This week's edition of the Search is about the Acoustic Guitar and begins with a segment of the CBC Radio show (that I produced) about Grit Laskin and the guitars that he builds.

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Grit Laskin                              Guitarmaker                  A Few Simple Words ....

Grit Laskin                             Guitar Maker                          Outfront                               ....

Men of Steel                          L’Orient Est Grande               Live                               ....

 Pierre  Bensusan                  Kadourimdou                            Intuite                            ....

Roger Scannura             Santuario por Manuel (Taranta)   Noche Flamenco                ....

Don Ross                              Robot Monster                     Live In Your Head                   ....

Tony McManus              Biodag Aig Mac Thomais          Pourquois Quebec                

Andy McKee and Don Ross  The Spirit Of The West     The Thing That Came From Somewhere       

Jerry Douglas     TributeTo Peador O'Donnell      Alison Krauss and Union Station Live           

Vlatko Stefanovski & Miroslav Tadic    Gajdarsko oro     Krushevo                                

Steve Thachuk                         Yesterday                                    Currents                        

Leo Kottke                               Pepe Hush                                Great Big Boy      

You can listen live at 11pm on Sunday 6th here: http://www.cjlx.fm/

or download it here: 

https://www.yousendit.com/download/MVNlb2VCSU9rUm5IRGc9PQ

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The Search  11  22-11-09 First Nations

Artist                                         Cut                                             Album                                          ....

David R. Maracle                   Mystic Warrior                Inhale...Exhale                    ....

Leela Gilday                            One Drum                         Sedze                       ....

Cherie Maracle                      Willow Tree                    Closer To Home       ....

Robbie Robertson                 Broken Arrow                 Robbie Robertson    ....

Buffy Sainte-Marie      Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee   Coincidences and Likely Stories     ....

Susan Aglukark                    Hina Na Ho(Celebration)   This Child....

Jim Pepper                            Witchi-Tai-To                       Comin’ and Goin’            ....

Jani Lauzon                             If I Could Paint ....

Kateri Akuenzi-Damm          Emergence....

Daniel Lanois                         Sweet Soul Honey                  Rockets     ....

Florent Vollent                       Nitshiuenan                            Katak    ....

Laurence Stevenson             The Inuit Speaks

Should you wish to hear this, go here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/310876251/The_Search_11_First_Nations_22-11-09.rar.html
....

Ooops! I have to get more disciplined about this.
Here is Sunday's show. LAST Sunday's show...sorry.

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Artist                                                       Cut                                 Album                                 ....

Porcupine Tree                                 Time Flies                 The Incident                               ....

The Beatles                                        I Am The Walrus      Magical Mystery Tour         ....

Jimi Hendrix                                       Purple Haze             BBC Sessions          ....

The Velvet Underground & Nico  Venus In Furs       The Velvet Underground & Nico ....

Small Faces                                        Itchicoo Park                                             ....

Pink Floyd                                  Astronomy Domine        Piper At The Gates Of Dawn         ....

The Moody Blues                   Nights In White Satin       Days Of Future Past          ....

The Who                                 I Can See For Miles                   The Who Sell Out ....

Procul Harum                       A Whiter Shade Of Pale      Procul Harum ....

Captain Beefheart                Abba Zabba                               Safe As Milk                  ....

The Incredible String Band    Painting Box            5000 Spirits or Layers of the Onion   ....

The Bonzo Dog Band          The Intro and the Outro          Gorilla              

1967 was the first year I was 'aware' of music. I was 13/14 and it took that long for me to 'get' music. In fact, iyt took just a little longer. It was really the following year that music took hold in a major way. But the seeds were sown by these tracks.

You can download the show here.

http://rapidshare.com/files/308123434/The_Search_10_1967_15-11-09.rar.html

And next week, tune in to 91X on Sunday at 11pm and catch my 'First Nations' show.              

I keep forgetting to use the Net for this. But I've got my radio show tonight.
I have a look at storytelling with music.
Here's the playlist:

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Alistair Brown - Hamlet-No Idle Jest      ....

The City Waites-The Crossed Couple-The City Waites ....

Pentangle-Cruel Sister-Cruel Sister....

Fairport Convention -Matty Groves-Live at Copredy 2007  ....

King Crimson -The Letters-Islands ....

Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger-Parts 1-5-Singing The Fishing  ....

Darren O’Donnell-Crazy Like A Fox-CBC Radio Outfront 

You can hear the show here from 11-12 tonight :

http://www.cjlx.fm/

(click on the 'listen live' button)

or you can download the show here (77 meg download):

http://rapidshare.com/files/304250391/The_Search_9_Storytelling.rar.html

Lord I'm bad about Net stuff these days.
BUT:
Played 2 gigs with The Friends of Fiddler's Green (SO much fun!!)
Sold mother-in-law's condo (big relief)
Launched the new music show on 91X (I'm a DJ!!!???!!!)
and have Roger Scannura gearing up for a new recording.

 There's a bunch of other stuff too...but maybe I'll leave that so I have an excuse to write more...

Soon, I promise..

Back in the beginning of time, which would be the early 70's really, there was quite a bloom of Traditional Folk Music going around. I got the bug from Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span and, eventually, the Morris On albums.
 So when I came across a nascent Green Fiddle Morris just down the sre from where I lived, I signed on as their fiddler.
As my daughter Moira was VERY young at the time and my wife was working, I'd be seen in the YMCA parking lot, just outside the Fiddler's Green building, scraping away for the dancers as they rehearsed, while rocking a Moira-filled stroller with an available leg. Early multi-tasking if you will.
 Eventually, I got recruited to the Friends of Fiddler's Green, the house band for the folk club and I had to find a replacement to fill my shoes with the Morris as playing with TWO bands at that time was just way too much.
My brother-in-law, Doug Gies had always been a violin player, performing with the occasional Youth Orchestra or two and he and I had played together a few times. When I suggested that playing folk music, specifically Morris Dances, might be something he might like, he agreed and said he'd come down to a practice one Saturday, just to try it out. Which he did. And seemed to enjoy it. So, being no fool, I said 'Why don't you come back next week?'.
And he did. But I didn't......
And he was the fiddler for Green Fiddle for something like 5 years!
 So go to my home page and give him a listen. That's Alan Gearing playing accordion. He became the Morris musician a little after Doug left for Atlanta.

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A dozen years ago, I was given a room and a bunch of
synthesizers and samplers by the folks at work to become the CBC Radio ‘Experimental
Audio Room’. As fun a sonic playground as one could wish.

 The idea was to use
midi technology to enhance the sound of CBC Radio with music themes, stings,
and whizbang sound effects and other forms of auditory ‘ear candy’. Sort of
like the famed BBC Radiophonic Workshop of ‘Hitch-Hiker’s Guide the Galaxy’ and
‘Doctor Who’ fame.

While I was toiling away adding sonic baubles and bits to
shows like Quirks and Quarks and Three Minute Theatre, a young Asian associate
producer started coming around to check out what I was doing. Her name was Ann
Shin and she was from B.C., of Korean descent.

 It turned out she was
a poet and she was looking to have her poetry arranged electro-acoustically. I
thought this was a good idea and we did a bunch of pieces together, going so
far as to perform them live a few times.

Later, when the show Outfront was starting up, I suggested
to Ann that we use these pieces as the basis for a show. The poem ‘Breathing
the Air of our Ancestors’ was the start of it.

We won a Gold at the New York International Radio Awards
with this. Cool!

A couple of years ago, a friend found himself in the same position that I now find myself in: ex-CBC.
His solution to the problem: record a CD.

Andy Hermant has long been a force in the background of music in Toronto. But he's also a skilled banjo player. He thought it was time that world knew of this side of his life. So, with the help of his guitar-slinging son-in-law Jan-Paul Campeau, off to the recording studio he went.

16 tracks and the help of a slew of friends later, urban bluegrass/pop instrumental  project 'Smoke This!' was born.

I like the solo I played on 'Nothing's Forever' ( and I also like being able to say rude things about Andy when we introduce this tune in concert. All in good fun! Really!!!)

Please check it out on my home page.

Well, how do I feel about this 'little show that could' being canceled? (It's not actually dead yet. It's got until June. Get your stories in now while you have a chance!)
Obviously, mostly sad. It's where I hung my hat for more than 10 years, hung out with amazingly skilled, talented colleagues and came into contact with literally hundreds of cool, passionate people who had interesting stories to tell.
But to start at the beginning, for those who are not CBC Radio afficionadoes, Outfront was setup to be philosophically the opposite of most other radio shows.
 In most shows, there is a staff (with a host) who hunt down (or dream up) stories that they think might interest their audience. And they produce them the way that 'works' for them. A particular POV develops. It can't help it. A small number of people working together over time will just do that.Then the host, who is the public representative of the show, presents the piece to the listeners.
 In Outfront, anyone with a good story can get on air. The picking of the good stories is/was the one place that the 'entity-that-is-CBC' has real decision-making control. Once your story was picked to be produced, the storyteller is given whatever resources are practical to produce their show. Recording gear, access to studios, the complete attention of an experienced producer, whatever corporate might the show can put behind it to get the story told...they wield it.
 So we got Sudanese survivors, Nanaimo narcissists, Serbian playwrights, Scottish sound-effects guys, poets, painters, soldiers, people who are dying, kids on vacation and at school and parents whose love for their damaged offspring was transformational. A couple of thousand volumes from the 'living library' that is Canada. And each night is just one story. No mixed messages. When it's your night, it's YOUR night.
 Now, it is true that people now have access to outlets that were unavailable to them a dozen years ago when Outfront was being thought up. There are now blogs and podcasts and Youtube. But there's no access to the expertise and assistance of sympathetic professionals who will help you burnish your tale to the point that you can win international awards with it, a trick that Outfront pulls off on a regular basis. (The table at the door is literally groaning under that weight of award statues. We have to stack them to keep them on the table!)
 Oh dear ...listen to me. I guess it's only been just over a month....but I was kind of expecting that I could at least keep a connection to the show by turning on the radio... I guess, after a bit, there's going to be 'no going home'. And how am I going to find a substitute for working with all those great freelancers and their stories. Sigh!
 Anyway, do listen to my story here on MySpace, download this week's Outfront podcast and go to
 http://www.cbc.ca/outfront/pastshows.html
and listen to all the various shows as a realaudio stream. Do it! People have poured their very hearts into this stuff. There's NO shoddy goods here!
 And then kick up a stink about how there's no more public access on public radio anymore.....
WE WANT OUR STORIES HEARD!!!!!!