Roots Radio Thursday – March 14
This week on The Open Chord, Bill Garrett presents “Love Brings You Home” a full edition documentary on the life of Jack Hardy, singer-songwriter and playwright. (11:00am, 5:00pm and 10:00pm EDT on rtds.ca)
Based in New York’s Greenwich Village, Hardy was influential as a writer, performer, and mentor in the North American and European folk music scenes for decades. Songwriters in songwriter circles would gather at his Houston Street apartment one night a week to play their latest (and often unfinished) work. Fueled by pasta and wine, the weekly songwriters’ sessions were famous for the artistic and political conversations that flowed, and the large number of remarkable songs that emerged. Hardy suffered neither egos nor nerves, and when the introduction to a new song got too long and/or apologetic from a songwriter, Hardy would bark, “Shut up and sing the song.”
From those sessions, Hardy was cited as a major influence by folks like Suzanne Vega, John Gorka, Lyle Lovett and many others who emerged from that Greenwich Village scene in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
Jack Hardy was also the author of hundreds of songs, and toured tirelessly for almost forty years. He was the founding editor of Fast Folk Musical Magazine, a periodical famous within music circles for twenty years that shipped with a full album (and later, compact disc) in each issue. That entire catalog is now part of the Smithsonian Folkways collection. “Love Brings You Home” was produced by Angela Page, host of Folk Plus on WJFF FM.
The Andy Frank Show (9:00am, 3:00pm and 8:00pm EDT on rtds.ca) welcomes Vancouver singer-songwriter Christa Couture for a very candid conversation, and a bunch of spins from her latest work, “The Living Record”. Christa has survived the loss of two infants, and a childhood cancer that resulted in drastic surgery. Yet her spirit, humour, and art are very much alive, as evidenced by her remarkable CD. Plus, we’ll look back at the 2013 ECMA with Andrea England, and feature music by category winners The Once, Dave Gunning, and Rose Cousins. And, we continue our look at 2013 Roots and Traditional Juno Awards categories with a spotlight on Cousins and Le Vent du Nord. Finally, Sue Peters drops in with Sue’s News where she encourages listeners to get out and catch a gig near you.
