In 2016  stellar  Canadian band 54.40 released an album La Difference: A History Unplugged. It was a brilliant reworking of their greatest hits.

You could instantly tell it was one of their songs but the instrumentation and overall sound had been changed and made fresher. It brought new life to older songs and I thought it was a great move. Clever and classic.  It takes a band working together to allow each member to express what they feel about a song they’ve been playing for years.

7 years later, here comes The Northern Pikes. They also have a nice collection of hits and the commitment to reimagine those hits and bring new life to them. Acoustically inspired.

Before Covid changed the World,  they had planned to release a 30th-anniversary salute to their landmark album Snow in June.

A collection of Pikes songs driven by one of the best radio hits ever released in Canada – She ain’t Pretty.

This interview takes us through the group think about how to carry on and what it would sound like.

The Pikes have just released an acoustically driven album called TIME TO TIME that includes 7 songs from Snow in June and three new songs.

Between my radio life and many years at Much West, I crossed paths and got to hang with Jay Semko, Bryan Potvin, Don Schmid and the “new kid” in the band Kevin Kane (also a charter member of The Grapes of Wrath)

This Mulligan Stew Podcast features a delightful gathering of Jay, Bryan and Kevin and myself. We could have filled the time just remembering stories from the late ’80s and ’90s but we had new versions of Pikes hits to talk about and play.

Girl with a Problem, a Celtic feeling Green Fields, a smashing reworking of the title track and a She Ain’t Pretty that still rocks – acoustically.

Come hang with The Pikes and their album Time to Time