Ol Billy Bob Boy Archives | Folk Roots Radio

Folk Roots Radio Episode 560: Our Favourite Albums of 2020

Dec 27 2020

We’re getting close to the end of 2020, which means it’s time to announce our favourite albums of the year. After the challenging year we’ve all had, it’s tempting to just want to put 2020 behind us and move on to 2021 to what will, hopefully, be a much better year for everyone. And yet, despite everything, 2020 has actually been a great year for recorded music – especially for those us who tend to focus on music that artists release independently, or via small and boutique record labels. Many artists have actually been making excellent use of the lockdown time forced on them by the coronavirus pandemic to record some wonderful ‘Covid Tune’ singles, EPs and in some case, even full albums. We’ve had great fun sharing them with you this year. We’ve also been doing our best to keep up with regularly scheduled releases. It gives us great pleasure each year, once we have put holiday radio episodes to bed, to consider our favourite albums of the year. One of the best things about doing a radio show is getting loads of great music to listen to each week. One of the hardest things to do is to take all that fabulous music and narrow it down to your ten favourite recordings of the year. You can check out The Top 10 on Episode 560 of Folk Roots Radio. We’ll be playing more of our favourite albums on upcoming episodes of Folk Roots Radio. If you don’t see an album you really loved, that’s likely because it didn’t make it up on our radar because we didn’t receive a copy. Please consider sharing your favourite albums in the comments – we might even spin them on a future episode of the show. Listen to The Top 10 on this episode, and check out the full playlist and the rest of our long list below. Enjoy!

Ol' Billy Bob Boy - Sweltering Sun - Folk Roots Radio Interview

Jul 14 2020

We included a portion of an interview with Ol’ Billy Bob Boy, discussing his debut album, “Sweltering Sun”, in Episode 523 of Folk Roots Radio. We’re now pleased to be able to bring you our full conversation. It’s definitely worth checking out. Enjoy!

Bill Simms has performed as a side musician on upright bass with a number of folk and roots musicians including Raine Hamilton, Abigail Lapell, Piper Hayes, Shawn Willian Clarke and Sarah Beatty. He’s now stepping into the limelight in his own right as his country music singing alter-ego Ol’ Billy Bob Boy and debut album “Sweltering Sun” which features 12 original songs and blends traditional country and bluegrass music together with some tongue in cheek humour and stories inspired by life in Newfoundland and beyond. An album release show for Sweltering Sun had originally been planned for late May at The Tranzac in Toronto with an opening performance by Sarah Beatty. However, due to COVID-19, that show was cancelled in favour of an online release, which also featured Sarah Beatty. A cross-Canada tour planned for this summer will be rescheduled for a later date. Ol’ Billy Bob Boy joined us from his home in Newfoundland to chat about the new album. For more information about the music of Ol’ Billy Bob Boy, visit olbillybobboy.com. Music: Ol’ Billy Bob Boy “Darlin’ You Look Great” (feat. Mallory Johnson), “Carrie Ann”, “Bathroom Floor” and “Canadian Currency Blues” from “Sweltering Sun” (2020, Self).

Folk Roots Radio Episode 523: feat. Ol’ Billy Bob Boy & More New Releases

Jul 11 2020

Cornerbrook NF based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ol’ Billy Bob Boy joins us on Episode 523 of Folk Roots Radio for a fun conversation about his debut album “Sweltering Sun”, which blends traditional country and bluegrass music together with some tongue in cheek humour and stories inspired by life in Newfoundland and beyond. You may not recognize the name Ol’ Billy Bob Boy, but as Bill Simms he’s performed on upright bass with many other folk musicians. Now, with a new on-stage persona, he’s just released a great debut album, and it’s an excellent interview – we hope you’ll stay with us to check it out. As always, we wrap up the rest of this episode with more of the latest new releases, and this time around we hear from The Avenoir Project, Zaac Pick, ConChie, Turkeyfoot, Vi Wickam and Paul Anastasio, Gretchen Peters and The Treeline. Check out the full playlist below.