Every week, CKUA’s hosts submit their songs for our weekly House Blend playlist: an exciting new release, a beloved classic or just an old personal favourite. We mix it all together to create a sonic concoction that’ll help kick off your week. Check out what’s on this week’s playlist.
The Playlist
The Picks
Lionel Rault: Rodney Crowell, “Storm Warning”
Rodney Crowell returns to form: a powerful lyric, great delivery from a major legacy artist — a song with, possibly, personal and geopolitical implications. Did I mention it rocks?
Hayley Muir: Le Plaisir, “Never Gonna Cry Again”
Exciting new stuff! New band featuring Doug Organ, formerly of Wet Secrets, and his wife Amelia, formerly of Lad Mags. This track is from their first EP under this project. It’s garagey, it’s synthy, it’s spooky. It’s all the best things from Wet Secrets and Lad Mags rolled up into the most delicious, little 3:11 package. Fire!
*This song is not available on Spotify. Le Plaisir by Le Plaisir“>Listen to it here.
Kathryn Calder: Feist, “The Wind”
I love the drum machine, the neat sound effects, the tone of the guitar and I think the melody is great! And of course, I love her voice! This is a top-notch song.
Bob Chelmick: My Brightest Diamond, “Reaching Through to the Other Side”
The creative force within My Brightest Diamond is Shara Nova, her new legal name. She is about to release a new album in September. I”m hoping it realizes the promise of 2012’s All Things Will Unwind, where this song is found.
Amy Van Keeken: Glen Campbell, “Wishing Now”
Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb was released in 1974 and showcased beautifully one of the best musical partnerships in popular music. Glen Campbell had sung a lot of Jimmy Webb songs for years, and had hits with them including “Galveston” and “Witchita Lineman”. This album showcases some of the lesser known, but just as stunning songs and performances of this magical duo. “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” and “Ocean in His Eyes” are stellar tunes. This one, my favourite, is “Wishing Now”. Showcasing Campbell’s buttery voice and guitar chops not to mention the perfect songwriting of Jimmy Webb. I always add another harmony when I’m singing along and it makes me feel so happy. RIP Glen Campbell, genius of the strings and voice, masterful musical interpreter.
Monica Miller: The Souljazz Orchestra, “Lufunki”
I’ve had a long-standing passion for this Ottawa band. In part, I think, because they’re also willing try out new sounds. With Under Burning Skies, out September 22nd, they pull out dusty 1980’s synthesizers and drum machines for the first time. They describe this first single as spacey electro-funk. Gottaloveit!
Dianne Donovan: Hall & Oates, “August Day”
Originally on the album, Along The Red Ledge, and now on the greatest hits album, Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates, I’ve loved this song since it came out almost forty years ago. It really captures the suspended-animation-thickness of a truly hot summer day. The overall sultry feel of the music, the moody lyrics — is it melancholy, ennui, or the electric calm before the storm? Oh, and I believe it’s Les Thompson, doing the great harmonica on the track. Also on the album, ‘though not on the tune, George Harrison, Todd Rundgren, Robert Fripp and many other fine musicians.
Baba: Murray McLauchlan, “Farmer’s Song”
I eat, I live, I am thankful to ‘the salt of the earth’!
Mark Antonelli: William Boughton, English Symphony Orchestra, “Sunday Morning”
This is the first piece of Benjamin Britten’s music I ever heard and it is still one of my favourites. It catches your ear right off the bat with the orchestra mimicking the sound of tolling church bells. I don’t know what it is about me and bells or even the impersonation of bells — maybe something to do with a past life! I hope to find out eventually…
Grant Stovel: Santo & Johnny, “Summertime”
This track sounds to me just the way a hot, sultry summer night feels. Of course, plenty of folks have recorded gorgeous renditions of the Gershwin classic “Summertime” over the year. But, it’s hard to think of one that’s as eerily beautiful as this recording by Santo & Johnny. These two, guitar-playing brothers from Brooklyn put it out in 1960 as the follow-up to their huge hit, the equally haunting “Sleepwalk”.
David Ward: Whitney Rose, “Can’t Stop Shakin'”
Because this one’s got a ’60s southern soul groove with lyrics about where things are at: “someone please turn off the news, I’ve got the 6 o’clock blues, I can’t stop shakin’, I ain’t gonna let him win, no I ain’t givin’ in, I can’t stop shakin”.