Episode 156: Durham County Poets

Folk Roots Radio on June 28 2014 (Episode 156) featured interviews with Kevin Harvey from the Durham County Poets and JT Nero from the Birds of Chicago, alongside a new mystery theme and guilty pleasure, and the usual mix of great music.

This week’s mystery theme was again seasonal, however it did not relate to weather or recreation. Instead we went after another activity that tends to be very prevalent at this time of year… weddings. It gave us a great excuse to play “Married Soldier” by Hannah Shira Naiman from her beautiful banjo-fuelled old-tyme roots album “Tether My Heart”, folkie supergroup Gathering Sparks featuring Eve Goldberg, Jane Lewis and Sam Turton with their version of Eve’s “Do You Want To Get Married”, followed by wedding day songs by Lorrie Morgan and Jim Cuddy. Kate Reid’s “Tie One On And Tie The Knot” from 2011 is already a reminder how far we’ve come in Canada with respect to gay rights and same sex marriage, although interestingly this song is more about living in sin than the title would suggest. We wrapped the set with probably my favourite wedding song, the gloriously rambunctious “Blood Wedding” by the Oysterband, with lyrics that deserve to be read as well as listened to. It was clearly quite the wedding!

We were pleased to chat with Kevin Harvey, lead singer of the Durham County Poets, five guys from the Chateauguay valley in Quebec who clearly have lots of fun making music together. They’ve just released their new album, the intriguingly titled “Chikkaboodah Stew”. Check out the interview here – it’s well worth a listen!

Later in the show we talked to our good friend JT Nero from Birds of Chicago. They are gearing up for a visit to Canada for for appearances at the Mariposa Folk Festival (July 4-6) and the Vancouver Island MusicFest (July 11-13).

This week’s Guilty Pleasure featured Tom Cochrane from 1991, with his biggest hit,  “Life Is Highway” – a great road song, if ever there was one. This one was especially for Anne Curtis.

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.

We also squeezed in great new music from Ernest Troost, Tumbling Bones, First Aid Kit and Red Molly. We’ll be dipping into those albums again, over the coming weeks.

Before closing we should make mention of the passing of soul legend Bobby Womack, who passed away this weekend. He may not have reached the heights of some of his contemporaries but he was a great songwriter, and one who, in 1964, gave the Rolling Stones their first hit with ‘It’s All Over Now”. An artist who periodically disappeared from view because of life’s challenges, his true life’s worth and impact will not be fully appreciated until long after he’s gone.

Well, that’s about all we have time for this week. You can find the full playlist for the show below. Thanks to all the artists who share their music with us, and thank you for listening. We won’t see you next week as DJ MacDee will be sitting in while we’ll be enjoying all the great music, and hopefully taping a few interviews, at the Mariposa Folk Festival. We’ll see you in two weeks!

Mystery Theme: “Weddings”

Hannah Shira Naiman
Married Soldier
Tether My Heart (2013, Self) CDN

Gathering Sparks
Do You Want To Get Married?
Gathering Sparks (2014, Self) CDN

Lorrie Morgan
The Wedding
Show Me How (2004, Image Entertainment)

Kate Reid
Tie One On And Tie The Knot
Doing It For The Chicks (2011, Self) CDN

Jim Cuddy
Everyone Watched The Wedding
Skyscraper Soul (2011 WEA) CDN

Oysterband
Blood Wedding
Trawler (1994, Cooking Vinyl)

Durham County Poets
Chikkaboodah Stew
Chikkaboodah Stew (2014, Self) CDN

Interview: Kevin Harvey, lead singer with Durham County Poets, joined us to chat about new album “Chikkaboodah Stew”.

Durham County Poets
Chikkaboodah Stew
Chikkaboodah Stew (2014, Self) CDN

This week’s Guilty Pleasure:
Tom Cochrane
Life Is A Highway
Mad Mad World (1991, EMI Music Canada) CDN

Bobby Womack
So Many Rivers
Only Survivor: The MCA Years (1996, UMG)

Ernest Troost
Old Screen Door
O Love (2014, Travelling Shoes Records)

Birds of Chicago
Barley
Live From Space (2014, Self) CDN

Interview: JT Nero from Birds of Chicago joined us to chat about their upcoming return to Canada for the Mariposa Folk Festival (July 4-6) and Vancouver Island Music Fest (July 11-13)

Birds of Chicago
I Have Heard Words
Live From Space (2014, Self) CDN

Tumbling Bones
Broken Things
Loving A Fool (2014, Self)

First Aid Kit
A Long Time Ago
Stay Gold (2014, Columbia)

Red Molly
You Don’t Have The Heart For It
The Red Album (2014, Self)

Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers feat. Edie Brickell
Sun’s Gonna Shine
Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers feat. Edie Brickell Live (2014, Rounder Records)

Theme:
Mary Margaret O’Hara
Anew Day
Miss America (1988, Virgin) CDN

Background Music:
Zubot & Dawson
Wedding Song
Six Strings North Of the Border Volume 2 (2005, Borealis) CDN

Jayme Stone
Andrea Berget
Room of Wonders (2005, Self) CDN

Lawrence Blatt
Into the Abyss/Infra Red
The Colour of Sunshine (2009, LMB Music)

Dave Clarke
Katherine
Six Strings North Of the Border Volume 1 (2005, Borealis) CDN