Backbeat

03/08/2024

I've got another interesting pile of old records on Backbeat this week, a few featuring some unusual session players, such as Nashville producer Owen Bradley playing guitar on a blues record, Chicago bluesman Elmore James playing on a Joe Turner record and legendary session player Al Casey sounding a lot like Duane Eddy on an obscure rock 'n roll record by Sanford Clark (pictured). All this and the usual round of country, jazz, blues, gospel and whatever. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/august-4-2024

27/07/2024

And the hits - or non-hits - just keep comin' on Backbeat this week. We've got a great track from Ray Charles where he was upstaged by his backup singer (and he didn't seem to mind), two kinds of jazz fiddle playing, nice guitar pickin' from Steve Dawson, and Prince LaLa, a colourful New Orleans artist who helped inspire Mac Rebennack's Dr. John persona. The Mills Brothers, The Soul Stirrers, Dinah Washington, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Platters (singing in Italian) round out another fun show.
See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/july-28-2024

20/07/2024

I found another pile of old records to play on Backbeat this week including pioneering female country music singers Bonnie Guitar and Jean Shepard (pictured), some fine gospel from the Swan Silvertones and the Selah Singers, train songs from Jamaica and Tennessee, Tampa Red reviving one of his own songs and Jimmy McGriff giving a Ray Charles hit the Hammond B3 treatment.
See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/july-21-2024

13/07/2024

Backbeat's got vintage music from 1928 to 2024, blues to country, jazz to pop, gospel to mambo featuring Amos Milburn, The Louvin Brothers, Howlin' Wolf, Big Fancy, Latin star Don Tosti (pictured) and many more. Another musical feast coming your way. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/july-14-2024

06/07/2024

This week is our fundraiser weekend at CanoeFM, I will be live on-air from 9 AM to Noon playing some great music and seeking your support for our fine community radio station. Listeners on other stations and on line this week will hear a newly-recorded regular show featuring some rockin' gospel, Fats Waller explaining how culture fads spread, and earlier versions of a couple of songs Elvis made famous. We also hear some bluegrass from a group that were featured on the old Andy Griffith TV Show (pictured) and a hit from a former Toronto telephone operator. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/july-7-2024

29/06/2024

This week's Backbeat show has a lot of musical revivals. In the 1950s and '60s, Cookie & the Cupcakes revived a Swamp Pop icon, Amidie Breaux brought back a Cajun classic from the 1930s, Junior Parker revived a Roosevelt Sykes song (from a different perspective) and Fats Domino put a new spin on a Louis Jordan classic. We've also got Noel Boggs (pictured), a slide guitar pioneer who had Leo Fender make him custom guitars with up to four fretboards. See the full playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/june-30-2024

22/06/2024

It has been five years since Backbeat first aired I'm so marking the occasion by digging into the archives and playing some of my favourite records, mostly from that first year before the show as syndicated. Got some great ones here, from Lionel Hampton, whose explosive jazz helped set the stage for Rock & Roll to Brad Strang, still making music today in the old time way. See the playlist at

Backbeat Radio plays vintage popular music every Sunday from 10 AM to 11 AM on CKHA 100.9 FM in Haliburton, on-line at www.canoefm.com and on community stations

15/06/2024

Another fun romp this week as we hear a few very familiar songs by the less familiar people who wrote them, Rose Murphy (in the picture) revives a Slim Gaillard song, with Slam Stewart's help, Linda Carone revives a 70-year-old song that few people heard even when it came out and we've got what one DJ used to describe as a 'weirdo' by Toni Fisher. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/june-16-2024

08/06/2024

We've got some music pioneers again on Backbeat this week, Bob Wills the "Father of Western Swing", early country rock singer and writer Zeb Turner (pictured), Lucky Millinder and Louis Jordan who helped lay the foundation for R&B plus slide guitar, washboards and bongo virtuosi. Sean Poluk does some Delta blues and we'll hear heartbreak h***y-tonk from Blake Bamford AKA Big Fancy. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/june-9-2024

01/06/2024

On Backbeat this week you'll hear some familiar artists like Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Hank Locklin and Freddie King and some unfamiliar ones like Dave Rich, Christine Chatman, and Sam Theard (pictured). You'll also hear some current artists making vintage-sounding music such as Blue Moon Marquee and Sean Poluk. Records made in 1929 jostle with some made this year. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/june-2-2024

25/05/2024

I don't do 'themes' on Backbeat, I just pick music I think sounds good together but sometimes patterns emerge. This week some things are the same; there's two instrumentals by groups that served as studio backup bands. Some things are opposite; someone lamenting his baby leaving, another wanting his baby to just go. We'll also hear one of the first guitarists to use a solid body electric guitar. It's all put together with the usual mix of vintage blues, country, gospel, rock 'n' roll and whatever else sounds good.
See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/may-26-2024

18/05/2024

We got a fun Backbeat show this week with songs from Johnny Cash, Percy Mayfield, one-hit-wonder Troy Shondell, Fats Waller and Fats Domino. We've got a new one from Jake Vaadeland & the Sturgeon River Boys, blues from Tracy K, Hammond B3 legend Jack McDuff (pictured) and we finish of with some hopping, skipping and jumping. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/may-19-2024-playlist

11/05/2024

Listen to Backbeat this week as we try to set the record straight on The Big Bopper - was he just a novelty act? We hear some under-appreciated artists such as Archibald and Mable John. Plus we've got newer vintage music from the Father of Chicano Music Lalo Guererro, Big Dave McLean and Christina Hutt. Always fun, always entertaining, always informative. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/may-12-2024

11/05/2024

Listen to Backbeat this week as we try to set the record straight on The Big Bopper - was he just a novelty act? We hear some under-appreciated artists such as Archibald and Mable John (pictured). Plus we've got newer vintage music from the Father of Chicano Music Lalo Guererro, Big Dave McLean and Christina Hutt. Always fun, always entertaining, always informative. Airs Sunday at 10 AM on 100.9 canoe.fm (www.canoefm.com) then on community stations all over North America and available to stream anytime afterward.
See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/may-12-2024

04/05/2024

This week we hear some interesting cover versions - in the true sense of the word, competing versions of the same song - along with some hot Hawaiian guitar, one of the best jubilee gospel groups (The Dixieaires, AKA Du-Droppers, pictured), another new song from Big Fancy, blues from Brandon Isaak, one of Mable Smith's early recordings before she was Big Maybelle, all topped off with Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers - a "can't miss" show to be sure.
See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/may-5-2024

02/05/2024

Out for a birthday cruise with my sweetie. I mean Mary of course, not the car. Mary took the picture.

27/04/2024

Lots of New Orleans magic on this week's show (as usual). Professor Longhair gets us goin' - to the Mardi Gras, we pay tribute to the late Clarence "Frogman" Henry (pictured), Ronnie Douglas has a new one that lets it roll, Annisteen Allen keeps it rollin, David Vest takes the steamer and Ray Charles is inviting us to a private party. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/april-28-2024

20/04/2024

Tune in to Backbeat this week to hear music you probably won't hear anywhere else. Wynonie Harris leads the parade, The Louvin Brothers preach, we'll hear a popular Mexican trio, a groundbreaking bluegrass instrumental featuring a future member of The Byrds, new music from Big Fancy that combines classic 50s h***y-tonk with great songwriting, Cab Calloway kicking gongs, and an early rock & roll classic by Johnny Burnett (pictured) that nobody heard until 13 years after it was recorded. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/april-21-2024

20/04/2024

Tune in to Backbeat this week to hear music you probably won't hear anywhere else. Wynonnie Harris leads the parade, The Louvin Brothers preach, we'll hear a popular Mexican trio, a groundbreaking bluegrass instrumental featuring a future member of The Byrds, new music from Big Fancy and the Shiddy Cowboys that combines classic 50s h***y tonk with great songwriting, Cab Calloway kicking gongs, and an early rock & roll classic by Johnny Burnett (pictured) that nobody heard until 13 years after it was recorded. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/april-21-2024
Sunday at 10 AM on CKHA, CanoeFM (www.canoefm.com), various times on stations across Canada and the U.S., stream anytime at backbeatradio.com

13/04/2024

Another nice pile of old records on Backbeat this week, we've got Shelly Lee's Alley Cats (in the picture), cats with a fiddle, the original version of a song that put Robert Palmer on the musical map, Tiny Bradshaw shows us his soft side, Danny Marks shows us his country side, with a bluegrass pantyhose commercial thrown in for fun. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/april-14-2024

06/04/2024

On Backbeat we don't stick to any one genre, and this week's show provides lots of reasons. Singers like Ray Charles made pop hits from gospel songs, gospel singers made pop hits, or gospel hits from pop songs. Sometimes you can't tell which came first, and the stakes aren't worth fighting about in court. Just ask Paula Watson (pictured) who had her hit record copied exactly by a bigger star. All this is filled out by music from Africa, Jamaica, Alberta and the Louisiana Bayou. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/april-7-2024

30/03/2024

There a lot of mixture of country and blues and soul this week, jazzy musicians doing country, country singers tackling blues, it happened a lot.We've also got La Lupe (pictured) the Queen of Latin Soul, some cocktail music and an early success by Mac Rebennac before he was Dr. John. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/march-31-2024

23/03/2024

Listen to Backbeat this week to hear a singer/sax player who almost got famous, and Laura Lee Perkins (pictured), a female rockabilly singer who found some fame about 30 years after she made records. Leroy Van D**e walks right by his true love on the street while Shakura S'Aida walks the city streets looking for her love. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/march-24-2024-playlist

16/03/2024

Backbeat keeps chuggin' along this week with some records by bad guys - Juniour Wells making a record while he was AWOL, Ronnie Self being, well, Ronnie Self and Pearl Taylor tells those Dixie women what she thinks of them. Pat Johnson and Jake Vaadeland & the Sturgeon River Boys give us two very different takes on how modern musicians honour vintage music and we'll hear a Tahitian group that became a sensation in Paris in the `1930s. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/march-17-2024-playlist

09/03/2024

Don't forget the clocks go ahead 1 hour on Sunday for most of North America, you'll get to hear Backbeat earlier as we unearth a couple of original versions of songs made more famous later - (one by the same singer), we'll hear The Queen of Detroit Blues who never found fame but ended up with a good career. We've got a tortured soul ballad about teenage love that brought world fame, briefly, to a couple of teenagers, and a beautiful record by Columbian singer Toto La Mompasina.
See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/march-10-2024-playlist

02/03/2024

Another nice pile of records to go through this week, including the flip sides of some great Atlantic records by Ruth Brown and LaVerne Baker, Clyde McPhatter shows he can rock with the best (actually better than most), David Vest gives us some rolling boogie woogie, we'll hear a Cajun record that may have a connection to Beyonce, Diana Ross's favourite gospel group, The Meditation Singers (pictured) and a hidden gem from Danny Cobb. See the playlist at https://www.backbeatradio.com/index.php/playlists/march-3-2024-playlist

29/02/2024

Looks like another great line-up for Mariposa this year. It's just been announced https://mariposafolk.com/. Especially excited to see Blue Moon Marquee right here at home!