Monday, June 30:
We’ll preview our July featured artists, Tami Nielson and Tragically Hip. Tami Neilson is a Canadian-born singer-songwriter who relocated to New Zealand only to find that her career as an Americana artist was about to take flight. We’ll hear selections from her upcoming album, Neon Cowgirl, as well as selections from the 1996 release by the Tragically Hip, Trouble At The Henhouse, notable for the inclusion of the song “Ahead By A Century,” the final song the band performed in concert in 2016, roughly a year before the death of vocalist Gord Downie at age 53 from brain cancer. On the day of his passing, “Ahead By A Century” was the most played song on Canadian radio.
Tuesday, July 1:
We mark Canada with music from north of the border via Gowan, Gordon Lightfoot, Broken Social Scene, Feist, Ron Sexsmith, Tami Neilson, Tragically Hip, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Envy of None and, of course, Rush.
Wednesday, July 2:
Released in 1998, Phantom Power was the sixth studio release from the Tragically Hip and is notable for the inclusion of the songs “Escape Is at Hand for the Travelin’ Man,” written for the group’s friend Jim Ellison of Chicago’s Material Issue, who passed in 1996, and “Bobcaygeon,” one of Tragically Hip’s most popular songs, named after a small town northeast of Toronto. We’ll hear selections from that effort as well as music from Material Issue’s 1991 release, International Pop Overthrow, which included the band’s best-known song, “Valerie Loves Me.”
Thursday, July 3:
We’ll hear music from Fully Completely, the 1993 album from Tragically Hip, which includes “Fifty Mission Cap,” which tells the story of Toronto Maple Leafs player Bill Barilko who disappeared in 1951. The event is said to have had a major impact on Barilko’s team which had won four Stanley Cups before his passing but would not claim the prize for another decade. Fully Completely also features the song “Courage (for Hugh MacLennan),” which draws inspiration from that Canadian author’s 1959 novel The Watch That Ends the Night. We’ll hear music from Fully Completely on this episode as well as music from Beauty’s Pride, the latest from Born Ruffians.
Friday, July 4:
Listen for new music from Tami Neilson, Ron Sexsmith, Willie Nile, Emma Swift, Teethe, and more.
Saturday, July 5:
Man Machine Poem is to date the final album from the Tragically Hip. Released in 2016, it arrived in the wake of vocalist Gord Downie’s brain cancer diagnosis though he and his bandmates cautioned listeners not to read into the lyrics as the material was written and recorded before he knew he was ill. The album topped the Canadian music charts and made a respectable showing in the U.S. market as well. We’ll hear material from that release on this episode of the show as well as selections from Downie’s 2001 solo effort, Coke Machine Glow.
