Playlist: Episode 166

Folk Roots Radio on September 6 (Episode 166) featured interviews with Lynn Jackson, Hannah Shira Naiman and Pharis & Jason alongside our mystery theme, guilty pleasure and, as usual, lots of great music.

Kitchener-based singer-songwriter Lynn Jackson releases her new album (with Chris Boyne), “The Acoustic Sessions” at The Jane Bond in Waterloo on September 7 2014. The show starts at 9:00 p.m. (doors at 8:00 p.m.) and admission is just $10 which also gets you copy of the CD – which is an amazing deal! You can check out an extended interview here.

Hannah Shira Naiman will be at the Magnolia Café in Guelph on Thursday September 11 as part of a tour supporting her 2013 album release “Tether My Heart” a gorgeous album of banjo-driven songs, inspired by Ola Belle Reid and Hazel Dickens, with an Appalachian Old-time feel and English / Irish folk ballad stylings thrown into the mix. At Magnolia, Hannah will be performing with fiddle player Rosalyn Dennett (formerly of Oh My Darling).

And Pharis & Jason bring their beautiful harmonies and old-time banjo and guitar tunes to Kitchener on Friday September 12 for a show hosted by Folkway Music at the Registry Theatre, Kitchener. Their recent album, “Long Gone Out West Blues”, released in early 2013 to critical acclaim, garnered several awards while making it into the top 10 of many end of year ‘Best of’ lists. Long Gone Out West Blues features an array of songs that blend old and new, while telling stories about ageless characters, hard lives, love and loss.

This week’s mystery featured songs about ‘lullabies’ and offered us the chance to play straight up songs by Leonard Cohen and Lauren Mann And The Fairly Odd Folk and even Janis Ian with a song for her lover before we went a little off kilter with two lullabies for dogs courtesy of The Be Good Tanyas (with “Dogsong AKA Sleep Dog Lullaby”) and The Oh Chays (with the adorable “Dirk’s Lullaby” from their new album Big Old World). Birds Of Chicago restored some sanity with a live version of “Prairie Lullaby” from their great recent album “Live From Space”. The lullaby by its nature is a naturally beautiful and soothing style of song. Any song that will encourage a young child to go to sleep… or a dog… has to be a good thing.

This week’s Guilty Pleasure went out to WebSusan for her birthday. She chose Stevie Wonder from 1966 and “A Place In The Sun”, a song that originally featured on the Tamla (Motown) album “Down To Earth”. Written by Ronald Miller and Bryan Wells, A Place In The Sun was one of Wonder’s first songs to contain social commentary. And, rather than just one song we felt that WebSusan deserved a whole set so we followed that with Joel Plaskett with “Our Place In The Sun”, Nick Lowe with “You Inspire Me” and finally counter tenor Carl Stryg with his beautiful version of “Make Me Do Anything You Want” from his album of Canadian cover songs, “Sings The Classics”. I don’t think I need to explain why I played those songs… As an addendum, it was sad to find out that Stryg, counter tenor and shortbread king, passed away recently.

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 finished the show with music from artists who we will be bringing to the show over the coming weeks. We starting off with Ernest Troost and “All I Ever Wanted” from his new album “O Love” – a big favourite on this show and one of the best of the year, as far as we’re concerned. We followed that with Plumhall with “Space Inbetween” from Thundercloud. Their interview is already on the website – you can find it here.  We’ll be catching up with Lynne Hanson for an interview in a few days. She’s just released a great album “River Of Sand”. We wrapped the show with Fearing & White with the “Eighth Wonder of the world” from their recent album Tea and Confidences. They’re on tour in Ontario and Alberta in September. We have a one hour interview with Stephen Fearing in the can. You won’t want to miss that.

Well, that’s just about all the time we have for today. 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’ll see you next week!

You can listen to the show again on Mixcloud.

Folk Roots Radio – September 6 2014 by Folk Roots Radio on Mixcloud

Mystery theme: “Lullabys”

Leonard Cohen
Lullaby
Old Ideas (2012, Columbia) CDN

Lauren Mann And The Fairly Odd Folk
Lullaby
Over Land Than Sea (2012, Wanderer) CDN

Janis Ian
Lover’s Lullaby
Between The Lines (1975, Columbia)

The Be Good Tanyas
Dogsong AKA Sleep Dog Lullaby
Blue Horse (2001, Nettwerk) CDN

The Oh Chays
Dirk’s Lullaby
Big Old World (2014, Self) CDN

Birds Of Chicago
Prairie Lullaby
Live From Space (2014, Self) CDN

Ablett & Cooper
Lullaby For Christopher
Changing Landscapes (2008, Self) CDN

Lynn Jackson (with Chris Boyne)
Wintersong
The Acoustic Sessions (2014, Busted Flat Records) CDN

Interview: Lynn Jackson discussing “The Acoustic Sessions”, her new album with Chris Boyne and the upcoming CD release September 7 at The Jane Bond, Waterloo ON.

Lynn Jackson (with Chris Boyne)
Mark The Spot
The Acoustic Sessions (2014, Busted Flat Records) CDN

This week’s Guilty Pleasure:
Stevie Wonder
A Place In The Sun
Down To Earth (1966, Tamla Motown)

Joel Plaskett
Our Place In The Sun
Three (2009, Maple Music Recordings) CDN

Nick Lowe
You Inspire Me
Make Me Do Anything You Want (1998, Yep Roc)

Carl Stryg
Make Me Do Anything You Want
Sings The Classics (1995, Gold Toast Records) CDN

Hannah Shira Naiman
Looking For My True Love
Tether My Heart (2013, Self) CDN

Interview: Hannah Shira Naiman discussing “Tether My Heart” and the upcoming show on September 12 at Magnolia Café, Guelph ON.

Hannah Shira Naiman
Little Fox
Tether My Heart (2013, Self) CDN

Pharis & Jason
Long Gone Out West Blues
Long Gone Out West Blues (2013, Lula Records) CDN

Interview: Pharis & Jason discussing their music and the upcoming show on September 12 at the Registry Theatre, Kitchener ON.

Pharis & Jason
I Want To Be Lucky
Long Gone Out West Blues (2013, Lula Records) CDN

Ernest Troost
All I Ever Wanted
O Love (2014, Travelling Shoes)

Lynne Hanson
Foolish Things
River Of Sand (2014, Continental Song City) CDN

Plumhall
Space Between
Thundercloud (2014, Proper Distribution)

Fearing & White
Eighth Wonder Of The World
Tea & Confidences (2014, Lowdenproud) CDN