We've got a live one here!  

This is a live session with the celebrated Canadian artist Tony D, who for decades has been known as an electrifying guitar talent, equally expressive in styles ranging from blues to swing to acid rock to flamenco! Tony has travelled the world playing music, and has a trophy case worth of awards; but somehow his new record Electric Delta is the first proper new Tony D solo offering of original material in a couple of decades! And the album release party for this long-awaited new record is what we hear in this highly celebratory live CKUA Hidden Track Session.  

Between his solo projects, the celebrated Canadian band MonkeyJunk, and plenty of other musical activities, he's toured everywhere from Memphis to Italy, and all across Canada! He's even performed in the northernmost continuously inhabited place in the world — Alert, Nunavut. 

Alberta has long been a kind of second home to Tony D; and these days he's actually a part-time resident of this part of the world, when he isn't on the road, as his partner and family live in the province.

In this final episode of Hidden Track Season 5, we hear the electrifying Tony D performing in front of a rapt audience at CKUA's Live Performance Space in Edmonton, joined by his longtime bass player Joe Hawkins, as well as two superb Edmonton-based musicians: keyboardist Rooster Davis and drummer Jamie Cooper.  

The sparks really fly between these four musicians and the audience, as they perform a diverse set of original material — a Tony D classic called "Argentinian Surf Tango", plus two standouts from the new album, "Highway 7" and the rousing opening salvo: a dynamic instrumental workout entitled "NAS". 

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug Hoyer

Recording/Mastering for this session provided by Brendan Cross.

The Hidden Track podcast is a CKUA production, made possible by the generosity of our donors. Thank you for your support!  

When you consider that the Yukon's population density is estimated to be roughly 0.07 people per square kilometre, it's kind of amazing the cultural imprint that the territory has made — both in terms of Canadian and global culture!

The majestic, dramatic land made world-famous in classics ranging from The Cremation of Sam McGee to The Call of the Wild has long inspired artists of all kinds, and it’s truly become a haven for musical creatives. From the territory's living Indigenous musical traditions, to the fabled folk songs of the Klondike, to the incredible people making original music today ranging from bluegrass to hip-hop, the story of Yukon music is a vibrant, diverse, and ever-evolving one — as we hear in this episode, the thrilling conclusion of our first-ever Hidden Track two-parter! 

Just as in Part One of our Music Yukon/Hidden Track collab, we’re treated to some truly thrilling live performances by artists from that vast territory, and we get a sense of how the Yukon impacts their lives and art practices. 

While Edmonton, Alberta is sometimes referred to as the most northerly large city in the Americas, with metropolitan population of more than one million people, you've got to make a roughly 2,000 kilometre-long trip southeast to get from the Yukon's capital city of Whitehorse to Edmonton! So, it was a pretty big deal when a whole troop of Yukon musicians made the big trek down south to perform as part of the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival in August 2024. This was thanks to the support of Music Yukon and a really cool partnership with the Edmonton Fringe. 

While they were here, CKUA was lucky enough to host a whole bunch of them for Hidden Track sessions in our Studio A in Edmonton. They shared stories and songs with us that evoke the unique natural beauty, highly personalized sense of expression, and vibrant community feeling that make the Yukon such a magical place for music. 

In Part 2, we hear from Alex MacNeil (leader of the outsider power-pop favourites Alex MacNeil and the Revenants, accompanied here by Hendika), the idiosyncratic punk-inspired stylings of Cryptozoologists, and the spirited soulful beauty of Bria Rose N' Thorns. 

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug Hoyer

Recording and mastering for this episode by Brendan Cross. 

The Hidden Track Podcast is a CKUA production made possible by our incredible donor community. Thank you for your support!

Joel Plaskett first came to fame in the beloved rock band Thrush Hermit, a group who came together as teenagers in Halifax and barnstormed across Canada and beyond throughout the '90s with a dynamic stage show, plus an actual neon sign reading "Rock and Roll". In fact, last time Joel visited CKUA's Edmonton studios was five years ago during a Thrush Hermit reunion tour, and he told us about keeping that "Rock and Roll" sign in storage for many years. 

For his autumn 2024 tour, he certainly wasn't in need of the iconic "Rock and Roll" sign. It was just himself and his guitars (plus a reclining armchair and photo projector) for an album launch tour to celebrate his stunningly intimate acoustic album One Real Reveal. 

He's an artist who's been known to challenge himself to ever-greater thematic journeys in his solo work. There's his well-loved 2009 release Three— his third solo outing - a triple album which was largely made up of songs with triple-barrelled titles. Then there was 44, released the day before he turned 45, consisting of four albums of eleven songs each. He's come up with maybe an even more daunting creative challenge this time, scaling the process all the way down to the number one — a record made with a single microphone, created almost entirely by Joel alone. Except for one very notable exception, which he'll reveal to us in this conversation.

An unparallelled storyteller and an artist of remarkable candour and curiosity, Joel Plaskett shared very generously with us about the serendipitous musical moment that sparked this whole album, how it represents a return to his roots in somewhat surprising ways, how spoken word suddenly introduced itself as part of his artistry, and the importance of embracing the presence, spontaneity, transience, and cyclical nature of music, art, and life. This is a Hidden Track Story: Joel Plaskett | Four Tracks and the Truth.

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug Hoyer

The Hidden Track Podcast is a CKUA production made possible by the generosity of our donour community. Thank you for your support! 

For this special episode, Hidden Track is doing something utterly different. This isn’t a feature on one artist, song, or album. It casts a spotlight on a whole scene—on a whole Canadian Territory, in a sense!  

Yukon is a Canadian territory that’s bigger than most countries on Earth, but its nearly half-million square kilometres are inhabited by only about 40,000 people. 

In partnership with both Music Yukon and The Edmonton Fringe, CKUA invited five acts into CKUA’s Studio to share some of their music and their story with us. In Part 1 of this unique collaboration, we hear from Ellorie McKnight and her longtime musical collaborator Brigitte Jardin, touring veterans Diyet & the Love Soldiers, and the incredibly soulful Elijah Bekk (and band). 

The Hidden Track Podcast is a CKUA production, made possible by the generous contributions of our donors. Thank you for your support! 

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Shaun Friesen | Music: Doug Hoyer

Associate Producer: Aajah Souter

Recording and mastering for this Session provided by Brendan Cross. 

She's a musician whose artistic vision and songwriting are every bit as distinctive and expressive as that spectacular voice of hers. Frazey Ford's trademark tremulous croon first became well-known as part of the vocal blend for globally-renowned Vancouver folk music mainstays The Be Good Tanyas. While that band's aesthetic leaned toward the folky and jazzy, Frazey's own instincts have always been strongly inclined toward a classic soul music feel. 

Her 2010 debut album Obadiah began to chart her own unique artistic course, which she further developed with 2014's Indian Ocean, and 2020's U Kin B the Sun. 

In this free-wheeling conversation, we'll learn about the rather stunning experiments in creativity that led to her beautiful latest release; as well as the nearly stranger-than-fiction story behind Indian Ocean, which turned 10 years old in October of 2024. Those sessions took place in Memphis, in the studio where many of her all-time favourite soul songs were recorded in the 1970s – with the very musicians who helped to craft them. 

And as a special bonus treat (and a meta experience of sorts) – we conclude this episode of Hidden Track with an actual hidden track! One that appears at the end of the streaming version of Indian Ocean. This is a Hidden Track Story from a dressing room at the Arden Theatre with the wonderful Frazey Ford. 

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug Hoyer

The Hidden Track Podcast is a CKUA production made possible by the generosity of our donor community. Thank you for your support! 

In many ways, Frank is the perfect name for this well-loved singer-songwriter, producer, and eternal punk rock firebrand. 

Kind of like the many tattoos that adorn his arms, Frank Turner wears his heart right on his sleeve. Always unstintingly honest in all his artistic endeavours, Frank's music carries a candour and conviction that's incredibly powerful – devastating, even. Frank always manages always to have the ability to connect directly with the human heart – whether sharing tenderly of his own life's journey through his songs, or pushing back with snarling ferocity against fascism and injustice, his music resounds with urgency, authenticity, and humanity. No matter if you're talking about the all-out sonic assault of his fearsome band, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, or – equally powerfully –  when Frank is in the intimate solo acoustic mode that we experience on this episode. 

As we'll hear during this Hidden Track Session, Frank Turner is an astoundingly intelligent and acute observer of the human condition, a seemingly tireless road dog, a devoted music nerd of the very highest order, and a truly humble soul. 

He carved out some time between shows to join us in CKUA Live Performance Space in Edmonton, as he passed through on a relentless world tour celebrating his triumphant 2024 release, Undefeated. The record arrives on the heels of his 2022 album FTHC (for Frank Turner Hardcore) which – 15 years into his solo discography – saw this folk-punk troubadour shoot all the way up to Number One on the British Album Chart! For context, other artists to score UK Number One albums that year were people like Ed Sheeran, Beyonce, and Taylor Swift. 

But rather than try to repeat that formula for success, Frank decided to take the opportunity to instead to make this new album without a major label; and for the first time in his ten albums to date, to produce it entirely himself, in his own home studio. 

And as Frank tells us, the songs on Undefeated are mostly derived from stories drawn from his own life journey. In conversation, Frank is a fount of wonderful stories, insights, jokes, and esoteric music trivia – while as a songwriter and performer, he distills all of his brilliance down to a razor-sharp point. Along with a characteristically brilliant conversation with Frank, we're treated to an absolutely exquisite, heartfelt performance of three songs from Frank's new album, solo acoustic in CKUA studios: "Letters", "Girl from the Record Shop", and one of his most beautiful compositions to date, "Somewhere in Between". 

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Recording/Mastering: Brendan Cross | Music: Doug Hoyer

As an artist, she's always been a bit of a shapeshifter. 

Over the course of her wildly diverse career, she's touched on numerous different genres, been signed to a series of major record labels, and made music under several monikers. 

Her journey has taken her from a tiny community on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, to the bright lights of Los Angeles at age 20, to the City of Light – Paris, France. 

Her latest work sees her returning to Canada, coming back to her musical roots in many, taking ownership of her art and her story, and reverting to her real nickname and surname, Goldie Boutilier. 

We were lucky enough to catch up with Goldie during a breathless 2024 tour which saw her paired up for a run of dates across the continent with Orville Peck. And this autumn sees her rolling back through these parts – this time on her debut North American headlining tour, to celebrate the release of her brilliant new album, out September 27th – The Actress. 

Her latest music is inspired by some of the music she grew up hearing – ranging from Tammy Wynnette to Fleetwood Mac, Alison Krauss to the Twin Peaks soundtrack. The songs are informed by the transformations and heartbreaks she's undergone over the years and by her profoundly disturbing real-life experience -- living out the youthful dream of signing a major label deal and moving to L.A. As we'll hear, show business can be a cold, cruel, predatory enterprise; one that many artists only triumph over by reclaiming their narrative and artistic selves, on their own terms. 

That's what Goldie has done in her recent evolution, beginning with her arresting 2022 EP Cowboy Gangster Politician, carrying on through 2023's Emerald Year, and now The Actress. If Goldie's wild career arc were a Hollywood screenplay, it might seem a little too far-fetched to be believable. But, as Goldie sings on the title track to her new EP:

"I am the actress, and you're in my movie." 

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug Hoyer

Mixing for this session provided by Brendan Cross. 

Michael Bernard Fitzgerald is an artist who’s always expressed what’s most important to him through his songs. He's also been incredibly meticulous throughout his career, taking care to build a unique and heartfelt connection to his audience and striving to create an unforgettable live setting for his music. 

He’s elevated the sharing of live music to a high art in itself — whether it’s inviting Calgary Folk Fest goers to join him at picnic tables to eat pie in the sun, taking to the stage with 300 backing singers at the Jubilee Auditorium or, as we hear him in this particular setting, going into his Farm Tour mode to immerse audience and performer alike in a whisper-quiet, impossibly intimate moment of musical expression. 

Although his brand-new album Horizon Lines contains colossal hooks, massive production flourishes, and the trademark sense of pop music maximalism that has always made MBF’s work so exhilarating. Although, the heart of his songcraft, as ever, lies in his voice and his guitar. That’s the sensibility that he foregrounds during his very intimate Farm Tours, which is the very mode in which we caught up with him for this Hidden Track Session in CKUA’s Live Performance Space in Edmonton. 

Just ahead of the September 27th release of Horizon Lines, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald played beautifully hushed, solo acoustic renditions of the title track, first single “After a While”, and MBF staple “Good Plates”. He also shared some insight behind where the songs mugs come from, the inspiration he draws from his burgeoning family, and just exactly what a Farm Tour is all about. 

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug Hoyer

Mixing assistance for this Session provided by Charlotte Carr. 

The Hidden Track Podcast is made possible by the generosity of our donor community. Thank you for your support!

Kaia Kater has learned her craft through the influence of a diverse group of musical heroes, ranging from Herbie Hancock to Rhiannon Giddens. She recently turned her lens simultaneously inward and outward, to confront difficult truths and injustices – personally, historically, societally, and made them into album titled Strange Medicine.

CKUA’s Grant Stovel caught up with Kaia shortly after the album's release, as she was entering the summertime festival season. And she's very much a child of the Western Canadian folk festival experience.

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug Hoyer

The Hidden Track podcast is a CKUA production and made possible by the generosity of our donors. Thank you for your support!

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The joy in the everyday, the continuous arc of life's changes and the way a simple shift in perspective can utterly transform one's experience... 

Ellen Doty's new album is a kind of musical meditation, a collection of songs that aims to bring some gentle joy to the listener's heart. Every Little Scene is gorgeous set of songs that relate how if you pay mindful attention, small moments and subtle shifts can bring about great beauty and peace. 

It's interesting that Ellen herself was undergoing just about the biggest life change that there is, as she was crafting these songs. In this episode, we hear all about how these songs were created in parallel with a transition into parenthood. We'll also hear stunning renditions of three songs from the new album, "Kaleidoscope", "Coming Back to Me", and the title track to Every Little Scene, as performed with her band. 

Reflecting the gracious, spacious beauty of the songs themselves, the musical setting is spare and poetic. Ellen's voice is in dialogue with the lyrical keyboard playing of Devin Hart, and the painterly textures of drummer Peter Hendrickson. Their instruments combine together with a kind of graceful, crackling energy that seems to imbue every note with richness and resonance. There's a roominess to the sound of this trio that creates space for that magical, transcendent quality that the songs invoke. 

This is Ellen Doty, as seen on Hidden Track Sessions. You can check out the video version of this episode on CKUA's YouTube channel!

Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug Hoyer 

The final mix for this session was provided by Brendan Cross.

The Hidden Track Podcast is made possible by the generosity of CKUA’s donour community. Thank you for your support!