The Young Novelists Archives | Folk Roots Radio

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 383: The Young Novelists & New Releases

May 23 2018

Graydon James & Laura Spink from Toronto’s The Young Novelists join us on Episode 383 of Folk Roots Radio for a fun conversation about their third studio album “In City & Country”. On an all Canadian episode, we also feature music from new releases by Carly Thomas, El Coyote, David Francey, Steve Dawson, Sugar Brown, Conor Gains and Annie Lou. Check out the full playlist below.

The Young Novelists In City & Country - Folk Roots Radio Interview

May 13 2018

The Young Novelists, fronted by Graydon James and Laura Spink, have just released their third studio album “In City & Country”. The album was recorded in Montreal with producer Howard Bilerman who’s worked with Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen and The Wooden Sky. According to Graydon and Laura, the album explores the idea of community through the lens of those stranger-than-fiction tales that get passed from neighbour to neighbour over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. Each song was inspired by a different small town in Ontario – they actually travelled to and researched the history of the towns – and from those efforts distilled a group of songs that aim to tease apart what it means to belong and what it means to be an outsider, and how the communities we make share more similarities than differences. Which all sounds very intriguing. To learn more about the new album, we caught up with Graydon and Laura at home in Toronto. Visit The Young Novelists online at theyoungnovelists.com. Music: The Young Novelists “Come Around Again”, “All Alone”, “Two Of A Kind”, “City & Country” from “In City & Country” (2018, Self).

Folk Roots Radio Episode 378: Ian Sherwood Live & New Releases

Folk Roots Radio Episode 378: Ian Sherwood & New Releases

May 02 2018

Halifax singer-songwriter Ian Sherwood joins us in the studio on Episode 378 of Folk Roots Radio to chat about his music and latest album “Bring The Light”. He also plays three songs live for us. And, as always on Folk Roots Radio, we check out more of the latest new releases, including new music from The Bodarks, The Young Novelists, John Gorka and The Once. Check out the full playlist below.

Folk Roots Radio Episode 295: Folk Music Ontario 2016 Developing Artist Program (Photo: Mike Bourgeault)

Jan 20 2017

We’re all about the Folk Music Ontario (FMO) Developing Artist Program (formerly known as the FMO Youth Program) on Episode 295 of Folk Roots Radio. Each year during the annual conference, a group of youth performers are paired with mentors from the Ontario folk community to work on a showcase performance and participate in professional development activities. The programme is open to residents of Ontario and the National Capital Region, between the ages 15 and 21, who are chosen for their interest, ability and experience. This documentary features commentary and musical contributions from programme coordinator Treasa Levasseur; Mentors: Cécile Doo-Kingué, Christa Couture, Graydon James, Lynn Miles and Alysha Brilla; Youth: Brandon Girouard, Anita Cazzola, John Muirhead, Missy Bauman and Melina Hanke. The 31st annual FMO conference takes place October 19-22, 2017, at the Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel & Suites, 5875 Airport Road, Mississauga, ON. The closing date for the 2017 Folk Music Ontario Developing Artist Program is August 18. Learn more about the program HERE. Photo credit: Mike Bourgeault.

Dec 01 2016

Graydon James and Laura Spink are the heart of Toronto’s The Young Novelists, a six piece folk-roots band when playing close to home, but pretty much everywhere else they’re stripped down to their essence, a finely tuned harmonizing duo. They’ve had a fabulous couple of years musically – their sophomore release, 2015’s “made us strangers” was very well received, taking home the prize for New/Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards and they’re now touring in the United States regularly. Graydon and Laura sat down with us at the Folk Music Ontario conference to chat about their music, travels, and future plans. Photo: Ana Muira Music: The Young Novelists, Always Make The Mistake and Hear Your Voice from Made Us Strangers (2015, Self)

Episode 285: Folk Music Ontario 2016

Oct 30 2016

This edition of Folk Roots Radio is all about the 2016 Folk Music Ontario conference that recently took place in Ottawa. We play music from some of the great artists we saw play official showcases at the conference and chat with two of our favourite bands, The Young Novelists and The Bombadils.

Jan 14 2016

On this episode of Folk Roots Radio we dip back into our favourite albums of the year. We’ve already announced our ten favourite albums of the year – you can check those albums out HERE. This time around, we’re focusing on albums that made it on to our twenty-five album long list, but didn’t quite make it into the Top 10 – we still love them all though, which is why we’re more than happy to play a selection of songs from them on this week’s show.

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.

Oct 09 2015

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.

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 24 2015

This week’s Folk Roots Radio featured interviews with both Shawn William Clarke and The Young Novelists who will be sharing the bill in Guelph for a double CD release at the wonderful listening venue Silence on June 26. We also included a fair selection of new music we’ve received alongside our mystery theme and guilty pleasure.

Jun 19 2015

After spending time as a sideman for artists such as Olenka and the Autumn Lovers and Timber Timbre, Shawn William Clarke stepped into the limelight as a solo artist a few years ago. His sophomore album, “William” released in late 2014 has been praised by many, including Folk Roots Radio, for its playfulness, fine storytelling and understated warmth. Shawn will be in Guelph for a double CD release show with The Young Novelists at Silence on June 26. We reached Shawn at home in Toronto. Buy tickets for the Guelph show HERE. Music: Shawn William Clarke, “Tranzac Club” and “Ballad Of A Boorish Man” from “William” (2014, Self).

Episode 199: Pete Davies

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.

May 18 2015

This week’s Folk Roots Radio featured another great interview recorded at the Folk Music Ontario conference this past October. Blues and roots songstress Suzie Vinnick joined us to chat about her music and played a couple of songs live. She also gave us a great primer on kick-starting your folk-roots career. You can find the interview here. As usual we included lots of new music alongside our mystery theme and guilty pleasure.

Jul 15 2014

Folk Roots Radio on July 12 2014 (Episode 158) featured interviews with The Marrieds, Graydon James and Elephant Revival. Fortunately we found time to squeeze in a new mystery theme and guilty pleasure, and, of course, lots of great music.

Jul 11 2014

Toronto based band Graydon James and the Young Novelists will be bringing their folk-rock stylings to Guelph on July 18 2014 for a noon hour concert in St George’s Square. Formed in 2011 their first E.P., “A Small Town Eulogy” was released to critical acclaim. They followed that with a live album recorded at Dublin St United Church in Guelph and their first full length long player “In The Year You Were Born”. They are about to head into the studio to start work on their latest release. We caught up with Graydon James in Toronto. For more information, visit www.theyoungnovelists.com. Music: Graydon James and the Young Novelists, “Small Town Hymns” from “In The Year You Were Born” (2012, Self); Graydon James and the Young Novelists, “Hear Your Voice” (Single) (2013, Self)

Ian Foster – The Interview

Jun 18 2014

Newfoundland Singer-songwriter Ian Foster joined us on Folk Roots Radio on June 14 2014. He’s just released his latest album “The Great Wave”. His Guelph CD release show takes place on Thursday June 19 at the ANAF Club, 32 Gordon Street, Guelph. Joining Ian on the bill will be Graydon James & Laura Spink from Toronto based folksters Graydon James and the Young Novelists. Showtime is 8 p.m. and tickets are just $10. For more information about Ian’s music, visit ianfoster.ca.

Ian Foster – The Great Wave Album Release

Jun 08 2014

St. John’s NF singer-songwriter Ian Foster visits Guelph on Thursday June 19 2014 as part of the CD release tour for his exciting new album “The Great Wave”. The show takes place at the ANAF Club, 32 Gordon Street, Guelph. Joining Ian on the bill will be Graydon James & Laura Spink from Toronto based folksters Graydon James and the Young Novelists. Showtime is 8 p.m. and tickets are just $10. For more information, visit ianfoster.ca.

Mariposa Folk Festival 2013

Jun 14 2013

The Grande Dame of Canadian folk festivals has announced the full artistic line-up for its 53rd annual edition taking place July 5-7, 2013, at Tudhope Park in Orillia, Ontario, Canada.