Hidden Track CKUA Radio
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- Muziek
We all remember the moment we discovered that secret song on one of our favourite albums. Often, those hidden gems provide a revealing peek behind-the-curtain, leading us to new insights about the artists and recordings we thought we knew.
CKUA’s Hidden Track podcast aims to do the same, by bringing you stories that change the way you experience music. Any given week, we’ll get to the heart of the song with the musician who wrote it, reflect on a landmark recording with the producer and engineer who helped shape it, or examine the legacy of a musical icon with the critic, biographer or industry player who knows them best. Whoever the guest may be, each episode will provide a moment of discovery you won’t soon forget.
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Haley Blais | Cracking Wise
When you think about it, being a YouTuber isn't so different from being a singer-songwriter.
In each case, you need to dig deep, be original, authentic and often get incredibly vulnerable – all while the world is looking on.
Canadian singer/songwriter Haley Blais has proven truly brilliant in both fields! This hit-YouTuber-turned-award-winning-musician shows us exactly why that is on her new album Wisecrack, and furthermore with the performance she shared with CKUA in this beautifully candid Hidden Track Session.
Haley has experienced a unique artistic evolution, to say the very least. Originally from Kelowna, BC, she started off her involvement in the arts as a classically trained opera singer, eventually making the move to Vancouver and cultivating a fruitful career as a content creator. But music has always been with her, and homespun musical performances proved to be hugely successful on her YouTube channel, including one ukulele-accompanied performance of an old pop song from the 1920s - which has received millions of views in the 2020s!
She has continued branching out into new adventures in music and her career as a singer, songwriter and recording artist kicked into high gear with her debut EP in 2016. In late 2023, she released her sophomore full-length album Wisecrack on Arts & Crafts. The album release tour saw her take a spin through Alberta in early 2024 and brought her to CKUA’s live performance space for an intimate, funny, heartbreaking and occasionally expletive-laden session on the Hidden Track Podcast.
Hidden Track is a CKUA production made possible by the generosity of our donor community. Thank you for your support!
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This Is The Kit | Be Okay
Careful of Your Keepers, the sixth full-length album by This Is the Kit, ends with the mantra-like benediction of "Be Okay". It's a beautifully delicate place to land, after ten songs that navigate their way through a world full of actions, their equal and opposite reactions, and the inextricably linked, overwhelmingly human dance between beauty and pain.
It's an album that starts with a goodbye. Or more precisely, it starts with a track called "Goodbye Bite", which carries on with plenty of bite throughout. The lyrics and imagery are are full of teeth and clawing and chewing. As Kate Stables sings on the chorus to the song "Inside Outside" – quoting Ralph Wiggum's celebrated Valentine note to Lisa on an episode of The Simpsons – "Bite off as much as you can chew/ I chew chew choose you."
Kate Stables is the singer/ songwriter/ multi-instrumentalist/ banjo enthusiast at the heart of this project. She grew up and fell in love with music in Winchester, one of Old England's oldest cities. She then moved on to the magical music city of Bristol, also the birthplace of groundbreaking acts like Portishead and Massive Attack. It's been a couple of decades since she moved to the artists' mecca of Paris, along with her husband (and fellow musician/bandleader) Jesse Vernon.
She and her musical collaborators have quietly built a body of work that's seen This Is the Kit become one of the most revered and distinctive creative forces in folk music. Their much-acclaimed 2023 album builds on 20 years of creative evolution, and finds them collaborating with a hero of Kate's from back in her teenage years – Gruff Rhys, who came to fame as the frontperson for Welsh '90s indie rock deities Super Furry Animals.
During the course of a wintertime 2024 tour through Alberta, Kate Stables stopped off at CKUA's Calgary studios to share an illuminating conversation about the elliptical nature of reality, her musical beginnings and creative evolution, drawing inspiration from a century-old banjo discovered in someone's attic, her surprisingly robust connections with Canada and/or Canadian music, working with one of her heroes, and what she always carries in her handbag. -
Sunny War | Punk Rock is a Gateway Drug
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! -
A Hidden Track Holiday | Join the Chorus
'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!
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Be Part of Something (Year-In-Review)
It's been an amazing Season 4 here at Hidden Track. We've had visits with an astounding array of inspired artists, ranging from local heroes to global greats; from a reigning Polaris Prize winner to a newly minted Grammy Award winner; from hip-hop to hardcore punk to homespun folk. It's been such a wild 2023! So wild, in fact, that we felt the need to do a special episode to wrap up the season.
Given the daunting task of summarizing such an incredible season, Grant decided to call in a little help! For this year-end episode, Grant Stovel is joined by Hidden Track producer Scott Zielsdorf to help share some great stories and songs from amongst this season's 21 episodes.
In particular, this collection of magical moments zeroes in on the idea of connecting to something larger through music -- whether that's connecting with family and friends, with community, with humanity at large, connecting with your own inner sense of humanity, even connecting with your true artistic self. That yearning to connect is often the catalyst that compels musicians to create, to express, to be part of something.
Music can be a vector for connection in amazing ways -- as we hear in this episode! With memorable stories and songs from the likes of William Prince, Tanika Charles, Arlo Maverick, Wendy McNeill, Dan Mangan, F*cked Up, Young Fathers, Aysanabee, Andy Shauf, Kid Koala & Leilani, Alex Cuba, and July Talk.
Thank you for being with us in 2023! And we thank all of our guests for being so generous with their time and their hearts. All the best for 2024, and we can't wait to share Hidden Track Season 5 with you!
Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Music: Doug Hoyer | Graphics: Shaun Friesen
The Hidden Track Podcast is made possible by the generous contributions of our donors. Thank you for your support! -
Young Fathers | Up from the Underground
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