Episode 212: Jennis & Jenny Ritter

This week’s Folk Roots Radio is the first to be split into two separate hours – “Live and Local” focusing more on upcoming live shows in the Guelph – Erin Area and the “The New Music Special” – featuring a selection of the great new music out there. Live and Local this week featured two interviews – Dennis Gaumond and Jennifer Gillmor are the Guelph-Toronto based multi-instrumentalist musical duo responsible for the rootsy, bluesy and at times funky sound of Jennis. They came into the studio to chat about their Erin Roots show at The Busholme Inn in Erin on Saturday October 24. Jenny Ritter also joined us from Vancouver to talk about her her new album “Raised with Wolves” and her show at Silence in Guelph on Wednesday October 21.

We continued our run down of the nominees for the Canadian Folk Music Awards this week by focusing on the category of New/Emerging Artist of the Year – and featuring another stellar group of artists who’ve produced excellent albums in the last year – the Fortunate Ones from St John’s (three nominations in total this year), Toronto’s The Young Novelists (two nominations) alongside Vancouver’s The River And The Road and The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer and Winnipeg’s the Crooked Brothers. No matter how much I talk about these nominees, I still can’t get over how rich and diverse the Canadian folk-roots community is. And again, these awards barely scratch the surface as far as all the great music out there is concerned.

The second show of the Erin Roots live music series at The Busholme Inn in Erin takes place on Saturday October 24 at 7:30 p.m. and features the roots, bluesy, folky sound of Jen Gillmor and Dennis Gaumond as “Jennis” alongside the duelling banjos of the “Banjo Mechanics” Ian Pattison and Lewis Melville. Join us for an evening of fabulous live roots music that is sure to engage, delight and inspire. Each of the Erin Roots live shows will be taped for future broadcast on Erin Radio community radio station. The cover for the night is just $15. You can find all the information HERE.

Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Jenny Ritter is coming to Guelph for $10/PWYC show at Silence on October 21 at 8 p.m. with support from based The Oh Chays. Jenny spent a decade playing with roots outfit The Gruff, before striking out under her own name. She’s just released “Raised by Wolves”, the follow-up to her critically acclaimed album “Bright Mainland” (2012). “Raised By Wolves” is full of songs that tell stories from her “unconventional” upbringing deep in the woods on Vancouver Island featuring dreamy landscapes, pastoral imagery and some unusual people. When not touring, Jenny singlehandedly runs two rock choirs in East Vancouver.

Oh Chays are Kelly Authier and Mike Authier (pronounced oh-chay) and they come South-Western Ontario. They first came to our attention at the Kingsville Folk Music Festival where we became enchanted by their upbeat and fun songs, the uplifting and heartfelt lyrics, Kelly’s powerful vocals and their wonderful stage banter. Kelly and Mike joined us for a chat at the Folk Music Ontario conference this past October, where much hilarity ensued. Check out the interview HERE. It’s well worth a listen.

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 212 Live & Local by Folk Roots Radio on Mixcloud

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

Fortunate Ones
Solitary Sparks
The Bliss (2015, Old Farm Pony Records) CDN

The Young Novelists
Always Make The Mistake
Made Us Strangers (2015, Self) CDN

The River And The Road
Somewhere Far
Headlights (2015, Self/Maple Music) CDN

Crooked Brothers
North of the Border
Thank You I’m Sorry (2014, Self) CDN

The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer
Don’t Make ’em Like They Used To
A Real Fine Mess (2014, Tonic Records) CDN

Banjo Mechanics
JLP
JLP (2014, Self) CDN

Interview: Dennis Gaumond and Jennifer Gillmor from Jennis chatting about their Erin Roots show at The Busholme Inn in Erin on Saturday October 24. Check out all the details HERE.

Jennis
Perfect Thing
The Current (2014, Self) CDN

Jenny Ritter
Wolf Wife
Raised By Wolves (2015, Fiddlehead Records) CDN

Interview: Jenny Ritter talking about her new album “Raised By Wolves”.

Jenny Ritter
Turn Your Thoughts
Raised By Wolves (2015, Fiddlehead Records) CDN

Oh Chays
Live My Redemption
Big Old World (2014, Self) CDN