The Folk

If you’re from Prince Edward Island, or you've ever heard a song sung on the island, chances are you’ve heard a song by Larry Gorman, who penned hundreds of songs in the mid-1800s. Once in a while a folk songwriter will write a tune that makes it into oral tradition. It becomes so popular that it’s passed down generation to generation - and Gorman’s tunes did just that. This is the story of PEI’s unsung songsmith, Larry Gorman.

A folklorist or a folk song collector is a person who studies folk music, and records and releases collections of folk songs. There is no folklorist more associated with Canada than Edith Fowke. Able to sell the world a vision on the meaning of “Canadian folk music,” her body of work supersedes others in the country’s folkloric realms. She is a recipient of the Order of Canada, she’s written numerous books, and released many recorded collections of Canadian folk music. But was her vision of the country’s folk music scene accurate? Fowke is at the centre of this episode, which delves into her research on folk music, the numerous books and records that she released, and questions some of the contradictory values of her life and work.

In the 1940s and ‘50s in the interior of British Columbia, a logger and mandolin player quietly and humbly amassed one of the largest repertoires of mandolin tunes from the province. Somehow, this unknown woodsman with a rough mandolin style ended up recording and releasing an album with the Folkways record label, the biggest folk music imprint in the world. It’s remained an underground cult release for over 50 years. In this episode, you’ll learn about the mysterious life and music of Stanley G. Triggs.

Charlie Panigoniak, much like the raven in Inuit stories, was a jokester. The Nunavut country-folk legend, who passed away earlier in 2019, soared to ‘territorial’ heights starting in the 1970s as a beloved entertainer and storyteller that shared the Inuit lifestyle through his often-humorous songs. Despite being a household name in the territory, he’s a songwriter that never really got his due with the rest of Canada. This episode is all about Panigoniak, detailing his life growing up on the nuna (tundra/land), to his recordings, the meanings of his songs, and the amusing antics behind the music.

It is said that Leo Tolstoy wrote his last great novel just to get enough money to pay for a sect of Russian pacifists, called The Doukhobors, to move to Canada. Persecuted in their homeland for refusing to fight for the Czar, The Doukhobors made the largest single mass migration in Canadian history in 1899 to Saskatchewan. In Canada, The Doukhobors found peace through their puritanical Christian lifestyle and transcendent style of choral music. In this episode, you’ll learn about real life events told through two fictional characters, beginning with their persecution in Russia, to their eventual move to Canada in the late 1800s, and hear the haunting music that the group created.

Bluegrass music is the fast-paced style of folk that became popular in the 1940s. Think Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs...and yes, even the Beverly Hillbillies theme song. Thought to be new around the time of its burgeoning popularity, it actually combined many older musical ideas. The story of how those old ideas turned into a new one is fascinating. This episode delves into how the genre came to be, and the stories behind some of the first players in Canada. Hear how two Black Maritimers shaped the genre in some very important ways. Or how the father of bluegrass in New Brunswick rose out of the Acadian community.

There is an old story in Québec about a Catholic priest who was convinced that fiddle music was the devil’s music. He rounded up all the fiddles in town and lit them on fire. Québec, and Québécois fiddling, has produced some of the country’s fieriest and most technically proficient players - Jean Carignan being the brightest of them all. This episode follows the highs and lows of Carignan’s career, from playing Carnegie Hall to driving a cab in Montréal.

“The Red River Valley” is a country-folk earworm that’s been played and recorded by thousands of musicians, sold millions of copies, and has a place in several music halls of fame. But what appears below the surface of this folksy love song, has some highly controversial, extremely disputed roots. This episode puts “The Red River Valley” on trial and presents evidence from two opposing sides to try to determine the original roots of a song that could have origins in Northern Texas or Manitoba’s Métis community. It’s up to the listener to decide.

If you mention the accordion in Newfoundland, the name Minnie White is likely to come up. Minnie White is synonymous with accordion music in the province. But she did not gain this reputation as an icon until very late in life. In the 1970s, an entire province witnessed, watched, and listened to her comeback musical story. This episode investigates Minnie White and her beloved accordion, from her early childhood and discovery of the instrument, to the history of the accordion in the province. From her lengthy time away from playing, to the comeback that solidified her status as an icon in the province as Newfoundland's "First Lady of the Accordion." 

This is the story of two families, from opposite sides of North America, with two totally different lives, who intertwined in some very interesting ways. The first is The Carter Family from Virginia, considered one of the founding families of Americana, whose recordings from the early 1900s influenced countless listeners. The second is The Romaniuk Family, an unknown family band from the foothills of Alberta. This episode investigates both The Carter and Romaniuk families, from their early beginnings, to their eventual meeting, and how an unheard-of cover band from Alberta came to be involved with one of the greatest musical groups of the 20th century.

Is folk music still folk music if you play it on an electric instrument? Well, is a road still a road if it goes from dirt to pavement? In the late 1950s, a Métis-Cree musician named Elsie Justis moved to a very remote area in the Northwest Territories, that did not have any roads, and brought an electric guitar with her. This episode introduces Justis and her music, and how music travels and comes to be in remote places.

Perhaps no other region has produced more fiddle players and fiddle recordings, per person and per square inch, than a tiny island on the northern most tip of Nova Scotia, called Cape Breton. Of the thousands upon thousands of top-tier fiddlers that have come from the island, one person time and time again is named the region’s very best, Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald. This episode investigates the life and music of Fitzgerald: the rough-and-tumble surroundings that inspired his style of playing, the record deals that sank despite favourable sales and popularity, and his love of drink that lasted a lifetime.

What if I told you I had a story to tell that no one has ever heard before? A folk story that I find fascinating. A story about music that happened many years ago. A story that happened in your own backyard. Would you wanna hear that story?