Last Saturday I had Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet – Whitehorse – on Mulligan Stew CKUA Radio. www.whitehorsemusic.ca
We shook the place up “real good” but this is the complete interview. Room for both Melissa and Luke to expand on the “Happy Hour Live” experience from their living room during the lockdown.
They walk and talk us through their new album Strike Me Down and then we get really specific about
I’m going to be remembering and honoring the music and life of Tom Petty.
Tragically, after a huge tour of many weeks and months, Tom died in his home on October 2 /2017.
I got to meet and interview him the week Tom and the Heartbreakers released that first great album. The interview was in Leon Russell’s office at Shelter Records. Looking down on Sunset Blvd.
He was quiet, humble and funny. Great guy.
Now, I think of the music he would have written. The songs we’ll never hear.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have left us a legacy that tells their whole story.
The Stew ends with Breakdown (live) with the audience singing the first third of the song.
“you’re gonna put me out of a job”
We start The Stew with Chris and Rich Robinson Live at The Roxy laying into Lowell George’s Roll Um Easy
Then Santana /Stevie Winwood followed by Larkin Poe
Along the way, we celebrate Sting’s birthday. Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor, Ray Charles (twice), Van Morrison Live at Hollywood Bowl, U2, Al Green, Martin Kerr and Celeigh Cardinal, The Hip, Stones, Rod Stewart, and Ronnie Lane doing Every Picture tell a story (live)…lots more.
SHOWTIME – 4 Pacific 5 Mtn 7 Eastern TODAY!!
Next week interviews with David GoGo and Bahamas
This week’s Podcast is the complete Whitehorse Interview
Elle–Máijá Tailfeathers’ film witnesses radical and profound change in her community. Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy is an intimate portrait of survival, love, and the collective work of healing in the Kainai First Nation in Southern Alberta, a Blackfoot community facing the impacts of substance use and a drug-poisoning epidemic.
Community members active in addiction and recovery, first responders, and medical professionals implement harm reduction to save lives. This work is contextualized within the historical and contemporary impacts of settler colonialism; Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy draws a connecting line between the effects of colonial violence on Blackfoot land and people and the ongoing substance-use crisis.
Held in love and hope for the future, Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy asks the audience to be a part of this remarkable change with the community.
A member of the Kainai First Nation and the Sámi in Norway, Tailfeathers creates an intimate portrait of her community and the impacts of the substance use and overdose epidemic…
Awards: Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award and Rogers Audience Award for Canadian Feature Documentary, Hot Docs 2021; Colin Low Award for Best Canadian Director, DOXA 2021
Special Guests in the second hour Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland – Whitehorse!
They bring with them stories and new music from the just-released album Strike Me Down.
They got themselves through Covid lockdown by performing mini-concerts in their home (Happy Hour Sessions) with their son joining them occasionally.
Luke and Melissa also took the time to write lots of songs. 10 of the best show up on their new album.
As always, you can never anticipate which Whitehorse will show up.
They revel in blues, rock, pop, Abba disco. All with storytelling lyrics, wicked guitar work, and vocals that keep moving around like a UFO.
Luke, Melissa, and I cover 4 tracks from the album, riff on the question what IS rock and roll these days and what does 2022 look like.
For starters 2022 includes Massey Hall on March 3 and National Arts Centre on March 19!
Melissa and Luke are two of the most interesting artists working today. They have worked very hard to seek and find an audience that wants to celebrate the full Whitehorse experience.
FYI – the complete totally engaged interview can be heard next week on the Mulligan Stew Podcast (Subscribe of Spotify. Apple Podcasts and Google Play)
Saturdays Playlist includes
For starters Bob Dylan’s 17-minute Murder Most Foul.
Bob Marley Live, Ben Harper and Ziggy, Frazey Ford, ZZ Top, Dusty Springfield.
Elvis, Temptations, Jackie Wilson, Led Zeppelin, Joni, and Madeleine Peyroux Live!
Coming UP – Interviews with Bahamas and Dave GoGo.
For some artists that’s an eternity. For Martha it’s called “having a life”.
The life included the breakup of her marriage. Fighting for custody of her children. Opening a bistro that became a studio. Having to justify being a female artist who’s also a mother. The feedback was “surely you can’t be both”?
The album is called Love will be Reborn which is exactly what happened to Martha. The songs that followed the writing of the title track reflect exactly what happened in the 5 years between releases. Produced by Pierre Marchand. You just know this is good.
It’s her very best work yet. Songs like Justice, Body and soul, Hole in my heart, and Love will be reborn. We’ll include them all in the podcast.
This conversation is not a Q&A. It’s me engaging Martha and getting the hell out of the way.
“Fearless, untethered arrangements… Wainwright’s fifth LP has artistry galore”
– MOJO ****
On par with Patti Smith’s early work with albums such as “Horses” and Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush”
– The Toronto Star
Martha has a beautiful new collection of songs called Love will be reborn
It’s been 5 yrs. since I last talked to Martha Wainwright. My first question was “how were those 5 years for you”?
She stopped answering almost 10 minutes later. Covered a lot of moments such as a divorce and fighting for the custody of her children. (Justice) All artists should attempt to be this forthcoming.
A marriage falling apart (Hole in my heart) and the title track about belief in herself, seeking & finding a new heart. (Love will be reborn). We’ll also play the wonderful Body and soul
Martha starts her world tour Sunday at a music festival in Nashville. Followed by 2 nights Monday & Tuesday in London. Canadian dates in November.
The complete interview will drop right after The Stew finishes. On the Mulligan Stew Podcast.
And the surrounding playlist includes new music from
On the upside, The Stew has its full two hours of showtime back again.
I do hope you enjoyed this summer’s Festival Radio- Congrats to the Festival Crew.
The September 11th Stew is all music.
The first 90 minutes is a heady mix of
Wicked Grin from John Hammond
Followed by Tom Waits/James Brown/Aretha & Ray Charles.
Then we shift to Jackson Browne/Leonard Cohen/Carlos Santana (with Clapton)
New music from Colin Linden, Mariel Buckley, and next week’s guest Martha Wainwright.
Hour two kicks off with a 16 minute Motown Festival.
Then it’s time to remember and honour The Day – September 11th. Twenty years ago the heart of New York City was broken and horribly damaged.
I’ve gathered a group of songs that reflect how we all felt and how the artists chose to reflect on this tragedy and the lives lost. Frankly, what The World lost.
The Barenaked Ladies 16th album is called Detour de Force. More wordplay from a band that majors in it. Right?
I knew this album would be different when I saw a track written by bassist Jim Creegan called Paul Chambers. Who writes a pop song about a legendary bass player (Kind of Blue) as a metaphor?
Ed himself wrote the amazing Live Well, a song about his childhood filled with his Father’s alcohol abuse and how he overcame the trauma.
The album ends with the outstanding Kevin Hearn track called Internal Dynamo. It’s about planets generating their own magnetic fields. Not your basic pop/rock fodder.
It starts like something Pink Floyd might have left us with but 2:40 into the 5-minute track the music shapeshifts into Rage Against the Machine and then ends with a Beatles White album feel.
Our Special long weekend guest is Ed Robertson from Barenaked Ladies.
‘Detour de Force,’ is Barenaked Ladies’ 16th studio album.
Over the course of 33 years, the Toronto quartet has sold 15 million records worldwide and built up an arsenal of hits such as “If I Had $1,000,000,” “One Week,” “Pinch Me” and “The Big Bang Theory Theme.”
Ed Robertson, Jim Creeggan, Tyler Stewart, and Kevin Hearn are widely acknowledged as one of the best live acts on the planet, BNL has won eight Juno Awards and was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2018. Great! Fine! Bang ON. I’ve got another word that I believe defines The Ladies – “admirable.”
Here’s the thing. These guys do NOT sit back on their past hits and success. They all continue to write and refine their songs, vocals, and performing. They push each other to be even better.
Case in point. Three songs from the 14 on Detour de Force
You’ll certainly hear Flip/Good Life/Roll Out
But the three tracks that show the craftsmanship of BNL are
New Disaster – deals with the dark cloud of snarly social opinions.
Paul Chambers – Yup. A song about the legendary bassist who played on and supported Miles Davis etc on Kind of Blue. Jim Creeggan makes him a metaphor.
And then Kevin Hearn contributes Internal Dynamo the last track that starts like Pink Floyd, hangs a hard left into Rage Against The Machine territory, and finishes like something from The Beatles White Album.
Those are the three tracks we’ll play for you on Saturdays Mulligan Stew @ckuaradio. The complete interview with Ed Robertson can be heard on The MulliganStew Podcast
And Hey- the playlist will absolutely get you rocking..
Starts with Elvis, Jerry Lee, Billy Cowsill singing Elvis and Rocket 88 – Live tracks from Elton John, Tom Petty, and the Heartbreakers, Little Feat, and Van Morrison.
New Sue Foley, Los Lobos, Ranch Writers, William Prince, Frazey Ford & Black Keys,
The album is called Love will be Reborn which is exactly what happened to Martha. The songs that followed the writing of the title track reflect exactly what happened in the 5 years between releases. Produced by Pierre Marchand. You just know this is good.
This is a rootsy acoustic Dave GoGo but pushed and supported by producer Steve Mariner and great session players.
I knew this album would be different when I saw a track written by bassist Jim Creegan called Paul Chambers. Who writes a pop song about a legendary bass player (Kind of Blue) as a metaphor?
