I am listening for the first time to my visit to the Twang Trust last night. It is a college radio show on CKUW run by Stu, who is a huge REM fan who married a girl from North Carolina and got married by Howard Finster! How cool is that! Here in his native Winnipeg - he is loved and adored by all. Everyone I mention his name to just beams with compliments and love and speaks of what a jewel he is to the city.
LISTEN HERE
I had so much fun with him, as we shared stories of traveling to see our favorite bands. He offered to tell me where John K. Samson lived for a lump sum of money. I graciously declined. The set we played was like a nice melting of Georgia and Manitoba music.
I played as much as I could and sadly did not get to some of the tracks I really wanted to play. The 2 hour set was over so quickly! But I sent Stu home with a CD of Georgia music, so hopefully he will continue to play a bit of that from time to time to time.
The set featured: REM, the Weakerthans, Jim Bryson, Sarah Harmer, The Young Antiques, The Liverhearts, The Yum Yum Tree, A hopeforagoldensummer, The Jupiter Watts, All Night Drug Prowling Wolves, Luigi and John McNicolas. I had more cued up but sadly we ran out of time.
My draw dropped when Stu put in a track of Sarah Harmer and John K Samson doing a cover of Islands in the Stream. Wow.
I had so much fun with Stu I could have talked with him and played music for hours and I can not thank him enough for having me. Winnipeg you have a gem there!
Who are these strange people you've been talking to? And will they loan me 50 bucks?
ReplyDeleteI don't know where John K lives but I can tell you that he attended Kelvin High School once upon a time. Ask anyone here, they can tell you where it is if you're interested. Coincidentally, it is the same school that another Winnipeg-raised singer/songwriter/storyteller by the name of Neil Young attended a few decades earlier. Though unlike Neil, John K graduated and stuck around town.
ReplyDeleteQuite a lot of local musicians (and lefty activists) reside in the Wolseley neighbourhood, again I don't know for sure if that includes John and Christine.
And Fred Penner! Don't forget Fred Penner! He went to Kelvin, too!
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