Pharis and Jason Romero Archives

Folk Roots Radio Episode 633: We’re All About The Music! (Find Your Own Way Edition)

Jun 04 2022

We have another hour of great new releases to share with you on Episode 633 of Folk Roots Radio, and this time around they are all by Canadian artists. Join us as we check out new music from Lunar Bloom, Tragedy Ann, Ray Bonneville, Gunner & Smith, Jesse Cook, Ken Yates, Moonfruits, The Henrys, Noah Reid, Robert Thomas, Pharis & Jason Romero, Glen MacNeil, Willie Stratton, iskwē & Tom Wilson (Lee Harvey Osmond) and Joe Nolan. Remember, if you like what you hear on Folk Roots Radio… and want to support the artists… don’t just stream their music, BUY their music and then you’ll really make a difference to their income during this difficult time, when live show opportunities are harder to come by. Check out the full playlist below.

Folk Roots Radio Episode 630: We're All About The Music! (All Of The Women Edition)

May 07 2022

Join us on Episode 630 of Folk Roots Radio for another selection of the latest new releases. This time around, all of the songs we play are by female artists and we feature new music from Anaïs Mitchell, Basia Bulat, Abigail Lapell, Pharis & Jason Romero, Ingrid Henderson, Kathy Kallick, The Swinging Belles, Susan Cattaneo, Eddi Reader, Tami Neilson (with Willie Nelson), Aoife O’Donovan, Allison Russell (with Sa-Roc) and Annabelle Chvostek. Remember, if you like what you hear on Folk Roots Radio… and want to support the artists… don’t just stream their music, BUY their music and then you’ll really make a difference to their income during this difficult time, when live show opportunities are harder to come by. Check out the full playlist below.

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!

Folk Roots Radio Episode 511: We're All About The Music! (Lockdown Edition)

May 04 2020

We’re bringing you another hour of great new music on Episode 511 of Folk Roots Radio. This time around we’re including more new Covid-19 tunes, some songs recorded during the coronavirus lockdown, alongside some fine new releases. Join us for new music from Martyn Joseph, Chip Taylor, Crys Matthews & Heather Mae, Gillian Nicola, Shawn Clarke, Bill Bourne, Katie Dahl, Doris Folkens, Pharis & Jason Romero, Claudia Nygaard, Leeroy Stagger, Maggie Duffy, Nelson Sobral, Donovan Woods, Carolyn Anele and Shelley Posen. Stay safe and well everyone! We will get through this… together and apart. Check out the full playlist below.

Folk Roots Radio Episode 417: The Best of 2018 - The Top 10

Dec 28 2018

It’s that time of year… we’re holding back the interviews on Folk Roots Radio as we check out our ten favourite albums of 2018. 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, though, is to take all that fabulous music and narrow it down to your ten favourite recordings of the year. To make the selection process go as smoothly as possible, I actually start off with about 40 albums that I’ve really enjoyed, and narrow that down to a 25 album long list, and then select what I consider my ten favourite albums. You can check out The Top 10 on this episode, and The Next 15 on Episode 418 of Folk Roots Radio. So here they are… in reverse order, Folk Roots Radio’s favourite albums of 2018. Listen to The Top 10 and check out the full playlist below.

Folk Roots Radio Episode 369: Andrew Collins & New Releases

Mar 22 2018

Five times JUNO nominee and seven times Canadian Folk Music Award winning mando-maestro Andrew Collins sat down with Jan Hall at the 2017 Folk Music Ontario conference to chat about his music. He also played an instrumental and two songs live for us. We’re very pleased to bring that interview to this episode of Folk Roots Radio. As usual, we also check out more of the new albums we’ve received including new music from Anne Janelle, The Rough & Tumble, Rosie & the Riveters, Pharis & Jason Romero, The Fugitives, Gwyneth Glyn and Suzie Vinnick. It’s a great episode. We hope you’ll check it out. Check out the full playlist below.

Folk Roots Radio Favourite Albums of 2015

Dec 14 2015

Well, It’s that time of year… Time to pick our favourite albums of 2015. And you know what, it doesn’t get any easier. There’s just so much great music out there, and it’s been our great privilege to bring lots of it to you each week on Folk Roots Radio. Like last year, most of the albums on this list aren’t a surprise as I raved about them during the year. This time around though I selected a twenty-five album long list, then narrowed it down to the Top 10 you can read about below.

Sep 11 2015

This week’s Folk Roots Radio features an interview with Australian roots band Perch Creek recorded just before this summer’s Hillside festival. Perch Creek are great fun, and put on a fabulous live show. It’s a great interview, and definitely worthing checking out – they even pulled out their instruments to play a song for us in their hotel room! As always we found time for a lot of new music we’ve received and kicked off a new weekly feature on the 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards, taking place in Edmonton from November 6-8 2015.

Sep 11 2015

The nominations for the 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards have been announced. Pharis and Jason Romero lead the pack with four nominations for their album “A Wanderer I’ll Stay”. Their nominations include Traditional Album of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year, Traditional Singer of the Year (Pharis Romero), and Producer of the Year (Pharis and Jason Romero with David Travers-Smith). Amelia Curran (St John’s, NL), Fortunate Ones (St John’s, NL), Jenn Grant (Lake Echo, NS), Whitehorse (Toronto, ON) and Catherine MacLellan (Charlottetown, PEI) each received three nominations.

This year’s youngest nominee is nine year old Vancouver Island artist Stella Swanson for the album “I’m Not A Bunny” in the Children’s Album of the Year category. Inspired by Stella’s pet bunny Romeo, the album was produced by Comox’s Helen Austin, a previous Canadian Folk Music Award and Juno Award recipient and a nominee this year with her group Big Little Lions.

Check out the full list of nominees here. We’ll be previewing the nominees on upcoming editions of Folk Roots Radio.

Jun 17 2015

This week’s Folk Roots Radio – our 200th edition featured an interview with Mike Hill, Artistic Director at the Mariposa Folk Festival which takes place from July 3-5 in beautiful Tudhope Park on the shores of Lake Couchiching in Orillia. We also talked to Sudbury ‘bloodgrass’ band Murder Murder – they’re an outlaw country bluegrass band that play murder ballads – about their new album “From The Stillhouse” and their upcoming show in Guelph on June 20. We also included a good selection of new music alongside our mystery theme and, as the folk world mourns the passing of Ronnie Gilbert, a special tribute to folk pioneers The Weavers.

Jun 08 2015

This week’s Folk Roots Radio featured an interview with North-East of England based singer-songwriter Pete Davies. Pete’s latest album “Long Way Home” is one of our favourite albums of the year so far. The fact that the album came to us out of the blue made receiving it all that more special. This week we included a special tribute to the sadly departed “Mother of Modern Folk Music” Jean Ritchie, alongside our mystery theme and some new music.

Jun 03 2015

This week’s Folk Roots Radio featured an interview with singer-songwriter Jon Brooks who released his fifth record, an album of murder ballads, “The Smiling & Beautiful Countryside” late last year. Jon makes his first trip to Guelph for show at Silence on Friday June 5. And, as usual we have lots of new music alongside our mystery theme and guilty pleasure.

Apr 19 2015

This week’s Folk Roots Radio featured another interview recorded at the Folk Music Ontario conference this past October. This time we talked to Emm Gryner, Laura C. Bates and Dayna Manning who collectively form Trent Severn, a wonderful folk super-group who share fabulous stories of Canadiana in gorgeous harmony and music. You can find the interview on the website here. As always, we found time for some new music plus our mystery theme and guilty pleasure.

Sep 07 2014

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.

Sep 05 2014

Pharis & Jason Romero 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. They released their recent album, “Long Gone Out West Blues”, in early 2013 to critical acclaim, the album garnering 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. Tickets for the Registry show are $22.60 (includes HST) and available through Eventbrite, or in person at Folkway Music, 22 Dupont Street East, Waterloo ON N2J 2G9, 519-772-0424 (1-855-772-0424). Tickets will also be available at the Door $25 (cash only). The shows starts at 8:00 p.m. (Doors 7:30 p.m.). For more information: pharisandjason.com. Music: “Long Gone Out West Blues” and ‘I Want To Get Lucky” from “Long Gone Out West Blues” (2013, Lula Records).