Episode #378 – Sunday, February 13, 2011

Today, it’s our Blue & True Valentine’s Day special! We start off in Blue Valentines mode, as we celebrate the great musical legacy of the late, great Willie P. Bennett, who left this world on Feb. 15, 2008. We sure do miss him, but luckily he left behind some amazing music. Sadly, his music is not available for purchase or download ANYWHERE, which is absolutely criminal, so it’s more important than ever that we keep his music on the radio.

Artist – Song title – Album Title – CDN=Canadian – WPG=Winnipeg artist

2:00 – 2:30 pm
Willie P. Bennett – Blue Valentine – Heartstrings – CDN
Willie P. Bennett – Down to the Water – Tryin’ to Start out Clean – CDN
Willie P. Bennett – If You Have to Choose – Hobo’s Taunt – CDN
Willie P. Bennett – Summer Dreams, Winter Sleep – Blackie and the Rodeo King – CDN
Willie P. Bennett – Goodbye, So Long, Hello – The Lucky Ones – CDN
Willie P. Bennett – Push On – Take my own Advice – CDN
Willie P. Bennett – Last Word – Heartstrings – CDN
Wilie P. Bennett – Baby, Come and Turn Out the Lights – unreleased – CDN
2:30 – 3:00 pm
Fred Eaglesmith – Codeine – live recording – CDN
Fred Eaglesmith – Country Squall – live recording – CDN
Stephen Fearing – The Lucky Ones – recorded live on UMFM – CDN
Stan Rogers – Music in your Eyes – From Coffee House to Concert Hall – CDN
Old Man Luedecke – Caney Fork River – My Hands Are on Fire and other Love Songs – CDN
Scott Nolan – Drive Day – Canadian Amplifier – CDN – WPG
David Essig & Rick Scott – Willie P – Double Vision – CDN
3:00 – 3:30 pm
Paul Kelly – You’re 39, You’re Beautiful, and You’re Mine – Stolen Apples
Paul Quarrington – Wherever You Go – The Songs – CDN
Steve Earle – Sparkle and Shine – Washington Square Serenade
Ray Lamontagne – You Are the Best Thing – Gossip in the Grain
3:30 – 4:00 pm
Bob Dylan – Wedding Song – Planet Waves
Jimmy Lafave – Emotionally Yours – Texoma
Barry Louis Polisar – All I Want Is You – My Brother Thinks He’s a Banana and other Provocative Songs
Jack Johnson – Broken – Sing-a-long Songs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George
Stevie Wonder – Sunshine of my Life – Talking Book
Ponderosa – Girl I’ve Ever Seen – Moonlight Revival

We still miss you, Willie P

February 15 is the third anniversary of the death of one of our guiding lights on Tell the Band to Go Home, the great Willie P. Bennett. If I can do one good thing with this show, and in the world in general, it’s to share Willie’s music and let people know how amazing it is. Sadly, you still can’t buy it ANYWHERE (a heinous crime that the RCMP needs to relentlessly pursue), so hearing it on TTBTGH is one of your only avenues.

Today, we will do our duty and play you a bunch of songs by and about Willie.

We’ve posted a few things about Willie since he’s been gone. I thought it might be fun to provide links to them here:

One for Willie. I wish that I didn’t have to do this show, because man, do I miss the guy, but I think that given the fact that we all gotta go some time, I think we paid him a proper tribute. With some words from his friends and fans, and a bunch of great music, this may be my favourite episode of TTBTGH of all time. It’s certainly my most planned and passionate episode, and I hope that you might listen and enjoy it (again?).

My thoughts on hearing that Willie had died.

On that sad silence at the Fred Eaglesmith show

Our Willie tribute (and Valentine’s Day show), 2009

Our Willie tribute (and Valentine’s Day show), 2010

Our Willie tribute (and Valentine’s Day show), 2011

Fred Eaglesmith, performing Willie’s classic “Country Squall” live at the Park Theatre in Winnipeg

I, Curmudgeon, Too (and if you don’t like it, get lost!)

Just got in from a screening of the brilliant film “I, Curmudgeon,” by the equally brilliant Allan Zweig. It’s an examination of curmudgeonly people and their negativity, and the effects that it has on their lives, and all such things.

I’ve wanted to see the film for years. I wanted to see it because it was the follow up to Zweig’s breakout film, Vinyl, one that has inspired and moved me over the years, but also, because I knew that I would relate.

I always knew that I was negative, but I come by it honestly, I think. I suppose I have a predisposition to being difficult and angry. My closest male role model growing up was my grandfather, who was the very definition of a curmudgeon – think Archie Bunker, only angrier. I know that a lot of people found him a miserable SOB, and I suppose that at many times I did as well, but, somehow, I understood it in a way that others didn’t. I actually found him rather hilarious, most of the time, so I started picking up mannerisms at an early age. I was a precocious curmudgeon, you could say.

In later years, I’ve come to recognize how being negative and brutally honest and somewhat intolerance of the general idiocy of society and the world at large have set me apart. I see that somehow I’m the exception to the rule, and most people are uncomfortable with that. Most people don’t like it when someone constantly reminds them that the world is full of stupidity, and that it’s all annoying and unfair. There was a long time where I felt badly about that, as society tells me I should.

But society is totally messed up. I’m sorry, it just is. I mean, how do you explain the phenomenon that is the TV show Glee? How is it that, in a world that is so clearly, visibly, irreparably, honestly screwed up, Glee has become the norm? Seriously? The world is full of sadness and horror and injustice and flat out stupidity, and our society is swept up by the most nauseatingly happy phenomenon since the Monkees. It’s disgusting.

Are we that incapable of dealing with reality that we have to block it out with a heavy dose of Glee? Those annoying, perky, perfect kids with their perfect hair and their dorky clothes, singing peppy versions of songs that were annoying in the first place, only to be made infinitely more annoying by their saccharine sweet and technologically aided delivery?… yuck. But, too often, that’s our way of dealing with reality – go as far in the opposite direction as possible. I guess that’s why the world is, and shall remain, completely messed up.

So I suppose that people like me who stare the brutal, harsh, completely screwy reality in the face all the time, are doomed to be ostracized. Luckily, in the past few years, I’ve been able to embrace being a curmudgeon, instead of being shamed by it. If being brutally honest and pointing out how stupid people and situations are is so bad, then consider me guilty and hand me a life sentence.

It’s much better than a life of Glee.

Steel Belted Radio – February 10, 2011

Tonight, a special birthday tribute to one of our longest standing, most loyal listeners, Allison Green, a few suck-up songs, a tip o’ the hat to our pals at CKUW, and much, much more!

playlist
part 1
part 2

February 6, 2011

We love starting our day off with great new music, and this week’s haul was exceptional. We threw in a few requests/dedications for our wonderful listeners, before heading off into “upcoming concert” territory. We finished with a dusty old pile of vinyl records, in honour of the upcoming screenings of Allan Zweig’s documentaries about obsessive collectors!

playlist
part 1
part 2

Steel Belted Radio – February 3, 2011

February is our least favourite month of the year, but we’re doing our best to compensate with some great music today. We’ve got great new music, classics, and a couple of exciting upcoming shows to discuss. One of the folks heading to town, Tom Wilson of Lee Harvey Osmond, joins us via the telephone to discuss LHO, Blackie, and all kinds of other things.

playlist
part 1
part 2

January 23, 2011

This weekend marked the 10th anniversary of one of the most important music venues in town (if not Canada), The Times Change(d), and we relived some of the great musical moments to start off today’s show. Next weekend brings Rufus & Martha’s pappy to town, and we couldn’t let that go by without some classic songs. Loudon’s a bit of a curmudgeon, and that led us to hear a few other crusty classics. We had some great new music, a concert rumour, and whatever else came to mind!

playlist
part 1
part 2

January 16, 2011

I’ve never been afraid to go far and wide to check out a good show, but this weekend just might be the craziest yet. Since we’re off on that crazy adventure, this show is pre-taped, but we’ll hear some tunes from the guys we’re headed to see, and some traveling/driving/road songs to keep us rolling. This week brings us some great new tunes, so we dive into some of those. And, next weekend, one of Canada’s finest female singer/songwriters, Sarah Harmer, returns to town, so we hear a bunch of her great solo work and her work backing up others.

playlist
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4

TTBTGH Best of 2002

For the past 8 years, I have put together a compilation of some of my favourite songs of the year. I started out doing them for my own interest (and as a feeble attempt to keep up with the Reids.) I thought it was a nifty Christmas gift to give to folks that I was too cheap to buy a real gift for. I thought it was fun and I thought that maybe it would get people to listen to the show (or keep listening.) It was a hobby, a historical document, and a labour of love.

The first collection was slapped together in 2002, with very little effort (it seems.) It ain’t the fancy quadruple CD box set that we currently put together, it was just a quickie collection of songs stuck in a slim case with some artwork already pre-made by the CD burning software. It seems kind of quaint and silly now.

Even the song selection seems a bit odd, in retrospect. Looking over the playlist, some of the artists have stuck with us and can be found regularly on the playlist today (Stephen Fearing, Kathleen Edwards, Neko Case, Fred Eaglesmith, NQ Arbuckle, Scott Nolan, etc.), and others are lost to the “where are they now” file (Michelle Shocked, Mia Sheard, The Brothers Creeggan, Kelele Brothers, etc.)

It’s kind of a weird, wacky collection. I don’t usually post these to download here, but this one’s so old, I doubt anybody will send the copyright police to my door. Of course, if I’m wrong and they come a knockin’, well… OOPS! (by the way, if anyone from the copyright police is reading this, my name is Stu Reid).

I forgot to include the “artwork” in the .zip file, but I’ll fix that later and remove this message (I hope). If you want it, just email me and you can print your own lo-fi, pathetic package.

Enjoy!

download

Episode #377 – Sunday, February 6, 2011

We love starting our day off with great new music, and this week’s haul was exceptional. We threw in a few requests/dedications for our wonderful listeners, before heading off into “upcoming concert” territory. We finished with a dusty old pile of vinyl records, in honour of the upcoming screenings of Allan Zweig’s documentaries about obsessive collectors!

Artist – Song title – Album Title – CDN=Canadian – WPG=Winnipeg artist

Paul MacLeod – Cruelty – Tell the Band to Go Home – CDN
Paul MacLeod – Change Your Life – Gauge – CDN
Shannon McNally – Toast – Western Ballad
Chic Gamine – Closer – City City – CDN – WPG
Ron Sexsmith – Get in Line – Long Player Late Bloomer – CDN
The Wailin’ Jennys – Swing Low Sail High – Bright Morning Stars – CDN – WPG

2:30 – 3:00

Bobby Long – The Bounty of Mary Jane – A Winter Tale
Steve Earle – Tennessee Blues – Washington Square Serenade
Steve Earle & The Dukes – I Ain’t Ever Satisfied – Exit 0
Jack Marks – Michigan Love – Lost Wages – CDN
Jadea Kelly – The Sound – Eastbound Platform – CDN
Justin Rutledge – Robin’s Tune – The Devil on a Bench in Stanley Park – CDN
Christina Martin – Hello – I Can Too – CDN
NQ Arbuckle – In Another Time – Hanging the Battle Scarred Piñata – CDN

3:00 – 3:30

Lee Harvey Osmond – The Love of One – A Quiet Evil – CDN
The Sadies – Idle Tomorrows – Darker Circles – CDN
The Sadies – Tiger Tiger – Stories Often Told – CDN
The Sadies – Loved on Look – Tremendous Efforts – CDN

3:30 – 4:00

Todd Snider – Vinyl Records – New Connection
Nick Lowe – Cruel to Be Kind – Labour of Lust
Andrew Cash – Boomtown – Boomtown – CDN
Jeffrey Hatcher & The Big Beat – The Man Who Would Be King – Cross Our Hearts – CDN – WPG
The O’Kanes – When We’re Gone, Long Gone – The O’Kanes
David Wiffen – Skybound Station – Coast to Coast Fever – CDN
Willie P Bennett – For the Sake of a Dollar – Blackie & The Rodeo King – CDN
Tom T Hall – That’s How I Got to Memphis – Greatest Hits