Cuddy
Dear Elvis
Dear Elvis (2015, Vanishing Castle Recordings) CDN

Brock Zeman
Everybody Loves Elvis
Pulling Your Sword Out Of The Devils Back (2015, Busted Flat Records) CDN

Lindisfarne
Elvis Lives On The Moon
Elvis Lives On The Moon (1993, Castle Communications)

Gillian Welch
Elvis Presley Blues
Time (The Revelator) (2001, Acony/Stony Plain)

Murray McLauchlan
Elvis Will Save The World
The Modern Age (1991, Capitol) CDN

Joshua Cockerill
Elvis
The Trick With Your Heart I’m Learning To Do (2009, Tenth Avenue Music) CDN

Lindi Ortega
I’m No Elvis Presley
Little Red Boots (2011, Last Gang Records) CDN

Joao Frazao
Sal sem mar
Organico (2015, Self)

Ian Foster
How The Weather Rolls In
The Great Wave (2014, Self) CDN

Interview: Ian Foster discussing his latest album “The Great Wave” June 2014.

Ian Foster
Ethie
The Great Wave (2014, Self) CDN

Elvis Presley
Can’t Help Falling In Love (1961)
Elvis 30 #1 Hits (2002, BMG/RCA)

Wendy McNeill
In Bocca al Lupo
One Colour More (2014, HPR) CDN

Heather Pierson Acoustic Trio
Ain’t Gotten Around
Still She Will Fly (2015, Vessel Recordings)

Perch Creek
Mama Sings
Mama Sings (Single) (2015, MGM Distribution)

David Ross MacDonald
Rocks & Snow (Live)
Live At The Elora Acoustic Cafe (2013, Self) CDN

Interview: David Ross MacDonald at the Folk Music Ontario conference October 2013

David Ross MacDonald
Till I’m Gone (Live)
Live At The Elora Acoustic Cafe (2013, Self) CDN

Katie Dahl
Crowns
Ordinary Band (2015, Waterbug)

Corinna Rose
Wolf
The Wharf (2015, Self) CDN

Cheryl Lescom & The Tucson Choir Boys
Measure Of A Man
1953 (2015, Busted Flat Records) CDN

Kris And Dee
Record-Breaking Lows
A Great Long Game (2015, Self) CDN

Scott MacDonald
The World Stood Up
Angels Around Us (2015, Longgrass)

Mitch Mann
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
Blackwater Creek (2015, Crazy Chester Records)

Jay Linden
When the Time Is Gone
Under The Radar (2009, Self) CDN