Features on Festival du Bois, CelticFest Vancouver, The Maddest Musical March 5th, new releases, and music found at Folk Alliance

Features on Festival du Bois, CelticFest Vancouver, The Maddest Musical March 5th, new releases, and music found at Folk Alliance

Plus features on Oliver Swain, The Bills, Lennie Gallant - and a whole bunch of CDs acquired at Folk Alliance in Kansas City last week

Small tribute to Dan Hicks, who passed away this week, age 74, in California. New releases from Rokia Traore and Sidestepper. Looking ahead to Festival du Bois, CelticFest Vancouver, Eilen Jewell concert, Bumper Jacksons, etc. Tried to hook up to St. James Hall for a live feed at the Mayor's announcement saving the building. Couldn't get it to work. Oh well. Also SAM would not let me choose anything. I switched it off. Managed to restore its settings eventually!

To kick off Black History Month I started the show with several African-Canadian artists, before moving onto a mini-theme of Carnival / Mardi Gras. Featured music by Cape Breton Celtic combo Coig, Cuban-Canadian artist Alex Cuba (sold out show this evening at the Kay Meek Theatre in West Vancouver), upcoming Rogues like The Bills, Bumper Jacksons, Eilen Jewell, Oliver Swain, Sharon Shannon, De Danann, plus other performers coming to town including Aoife O'Donovan, Damien Dempsey, Jeff Lang, and new releases by Colin Linden, Rhiannon Giddens, Show Of Hands, and Tim O'Brien. Paid tribute to The Busby Babes, the Manchester United soccer team decimated in the Munich Air Crash 58 years ago today with a song by Mick Grove and Phil Beer (of Show of Hands.)

Features on Aurelio, The Jaybirds, Old Man Luedecke, and new releases by Baaba Maal, Tim O'Brien, Matt Andersen, Solas, and Show Of Hands

BTW, this PSA / Ad list is really screwy!!

Small tribute to Glenn Frey of Eagles fame, features on Bumper Jacksons, Lydia Hol (Vancouver songwriter launching new CD this weekend), and Quebec's Felix Award-winning combo Le Vent du Nord, plus another tip of the hat to Andy M Stewart and to David Bowie, and a shout-out to legendary fiddler Dave Swarbrick, who's having some health issues this week. 2016 has been a tough year for music so far - we're losing too many luminaries too quickly and too often!

Return from Hawaii / mini features on Eilen Jewell / JP Cormier / The Revelers. Late start. Oops!

Guest host Paul Norton from CiTR's Code Blue show (Saturdays from 3 to 5 pm) spins his own brand of folk and world music.

More of my favourite albums of 2015, plus a small tribute to Scots singer Andy M Stewart, who died last week. Also a look ahead to some artists coming to town in the next few weeks