TF014 Bonus Episode: Songs from The Folk
The Folk
If you’ve been listening all the way to the end of each episode, you’ll know that each story ends with a song. That song is performed by a contemporary artist, paying homage to an old-time tune. In this bonus edition of The Folk, you’ll hear an all-musical episode of songs featured in the series, including some by Saskatchewan’s Clayton Linthicum (of Kacy & Clayton), PEI artist Tim Chaisson (of The East Pointers), and a few more from Alberta’s own Mike Tod joined by Laura Reid and Nathan M. Godfre
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TF013 Prince Edward Island: The Man Who Makes the Songs
The Folk
If you’re from Prince Edward Island, or you've ever heard a song sung on the island, chances are you’ve heard a song by Larry Gorman, who penned hundreds of songs in the mid-1800s. Once in a while a folk songwriter will write a tune that makes it into oral tradition. It becomes so popular that it’s passed down generation to generation—and Gorman’s tunes did just that. This is the story of PEI’s unsung songsmith, Larry Gorman.
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TF011 Ontario: The Ballad of Edith Fowke
The Folk
There is no folklorist more associated with Canada than Edith Fowke. Able to sell the world a vision on the meaning of “Canadian folk music,” her body of work supersedes others in the country’s folkloric realms. But was her vision of the country’s folk music scene accurate? Fowke is at the centre of this episode, which delves into her research on folk music, the numerous books and records that she released, and questions some of the contradictory values of her life and work.
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TF010 British Columbia: From the Backwoods
The Folk
In the 1940s and ‘50s in the interior of British Columbia, a logger and mandolin player quietly and humbly amassed one of the largest repertoires of mandolin tunes from the province. Somehow, this unknown woodsman with a rough mandolin style ended up recording and releasing an album with the Folkways record label, the biggest folk music imprint in the world. It’s remained an underground cult release for over 50 years. In this episode, you’ll learn about the mysterious life and music of Stanley G. Trig
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TF009 Nunavut: The Raven Jokester
The Folk
Charlie Panigoniak, much like the raven in Inuit stories, was a jokester. The Nunavut country-folk legend, who passed away earlier in 2019, soared to ‘territorial’ heights starting in the 1970s as a beloved entertainer and storyteller. Despite being a household name in the territory, he’s a songwriter that never really got his due with the rest of Canada. This episode details his life growing up on the nuna (tundra/land), to his recordings, the meanings of his songs, and the amusing antics behind the
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TF008 Saskatchewan: Music and Peace
The Folk
It is said that Leo Tolstoy wrote his last great novel just to get enough money to pay for a sect of Russian pacifists, called The Doukhobors, to move to Canada. Persecuted in their homeland, they made the largest single mass migration in Canadian history in 1899 to Saskatchewan. In this episode, you’ll learn about real life events told through two fictional characters, and hear the haunting and transcendent style of choral music that the group created.
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TF007 New Brunswick: Maritime Bluegrass
The Folk
Bluegrass music is the fast-paced style of folk that became popular in the 1940s. Thought to be new around the time of its burgeoning popularity, it actually combined many older musical ideas. This episode delves into how the genre came to be, and the stories behind some of the first players in Canada. Hear how two Black Maritimers shaped the genre in some very important ways. Or how the father of bluegrass in New Brunswick rose out of the Acadian community.
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TF006 Québec: A Fiddle on Fire
The Folk
There is an old story in Québec about a Catholic priest who was convinced that fiddle music was the devil’s music. He rounded up all the fiddles in town and lit them on fire. Québec, and Québécois fiddling, has produced some of the country’s fieriest and most technically proficient players - Jean Carignan being the brightest of them all. This episode follows the highs and lows of Carignan’s career, from playing Carnegie Hall to driving a cab in Montréal.
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TF005 Manitoba: The Red River Valley on Trial
The Folk
“The Red River Valley” is a country-folk earworm that’s been played and recorded by thousands of musicians, sold millions of copies, and has a place in several music halls of fame. But what appears below the surface of this folk love song, has some highly controversial, disputed roots. This episode puts “The Red River Valley” on trial and presents evidence from two opposing sides to try to determine the original roots of the song - is it the Red River Valley of Texas or Manitoba?
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TF004 Newfoundland: The First Lady of the Accordion
The Folk
If you mention the accordion in Newfoundland, the name Minnie White is likely to come up. Minnie White is synonymous with accordion music in the province. But she did not gain this reputation as an icon until very late in life. This episode investigates Minnie White and her beloved accordion, from her lengthy time away from playing, to the comeback that solidified her status as an icon in the province as Newfoundland's "First Lady of the Accordion."
info_outlineIs folk music still folk music if you play it on an electric instrument? Well, is a road still a road if it goes from dirt to pavement? In the late 1950s, a Métis-Cree musician named Elsie Justis moved to a very remote area in the Northwest Territories, that did not have any roads, and brought an electric guitar with her. This episode introduces Justis and her music, and how music travels and comes to be in remote places.