Mulligan Stew

PODCAST

“Call Me a Fool” is up for best American roots song because there’s no category for most transcendent modern soul ballad that feels like foundational gospel. For people who love Motown and the Alabama Shakes, Adele and Al Green, there’s Valerie June. For anyone who loves music, there’s Valerie June.

Boston Herald

There’s only one Valerie June.

 Vocally, emotionally, mentally, and creatively  Tennessee’s Valerie June completely stands out in an artistic world filled with stunning sameness.

In her career and creative decisions, she shows respect for those who came before her.  We talk about Mavis Staples who Valerie June calls Saint Mavis and Memphis legend Carla Thomas her partner on the Grammy-nominated Call me a Fool.

She’s on a busy tour now. Using everything from a 13 piece orchestra to herself and a bassist.

Valerie June’s latest album is The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers...

Also, watch out for a new single Use Me.

Greatness.

Episode #200 – it’s a blur but I think captures what the times were like during a pandemic. The role that music played in getting people through.

Joni and I shared a band house in Regina. For 10 days.  Maybe 1966.

Then we reconnected when I hosted the first Greenpeace concert that Joni headlined in Vancouver. We would cross paths much later at The Last Waltz.

This is a video interview I can’t remember doing. I also had forgotten the Greenpeace concert for some bizarre reason.

She talks about  The Last Waltz, being incorrectly painted as a Canadian ex-pat in LA,  the effect her songs have on people, the changing of “the old guard” at the Last Waltz, and how she wasn’t ready to retire.

We cover a lot of subjects and her music history.

How she calls her songs “her babies” and that it's part of female nurturing

She waxes about Dylan, Steely Dan and answers the question do we know her as well as we think we do? Joni speaks out strongly on Indian rights!!

Neither one of us mention an album or name a song.  So I’m not exactly sure when this was recorded. But I’m thinking 1982???

I mention she’s on a speaking tour and Joni talks about organizing a date with  Sting,  Peter Gabriel, Bryan Adams that speaks of The Human Rights Concerts (Live in New Jersey). That first concert was in 1986..so let's call this interview mid-80s.

The time of

82’s Wild Things Run Fast

86’s Dog Eat Dog

88’s Chalk mark in a rainstorm

Being influenced by Steely Dan, Thomas Dolby, Willie Nelson, and Peter Gabriel.

It’s the perfect interview to celebrate Podcast 200.

(Thank You Elliott Garnier and Corey Wood for getting me there)

God Bless Joni Mitchell

Shawn Edwards.

Film Critic. Entertainment Journalist. (WDAS Kansas City).  Creator. Producer. On the board of the Critics Choice Assn in LA.

Producer of A Celebration of Black Cinema. Currently shaping The Black Movie Hall of Fame in Kansas City.

Shawn returns to share a recap of the 2022 Critics Choice Awards last Sunday (in LA and London)

How those winning might affect The Oscars.

Plus The Super Awards winners.

We deep dive intro

The Power of the Dog

King Richard

Tammy Faye

Jane Campion - Director
Halle Berry

Ted Lasso

We welcome back to 199  Shawn Edwards.

NEXT WEEK – Joni Mitchell

Moving is never “fun” but along the way (if you’re lucky) you find little treasures.

During our latest move, I found boxes and cases with interviews.

It got me to thinking – where is that Solomon Burke Interview?

We had talked at the Edmonton Folk Festival several years earlier and in 2010 when he was releasing a new album Nothing’s Impossible.

Produced by Willie Mitchell in Memphis. Same Studio, producer, musicians as Rev Al Green!

We had a great chat and off he went – passing away weeks later as he passed through Amsterdam’s airport.

I simply couldn’t find the heart to go back and listen to the interview. Every time I heard the first words I started to tear up.

So. I walked away from the interview thinking the day will come when I can deal with it.

Well, today’s the day.

Solomon Burke was asked in an interview “are you a gospel/church singer or a blues singer?”..Solomon’s reply was “I’m a soul singer”

He was the first artist to use the phrase.

The man was a preacher, singer, writer, mortician!  When it came to the music business he was not to be messed with.

If you get a chance check out his life story. It’s a wild ride.

Solomon Burke by-the-numbers

Performed 55 years. 38 studio albums. 17 record labels. Grammy winner. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 17 million albums sold.  In 2008 was #89 of Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 greatest singers of all time.

AND Father of 21 children and Grandfather of 90 Grandkids.

Kevin Hearn has released a stark album called There and Then:  Solo Piano Improvisations.  3 distinct rooms, 3 pianos, and 3 days of playing, each only for 3 hours.
No demos. No rehearsal. No real conversation between himself and producer Mark Howard.
Yes. The same Kevin Hearn who was a member of the Corky and the Juice Pigs Band, bandleader for Lou Reed, and a star member of Bare Naked Ladies.
Kevin worked for years with Gord Downie. Right up until Gord was lost to Cancer.
There and Then honors Gord (Among the Stars)and Lou (Lou) and Garth Hudson (The Garth Hudson Institute) and the basic elements of great music.
The album cover was painted by Gord’s daughter Willo. Lou Video was directed by Mike Downie.
Rather than paint a word picture I’ve decided to let Kevin tell the tale of how all this came to be.
THIS is an album that will become a balm for the World we all live in.
Well done Kevin and Mark.

It’s fair to say Keb Mo is simply one of the most popular choices to play on anyone’s show. An easy pull.

He delivers thoughtfulness, groove, and joy every time.

So imagine my delight in having him Zoom guest from his home in Nashville.

Keb’s new album is Good to be. It reflects the loss of his mother, returning home to Compton to remodel and freshen up the home he was brought up in and to reconnect with “the community”.  Now that’s one thing we talk about - I never thought of Compton as a community because everything I read and heard only referenced the toughness of the streets and what could be a hard life. (NWA!!)

Keb references and hangs with The Compton Cowboys.. real-life people. Legends in The Compton history.

Keb also talks strongly about his thoughts on  Black History Month, working with Vince Gill, Old Crow Medicine Show, covering his friend Bill Withers, etc.

He answers the last question straight up – Did you find the blues or did the blues find you?

The complete audio and zoom interview drops right after The Stew.  Details  at www.mulliganstew.ca

St Paul and the Broken Bones.  The best name in years.

Our guest is the co-founder, lead singer, and co-writer Paul Janeway…the Paul of St Paul.

They’ve just released their 4th Album The Alien Coast. Fair to say, it’s not like the other three.

The groove is still there but they’re singing about classic painters, fever dreams, dancing as the World ends.

Paul Janeway looks like what he was planning to be – an accountant and bank teller – or a Preacher.

On stage, he brings the fire and brimstone of a Preacher but with the composure of Marvin Gaye and the driven belief of James Brown.

There’s so much to talk about here. Faith. Love. Devotion.

With three tracks included from The Alien Coast, we proudly present Paul Janeway – St Paul and the Broken Bones.

Carefully assembled from the most powerful performances of a three-night residency at Calgary’s historically iconic blues mecca, the King Edward Hotel, between February 15th and 17th, 2019, Live at the King Eddy arrives as the latest installment of an already storied career that has to date produced six stunning studio releases. Following the independently released, raw folk and country-blues excursions of 2007’s The Blues Can Kill and the following year’s eponymous album, vocalist and harmonicist Shawn Hall – the Harpoonist – and guitarist Matt Rodgers – the Axe Murderer – truly hit their stride and found their sound on 2012’s Checkered Past.

Now. Three years after capturing these live recordings on The Stones Mobile, Harp and Axe release the finished product. Live at The King Eddy.

It’s a pumped and beautifully greasy set. Slick and unhinged at the same time.

Here’s a conversation with Shawn Hall – The Harp. We’ve showcased 5 tracks for you.

Mama’s in the back seat

Cry a Little

Roll with the punches

Sarah

Treat me kind

Not all the interviews we present on the Stew Podcast are brand new.

I’ve been at this interview thing since 1964 so there are always the possibilities of archival interviews.

Many are tied up in legal issues. Some were never kept or lost to time.

However, occasionally they just get “discovered” 

The Sarah McLachlan interviews we present this week are the discovered type.

The first was in 1988. Sarah with her late 80’s Halifax Hair. Me,  holding her new album on Solace on cassette.

Then a large jump to 1992.

The year before Sarah had released Solace and was touring hard,  working on the songs for ‘93’s  Fumbling towards Ecstasy.

Everything changed right there. She had the songs, the voice, and the drive to become – what she became – a 40 Million album selling, Lilith Faire producing, and Grammy/Juno winning music star.

Sarah and I would later tour Thailand and Cambodia for World Vision. That’s another interview.

Two moments in time on the Mulligan Stew Podcast.

HELLO Sarah

Two Words – Billy Joel.

One of the very few singing piano players who transcend the law of popular music.  There’s Elton John, Harry Connick, Leon Russell, Randy Newman, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Fats Domino etc.

Billy grew up on Long Island..in the shadow of NYC.

Determined to play piano and write songs Billy paid his dues in a Hollywood Bar. The kind where no one in the room was listening.

He has become a legend and a world star. Songwriter &  Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. Grammy winner. Kennedy Centre Honours.  This interview was done around 1998 or 1989..following the release of his album Storm Front. Produced by Mick  Jones of Foreigner.

There’s a good segment on Billy’s songwriting PROCESS…IT’S DREAMS EMBEDDED IN SLEEP.