It’s like having The Beatles on Saturday’s Mulligan Stew. But you can only have two. Do you want Ringo and Paul or George and John?
Saturday our guests are Steven Page (BNL & Steven Page Trio) and Chris Murphy (Sloan).
The other members of TCH are Moe Berg (Pursuit of Happiness) and Craig Northey (odds and SP Trio)
Each leads his own group but they got together to sing covers of each other’s music. Then the K-Tel idea came along. For younger music fans – K-Tel albums were Canadian hits crammed into 8 tracks, cassettes and albums. With garish labels that you couldn’t miss in your local store or gasoline station. Great hits – horrid packaging. Which is why the guys covered the best hits and copied the artwork. Steven makes the point that they loved these hits because they were Canadian. They were ours. Our American friends had never heard these songs but to us, they were Northern memories.
They each take turns singing the lead vocal and back each other up.
Covering hits by The Guess Who, Joni Mitchell, Paul Anka, April Wine, Bim (Roy Forbes), Lighthouse, Poppy Family etc.
It’s like having The Beatles on Saturday’s Mulligan Stew. But you can only have two. Do you want Ringo and Paul or George and John?
Saturday our guests are Steven Page (BNL & Steven Page Trio) and Chris Murphy (Sloan).
The other members of TCH are Moe Berg (Pursuit of Happiness) and Craig Northey (odds and SP Trio)
Each leads his own group but they got together to sing covers of each other’s music. Then the K-Tel idea came along. For younger music fans – K-Tel albums were Canadian hits crammed into 8 tracks, cassettes and albums. With garish labels that you couldn’t miss in your local store or gasoline station. Great hits – horrid packaging. Which is why the guys covered the best hits and copied the artwork. Steven makes the point that they loved these hits because they were Canadian. They were ours. Our American friends had never heard these songs but to us, they were Northern memories.
They each take turns singing the lead vocal and back each other up.
Covering hits by The Guess Who, Joni Mitchell, Paul Anka, April Wine, Bim (Roy Forbes), Lighthouse, Poppy Family etc.
Crash the Time Machine The Odds 7th album has been released. The basic Odds lineup of Craig Northey, Pat Steward, Murray Atkinson and Doug Elliott are joined by the 5th Odd – Steven Page.
This is songwriting at a very high level, then taken even higher by players who are truly gifted.
I’m so glad that these guys got back together again after a hiatus from 2000-2007.
You can hear multiple influences in each and every track.
They’ve backed Warren Zevon, they wrote and played the soundtrack for Kids in the Hall Film Brain Candy and their TV series Death Comes to town, toured with and played with The Tragically Hip and Barenaked Ladies, wrote music for Corner Gas.
Crash the Time Machine deals with religion, the days we’re all living in and several songs in memory of their friend Spirit of the West leader/writer John Mann.
The song is Somehow in a Dream. The Waterboys are mentioned. As Craig tells us ..
“John told me that in his last hours, he’d like to have someone play “Whole of the Moon”
Crash the Time Machine The Odds 7th album has been released. The basic Odds lineup of Craig Northey, Pat Steward, Murray Atkinson and Doug Elliott are joined by the 5th Odd – Steven Page.
This is songwriting at a very high level, then taken even higher by players who are truly gifted.
I’m so glad that these guys got back together again after a hiatus from 2000-2007.
You can hear multiple influences in each and every track.
They’ve backed Warren Zevon, they wrote and played the soundtrack for Kids in the Hall Film Brain Candy and their TV series Death Comes to town, toured with and played with The Tragically Hip and Barenaked Ladies, wrote music for Corner Gas.
Crash the Time Machine deals with religion, the days we’re all living in and several songs in memory of their friend Spirit of the West leader/writer John Mann.
The song is Somehow in a Dream. The Waterboys are mentioned. As Craig tells us ..
“John told me that in his last hours, he’d like to have someone play “Whole of the Moon”
We also salute BB King on his birthday and remember Motown songwriter Norman Whitfield, who along with his writing partner Barret Strong, left a remarkable legacy of memorable hits.
Ain’t to proud to beg – War – I’m Losing You – Poppa was a Rolling Stone, Ain’t too proud to beg. and many more. We play Heard it through the Grapevine.
And a special segment on bassist Richard Davis who passed away Sept 6 at 93.
The man played on over 600 albums. From Miles Davis and Duke Ellington to Bruce Springsteen,
Laura Nyro and Van Morrison ( he’s the bass player on Astral Weeks)
New music from Wide Mouth Mason, Bros. Landreth, and Rolling Stones. Cannonball Adderley brings Roebuck “Pops” Staples to the Stew.
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
-TDM
BTW you can subscribe to my new Facebook page dedicated to Mulligan Stew here: @mulliganstewmusic
Bentall, Byrnes, Forbes, Mulligan, Northey, Ulrich, and Verreault (Image: supplied)
Bentall, Byrnes, Forbes, Mulligan, Northey, Ulrich, and Verreault (Image: supplied)
Many years ago on a CBC Radio show called Goldrush we used to celebrate Christmas by gathering in a studio and asking artists to share Christmas stories and songs.
The producer was the late Susan Englebert. This show is dedicated to her memory.
Two of the artists back then were Roy Forbes and Shari Ulrich.
Over the years we’ve always talked about how much fun it was and that we should do it again.
I never considered the possibilities UNTIL Roundhouse Radio signed on air in Vancouver and I was asked to do a one hour – 12-1PM arts and culture show.
Essentially singer/songwriters and bands playing live in studio.
As they came through I started to realize that it was possible to revive a tradition.
As Barney Bentall, Shari Ulrich, Roy Forbes, Shaun Verreault, Jim Byrnes and Craig Northey passed through the studios I asked each if they would like to do Christmas in the Round.
They all said yes.
And so..here it is.
Recorded in the boardroom because we didn’t want to disturb the on air hosts and guests..we pushed back the furniture, dimmed the lights, opened some wines, spread out some food and had at it.
Jim Byrnes was up first because he was on stage 2 hours later as Scrooge in a production of Bah Humbug!
Shari’s daughter Julia Graff was our audio engineer..talk about coming full circle.
With Thanks to our production group Monique McQueen and Cory Price. ChefClaire.com and our friends at Haywire/Okanagan Crush Pad
(Please excuse the Roundhouse Radio references..FYI..when I use Stew interviews in Vancouver I always try and leave the CKUA references in)
Here’s the line – up Jim Byrnes – Please come home for Christmas Craig Northey – Christmas, baby please come home Shari Ulrich – Hear the bells ring Barney Bentall – Christmas must be Tonight Shaun Verreault – Rockin around the Christmas Tree Roy Forbes – Mincemeat Tart Group Encore The Huron Carole (Shari lead) Santa Clause is back in town (Roy lead)
Christmas in the Round on Roundhouse Radio airs
Wednesday Dec 23 Noon/9PM
Thursday Dec 24 Noon/7PM
Boxing Day December 26 Noon
And also on Boxing Day 5-7PM on Mulligan Stewwww.ckua.com
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
-TDM
Crash the Time Machine The Odds 7th album has been released. The basic Odds lineup of Craig Northey, Pat Steward, Murray Atkinson and Doug Elliott are joined by the 5th Odd – Steven Page.
