In a land long ago and not that far away..I hosted a show called The Great Canadian Goldrush on CBC Radio. It was the 70’s and music seemed to matter a great deal. It helped that the music being made was varied, engaged and spoke to a large audience.

Once a year Producer The late Susan Englebert would gather our musical friends in a studio and sing Christmas songs in a circle.

Shari Ulrich, Bim (aka Roy Forbes), Valdy, Terry Frewer, Coleen Peterson and many more all were asked to write a song and tell of special Christmas memories.

The show came and went after 8 years and we all moved on.

Years later I’m hosting and producing Live From RailTown on Roundhouse Radio and in walks Shari o sing and play for our opening.

Over coffee we talk about how it would be great to re-create or re-imagine those Christmas sessions of the 70s. I thought that roundhouse radio was the perfect place to do that.

So, Christmas 2015 we gathered in the boardroom (because the studios were working and we were somewhat noisy) thankfully GM Don Shafer had wired the boardroom as a possible performance area and it worked beautifully.

Captured by session audio  engineer Julia Graff, Shari’s daughter.

The cast included Shari and Roy. Also Barney Bentall, Jim Byrnes, Craig Northey (Odds) and ShaunVerreault (Wide Mouth Mason).

Here we are another year later and keenly looking forward to doing it all again.

Craig is on the road and Shaun is watching over family.

Stepping in admirably is Bill Henderson from Chilliwack who joins Barn, Shari, Roy and Jim. It has the makings of a tradition.

Everyone tells a personal Christmas memory that they have and performs a song that strikes them true.

We also get a second song from Barney and Roy.

That second song from Mr Forbes is a Christmas rocker called mince meat tart.

He wrote it for those original shows and it survives to this day…and still rocks.

Enjoy. And happy holiday and merry Christmas

BTW you can subscribe to my new Facebook page dedicated to Mulligan Stew here: @mulliganstewmusic