Citr -- The Saturday Edge

The mass murder of innocent school children in Texas really got to me this week. What a truly messed-up country we have on our southern doorstep. I have a lot of American friends and I play a lot of American music on the show. I empathize with them all. There appears to be no hope down there. The Republicans are doing the damnedest to screw up everything. So, all I can do is play music and try to lift all our spirits as we watch in despair (horror grips us as we watch you die, from Wooden Ships, comes to mind. Maybe I'll play that song next week!) Keep on folkin' and rollin' in the Great White North, eh?

Celebrating World Fiddle Day with some amazing whirling fiddles from Canada. Scotland, Ireland, America, Spain, and Norway. Plus a feature on the new CD by East Van bluegrass quartet The Lonesome Town Painters, and new CDs from dobro diva Abbie Gardner, Catalonia's Magali Sare and Claudia Colom, BC's Barney Bentall, Mississippi's Charlie Musselwhite, and a whole lot more.

Some ribald ditties for what makes May so ... ahem ... merry! Plus it's Rogue Anniversary Night, with a unique band making their Rogue Folk Club debut - Diyet & The Love Soldiers from Yukon. So a few songs from the amazing Tutchone singer songwriter and her acoustic folk / bluegrass trio, starring Bob Hamilton, legendary steel guitar player, record producer, and all round string wizard. Also some new releases, sets of world music grooves, blues, and singer songwriters, and Canadian and Scottish Celtic trad. Plus some music from performers who will play the Summer festivals, and a smattering of performers who have graced The Rogue stage over the past 35 years or so.

New music from Mali's Fatoumata Diawara and Oumou Sangare, plus a single from Terakaft to start the show. Featured the wonderful Cuban-Canadian duo Okan at both ends of today's show. They play a Rogue concert this coming Monday. Can hardly wait!! Interesting Nordic / Celtic crossover from Vilsevind, lots of Canadians excelling at story songs and fast fiddles, and a feature on Pharis & Jason Romero. Then a pro-choice section, some more delightful Latina music from Okan and Las Estrellas de Vancouver (all-female mariachi band who open for Okan on Monday), and a blast of Quebecois magic from Le Vent du Nord, before the recently-passed Bill Bourne sings of how circuses - and for me, the way folk festivals - brighten up our lives. We need cheering up!

Ventured out to UBC to present the show LIVE for the first time in a few weeks. Massive amounts of construction and road works, and a whole mess of technical difficulties greeted me! Somehow managed to get it all in, though! New music from Oumou Sangare, Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder, The Unthanks, etc. Previews of Pharis and Jason Romero, Early Spirit, Okan, and Diyet & The Love Soldiers. More little tributes to Bill Bourne and Pastelle LeBlanc. Plus a little May Day blast at the end

Another good man done gone. Plus harps and koras and a few new releases and concert previews - plus a nod in the general direction of St. George's Day.

Featured new albums by Calexico, Riley Family Band, Matt Andersen, and Sowal Diabi - Kaboul to Bamako. Plus a sad R.I.P. to Pastelle LeBlanc of PEI's trad trio Vishten. A bit of an Earth Day set, a preview of upcoming shows by Van Django and three Canadian blues singers, and lots more new music inspired by reading the latest issue of Songlines magazine. Plenty of songs for and about refugees, and a rousing finish with the first Pink Floyd single for many years - featuring Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk.

Music from some of last weekend's winners (and nominees) from the Canadian Folk Music Awards, and The Grammy Awards, plus nominations for Folk Alliance International Awards coming next month. Also features on new releases by Molly Tuttle, Scotland's amazing Kinnaris Quintet, and Seattle's Jim Page

Some of the bands at this weekend's Festival du Bois and next week's April In Paris gypsy jazz fling. New releases and some fabulous songwriters from Canada, USA and UK

Loads of new music this week, including tunes from such exotic locations as Cape Verde, Mali, Senegal, Cuba, Denmark, Wales, Norway, Italy, Bosnia, Ukraine, Estonia, Persia, Ireland, Scotland, and even England! And of course from all across Canada: Quebec, BC, Yukon, and Alberta mostly. A chance to revel in some incredible creativity and soulful music composed, recorded and brought to us by fabulous musicians who have bravely soldiered on through the pandemic to do their level best to brighten up our lives!

Happy Norooz! Happy Vernal Equinox! But also lament for the Ukrainian refugees and victims of war crimes.. Why oh wy?

New music and song from around the planet: Sahara, Mali, Cuba, Italy, Finland, Albania, Ukraine x 6, Baluchistan, BC, Nova Scotia, USA, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Quebec. Plus some spirited instrumentals to keep us all bouncing along towards St. Patrick's Day

Music by fabulously strong and talented women from Africa, Cuba, Spain, France, Italy, Baluchistan, Ukraine, Canada, and America. New releases from Oysterband (UK), Mama's Broke (NS), Dakhabrakha (Ukraine), Early Spirit (BC), Chris Newman (Yorkshire), Dlu (Scotland), Andy Martyn (London), and three great trad bands from Quebec. Plus concert previews for Coig, Forro do Cana & Celso Machado. And more!

This show is dedicated to the people of Ukraine, hunkered down in the face of a brutal invasion by Russia. Absolutely heart-rending!Some Mardi Gras faves to lighten the mood, some great new African music at the beginning of the show, and a panoply of performers coming to town over the next few weeks as live music returns. At last!

Plenty of new music today, from Africa, Tuva, Spain, Italy, Canada, USA, Scotland, and Ireland. Plus Part 3 of my homage to Norma Waterson, Rogue previews for Dalannah Gail Bowen and Gary Comeau's great bands, and a truly stunning anthem from Janis Ian

Songs for Valentine's Day, World Radio Day, Lunar New Year, and other celebrations. It's a beautiful day here on the left coast and there is way too much negativity about, so this was a very full hatful of uplifting songs and danceable tunes - for the most part!

A bumper 4 1/2 hour program with some hot new releases, some of my all-time favourites, some concert previews and a bunch of anecdotes about my own personal history in radio, and the thoughts of a few other CiTR DJs as we celebrate 85 years on the air! That's 15 more than a certain monarch! Speaking of queens, the "queen of English folk music", Norma Waterson, passed away this week. I am absolutely mortified at her passing. She was like a mother to everyone who presented or played folk music. So, a few of my favourite Norma Waterson vocal tracks - and I'll have a big feature on her next week.

Twice a year CiTR reports to SOCAN, the Canadian Performing Rights Organization so they can calculate and distribute royalties to composers and songwriters. They monitor commercial radio all the time. Independent artists hardly get a look-in. So, if they can skew the statistics by only monitoring REAL radio stations twice a year, I reckon it's up to independent DJs like me to skew the statistics back a bit! Here are 58 Canadian songs and tunes by some of my favourite performers - who just happen to be Canadian by birth or by nationalization if you like.

Heaps of Celtic music from Scotland, Canada, and Ireland as we celebrate Burns Day, Planxty's 50th anniversary, and John Doyle's birthday too. Threw in some January songs and new music from Janis Ian, Eliza Gilkyson, Steve Dawson, and Spanish newcomers Almale, and Coloma Bertan. Plus great young desert blues band Toumastine.

New releases from Songlines Magazine, a remarkable new (to me) Spanish collaboration of Galician, Basque & Catalan musicians, new music from Steve Dawson, Oysterband, Janis Ian, and more. Plus some great young Irish bands and singers. Tributes to Canadian bluesman Harpdog Brown and PEI's banjoist and composer Koady Chaisson of The East Pointers to round out the show. Such sad losses to Canadian music - and indeed to the wide world of roots music.