Yesterday, I chatted with Jon Bartlett of Kelp Records about the annual Kelp weekend/anniversary bash, which kicks off tomorrow with Jim Bryson and Chris Page at the Mayfair. You can catch all the details over at the Kelp website.
As always, there’s a good mix of events at a bunch of awesome spots to see music: I’m regretting once again missing out on pulled pork at the Carleton. Be sure to also check out the free Kelp sampler, which has a fun mix of Kelp artists, friends, and so forth. Plus, free is free.
On Tuesday, April 27th Adam spoke with two artists from Nova Scotia, Bill Travis (who releases music under the moniker Mushkat) and Mike Aube. They are touring Ontario and Quebec together and are in Ottawa this coming weekend. On Friday they play a show at the Clocktower Brew Pub on Bank Street, Saturday is a house concert (details given in the recording) and finally on Monday, May 3rd they are playing a show at the Rainbow Bistro in the Byward Market. The two chatted with Mike and I and played us some of the songs you can expect to hear at the show.
As well, listen for the best trumpet impersonation you will ever hear on Bill’s song “The Colours of Ernesto.”
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of having Chris Page in studio to talk about his new album, “A Date with a Smoke Machine”. In a fit of absentmindedness, I forgot to record the first half of the conversation, so you missed out on him singing Summertime Out, which is a shame because it’s my favourite track from the album. Worry not, though, as you still get the second half of our conversation and another in-studio song.
The in studio performances sounded excellent, but the CD itself is even better: it’s catchy and personal and filled with the sort of songs that will get in your head and have you humming. Think of it as a sort of vaccine against the wretched CTV olympic theme.
The CD release show is next Saturday at Dom Polski SPK (Waverly near Bank), with Camp Radio and Year Zero opening.
This morning, I had the pleasure of talking with Ottawa’s own Jill Zmud about her new album, coming to writing music past the “Britney years”, and the nature of musical collaboration in town. She had her guitar, and also treated us to live acoustic versions of “East of the Line” and “Wish”.
She plays in Memphis in the near future, for those heading to Tennessee. She plays Ottawa again later in March.
Last week, Josh had the opportunity to talk with members of Wide Mouth Mason about life returning to the road, what they’ve been up to in the last few years, and revisiting past concerts to make a live album.
They played Maverick’s last week, so ignore the pushing of the show. At times the phone was a bit spotty, so I do apologize if their are audio hiccups.
The new album, Lost Channels, by The Great Lake Swimmers was one of ten albums included on the short list for the 2009 version of the Polaris Music Prize. On June 19th they played a show in Ottawa at First Baptist Church located at the corner of Elgin and Laurier. Prior to the show I spoke with the lead singer and songwriter for the band, Tony Dekker. The interview can be found below. In the interview we talk about a cover version the band did of Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s song “Don’t Cry No Tears”. I have included videos of both songs below.
At the end of the interview I throw to the song “I will never see the sun” from the band’s self-titled debut album. Since this isn’t live radio you can hear the song by clicking here.
On Friday, June 12th Jenn Grant played at Westfest. Prior to the show I spoke with her about her new album Echos and the process of writing and recording the follow up to her critically acclaimed album Orchestra for the Moon. If you missed her at Westfest you can catch Jenn at Bluesfest this year as well.
At the end of the interview I throw to the song “You’ll go far.” Since that doesn’t work when not listening to Mike and I live on Tuesday morning I have included a couple of videos of the song.
1) Jenn playing the song at Westfest that night.
2) A live version of the song at Verge Fm studios. The audio on this one is much better.
On Tuesday, I spoke with Jon Bartlett about Kelp Records 15th anniversary, how the industry has changed since 1994, and this weekends anniversary (kelpiversary?) celebrations.
Jon’s got a pretty good set of shows lined up this weekend- things kicked off last night at the Mayfair with Jim Bryson and the Acorn, but keeps going today at the WIP Gallery and the Elmdale. Tomorrow, there is a lunchhour show at the Carleton Tavern and an evening show at the Glue Pot Pub. I missed out on getting a bracelet, but will be at the Elmdale tonight.
Not able to make the shows? Boo. You can download the Kelp15 compilation here for free.
Last friday, I had the opportunity to speak with Andrew Vincent about his new album, Rotten Pear (link pops to an album stream). That interview is below.
Record reviews aren’t really my strong point, so I won’t really do one. However, I really enjoyed the album: it is simple, catchy, and deceptively dark.
Happy Family Literacy Day. Celebrate by listening to Adam on the Tuesday Morning Special Blend. Mike is away this week, something about having a real job and real responsibilities. At 7:30 we will be speaking with The Rural Alberta Advantage who played a stellar show at Cafe Dekcuf last Friday. Then at 8:30 Adam will be speaking live with Andrew Vincent whose new album, Rotten Pear is released today on Ottawa’s own Kelp Records. As always we air at 7am on 93.1FM in Ottawa, www.ckcufm.com for everyone else.
Fellow Travellers 
