2008 was a great year for music, and even in 4 1/2 hours, we couldn’t go over it all, although we did our best to look at many of this year’s highlights. Speaking of highlights, the show included a great chat with my favourite artist of the year, Nova Scotia’s Christina Martin, whose album “Two Hearts” topped just about every list for me. Too bad the station’s digital logger thingy was broken, so nobody will ever hear the interview again…
A very special celebration of great music and great friends, as we opened up the studio doors for listeners to drop by, say hello, and check out the best of 2008. Jaine was on hand with awesome holiday cookies, Jeremy was on hand for his first ever radio appearance, KK came by to help keep things running, and loyal listener Dean sat in. Many other great friends came and went, and through it all, we managed to get in some of the best music of ’08 as well as a few festive classics.
Also, an interview with one of my favourite discoveries of the year, Edmonton’s Chloe Albert, recent winner of Best New/Emerging Artist at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Before we really started diving in to the best of 2008, we paused to look back at the year in music for 2007, and especially some great ’07 releases that didn’t reach my ears until ’08. There was time for a few festive numbers and requests before starting through the mountain of great 2008 releases.
Proving you don’t always need a theme to have a pretty good show, today’s program was all about requests, dedications, and good stuff we just needed to hear. Sure, we paid tribute to Richard Thompson who’s coming to town, and Paul Kelly who’s just plain great, but the rest was pure goodness from the likes of Fred Eaglesmith, David Francey, Mary Gauthier, and many more!
A bit of an abbreviated podcast this week, since we had trouble with the station’s digital recorder/podcast maker thingy and part of the show didn’t get recorded (a good reminder to listen live, whenever you can, because it was good!). You still get some upcoming show info, music from the mailbag, a brief tribute to Richard Thompson, and a look at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, going on tonight!
part 1
part 2
A special pre-recorded segment of Steel Belted Free Range Radio featuring Romi Mayes & Gurf Morlix, including one of my favourite live-in-the-studio moments ever, Gurf’s powerful cover of Blaze Foley’s “Cold, Cold World.” Do NOT miss this one!