Hidden Track
In this episode of the Hidden Track podcast, we meet Canadian rapper Shadrach Kabango, better known as Shad. He has a new album, Start Anew, which hooks you in with songs exploring important and universal questions surrounding social, environmental, and cultural sustainability; passing the world along to the next generation. CREDITS Host: Grant Stovel Associate Producer: Scott Zielsdorf Executive Producer: Arianne Smith-Piquette Senior Producer: Jasmine Vickaryous Theme Music: Doug Hoyer Special thanks to the CKUA Events & Marketing Teams! The Hidden Track Podcast is a CKUA...
info_outlineHidden Track
Music Yukon returns to the Hidden Track podcast for another year of collaborations! The music of the north is the focus of this episode with performances from Electric Lemonade; Jamaican-born longtime New Yorker, now Yukon-dwelling rapper/ beatmaker/ indie rocker Ryan O’Neil; and the celebrated soulful singer-songwriter Hendrika. These sessions are once again part of a larger collaborative project between the Edmonton Fringe, Music Yukon, and CKUA – one which sees artists from the Yukon travelling south to perform onstage at the Edmonton Fringe, and in-studio at CKUA. CREDITS Host: Grant...
info_outlineHidden Track
Musician, singer, and producer, Yves Jarvis remains connected to the music community in Calgary. In this Story episode of the Hidden Track podcast, you’ll learn all about his connections to his old home province. All you need to do is listen to the title track from his album All Cylinders, which describes a road trip through Southern Alberta’s beautiful foothills. He’s an interesting case of a unique individual artist, shaped and inspired by a vast community. CREDITS Host: Grant Stovel Associate Producer: Scott Zielsdorf Executive Producer: Arianne Smith-Piquette Senior...
info_outlineHidden Track
Hailing from Arkansas, Willi Carlisle is a grassroots folk musician who passed through Alberta in summer 2025, touring concert halls and theatres on a bill with Sierra Ferrell, followed by folk music festivals in Calgary, Canmore and Edmonton. This was all on the strength of his 2025 release, the self-produced new album Winged Victory. He stopped by CKUA studios, bringing with him his banjo, guitar, concertina, and fierce musical sensibility. In this Hidden Track Session, he shares with us three wonderful – and very different – solo acoustic offerings. CREDITS Host: Grant Stovel Associate...
info_outlineHidden Track
Before arriving on the global stage, Peter Dreimanis - also known as Peter Dreams - grew up here in Alberta, falling in love with the arts in the vibrant Edmonton indie scene, becoming passionately involved at an early age in both music and film. After more than a dozen years co-fronting the platinum-selling, multi-JUNO winning rock band July Talk, he put out his own debut album in 2025, a much-lauded record entitled Peter Dreams and MOONRIIVR. Just ahead of some Alberta shows – both with July Talk and with Peter Dreams and MOONRIIVR – Peter shared from the heart about a season...
info_outlineHidden Track
Twenty-five years ago, Eon Sinclair and Jay Malinowski met by chance while moving into the same student dormitory. The ska/roots/reggae band that they would form emerged from Kingston – not the one in Jamaica, but the one in Ontario, home to Queens University. Eon and Jay had envisioned very different futures for themselves before Bedouin Soundclash took off, turning them into Juno Award winners and genuine hitmakers. Bedouin Soundclash have always followed their own rhythm, spinning heady successes into a record label of their own, Pirates Blend Records. In this Hidden Track Session, we...
info_outlineHidden Track
In 2007, Canadian-born country & soul singer/songwriter Tami Neilson moved to New Zealand to marry the love of her life. In this Hidden Track Story, she shares that journey and her dreams of joining the galaxy of true country stars. Neilson’s new album, Neon Cowgirl, is inspired by experiences touring North America over recent years — including the title track, which pays tribute to a genuine giant neon landmark in Nashville, an iconic and richly symbolic figure which "lights up the sky", as Tami sings. Tami Neilson shares the journey of her non-overnight success. She’s lived the...
info_outlineHidden Track
Blues and roots musician Steve Marriner is an accomplished singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. In the spring of 2025, he brought all that talent and his band to the Beresh Arts Den at CKUA to launch his new album, Hear My Heart. This episode of the Hidden Track podcast case was captured live, and you will hear this artist pour his heart out for a rapt audience of CKUA community members. CREDITS Host: Grant Stovel Associate Producer: Scott Zielsdorf Executive Producer: Arianne Smith-Piquette Senior Producer: Jasmine Vickaryous Theme Music: Doug Hoyer Session...
info_outlineHidden Track
For six seasons we at CKUA have had the opportunity to connect with a wide range of inspired artists, from Albertan expat sensation Feist, to folk/punk firebrand Frank Turner, multi-JUNO Award winning rock band July Talk and homegrown hip-hop great Cadence Weapon, to name a few! For episode 100 of Hidden Track, we cycle back to the guest who joined us for episode one — two albums later, multiple Juno Awards and Polaris Music Prizes later - and for us 99 episodes later — we’re thrilled to be able catch up with the true Hidden Track original, and an original in so...
info_outlineHidden Track
A few years ago, Calgary musician Reuben Bullock invited the band the Bullhorn Singers to the stage at the Calgary Stampede. This sparked a collaboration which led the musicians to form Reuben and the Bullhorn Singers. Now they have debut album called All These Roads. In this episode of the Hidden Track podcast, they will share music and stories, and you’ll hear a performance recorded live at the Beresh Arts Den at CKUA's Edmonton building. The Hidden Track podcast is a CKUA production, made possible by the generosity of our donors. Thank you for your support! ...
info_outlineWhen you consider that the Yukon's population density is estimated to be roughly 0.07 people per square kilometre, it's kind of amazing the cultural imprint that the territory has made — both in terms of Canadian and global culture!
The majestic, dramatic land made world-famous in classics ranging from The Cremation of Sam McGee to The Call of the Wild has long inspired artists of all kinds, and it’s truly become a haven for musical creatives. From the territory's living Indigenous musical traditions, to the fabled folk songs of the Klondike, to the incredible people making original music today ranging from bluegrass to hip-hop, the story of Yukon music is a vibrant, diverse, and ever-evolving one — as we hear in this episode, the thrilling conclusion of our first-ever Hidden Track two-parter!
Just as in Part One of our Music Yukon/Hidden Track collab, we’re treated to some truly thrilling live performances by artists from that vast territory, and we get a sense of how the Yukon impacts their lives and art practices.
While Edmonton, Alberta is sometimes referred to as the most northerly large city in the Americas, with metropolitan population of more than one million people, you've got to make a roughly 2,000 kilometre-long trip southeast to get from the Yukon's capital city of Whitehorse to Edmonton! So, it was a pretty big deal when a whole troop of Yukon musicians made the big trek down south to perform as part of the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival in August 2024. This was thanks to the support of Music Yukon and a really cool partnership with the Edmonton Fringe.
While they were here, CKUA was lucky enough to host a whole bunch of them for Hidden Track sessions in our Studio A in Edmonton. They shared stories and songs with us that evoke the unique natural beauty, highly personalized sense of expression, and vibrant community feeling that make the Yukon such a magical place for music.
In Part 2, we hear from Alex MacNeil (leader of the outsider power-pop favourites Alex MacNeil and the Revenants, accompanied here by Hendika), the idiosyncratic punk-inspired stylings of Cryptozoologists, and the spirited soulful beauty of Bria Rose N' Thorns.
Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug Hoyer
Recording and mastering for this episode by Brendan Cross.
The Hidden Track Podcast is a CKUA production made possible by our incredible donor community. Thank you for your support!