Hidden Track

She's truly a study in contrasts – right from her chosen moniker, Sunny War. 

Her story is an utterly extraordinary one, in terms of both her brilliant musical arc and her often-tumultuous life journey. She spent much of her teens and early 20s as an itinerant busker, living where she could, sometimes hopping trains around the States, experiencing trouble with the law, and battling drug and alcohol addiction. All along, Sunny War's lone constant companion – her true lifeline – has been her guitar. 

The folk/ punk/ gospel/ blues artist was born Sydney Ward into a musical family in Nashville, steeped in rock, folk, and classical music, and started playing guitar as a child. Moving to L.A., she discovered punk rock in her early teens, which led her to a true DIY musical apprenticeship busking on the streets of Venice Beach. It was there that she began to develop her unique artistic voice, one that utterly transcends genre and era. She cites the influence of everyone from 1930s blues greats like Robert Johnson and Skip James, to 1980s reggae/punk firebrands Bad Brains and current experimental rap artist JPEGMafia. 

Her 2022 album Anarchist Gospel was mainly written in the wake of a devastating breakup, in the loneliest depths of the pandemic, just before she decided to pull up stakes and move back to Tennessee. There, she made this album with producer Adrija Tokic (who has worked on albums by folks like Alabama Shakes and Hurray for the Riff Raff) and with collaborators like roots music heavyweights Allison Russell and David Rawlings. 

Anarchist Gospel draws on the sense of duality that's at the heart of her work – these are heart-rending songs about romantic pain, family strife, and doomy environmental woes, yet the album overall is somehow strangely uplifting. 

We hear that in the songs she shares with us in this episode of Hidden Track: "New Day", "Whole", and "No Reason". She performed them solo in a breathtakingly intimate session, as she travelled through Alberta playing a pair of wintertime music festivals. Travelling solo, of course! 

Hidden Track Sessions are produced by CKUA Radio and is made possible by the generous contributions of our donors. Find out how you can get involved at ckua.com/donate! 

'Tis the season to be jolly! 

This holiday season, CKUA's Hidden Track team busted out the stockings, tinsel and trees, festooned CKUA’s cozy music library with festive décor, and invited a few musical friends over for a special holiday episode! 

Our guests brought with them some heartfelt reflections on the Yuletide season, some beautiful live performances of holiday songs ranging from ancient to brand-new, and some truly gaudy holiday apparel. Joining us in our Cozy Christmas Corner are CKUA favourites Baby Jey, VISSIA and Hawksley Workman! 

Baby Jey share a wintery song from their debut album and a contemporary re-imagining of the traditional British carol "Deck the Halls." VISSIA performs her winter-embracing song Snowed In and Hawksley Workman is joined by his longtime piano accompanist Mr. Lonely for an inspired performance of material from his beloved holiday album Almost a Full Moon. 

Plus, our guests spin us tales of gifts, treats, holiday albums, and Christmastimes past. 

So... don we now our gay apparel! And sing we joyous, all together. Happy holidays, from all of us at CKUA's Hidden Track! 

Credits:

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs & Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer

Recording for this holiday session provided by Duke Paetz and Brendan Cross.

"Christmas Anticipation" is provided under license by De Wolfe Music.

The Hidden Track podcast is a CKUA production made possible by the generosity of our donors. Thank you for your support!

Made in a basement studio littered with instruments and synth gear, Young Fathers’ new album Heavy Heavy was created entirely by the three members of the band - with the exception of a single guest vocal from a friend. The album features layer upon layer of voices and instruments, creating a sonic maelstrom of dynamics, moods and textures. And while the songs do vary widely, and occasionally tackle dark subjects, the overwhelming feeling is one of joy, connection, celebration, and togetherness. 

Alloysius Maasaqoui, Kayus Bankole, and Graham Hastings have been together a long time. Hailing from the magical musical city of Edinburgh, Scotland, Young Fathers are a group of friends who met up as teenagers, and who have spun their undefinable blend of post-punk, soul, noise pop, hip-hop, and lo-fi electronica into a unique, compelling, Mercury Prize-winning body of work. 

The latest album finds the group embracing a diverse swath of influences and inspirations. Two of the members of the group, Allosius and Kayus, spent parts of their early years in Africa; this album integrates some of that influence in exciting new ways. The band is also inspired by a wide range of global music, from Jamaican reggae to gospel from the American South. 

Musical collaborators for more than two decades now, 2023 marked the 15th anniversary of the trio’s debut single, plus the release of the band’s widely lauded new album. This year also sees the band touring internationally on a bill with one of the most foundational, influential bands in electro pop history, Depeche Mode. The bill brought Young Fathers to Alberta in late 2023, where they took some time to drop by CKUA’s music library for a conversation about their stellar new album, their creative journey as perennial pop music renegades and the weight they bring to Heavy Heavy. 

The Hidden Track podcast is produced by CKUA Radio and made possible by the generosity of CKUA's incredible donors. Thank you for your support! 

Host: Grant Stovel | Recording: Duke Paetz | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer 

Arlo Maverick seems to be on a mission to ensure that Edmonton takes its place as a destination to be reckoned with on the hip-hop map.

An award-winning artist, Arlo is a well-loved pillar of the hip-hop community here in Alberta. He's also toured all the way to the other side of the world and back, winning himself global fans and forging a wide network of collaborators. 

More recently, he's achieved renown as a documentary filmmaker and a chronicler of local hip-hop culture and history. Arlo Maverick is truly solidifying himself as an Edmonton hip-hop ambassador to the world. 

Now, a library might seem like a funny place for a hip-hop show, but it makes all the sense in the world. For thing, CKUA's legendary music library is the home to music of all kinds, including a vast trove of music by Alberta artists. Plus, artists don't come much more studied about the history and culture of Alberta music than Arlo Maverick. And, as we hear in this episode, his eureka moment as a hip-hop creator happened in church! So maybe a library isn't too much of a stretch. 

Just ahead of the release of his new album, Blue Collar, Arlo Maverick and his wildly talented six-piece band set up in CKUA's music library for the first in what we hope will be a series of live music events, featuring a small, select audience of CKUA supporters, staffers, and community members. They rocked our library lunch hour with a superb set, and later on, Arlo also shared generously of his own life story in a wide-ranging and insightful interview with CKUA's Grant Stovel. 

The Hidden Track podcast is produced by CKUA Radio and made possible by the generosity of CKUA's donors. 

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer

Audio engineering for this live studio session was provided by Duke Paetz, with sound assistance from Scott Zielsdorf. 

Dan Mangan is fond of summing up his whole approach to a creative life in music with a simple axion: "It's cool to care." 

Dan models that approach in everything he does. Whether he's starting his own label, Madic Records, or co-founding community concert platform, Side Door Access; acting as a longtime vocal advocate for the de-stigmatization of discussions around mental health; or through his countless epic live performances over the years and seven albums to date... it's very clear that Dan cares, and he doesn't mind who knows it. 

Ever since he first burst out of the Vancouver scene with his debut album, nearly two decades back, Dan's been deeply interested in trying to involve people in not just his music, but what music can do; drawing people into that shared experience. Sometimes he's bringing his dynamic range all the way down to whisper-quiet, making audiences lean in closer. Sometimes - as on the giant Going Somewhere tour which brought him to Alberta in Fall 2023 - it's sending out a phone number to fans and asking them to text him their song requests before the shows. The point is, he cares about those moments of real human connection, and he hopes that you think it's cool to care, too. 

Dan's latest Juno-nominated and Polaris Prize-shortlisted album Being Somewhere is a distillation of his whole ethos. And this autumn, he brought some of that music to CKUA. 

Amidst the stacks of vinyl and shellac in CKUA's legendary music library, Dan shared an insightful and occasionally hilarious conversation, and performed beautiful, intimate, solo acoustic versions of two songs: Being Somewhere standout "Fire Escape" and as his latest, a single called "Say When."

The Hidden Track Podcast is produced by CKUA Radio and made possible by the generous contributions of our donors. Thank you for your support! 

Many first knew Ariel Posen as the mind-bendingly gifted guitar player with fellow Winnipeg act, The Bros. Landreth. Over the years, he’s lent his six-string talents to a wildly eclectic array of artists, ranging from John Mayer to Tom Jones. Ariel Posen’s international stature as a rising guitar star became so substantial that it came as something of a surprise to many when in 2019, he put out his own debut album as a singer-songwriter, How Long. 

Ariel's solo career, which initially began as a side project for this guitar ace, quickly became his full-time occupation. His work as a recording artist combines his guitar wizardry with a penchant for biting, heart-on-sleeve lyrics and a sweet, soulful voice. Over the course of several solo LPs and EPs now, Ariel’s unerring knack for timeless grooves and melodies has continued to evolve and his music now connects with audiences around the world.

The September 2023 release of his third full-length album Reasons Why sees him headlining tours all across North America and Europe. The autumn leg of this trek was kick-started by a massive show in Los Angeles, where Ariel was among the luminaries playing at Eric Clapton’s legendary all-star guitar-centric concert series Crossroads. 

And from there, the tour took Ariel straight to Alberta, where he took some time to drop by CKUA studios, guitar in hand, to talk about his meteoric rise, sharing the stage with guitar gods, and his inspired brand-new album. In this solo session among the stacks of records in CKUA’s storied music library, Ariel shared a wide-ranging conversation and very intimate, stripped-down performances of songs from the new record. 

This year marks the silver anniversary of the barn-storming acoustic country music juggernaut known as Old Crow Medicine Show. They're a group that traces their roots to busking all across Canada and the United States. Since then, Old Crow Medicine Show has gained commercial success with their distinctively contemporary spin on old-school traditions. The band's song “Wagon Wheel” became certified Platinum in 2013, and is one of the best-known and most oft-covered roots music songs of this century. Old Crow Medicine Show's 25th anniversary is being suitably celebrated in Summer 2023 with the release of the band’s 10th studio album, Jubilee. 

Founding member Ketch Secor has remained a constant of the band through the last 25 years, and remains the band’s lead singer, songwriter and fiddle player. In his early childhood years, Ketch's parents moved him around the country, opening up a series of schools in many different pockets of the United States. It awoke in him a lifelong love of travelling, and of learning. As a teen, he earned himself a scholarship to an illustrious prep school in New England - which is where he first got serious about old-time string band music.

Ketch Secor and three other members of Old Crow Medicine Show dropped by CKUA's Edmonton studios just ahead of their headlining set at the 2023 Edmonton Folk Music Festival. They gathered around a single vintage microphone to share live renditions of two songs from Jubilee. Additionally, Ketch joins CKUA's Grant Stovel for an in-depth conversation that’s just as wide-ranging, authentic, and full of delightful surprises as the band’s music.

The Hidden Track Podcast is produced by CKUA Radio and made possible by the generous contributions of our donors. Thank you for your support! 

Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Host: Grant Stovel | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer 

Session Engineer: Brendan Cross

She's always had a way of finding those human stories that make us feel connected to some of the very big themes and questions that she tackles in her songs. Wendy McNeill's music often deals with the epic, the mythic, the unknowable, the elemental... but in an artfully narrative, poetically detailed way that draws the listener right into the very human emotions at the heart of it. And with her new album, First There Were Feathers, those very human emotions are evoked by 17 songs that are all about birds. 

Whether she's wielding a guitar, a kalimba, a looping pedal, or her trademark accordion, Wendy McNeill's been crafting a sound all her own throughout her acclaimed discography, ever since she started her recording career more than a qurter-century ago now.  

Her art has always been global in nature -- both in the sense that she contemplates issues that affect us all, ranging from ecological concerns to the mysteries of the human heart; as well as in the way that her noirish folk music draws on influences that seem to know no borders. And you can add "globe-trotter" to that description, as well, as she long ago branched out from her Alberta roots to live in various culturally rich locales in Scandinavia and Europe, making her home these days in Spain. 

The place that she lives is along the flightpath of many migratory birds travelling between Africa and Northern Europe; after massive wildfires in both her adopted Spanish home and her old Albertan stomping grounds, she began to wonder how those birds were impacted by the fires. Digging into both the scientific and the poetic sides of this question, she created her new album as a means of exploring how birds could bring us stories, messages, and wisdom about the perilous situation that humanity is currently facing. "A wild wisdom wrapped in verse," as she says in the album track that she'll spin for us, "The Language of the Birds."

Along the near-hour of music on her new album, we meet many different bird characters and narrators, as they share a diverse range of elevated perspectives. They relate tales from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Oscar Wilde, and Greek mythology, as well as many stories that spring from Wendy's own boundless imagination.

During a visit to Alberta in the wake of the album's release, Wendy came to CKUA studios and brought along a song to spin for us, her captivating stories and wit, and of course, her trusty accordion, Ruby. 

Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Host: Grant Stovel | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer 

With additional recording assistance from Brendan Cross and Duke Paetz.

Considering how much he shares of himself through his frank, tender songs, and how down-to-earth and open he is in live performance and in conversation, Doug Paisley has always seemed to be a bit of an enigma. 

For one thing, his music seems so truly timeless. It’s like the Toronto troubadour’s lastest album Say What You Like could just as easily have been released in 1973 as in 2023. His unique blend of the cryptic and plainspoken - along with the specific, cinematic details - gives the sense that he’s on a distinct creative journey of his own, seemingly unrelated to trends in the larger musical world. 

And yet, there are plenty of luminaries from that larger musical world that have collaborated with Doug on his greatly-acclaimed albums. In the past, Doug’s records have been graced by contributions from revered artists like Mary Margaret O’Hara and the keyboard genius from The Band, Garth Hudson. On his new album, Doug’s evocative songs, expressive guitar playing, and beautiful tenor voice are treated to some stellar production help from his old friend Afie Jurvanen and his band, Bahamas. 

On tour through Alberta in summer 2023, Doug Paisley stopped by CKUA's Edmonton studios to serenade us with a pair of songs, and to trace his one-of-a-kind creative career. He told us about his musical beginnings with buck-a-Beatles LP buys; the lasting lessons learned in his early onstage experiences, ranging from bluegrass to reggae to performance art; the influence of everyone from outsider folk great Bonnie “Prince” Billy to ‘70s AM country’s “Gentle Giant” Don Williams; the way Afie’s and Bahamas’ support helped unlock the creative breakthrough of Say What You Like; and how writing songs and playing guitar are a great release for the feelings that move you when, as the title track says, “those bygone times come back to visit.” 

Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Host: Grant Stovel | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer | Sound Engineer: Duke Paetz 

This episode of Hidden Track features live performances from Doug Paisley. Music is used with permission from the artist. 

Jose Louis Modabi is the given name of Colgolese-Canadian artist Pierre Kwenders, the exceptionally innovative music-maker behind the Polaris Music Prize-winning album, Jose Louis and the Paradox of Love. 

Bridging the gaps between musical worlds, the traditional and the future-leaning, his hometowns of Kinshasa and Montreal, and between the profoundly personal and the universally human, Pierre Kwenders is a one-of-a-kind musical visionary. Drawing on jazz, Congolese rhumba, pop, electronica and disco, and singing or rapping in five languages -- Lingala, Kikikongo, Tshiluba, French, English – he constructs a whole sonic universe on his latest album. There are meditations on love, lust, spirituality, home, family, freedom, culture, and music; all of it deeply centred in his unique, highly personal aesthetic. The expanded Deluxe Edition of Jose Louis and the Paradox of Love released June 30,2023, further deepening the album’s artistic sweep of styles, textures and perspectives with bonus tracks and re-works. 

In this episode of the Hidden Track Podcast, Pierre Kwenders tells us about his musical background: from growing up singing in church choirs as a kid in the Congo, to discovering the underground music scene in Montreal, where he moved as a teenager. He discusses the formative influence of Congolese musical heroes like Lokua Kanza and Papa Wemba, the importance of matriarchs on his life and how he takes his artistic moniker from his grandfather’s name. We'll discover more about Pierre Kwenders' birth city of Kinshasa, which “vibrates with music”, plus his personal vision for a globe-spanning, era-mashing Black futurism and his guiding philosophy that “love never dies on the dance floor.” 

They’ve always been musical alchemists -- melding worlds and traditions together, taking on the big questions, and crafting bold musical narratives. On greatly-acclaimed previous albums like Guesthouse and Line of Light, they've created poetic anthems addressing mortality, embracing our shared humanity, and, of course, longing for love. And they've done it while fusing everything from roots-Americana to psychedelic rock to Mexican folk traditions. 

And yet somehow, the new album by David Wax Museum sees the band achieving a whole new level of depth and dimension, of scope and scale. Fittingly enough, it's called You Must Change Your Life. 

Suz Slezak and David Wax are the creative couple at the heart of Charlottesville, Virginia's David Wax Musuem. Their heartfelt, deeply personal approach to songcraft is matched by a sound that's all their own, and by a wildly inventive, boisterous live show. They've been building a hardcore fanbase over their nine albums and countless miles on the road. 

Mid-2023 saw the release of what they call their "magnum opus" -- a Latin term that literally means "great work", and which in the ancient world of alchemy signifies transformation and transcendence. They describe You Must Change Your Life as "an openhearted manifesto -- a collection that embodies, then transcends bedrock elements of the band's 15-year career." 

David Wax Museum fans can rejoice that their magnum opus is finally out in the world, just released in spring 2023 via Nine Mile Records. And they can also be glad that David Wax himself is here to savour the moment, too; as he and Suz will tell us, an unexpected and terrifying health concern interceded in the band's journey, just as they were on the verge of this album's triumphant release. 

Suz and David joined us for a heartfelt conversation from their barn/studio in Charlottesville, Virginia, to talk about how they became a band, then a couple, and eventually a family; and how their creative journey has led from Harvard University to folk music studies in Mexico, from what seemed like a never-ending tour, to their backyard barn, and eventually to the syncopated truths conveyed on this truly transformative album.  

To paraphrase the chorus from the song ‘Luanne’, this new record is a shape shifter and a fate twister; constructing a colourful, multi-layered dream world which speaks to both the most earthly and the most ineffable sides of our human existence. As David sings in ‘Summer Wrapped in Gold’: 

"My heart still beats to that syncopated truth.” 

Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Host: Grant Stovel | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer 

William Prince's rich baritone voice resonates with amazing warmth, light, and wisdom. Along with the poetic songs and stories that it delivers, his voice just seems to have a way of instantly finding a place in people’s hearts. It's no wonder that William's voice and songs have taken him all the way from the small Manitoba community where he grew up, to great acclaim all across Canada. 

In a way, William Prince has spent his whole life exploring the ways that music can be a source of connection, communion, and healing. As a kid growing up in Southern Manitoba's Peguis First Nation, he played guitar with his father, who was as singer and songwriter in a gospel/country vein. After that up-close apprenticeship, he embarked upon a career of his own. He hit home almost immediately with his powerful 2015 debut album Earthly Days, which won him a Juno Award right out of the gate, signaling the arrival of a major new figure on the singer-songwriter scene. In the years since, he's garnered increasing international recognition for his work with his sophomore album Reliever, and an homage to his dad and his roots with Gospel First Nation.  

Spring 2023 sees the release of Stand in the Joy, a triumphant collection of bittersweet yet hopeful songs. It’s an album that William says, "acknowledges pain but does not give it power. What I hope comes through are feelings of love, peace, and strength." 

On tour through Alberta, William Prince stopped by CKUA's Edmonton studios for a visit, bringing his guitar, his brilliant songs and, of course, that incredible voice. 

Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Host: Grant Stovel | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer 

Vivek Shraya is a constantly churning force for creativity. She's an author, playwright, filmmaker, a professor of English Literature, a poet, an active champion of BIPOC, women- and femme-identifying artists though initiatives she's launched, and she's an absolute joy on social media. 

Vivek’s new album is Baby, You're Projecting, out now via Mint Records. Her debut label release offers a brilliantly crafted, heart-on-sleeve glimpse into her own personal experiences and perspectives. It traces deeply felt, masterfully created musical stories that ring so true, we can probably all see ourselves in them somewhere; they feel like they have something important to say to all of us.  

Vivek's been writing songs since age 13 and crafting albums for a good 20 years now. Always at the core of her art is personal experience, offering a wide range of often very frank, unflinching perspectives. Being an Albertan of South Asian heritage, growing up queer, being trans, making pop music into her 40s - all are experiences which have in some way inspired or informed her creativity over the years.  

Some songs on her latest album are responses to societal issues like pervasive toxic masculinity and sexism, ongoing colonial attitudes, and the takedown culture fostered by of our extremely online current moment. Other songs on the record are simply about friends, family, and heartbreak.  

While some moments do feel heartbreaking, others are powerfully affirming, even anthemic! She and longtime collaborator/producer James Bunton have hit a whole new level of sophistication in crafting this album, and Vivek is digging deeper than ever. The album is also accompanied by a companion short film that weaves some of these musical stories into a larger, visually spectacular arc. 

This is Vivek Shraya | Singing Free and Loud! 

Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Host: Grant Stovel | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer 

"Hey, you! Come and gather round!" 

That's one of the lyrics from “Things Are Gonna Change,” Lealani's collaboration with Kid Koala on his new album, Creatures of the Late Afternoon. 

It's a song about coming together, about engaging with one another, sharing a common pursuit, and pushing toward something new and exciting. 

For both Kid Koala and Lealani, their work as artists—musical, visual, and otherwise—is always about gathering around: humans joining together, in shared experiences, creating something new. 

For decades, Kid Koala's ethos has been all about togetherness. When he first burst onto the scene back in the '90s, he was bringing people together on the dance floor. His astonishing skills as a turntablist could instantly spark dance parties, as he joyfully spun funk, ska, jazz, and spoken word records into something new altogether. 

In addition to that, Kid Koala's albums have always incorporated more to engage with, beyond the music: visual art, a hand-cranked cardboard turntable, a chess set, a graphic novel. His projects are often wildly ambitious—the Space Cadet Headphone Concert, an interactive Turntable Orchestra, a theatrical puppetry presentation. His latest album is a double LP that also happens to fold out into a playable board game. 

Among his many featured collaborators on Creatures of the Late Afternoon is Lealani, a young art-pop firebrand who's very different from Kid Koala, yet a kindred spirit in many ways. Each one is a creative polymath and DIY dynamo. 

He lives in Montreal; she's from Los Angeles, and there are decades between them, but artistically, they complement each other perfectly. And as we hear in this episode of Hidden Track, it turns out that these two one-of-a-kind artists can trace all kinds of surprising connections to one another. 

They have many adventures together coming up, including a big summer 2023 tour. However, their first-ever jaunt out on the road together saw them play Calgary's Block Heater festival back in February. 

The duo took time between their soundcheck and headlining show at Block Heater to come join us in CKUA's Calgary studios for a marvelous conversation. Between the ambient sounds of downtown Saturday night traffic, a band sound checking down the hall, and the wildly wide-ranging discussion, it almost felt like being inside a Kid Koala album. This is "Kid Koala x Lealani | Gather Round." 

Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Host: Grant Stovel | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer 

He's currently traversing the continent, along with a band and a production that are so big, they won't all fit on just one tour bus. He's selling out dozens of shows at concert halls that seat thousands of people. And what's he playing? Pretty much exclusively his own original roots, folk, and blues songs; and a handful written by some good friends of his. Matt’s whole music career has always been exceedingly homespun and genuine. In fact, a bunch of his best friends are in his band! 

How is this kind of success possible? In this day and age? Well, it's incredibly rare. But it certainly helps if you have the soul, grit, presence, work ethic, humility, smarts, and sheer mind-boggling talent of New Brunswick powerhouse Matt Andersen. 

Matt's new album The Big Bottle of Joy is also the name he gives to his eight-piece band of brilliant musical pals. On their way through Alberta in April 2023, Matt generously shared some of his precious off time with CKUA. And he brought his guitar! 

Matt popped by CKUA's Edmonton studios to tell us about his musical beginnings in the tiny town of Perth-Andover, New Brunswick; how he's crafted a stellar international music career in the true time-tested way, through an endless application of blood, sweat, and tears over more than 20 years; how his friends, family, and heroes have always kept him grounded and inspired; and how the songs and the giant band on the new record were products of these difficult past three years – the one time in his life he's ever stopped for a moment to catch his breath. 

On top of his touching, hilarious, and wide-ranging conversation, Matt offers us a pair of exclusive performances. Given the size and scope of the band sound on the album, it's absolutely astounding to hear Matt Andersen pour his larger-than-life musical soul into an intimate, solo acoustic performance of two songs from The Big Bottle of Joy: "Only an Island" (written by his friends in the band Port Cities) and album closer "Shoes" (a song Matt wrote with Donovan Woods). 

Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Host: Grant Stovel | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer 

CONTENT WARNING: This episode of Hidden Track contains multiple references to childhood trauma and sexual abuse. Although the content does not go into explicit details, some listeners may find these topics of discussion uncomfortable. 

"Looking back, I am astonished at times by what I have done in search of love, and just to survive." 

Over the course of her astounding life story, Tara MacLean has been an international hitmaker; a survivor of horrific childhood abuse; a lifelong student of art, music, and philosophy; a performer everywhere from Lilith Fair to Late Night with Conan O'Brien; a mother; a creative collaborator; a theatre creator; and now an author. At her core, though, Tara MacLean sees herself as... a sparrow. 

In the title track to her new album Sparrow, Tara MacLean sings passionately of her need to "trust the wind and the open sky". And, to be sure, she's spent her life navigating a staggering series of soaring highs and gut-wrenching lows. Tara is a songbird by nature; songs are her way of expressing and grappling with life's often incomprehensible joys and sorrows. And her stunning new memoir Song of the Sparrow recounts her heartbreaking, inspiring, fierce, stranger-than-fiction life journey. In the pages of her book and the lyrics of its companion album, she brings us inside moments of horrifying trauma, transcendent triumph, unthinkable loss, and cosmic good fortune. Of what she's learned from walking this jagged road, she writes, "I propose that love has no opposite. It's all love in this messy, sad, heartbreaking world." 

From her earliest childhood years in the wilds of Prince Edward Island, she was surrounded by the performing arts and music.  Also surrounding her from an early age, however, was horrific sexual abuse. As a child, she taught herself to cope with her tumultuous existence by pouring her heart into writing and singing songs. Her life as a singer-songwriter began as a raw, elemental urge to express and create. However, it set her on a path that saw her ascend onto the world stage in the late 1990s, just at the very tail end of a golden age for the music industry, in the moment of blazing glory just before the online music phenomenon popped that bubble. 

In this free-spirited, open-hearted conversation Tara tells us about the dizzying journey she's been on, including a hippie 1970s PEI upbringing; being "discovered" while jamming on the top deck of a ferry; being mentored early in her career by Sarah MacLachlan; playing her songs during touchstone moments of '90s culture, ranging from the Lilith Fair tour to the movie Coyote Ugly; the need to retreat and revitalize after years of working herself nearly to death on the road; summoning the courage to confront the demons in her life; her devotion to family, the loss of loved ones, and being a mother; discovering an urge to share her story on the printed page with this new book; how on this new album, she reinterprets songs she wrote decades ago, alongside  perspectives offered in the record's three fresh new songs; and the unforgettable moment that began this whole sparrow's journey, when a 9-year-old Tara stepped onto a county fair stage, and fell in love with sharing her music with the world. 

"What's your name?"  

On the stunning debut album by Oji-Cree singer-songwriter Aysanabee, we hear his grandfather pose that question at the end of the song "Nomads". It is a voice that is woven through the entire album; and so is that fundamental idea of reconnecting with identity and truth. 

Aysanabee's much-acclaimed November 2022 release Watin tells the story of his grandfather, Watin Aysanabee, who, as a child, was taken away from his family and sent to McIntosh Residential School in Northwestern Ontario, where he was forced to change his name and put aside his language, culture, and traditions. After many painful years, not only did Watin survive his traumatic residential school experiences, but he also met his eventual life partner; together they began a new life and a family of their own. Watin's story is a powerful one and now, more than half a century later, it has inspired a stunning work of art.  

During long phone calls in the pandemic's initial stages, Watin shared these tales with his grandson, an aspiring singer-songwriter who worked as a professional journalist under his birth name, Evan Pang. Though the original objective of those long sharing sessions was to record this important family history, these tales gradually began finding their way into songs that his grandson was writing, and later some of those recorded phone calls were woven into the resultant full-length album. 

Aysanabee's debut LP is a heartfelt tribute to his family and his roots; and so is the artistic moniker that he took on, which is a reclaiming of his family's name. On tour through Alberta in early 2023, Aysanabee stopped by CKUA's Edmonton studios to share intimate, live in-studio performances of two songs from Watin: "Nomads", a song of gratitude to his grandfather for being a guiding light and one who has "passed the fire”, and "River", which relates the sweet story of how his grandparents escaped together as youngsters, against all odds, embarking upon a new destiny. 

In this gracious and candid visit, Aysanabee also shared some of his own amazing life's journey: growing up in Northern Ontario and Manitoba; humble musical beginnings and diverse early influences; being a soft-spoken person who's blessed with an absolutely thunderous singing voice; working these days with Ishkōdé Records, a visionary new label led by renowned Indigenous women; finding himself suddenly thrust onto the biggest stage in this country, performing for the 2023 Juno Awards gala telecast; and the unique path that led to the creation of his breathtaking, triumphant debut album.