Episode 210: Brenda McMorrow & Ange Hardy

This week’s Folk Roots Radio features interviews with two artists who have produced wonderful new albums, Brenda McMorrow joins us to chat about her latest western folk meets Kirtan (Indian devotional music) album “My Heart Bows Down To You” and we talk to Ange Hardy, direct from Somerset England, about “Esteesee”, her great new album inspired by the life and work of English romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. As usual we include a selection of the new music we’ve received and continue our on-going feature on the nominees for the 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards. I really enjoyed putting this show together. I hope you enjoy it.

One of the best things about doing this show is being able to talk to artists about why they make music – it’s an endlessly fascinating experience made all the more special by the passion these musicians bring to their life’s work. This week’s interviews turned out really well. I hope you enjoy them.Brenda McMorrow‘s latest album “My Heart Bows Down To You”, is a wonderful blend of western folk music, world rhythms and Indian devotional music (Kirtan) that is clearly heartfelt and uplifting. Brenda celebrates the release of the album with a Guelph show at Sukha Yoga Centre, 42 Wyndham St North #101C on Saturday September 26 at 7:30 p.m., featuring Morgan Doctor (percussion) and Chris Gartner (bass), with backing vocals from Shannon Kingsbury & Tannis Slimmon. Brenda spends much of her life on tour, or giving workshops. Fortunately we managed to catch up with her at home in Guelph to chat about the new album.

Ange Hardy has just released her latest album, “Esteesee” (pronounced Ess-Tee-See), an album inspired by the life and work of English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (who often signed himself S.T.C). It’s a fabulous album that really brings Coleridge to life. Ange joined us for a feature-length interview direct from her home in Somerset, England. Check out our review of the album HERE.

This week’s Canadian Folk Music Awards feature focused on the Contemporary Album of the Year category featuring songs from great albums by Jenn Grant, Gabrielle Papillon, The Once, Catherine MacLellan and Jon Brooks. (UPDATE: On air, I got my categories mixed up and said “Ensemble of the Year” which is incorrect. We’ll be looking at that category on a future show. Jan)

Four of those artists hail from Atlantic Canada, a real hotbed for great Canadian music however when you look at the all of the nominations for this year’s awards, you’ll see that other provinces are also well represented. 73 artists were nominated from nine provinces. You can check out all the nominees by category and by province on the folkawards.ca website however this is how the award nominations break down across the country:
British Columbia: 16 nominations, 12 artists
Alberta: 4 nominations, 4 artists
Saskatchewan: 1 nomination, 1 artist
Manitoba: 4 nominations, 6 artists
Ontario: 33 nominations, 25 artists
Quebec: 14 nominations, 12 artists
Nova Scotia: 7 nominations, 4 artists
Newfoundland: 11 nominations, 5 artists
Prince Edward Island: 3 nominations, 1 artist
Yukon: 1 nomination, 1 artist
Northwest Territories: 1 nomination, 1 artist
Nunavut: 2 nominations, 1 artist

An excellent job, by all concerned. When you reflect on the fact that awards programmes don’t capture all the great music out there – still much of it flies under the radar… well it’s a constant reminder of why I and other folk DJs spend so much of our time listening to music to share with you on a weekly basis. Great music deserves to be listened to and promoted! It’s as simple as that.

Because of the length of this week’s interviews, we couldn’t squeeze in as much other new music as we’d like however we still found time for new songs from some great artists including expat Canadian now living in the UK Domenic DeCicco, Chris Rosser, David Storey, Lindi Ortega and the great Tom Chapin who celebrated his 70th birthday with his 24th album.

I should mention that we’re working on a new feature for the show, the Folk Roots Radio Sessions. The sessions feature in-depth conversation and live music from our guests, mostly recorded in the home studio at the farm. We recently aired a session with St john’s singer-songwriter Ian Foster on CFRU 93.3fm. You can find that on the website HERE. In the coming weeks you’ll get to hear from honkytonkin’ banjo-playing Darren Eedens, singer-songwriter duo Fraser & Girard, fingerstyle guitarist Bob MacLean and many more. If you’re a musician and want to join us for an in-depth conversation and a few songs out in beautiful Hillsburgh Ontario, definitely get in touch. We’d love to have you join us.

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 have a lot of great music to bring you on future shows. I hope you’ll join us! You can listen to this show again on Mixcloud by following the link below.

Folk Roots Radio – Episode 210 by Folk Roots Radio on Mixcloud

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

Jenn Grant
Bring Me A Rose (feat. Justin Rutledge)
Compostela (2014, Outside Music) CDN

Gabrielle Papillon
Got You Well
The Tempest Of Old(2014, Self) CDN

The Once
You Lead, I Will Follow
Departures (2014, Nettwerk) CDN

Catherine MacLellan
Don’t Call Me Stranger
The Raven’s Sun (2014, Self) CDN

Jon Brooks
Highway 16
The Smiling And Beautiful Countryside (2014, Borealis Records) CDN

Bob MacLean
Permission To Dream
Permission To Dream (2002, Self) CDN

Domenic DeCicco
Get Up And Go
Seeds Of Evergreen (2014, Twin Arrows Music) CDN

Tom Chapin
Quite Early Morning (feat. The Chapin Sisters)
70 (2015, Sundance Music)

Chris Rosser
The Wind Stole My Song
A Thousand Hands (2014, Hollow Reed Arts)

Brenda McMorrow
My Heart Bows Down To You/Maha Mantra
My Heart Bows Down To You (2015, White Swan Records) CDN

Interview: Brenda McMorrow discussing her latest release, “My Heart Bows Down To You”. Listen to the interview HERE.

Brenda McMorrow
I Open My Arms To Love/Jai Radhe
My Heart Bows Down to You (2015, White Swan Records) CDN

Linda McRae
Flowers Of Appalachia
Shadow Trails (2015, Borealis Records) CDN

Ange Hardy
Esteesee
Ange Hardy
Esteesee (2015, Story Records)

Interview: Ange Hardy joins us to chat about new album “Esteesee”. Listen to the interview HERE.

Ange Hardy
My Captain
Ange Hardy
Esteesee (2015, Story Records)

Ange Hardy
Might Is In the Mind
Esteesee (2015, Story Records)

Ange Hardy
Along the Coleridge Way
Esteesee (2015, Story Records)

Fraser & Girard
Hard Time
Fraser & Girard (2015, Self) CDN

David Storey
The Last Loon On The Lake
Coming Home (2015, Self) CDN

Lindi Ortega
To Love Somebody
Faded Gloryville (2015, Last Gang Records) CDN