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:
Terry David Mulligan: Jackson Browne, “Late For the Sky”
Where to begin? Pain. Feelings of loss and misgivings. Touches feelings and dark places none of us would want to find ourselves feeling or being in. The album of the same name has been called ‘his masterpiece” and also “misguided”. Listen to this song and YOU decide. Moves me every time I hear it — at times I don’t know why.
Cam Hayden: Harrison Kennedy, “Who U Tellin’?”
This incredible Canadian blues artist has been on the scene for decades. He had his breakthrough disc released earlier this year. The title track sums it up nicely
Hayley Muir: Miguel, “Pineapple Skies”
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Orest Soltykevych: Antoine Tamestit and Cdric Tiberghien, “Casta Diva”, from Bel Canto
Vincenzo Bellini is known today as one of the greatest composers of opera. He wrote 10 of them, and his best known ones were written between 1830 and 1835. The most well-known aria that Bellini wrote comes from his opera, Norma. This prayer is sung shortly after the title character’s first entrance. This work was made famous by the great Maria Callas. This version is an arrangement of that aria for viola and piano.
Bob Chelmick: Colin James, “Into The Mystic”
This version of the Van Morrison classic is a personal favourite: the way it starts as an acoustic rhythm guitar and builds to a full-blown, R&B crescendo. Originally on Van’s third studio album, Moondance, in 1970, Colin released his take in 2005 on Limelight. There is no season more mystical than the holidays. I’m grateful a program donor suggested it for The Road Home. “And when that foghorn blows, I will be coming home.”
Baba: Sparks, “Bummer”
Sparks, as a band, are musically very interesting and lyrically border on the ‘holy’ absurd. Never a dull moment. “Bummer”: “Just a word says it all, Just a word, you hit that wall”
Amy Van Keeken: Calexico, “Voices in the Field”
Calexico have a new album coming out on January 26th via City Slang. It’s their ninth studio album and it’s called The Thread that Keeps Us. “Voices In The Field” is the second single from the album. Vocalist and guitarist, Joey Burns, has this to say about it: “In the age of the extremes, when walls attempt stifling words, this song is inspired by the poems on postcards from those uprooted by war and oppression. It’s a song to remind us to open up our hearts and hear other voices sing their stories. I was listening to Mavis Staples, Bombino, Joe Strummer and Bob Dylan.”
Monica Miller: Charlotte Day Wilson, “Doubt”
First of all, this new song is stunning. Completely stunning. It’s described as “an intimate yet accessible anthem for the unsure”. Um, that would be all of us, methinks. Secondly, it heralds the arrival of a new full-length album, with details to be announced, from Toronto’s Charlotte Day Wilson.
Tony King: Riverdale Cast, “Mad World”
Though this choice may come off as capricious — in all sincerity, the spirit of the melodramas of Douglas Sirk, teen angst and nail-biting suspense, fuse together to make this newest reboot of the Archie comics very watchable. Part of the charm of Riverdale is in the casting, with the wry self-aware dialogue and the music from the series which perfectly encapsulates the dark nave world the characters inhabit.
Grant Stovel: The Mavericks, “Easy As It Seems”
Let’s throw back to Thursday, October 19th, 2017, the day The Mavericks came to CKUA’s Edmonton performance space to help us kick off the Fall Fundraiser in spectacular fashion! Their inspired live performance from that day can be found archived on CKUA’s Soundcloud page.