When the pandemic hit at the beginning of 2019 anything that qualified as a gathering took the brunt of the hit.
Restaurants, concerts, sports, schools, music tours, group travel, etc!
Festivals of all descriptions were immediately shut down and artists went home and stayed home.
So, here we are two years later and this summer the music festivals have been fully booked by artists who can’t wait to get on the road and on stage. To be met by audiences and music fans who truly missed the live music experience.
We’ll touch on four music festivals but they do represent all festivals, big and small. Please find one near you and support the festival and the artists.
Each web link below has info on the performers, their schedules, and ticket sales.
Our guests are
Terry Wickham – Producer, Edmonton Folk Music Festival Aug 4-7
Last Saturday Singer/Songwriter, Educator, Social Activist, Mother, and leader Buffy Saint-Marie celebrated her 80th Birthday.
She had some cake she made the night before and called us from her home in Hawaii.
This is the complete interview
(Keep your ears open for chickens and roosters in the yard and about 15 minutes in a huge rainstorm pounds the roof. She does live in a rainforest after all)
Because we have known each other over so many years, I went all the way back to her birth. She was abandoned as a baby and adopted by a family who gave her love and education. Buffy explains that she doesn’t really know her real birthday date but it didn’t let her stop becoming a legend.
Original photography by Jack Robinson. www.robinsonarchive.com
She was told at 6 years old in school that “there were no more Indians around. All Gone. Maybe some in Arizona”. We talk about what has changed for young native students. If anything.
Buffy has always lived a life looking at ”the long view”. In our talk, she explains what that means and how well it served her. She likes “busy”. Busy is good.
She’s won a Grammy, An Oscar, received an Order of Canada, spent 5 glorious years educating on Sesame Street, and has received countless honors.
This Fathers Day gathering took place June 2020. It was so informative and fun that we decided to repeat it this year. Yes there’s talk about lockdown but what that chat reveals is the joy both guys found in “watching the seasons change” and that included their children growing up. They have a revealing discussion between themselves about their children following in their footsteps and the mine field of giving those children advice.
It still rings true.
Welcome to The Mulligan Stew Podcast. Encore Presentation
OK. Its Fathers Day weekend.
It’s also Summer Solstice
I always hear a phrase…. “I’m in the family business”
Now, that works if your family are Store Owners, or Office Workers, Doctors. Nurses. Teachers. Farmers etc.
We have two guests today who are friends and fathers.
Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo and The Jim Cuddy Band.
Barney Bentall. Leader of Cariboo Express. High Bar Gang. BYU and his own solo career.
How has the family dynamic changed when their sons and daughters follow them in the music business.
Share the stage. Maybe even write songs together. (maybe being the key word)
And how do family members like being the subject of songs they hear on the radio?
I was excited to get these two pals together and exchange life experiences.
Saturday June 18 Barney plays the Beaumont Blues & Roots Fest. New album Cosmic Dreamer
Jim and Blue Rodeo play the PNE Aug 21
We connected on Zoom and you can find the complete conversation below:
Guest is a long-time friend Joe Keithley (also known by his D.O.A hardcore punk stage name Joe Shithead)
One of the very few punk artists who didn’t bring their stage characters into their real world.
Joe on stage was wild, pissed off, and very much in your face.
Off stage, he was just a great guy from Burnaby. A regular Joe.
Joe founded D.O.A
Founded Sudden Death Records
Rock Against Racism
Harmony for all – gathering used instruments for Burnaby residents who don’t have access to them.
D.O.A is celebrating the 40th anniversary of their LP Hardcore 81
And Director Scott Crawford is shooting a documentary on Joe and DOA called Something Better Change (named after DOA’s first album)
He’s already shot and released Creem: America’s only rock and roll magazine and Salad Days. Both were outstanding.
Many of Joe’s former bandmates are long gone but he’s continued to grow and learn to such an extent that he’s now a twice-elected Burnaby City Councillor and Joe’s just gearing up for another run for office. Knocking on doors is his specialty.
I think he mentions 13,000 during one campaign.
Here’s the best part – he’s still making music with DOA..getting in a tour of Ontario, Quebec, and BC’s interior before the election.
To quote Dan Aykroyd “ is it a floor wax or a shampoo”
Can a guy be a hard-core punker and a politician???
Susan Tedeschi co-partner with Derek Trucks in life and music is our guest this week.
Tedeschi Trucks Band has created “one of those albums” that will become the standard by which all other such albums are created.
It’s an amazing story and we are thrilled to have Susan share it with us . It’s our complete 30-minute interview – with the tracks from the first album.
The concept behind I Am The Moon, the GRAMMY-winning band’s fifth studio recording, was suggested by TTB vocalist Mike Mattison in May 2020, two months after the band was forced off the road by the pandemic.
The 12th-century poem Layla & Majnun by Persian poet, Nizami Ganjavi, was the title inspiration for Eric Clapton’s 1970 double-LP with Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs – an influential album for Tedeschi Trucks Band . Interestingly, Ganjavi’s source material resonated with Mattison and the rest of the band in an altogether different way. Finding complex themes and storylines that inspired their creative process, they forged a new, modern interpretation of the vast 100-page poem.
I Am The Moon was written collectively and collaboratively, with band members contributing their own unique perspectives on the work. By January 2021 the band was recording at Tedeschi and Trucks’ home studio, Swamp Raga, in Jacksonville, FL, with Derek behind the soundboard as producer and long-time studio engineer, Bobby Tis, in charge of recording and mixing.
Operatic in scope, Tedeschi Trucks Band explores romantic relationships, collective struggle, faith, and the human experience on I Am The Moon.
“It’s amazing,” Trucks says, “because we wrote most of this music in a pretty short time span. There are even chord changes that mirror other tunes on the albums – themes and variations, lyrical allusions, that pop back up.” He continues: “You always want to do something bigger and thematic. This is the first time it happened naturally.”
The decision to sequence and release I Am The Moon in four distinct episodes came “when we started thinking of records we love,” Derek says, citing Axis: Bold as Love, the 1967 LP by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
“It’s 36 minutes long. That’s the way to digest a record.”
With that approach in mind, TTB will also present I Am The Moon: The Film, immersive visual companions to each album. The corresponding films will debut three days prior to each audio release, offering fans an early opportunity to digest each album in its entirety as a communal listening and viewing experience via the band’s YouTube channel.
TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND – I AM THE MOON: ALBUM + FILM RELEASE DATES:
I Am The Moon: I. Crescent
Film Premiere: May 31
Album Release: June 3
I Am The Moon: II. Ascension
Film Premiere: June 28
Album Release: July 1
I Am The Moon: III. The Fall
Film Premiere: July 26
Album Release: July 29
I Am The Moon: IV. Farewell
Film Premiere: August 23
Album Release: August 26
I Am The Moon – All Vinyl Configurations: individual LPs + the 4-LP Deluxe Box available September 9.
Tedeschi Trucks Band tour:
June 24 – Jacksonville, FL – Daily’s Place Amphitheater
June 25 – Mobile, AL – Mobile Civic Center
June 26 – Tuscaloosa, AL – Tuscaloosa Amphitheater
June 28 – Indianapolis, IN – The Amphitheater at White River State Park
June 29 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
July 1 – Canandaigua, NY – Constellation Brands – Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center
July 2 – Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion
July 3 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center
July 6 – New Haven, CT – Westville Music Bowl
July 8 – Philadelphia, PA – The Mann Center
July 9 – Essex Junction, VT – Midway Lawn at Champlain Valley Expo
July 10 – Patchogue, NY – Great South Bay Music Festival
July 12 – Lewiston, NY – ArtPark
July 13 – Cincinnati, OH – PNC Pavilion at Riverbend
July 15 – 16 – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theatre
July 19 – Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap
July 20 – Richmond, VA – Virginia Credit Union LIVE!
July 21 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park
July 23 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion
July 24 – Huber Heights, OH – Rose Music Center at The Heights
July 26 – Aurora, IL – RiverEdge Park
July 27 – St. Louis, MO – Fabulous Fox Theatre
July 29 – 30 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
August 18 – San Diego, CA – Cal Coast Credit Union Amphitheater
August 19 – Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre
August 20 – Berkeley, CA – The Greek Theatre
August 23 – Sacramento, CA – Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
August 24 – Eugene, OR – Cuthbert Amphitheater
August 26 – Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheater
August 27 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater
August 28 – Reno, NV – Grand Sierra Resort & Casino
August 31 – Boise, ID – Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden
September 1 – Bonner, MT – Kettlehouse Amphitheater
September 3 – Moorhead, MN – Bluestem Center for the Arts Amphitheater
October 17 – Copenhagen, DK – Amager Bio
October 18 – Copenhagen, DK – Amager Bio
October 20 – Randers, DK – Vaerket
October 21 – Oslo, NO – Sentrum Scene
October 22 – Stockholm, SE – Cirkus
October 25 – Berlin, DE – Verti Music Hall
October 26 – Hamburg, DE – Edel-optics.de Arena
October 27 – Prague, CZ – Forum Karlin
October 30 – Rotterdam, NL – RTM Stage
November 2 – Dublin, IE – The Helix
November 4 – London, UK – The London Palladium
November 5 – London, UK – The London Palladium
November 6 – London, UK – The London Palladium
November 9 – Manchester, UK – Manchester Academy
November 10 – Glasgow, UK – O2 Academy Glasgow
November 12 – Paris, FR – Le Trianon
November 13 – Paris, FR – Le Trianon
November 15 – Paris, FR – Bataclan
I’ve spent a lot of time attempting to describe who he is and what he does.
-Winnipeg born now Montreal. Became the go-to guy for guitar work. ..precise vocal harmonies – and very interesting songs.
I still can’t explain what he does with the guitar, that is until you hear him play. WOW.
He came to prominence with The Bros. Landreth then went solo.
Latest EP is Downtown. Releases Mid July but we have several tracks for you.
Anyway. Because I can’t do the man and his playing justice I’ll leave you with some quotes from his last tour in the UK 2020.
Possibly the best guitar solo I’ve heard in 12 years of owning a music venue! Keep Watching!
2,420,174 views Feb 5, 2020, Canadian guitarist, singer, producer Ariel Posen played at Fat Lil’s in Witney, UK on Tuesday 4th February 2020. I knew he’d be good because he used to be in Brothers Landreth, but didn’t expect to hear this incredible, dynamic solo. Combining slide techniques, finger picking, dissonance and a fuzz tone to die for. It builds and builds. I was totally blown away! And I think it is possibly the best (to my taste) I’ve heard in all the years of owning the club
I’ve been playing guitar for 15 years and not once have I ever played one of those notes. What a pro.
This kind of style is the future of rock. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good ole CCR riff. However, today’s scene can barely keep up with consistently putting out new and original content. These are the kinds of brave and avant-garde performances that will be shaping the guitarists of tomorrow. This dude HAS IT
That’s a modern-day Jimi Hendrix experience right there! Thanks for sharing
Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and
Scott Thompson are Kids in the Hall.
Many people consider KITH the funniest sketch comedy show ever to appear on TV and Film. The other half are fans of the absurdist genius of Monty Python etc.
The Kids mixed that absurdist humor with irony.
The winner is us – the audience.
KITH are “older”!
The youngest kid is 59-year-old Dave Foley.
However, what keeps them funny and relevant is the high wire that they walk.
The Kids embrace risk and even make fun of that possible failure waiting to happen.
The guests this week are Bruce McCulloch and Scott Thompson
One of the things we talk about in this Zoom Interview is how lucky they were to not only find each but discover that they all viewed the planet and the people on it as flawed and great subjects for funny. Why are they so good? Well, they’ve been making us laugh – at ourselves – since 1984.
After 27 years of No Kids. No Hall. They’re back with a series on Prime Video/Amazon and a fascinating documentary “Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks”
It’s amazing how life always seems to bring us full circle.
The Landreth Brothers just released their fourth album together called Come Morning.
They grew up in a completely musical household.
Father Wally was a true working musician. Their Mother would sometimes go with the boys in bassinets and kid chairs to watch over them and keep an eye on Wally.
They grew up listening to Bonnie Raitt, the many persona’s of Ry Cooder, Lyle Lovett, and most importantly Little Feat.
They were artists who could evoke Mississippi, Muscle Shoals, LA, NYC, and Texas in one album.
The Landreth family was based in Winnipeg but the music took them to all those places and beyond.
The music saved them. Gave them hope and promise.
So here comes their latest ‘Come Morning’ and it’s filled with ebb and flow, being away from home, being at home for 2 years, songs of redemption, being in Love, not being in love, and dealing with the weight of sexual abuse.
This feels like the album that will change everything. Have a listen to the boys and their music. See if the hope and promise, ebb and flow hasn’t come full circle.
They bring an in-studio acoustic version of ‘What in the World’ with them.
Keep an ear out for ‘Corduroy’ and Joey’s painful story behind it. Joey opened his heart to all of us.
I’ve waited a long time to finally talk to Scott from The Waterboys.
I found him at his home in Dublin.
Mike is a founding member, lead singer, and songwriter of The Waterboys.
I was truly looking forward to his new album All Souls Hill which was released Friday.
Because Mike grew up studying English literature and philosophy so you know his lyrics and song structure are always going to be different.
Mike moved through the brit punk scene and finally found himself forming The Waterboys.
Almost 25 albums later..he’s writing, composing, and singing better than ever.
As always, Mike and Waterboys music cannot be pinned down. Round peg. Square hole.
Check out the track Passing Through..a very old gospel/folk song that he’s re-written the lyrics to – to reflect our lives today. It took him 10 years to write and it’s 9 minutes long.
Born in Cuba, Alex fell in love with a Canadian beauty & immigrated to Canada. Alex packed into his belonging’s his many songs and sharp knowledge of the history of Cuban music.
Mendo is his 9th album.
With those 9 albums, Alex has won 2 Juno awards and is up for another this month. He’s also won four Latin Grammy Awards and at the recent 2022 event, he won his first Grammy Award.
Alex is a completely self-contained artist. Put an instrument in front of him and very likely he can play it.
During the Covid pandemic, he decided to collaborate with other players, singers and songwriters. The songs came alive and Mendo became yet another turning point in his career.
Alex has been on Mulligan Stew before. On the Juno couch in Calgary with Jim and Devin Cuddy and again on Zoom.
So happy to welcome back a Spanish-speaking, English riffing star on the rise.
Alex Cuba brings Mendo. (The essence of the soul)
Biography:
Though raised in Artemisa, an hour outside of Havana, Alex Cuba’s artistry is as far-flung as the place he has settled and lived for over fifteen years: Smithers, BC, 14 hours north of Vancouver. His music at once incorporates his roots and is a unique amalgam of styles, having collaborated with artists ranging from Jason Mraz to Ron Sexsmith and Nelly Furtado; and bringing together melodies, popsoul hooks and rock chords in songs that may seem to bear little resemblance to traditional Cuban form.
A forward-thinking, indie-minded artist, Alex has amassed a steadily growing following among critics and fans. With over 20 awards and nominations to his name, including 4 Latin Grammys and two Junos Awards and three Grammy nominations.
Alex carries his Cuba within, incorporating subtle jazz influences, gained from his early years as a bass player in Cuba, and tasteful, sophisticated chords and lyrics expressing his poetry in an undeniably Cuban way. His growing body of work defines a unique musical place in the Latin diaspora.
Building on the 2017 Grammy nominated release Lo Unico Constante with its back to roots introspection, his latest collection of songs was released in September 2019 on the full length album “Sublime”, featuring six songs with Latin American singers and songwriters. Alex joined with Toronto based engineer, John Bailey to record in Gibson’s BC at The Farm Studio.
The decision to record all the instruments came to Alex Cuba years ago when making demos for new songs and wanting to share that undeniable personal sound.
