Mulligan Stew

It's our first-ever Trans Canada Christmas - starring the Trans Canada Highwaymen. Steven Page  - BNLadies and Steven Page Trio Moe Berg  - Pursuit of Happiness Craig Northey  - Odds and Steven Page Trio Chris Murphy  - Sloan   They are great friends, each with his band and career. What they have in common is a sense of the music they grew up with and a welcome sense of humour.   These Christmas s...

Liam Mayclem and I met doing interviews at film junkets weekends in LA, NYC, Chicago etc.  Me from Vancouver. He from San Fransisco. We talked about two things -Movies and Wine. Now Liam moves at a speed most humans couldn't and wouldn't abide. He's become an essential key to San Fransisco's dynamic hospitality, culinary and wine communities. The Host of Food Chap, CBS radio and TV. His foodie cha...

We're nearing the end of a volatile year in BC Wine. It featured wildfires, floods, COVID, road closures, price, tax and wage increases and two cold snaps over two Winters. Vineyards were damaged or destroyed by the freeze. Wineries and growers were facing a 2025 with little or no wines to cellar and sell. The Wine Industry and Government leadership came up with a plan to allow BC Wineries to harv...

Jim Cuddy guests on Mulligan Stew Saturday. He's on stage Saturday with The Jim Cuddy Band at the National Art Center Ottawa and Wednesday next at Massey Hall. Then Jim and Blue Rodeo partner Greg Keelor head for The Whistler Film Fest Dec 6-8 For the premier of their documentary Lost Together.   2025 will be a celebration of B lue Rodeo's 40th anniversary. Lots to talk about. Complete interview o...

Lisa Ahier is known far and wide as the owner and chef at Sobo in Tofino. Sobo is the kind of dining and room you like so much, you send all your best friends there. It's the centre of the town. Locals meet there for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Lisa has moved on from Sobo and is now making notes for her third book and has become the darling of this years  Top Chef competition.   Five shows in an...

Barney Bentall is bringing The Last Roundup through the West. Next Friday at Bella Hall in Calgary. It's the final tour of the Caribou Express. Over 20 years of seasonal touring,  Barney and various members of Caribou Express raised Millions for charities all across Canada. Especially, serious money for food banks late in the year when they really need it. Barney gives us an update on the last lin...

Look who's on a Roll - It's this week's guest,  Author Luke Whittall   Luke and his Sipster's Pocket Guides Books.   In the third volume in the popular  Sipster's Pocket Guide series, wine expert and educator  Luke Whittall  presents his latest top 50 British Columbia wines under $50 (including many under $30) and along the way shares his thoughts on wine country and common misconceptions about ce...

The full title of Natalie Maclean's  memoir is  Wine Witch on Fire Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation and Drinking Too Much.   For all of you who bought and read Natalie's  book  Red, White and  Drunk All Over  and listened to her podcast  Unreserved Wine Talk,  this memoir is a completely different read. She discovers her husband of many years is leaving the relationship and at the same...

We meet  Blue Moon Marquee -  Al Cardinal and Jasmine Colette  - on the stage at the Osbourne Bay Pub in Crofton, Vancouver Island. That stage was the first place they met and then played together many times as Blue Moon Marquee. They've come a long way since that stage.  Juno Winners, sweeping the  2023 Maple Blues Awards and still winning awards  including this week. After a decade of stages and...

The Fretless guest on The Stew. Karrnnel Sawitsky and Trent Freeman - one-half of The Fretless join us. Saturday in the first hour.   Their album -  Glass Wing  is brilliant. With 3 songs cowritten and sung by  Madeleine Roger. Classically trained, raised on rock, jazz, blues, folk and heritage roots, they take all those influences and combine them into a sound unlike any other group. They take 10...

This week we welcome  Donovan Woods and his latest album   Things were never good if They're not good now.   Wonderful insight into his songwriting and his place in the music business. The first time he played in Victoria, he couldn't believe the audience knew the words to his songs. And in the past year, he played in Australia and remembers an audience in Perth who sang the words louder than he c...

Joel Plaskett's eleventh album—One Real Reveal  is special for several reasons. Joel sat down with a small Telefunken KM56 microphone and a 4-track recorder and recorded the tracks for One Real Reveal ON CASSETTE TAPE starting with the brilliant High Summer. This album and its music is bare.  Because it is, you're forced to listen to the music and especially the lyrics.  These are words and melodi...

Terry David Mulligan joins Blues lifer Robert Finley in the media tent at the Edmonton Folk Festival. Robert spins the stories of how he went from losing most of his sight to becoming the hot new voice in the blues. Inviting himself to do a cold walk-on at the Blues Festival in St Helena. It's quite a story he tells.  The crowd loved him and that set things in motion. The Music Maker Relief Founda...

  I've been waiting for new music from Winnipeg's Madeleine Roger for four years. That's how long it's been since I discovered her voice, playing and gifted songwriting. Maddy took a solo career detour through the stellar chops of The Fretless. They needed an exceptional vocalist who understood and was comfortable with, classical music. Madeleine needed a different "band" to shine with. Perfect! S...

The last time I had the privilege of interviewing Rhiannon Giddens it was in 2017 at Edmonton Folk Fest. In the next five years, she became a World star. For example: In October 2017, Giddens was named one of the 2017 class of  MacArthur "Genius" Fellows . In 2017 and 2018, Giddens appeared in the  fifth  and  sixth  seasons of the  CMT 's  In January 2018, Giddens co-produced  Songs of Our Native...

Colin's 21 st  album is called Chasing the Sun.   Today,   Aug 17 is his Birthday. Happy Day Colin     Co-produced by Colin Linden in his Pinhead Studios in Nashville. Colin's coming to the  Mulligan Stew Podcast with the complete story of how he and his friends wrote and created these outstanding songs.   Colin singing a Lucinda Williams song, Protection, with Lucinda  in the studio doing harmony...

Terry talks with Rhiannon Giddens at the Edmonton Folk Music Fest in 2020

Kevin Kane and The Hooper Brothers  Chris and Tommy have been an original Canadian band for over 40 years. The Grapes of Wrath. Same three guys. Still making music. This podcast is their first complete band interview in over 10 years. Like many, I had presumed that the guys had moved on to solo efforts or other bands or other dreams. When I saw that they were playing and selling out  The Carleton...

The last two festival directors join us on The Summer Stew -  Terry Wickham  - Edmonton Aug 8-11 Many years later the musical leader at  Edmonton Folk Festival.  As you know, he's a natural storyteller and this year he's telling stories of the growing indigenous component of the festival. Also how it all started to grow within the fest, it involves the Chieftains. Terry talks about how he discover...

It's festival season. Full ON. Everywhere you go someone is kicking off a festival. We're concentrating on the music festivals of Western Canada. I couldn't do them all… Vancouver Island and Winnipeg   festivals  have started This weekend our guests are – artistic directors Kerry Clark from the Calgary Folk Fest and Fiona Black from the Vancouver Folk Fest. We finish our festival updates on July 2...

It all started as a single interview about the Edmonton Folk Festival. We seemed to be talking about the "other" festivals and could they survive the Covid years. That conversation turned into the first group interview with the artistic directors  of Calgary, Winnipeg, Canmore and Vancouver Folk Festivals. It was fun and informative, so we've decided to make it a yearly gathering. Here's the guest...

They are Canadian music royalty.  Who better to have joined us on the Canada Day weekend than Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo? AND  Jim brings his 6 th  solo album  All the World Fades Away. There is much to talk about. In the first half of the Podcast Greg and Jim take us through Blue Rodeo's plans for their 40 th  year together in 2025. Taking part in the Lightfoot celebration at Masse...

Two remarkable guests this week Celeigh Cardinal and her new album Boundless Possibilities and Bridget Kearney – Bassist and songwriter for Lake Street Dive Both guests have albums that came out Friday. Celeigh Cardinal  has her latest dropping Friday  - Boundless Possibilities. Personally written songs that describe the feelings of losing her son's Father in a murder and the death of a friend by...

For years, there have been multiple wine competitions no matter what country or region. The BC wine industry is no exception. The latest wine awards are  The BC Top 50 wines and Wine of the Year as part of the 2024 Okanagan Spring Wine Festival , which is on now. Friday night the results were announced at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre and then hundreds descended on the trade floor to d...

I've had the distinct pleasure to host and produce Tasting Room Radio for 17 years. Most weeks we consider featuring some of those stories on the podcast but music, arts and music history seem to carry the day. These two interviews deserve to be featured because they tell the story of the current state of the BC wine industry. The Okanagan has been burned by summer fires and choked by summer smoke...