Two Western Canadian Music Award Nominations for Breakout Artist and Roots Artist, Polaris nomination, Americana Festival in Nashville in September, Winnipeg Folk Festival, King Eddy gig with Tim, released a version of album Everywhere I Used to be (deluxe)Two new tracks – Prairie Town Dreams and Sad all the Time.
And she’s not done yet!!! Heading to the Edmonton Folk Festival as well.
Mariel brings tales of relationships, sadness, depression, small-town loneliness that can squeeze the life out of you. Not exactly feel-good songs but there is hope throughout. And a fight-back spirit.
The annual Cowichan Valley Wine Festival returns to its Whole Month of August setting.
It kicks off July 27 with Sunset Soirée from 6-9 PM at the gorgeous Campbell Commons at Brentwood College School in Mill Bay.
13 Cowichan wineries will be pouring some of their favourites plus some wines chosen especially for this event. Attending and tasting allow you to actually meet the maker of the wines. There’s nothing better than getting the real story behind the wines you’re tasting. Expect high end, new releases and a few surprises being poured.
This year the food program will be created by Mensch Kitchen and Catering .
Wineries pouring on the night will be Alderlea, Averill Creek, Blue Grouse, Cherry Point, Damali, Devino, Deol, Enrico, Rocky Creek, Unsworth, Venturi Schultze, Zanatta and Emandare.
August in the Cowichan Valley Aug 1 – 31. 12 wineries.
Wine Passport Program
Your map and tasting glass are your ticket to all 12 participating Cowichan Valley Wineries.
Everyone who purchases a ticket is automatically entered into draws. Accommodations, wine, tours, transportation and gift baskets.
Chef Kristian Eligh – Marilena Café and Raw Bar. Victoria
It felt like the longest opening of a new restaurant in many years.
It was, I think, 3-4 years ago I knew that Kristian and his family were moving back to Victoria with a plan to create a singular restaurant.
Then came years of COVID and post-Covid.
Finally, the day has arrived and Marilena Café and Raw Bar was just launched.
Kristian is a chefs chef.
From Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry to culinary director of Hawksworth Restaurant and now Top Table Group Executive Chef.
The Top Table Group includes Blue Water Café, Eliza, Cin Cin, Araxi, Il Caminetto, Bar Oso. Quite a line up and it doesn’t include their two New York City restaurants.
Marilena is two rooms in one. They’ve been described as “pockets of ambience”.
The Raw Bar, led by Chef Clark Park. The Café is the turf of one of the best managers Aaron Matsuzaki.
The wine directory is large. It’s overseen by the brilliant Shane Taylor
We start this week with Doug Cox, the artistic director of the Vancouver Island Music Festival. Next weekend. July 14-16 in Courtney, BC This year the headliners are Sarah McLachlan, Rickie Lee Jones and The Bros. Landreth. Doug asked Roy Forbes to return to his BIM character and revisit the tracks from his Thistles Album.
Two legends are appearing. . Dave Alvin and Jimmy Dale Gilmore with The Guilty Ones. Here’s Doug Cox with backgrounds on all those artists and more events and artists. NEXT WEEK – The Artistic Directors of Folk Festivals in Calgary, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Canmore. Also Terry Wickham reveals his lineup for Edmonton Folk Fest
The second guests on our podcast are two bass playing legends – David Hood (Muscle Shoals ) and Leland Sklar. In 2019, at the very same Vancouver Island Music Festival two of the most famous bass players in popular music met for the very first time.
David Hood – from Muscle Shoals Alabama finally met Leland Sklar from Los Angeles. David Hood was part of the legendary studio musicians at FAME and Muscle Shoals Studios who shaped some of the most famous hits ever made. For Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, and The Staple Singers. In LA, Leland Sklar has recorded over 2000 albums for artists including Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Warren Zevon, Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt and many more.
They hold the unique distinction of being “makers of memories” through the music they helped to create. Great bass players are the glue that holds the band together. What makes bass players special? Memorable bass tracks? Did they follow each other’s careers? The key to surviving and thriving for all those sessions, all those artists and those albums? Honoured to finally meet these artists.
Red Robinson was the first announcer to play rock music on the radio in Canada. He was 16 years old.
Imagine the lives he influenced. Loved by teens. Hated and hounded by parents and adults.
Red made no distinction between black and white artists: he just played the hits.
That drive and determination took him all the way to induction into the Rock Hall of Fame.
I’m told I did the last interviews with Red Robinson.
He was in a retirement home in Vancouver and living with his memories.
Red was directly responsible for the turning point in my career. He phoned me at CKCK in Regina and asked “Would you like to come home.? Back to the West Coast?
One of the happiest moments in my life.
We became friends and co-workers.
His timing was impeccable. He was the right guy. In the right place. At the right time
He got to play and then meet and interview
Elvis Presley
The Everly Brothers
Jerry Lee Lewis
Roy Orbison
James Brown
Bill Haley
Carl Perkins
Johnny Cash
Little Richard
Jackie Wilson
Fats Domino
Chuck Berry
Ray Charles
Rickie Nelson
Buddy Holly
Sam Cooke
Patsy Cline
Peggy Lee
And
The Beatles.
He Introduced The Beatles at their Vancouver Concert.
Started the careers of many many announcers. Me for one.
Changed the lives of millions of teens during the late ’50s and 60’s.
I have a number of interviews with Red…
The last two were Zoom interviews. The first didn’t go well. Red couldn’t hear the questions but the second and last in 2022 went much better.
This Podcast is both of those Zoom interviews back to back. The first was in March 2022 and the second October 2022.
I hope it tells some of the story of his life, the music he played, the lives he changed and his place in Canadian radio.
On the occasion of Bruce Allen’s birthday, I thought I’d sit down for an early morning Zoom call.
Bruce has a roster of talent that plays the World’s stages, so you can find him at 8 am just finishing a call to South Africa.
He’s a full-speed guy. Never outworked, no matter what the project.
In over 50 years Bruce has become one of the best artist managers in the entire music business. Bruce Allen Talent.
After a start with BTO, Bruce decided to take a chance on a young singer/songwriter Bryan Adams. They agreed to be a team with a handshake and started to make music history.
His roster now includes legend Anne Murray, Michael Bublé (there’s a story), Jann Arden, mega-producer Bob Rock and his first band in a while The Offspring.
In the 23 minutes that I have his attention, Bruce tells tales about
The state of the current music business..
The loss of Gordon Lightfoot
Bryan Adams – his place today
Jann – she’s busy Mully
Michael Bublé – we trade Bublé stories. Love it
Bob Rock and Gord Downie – amazing story
The Offspring – first band he’s signed in years.
The Loss of our dear friend – Red Robinson DJ Legend.
Enjoy Big Bad Bruce. Next Week and very special feature on the early rock life of Red Robinson. His last two interviews.
Two very special friends. Both are culinary leaders in Canadian food.
Ned Bell. Executive Chef and co-partner at Naramata Heritage Inn. A spokesperson for multiple culinary and seafood sustainability movements. A true force….leading by doing.
He’s the chef ambassador for the province of BC through theBuy BC Program.
Lots to talk about with Ned and his event next weekend.
To Ned’s West on Vancouver Island is the official end of Canada. In Tofino. A surf and food heaven.
Lisa Ahier started her SoBo restaurant as a food truck, making tacos for the surfers and then the tourists.
Her restaurant has become the epicentre of life in Tofino.
Surrounded by fancier and slicker dining, Lisa just does what her heart asks of her…give your community a place to gather, eat and celebrate how lucky you all are to be there. Lisa’s written and released her second book Together at Sobo. The celebration continues.
In our interview, Lisa hints at what her future holds as she begins to move beyond Sobo and into our food destinations.
In 2016 stellar Canadian band 54.40 released an album La Difference: A History Unplugged. It was a brilliant reworking of their greatest hits.
You could instantly tell it was one of their songs but the instrumentation and overall sound had been changed and made fresher. It brought new life to older songs and I thought it was a great move. Clever and classic. It takes a band working together to allow each member to express what they feel about a song they’ve been playing for years.
7 years later, here comes The Northern Pikes. They also have a nice collection of hits and the commitment to reimagine those hits and bring new life to them. Acoustically inspired.
Before Covid changed the World, they had planned to release a 30th-anniversary salute to their landmark album Snow in June.
A collection of Pikes songs driven by one of the best radio hits ever released in Canada – She ain’t Pretty.
This interview takes us through the group think about how to carry on and what it would sound like.
The Pikes have just released an acoustically driven album called TIME TO TIME that includes 7 songs from Snow in June and three new songs.
Between my radio life and many years at Much West, I crossed paths and got to hang with Jay Semko, Bryan Potvin, Don Schmid and the “new kid” in the band Kevin Kane (also a charter member of The Grapes of Wrath)
This Mulligan Stew Podcast features a delightful gathering of Jay, Bryan and Kevin and myself. We could have filled the time just remembering stories from the late ’80s and ’90s but we had new versions of Pikes hits to talk about and play.
Girl with a Problem, a Celtic feeling Green Fields, a smashing reworking of the title track and a She Ain’t Pretty that still rocks – acoustically.
Come hang with The Pikes and their album Time to Time
Two Canadian icons join forces and become partners in music.
One is/was Gord Downie. Lead singer and songwriter of The Tragically Hip.
Truly beloved. And hugely missed after losing his fight to cancer but went out in a blaze of the song with The Hip and the last Cross Canada Tour.
The other is Bob Rock. Known for his production work with Metallica, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Ron Sexsmith and The Tragically Hip.
Bob tells the story of how they became friends and how Gord contacted him and asked if he had any tracks he hadn’t used because he had words he hadn’t used..” so let’s put them together”
The album took years to complete but when they last met. Gord says to Bob “Please finish it”
Bob Rock on Gord Downie and their album Lustre Parfait Saturday on Mulligan Stew.
All 5 guests are Artistic Directors of their folk festivals.
Four are in a group discussion about surviving the Covid years, this year’s artist lineups and celebrating the renewal of live music. The fifth is a single interview with Terry Wickham, Artistic Director of the Edmonton Folk Fest.
Yes, they’re all competitors but they’re also participants and partners. So when Covid and lockdown took over our world they formed a group to help and support each other.
The guests are
Fiona Black – Vancouver Folk Music Festival (July 14-16) Thefestival.bc.ca
Welcome to the Victoria Day May Long Weekend Edition of the Mulligan Stew Podcast..
And because it’s a long weekend, we have a longer podcast – two of them actually.
Starting things off is the birthday boy Bruce Allen – One of Canada’s most successful talent managers EVER!!
Bruce and his world-class team are responsible for planning, leading and supporting the careers of Bryan Adams, Michael Buble, Bob Rock, Jann Arden and The Offspring. When you do get the attention of Bruce – Watch Out! You can fire questions off in every direction. The thing is you have to be prepared to have the answers smack you upside the HEAD.
I wanted Bruce’s thoughts on the loss of our mutual friend Red Robinson – The Last DJ. And the loss of Gordon Lightfoot as well.
Then we talked about the state of today’s music business. Like throwing a steak to a pit bull.
Bruce then launches into an update on the 2023 years of Offspring, Jann, Bryan, Michael and Bob Rock.
Rock has released an album with the late Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip. It’s amazing. Bruce has that story as well..
Happy Birthday Happy Bruce!!
Bob Rock interview to follow soon.
The second interview is with Doug Cox, the artistic director of the Vancouver Island Music Festival. July 14-16 in Courtney/Comox.
Every year I’m fascinated by Doug’s artist lineups.
This year the headliners are Sarah McLachlan, Rickie Lee Jones and The Bros. Landreth. He asked Roy Forbes to return to his BIM character and revisit the tracks from his Thistles Album.
Two legends. Dave Alvin and Jimmy Dale Gilmore with The Guilty Ones.
Here’s Doug Cox with backgrounds on all those artists and more.
NEXT WEEK – The Artistic Directors of Folk Festivals in Calgary, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Canmore. PLUS Terry Wickham reveals his lineup for Edmonton Folk Fest.
Bruce then launches into an update on the 2023 years of Offspring, Jann, Bryan, Michael and Bob Rock.
Every year I’m fascinated by Doug’s artist lineups.
