theborderline.ca

LIVEWIRE BLUES POWER is powered by the support of Long & McQuade, 647 MacDonald Ave, Sault Ste. Marie, ON

THANKS FOR THE PEPPERONI

Taj Mahal – Honky Tonk Women

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown – Ventilator Blues

Jimmy Reed – Bright Lights, Big City

Jimmy Reed – Big Boss Man

George Harrison & Eric Clapton – Out of the Blue

Gatemouth Moore – Somebody Got To Go

Jay Scali – Too Many Dirty Dishes

George Harrison & Eric Clapton – Thanks for the Pepperoni

Michael Yurich – Singing The Blues

The blues tradition began in North America, coming out of the very soul of the earth. Blood, sweat and tears enriched the fertile ground that formed the roots that fed the soul of the people. It exuded itself through the music, we are the blues.

Having grown up on the borderline of the USA, and picking up that great late night blues radio, coming clear from Detroit and Chicago, we grew up accustomed to blues power. It was coming from everywhere. It makes for a vast reservoir of musical knowledge and experience to draw from.

Livewire Blues Power plays classic recordings from the all-time blues greats, as well as blues from around the world rooted in the tradition, and Livewire Blues Power also introduces the music of the Soo’s blues artists to blues fans everywhere.

“IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE BLUES, YA GOTTA HOLE IN YER SOUL”

About Your Host

DANNY MOTT was born in England and raised in Canada. Danny has been involved in myriad recordings and in various countries, most notably in Jamaica and Cuba.

Danny’s music is released under the moniker, “Mocombo” where he acts as composer, producer, engineer and musician. Mocombo is a versatile band project that shifts effortlessly between world music, traditional blues, Cuban jazz and blues rock.

Danny has a rich academic background in music that includes various diplomas, degrees and certificates. Danny’s studies include; Classical guitar from the Algoma Conservatory of Music; Composition, performance, music history, music business and retailing from Humber College of Applied Arts; North Indian Hindustani classical music at the Academy Of Eastern Fine Arts; Adult teaching techniques for music at Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology; Music education at the University of Victoria; Studio recording from the Institute of Recording and Arts; Music theory at the Royal Conservatory of Music; Music and anthropology at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Dean’s Honour List; Religious traditions of Islam at the University of Waterloo.

Danny’s music performance and work history are also impressive. As a tour promoter, acts like Gordon Lightfoot and Ravi Shankar; as a music teacher at Nelson Music in B.C.; Music Marketing Director and music technician at Saved By Technology in Toronto, with a client list including the Rolling Stones, Rush, Barenaked Ladies, Jane Siberry, and many more; Marketing and Sales Director for On Publications Inc., a national distribution of music print medium company; Marketing Director for Roy Creations International in Montreal, for the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

Danny has orchestrated several projects, including a film in the Cuban language, with the participation of Cuba’s National Dance Company.

Danny’s project, Mocombo, has issued seven outstanding CDs: Odyssey, Zubie Zubie, Dreamscape, Flophouse Daddy, Flophouse Daddy Returns (Boldly Going Nowhere), Global 360 and Mocombo in Habana Project (2 CD set).

“I just want everybody to have a good time, because I’m going out to have a good time. I’m going to go have some fun.”

Danny Mott

Date:22 August 2026 .

Aleisha Parr is the current President of The Soo Roller Derby league, a women’s flat-track roller derby league in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. As of 2024 the league is working hard to re-form and build a strong skating team to participate and foster the love of the sport and to support all friends and allies within the roller derby community. The league offers an inclusive, all gender, safe space to practice and have fun. Competitive skaters, casual skaters, drop in skaters, referees, volunteers, coaches, all are welcome!

Date:20 August 2026 .

The Algomian, Algoma’s creative journal, features poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction sketches, one-act plays, visual art, music, cartoons, book reviews, and writer’s tips. With a focus on new and emerging voices, the journal aims to provide the Algoma community with a platform to share its art – especially its creative writing – with the world, and for the world to enjoy the inspiring creative talent of this region. Honouring Algoma University’s Special Mission to support the needs of Northern communities and its commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), The Algomian welcomes material from all writers, wherever they are from and whatever their orientation.

The Algomian is brought to you by the Algoma University English & History Department in cooperation with Algoma University Libraries and Scholars Portal.

The author of three travel memoirs, Of Canoes and Crocodiles (2024), The Dragon Run (2017), and Back in 6 Years (2008) and a regular contributor to the online magazine Perceptive Travel, Dr. Tony Robinson-Smith teaches creative, academic, and travel writing at Algoma U.

With an emphasis on creative writing, The Algomian is an online platform that gives emerging and seasoned artists a place to share their work with the world.

Date:18 August 2026 .

In early July of 1973, the Brown Street Bombers Association, a group of more than 20 kids, appeared in front of the Sault Ste. Marie City Council and Mayor Ronald A. Irwin. They were there to ask council if they would close Brown St. for one day so that the association and its members could hold the inaugural Brown Street Grand Prix. The public presentation made a convincing case, enough so that council agreed, even going as far as donating a champions’ trophy in the name of the Ward 4 aldermen, Nicholas Trbovich and Michael Sanzosti.

The key figure in this slice of Soo folklore was Joseph Daniel Lapointe. It was Joe Lapointe, a resident of the street and at that time a college-aged young man, that first organized the kids into an association membership with voting rights. It was Joe’s vision and guidance that kept the derby a going concern for the many years that followed.

The first Brown St. Derby rolled out as a race for the kids living on the street. Its popularity quickly expanded to include participants from the greater neighbourhood, and then more racers from all around the city joined and for over a decade the Brown Street Grand Prix was a happening thing, with the final race taking place in the summer of 1983. Over its 11-year history, hundreds of kids, boys and girls, from all over Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario – and a few one year from Sault, Michigan, USA – would challenge for the checkered flag and the title of Brown Street Grand Prix race champions. It was an enchanted period in local history, a time in the life of a youth that let the good times roll.

MUSIC & CREDITS

Theme Music by Big Suit and The Tragically Hip

Double Dose Me – Steeltonia by Molten Imp

Barstool Women Blues by Brandon Agnew

1938 by George Houston

All photos and news articles by The Sault Star from SSM Public Library archives.

Date:18 August 2026 .

The Great Lakes Odyssey Radio Hour is broadcast on NPR (National Public Radio)

s5.e9. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – A Theory Of Water

What might it mean to truly listen to the water that surrounds and inhabits us so as to coexist with and alongside it and to discover, understand, and foster relationships among all beings and life forces?

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, acclaimed Nishnaabeg writer, academic, musician and poet, takes a revolutionary look at that most elemental force, water, and suggests a powerful path for the future.

Dave Bidini, leader of The Rheostatics on The Great Lakes Suite album, featuring impressive collaborators that harnessed their artistic talents to sonically mirror the power, history, and mystery of the five greats.

Joanie McGuffin, explorer, author, and a voice for the landscapes that we know and love, particularly the Lake Superior watershed, is on a mission to “inspire people to re-connect with the natural world”.

Featured Music: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Rheostatics.
Music beds: John Hewitt & The New Americans. Rusty McCarthy. Rheostatics. lowfrequencyOSCILLATOR.
Theme music: Ray Bonneville. Rusty McCarthy.

Photo by Adriano – Biinaagami World View

s5.e9. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour Music Credits

Title – Big Five Water
Artist / Composer – Ray Bonneville

Title – Madness At The Heart Of It All
Artist – John Hewitt & The New Americans
Composer – John Hewitt

Title – Black Water
Album – Wildfire
Artist / Composer – My Father’s Son

Title – Surface Tension
Album – Theory Of Ice
Artist / Composer – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Title – Geology
Artist – Rheostatics (feat. Uncle Neil O’Donnell)
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Thunder Bay
Artist – Rheostatics
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Water Wisdom
Artist – Rheostatics (feat. Chief Stacy Laforme)
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Huron
Artist – Rheostatics
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Ode To The Great Lakes
Artist – Rheostatics
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Homes
Artist – Rheostatics (feat. Laurie Anderson & Kendel Carson)
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Head Of The Lake
Artist / Composer – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Album – Theory Of Ice

Visit: raybonneville.com

Visit: rustyandmaja.com

Visit: johnhewittmusic.com

Visit: myfatherssonlive.bandcamp.com/wildfire

Visit: leannesimpson.ca

Visit: cordovabaystore.bigcartel.com/rheostatics-the-great-lakes-suite

Visit: themcguffins.ca

Visit: superiorconservancy.org

Visit: biinaagami.org

This program produced by GLOW Radio Partners in venture with The Borderline Events Co.

Inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the Great Lakes Odyssey World is a multi-national effort to strengthen and explore our relationship with the natural wonders known as the Great Lakes.

In this part of the project, we have created a multi-part audio series looking at the way the Great Lakes shape our lives, our livelihoods, our health and our culture.

50 years ago, folks in the media and elsewhere were ready to declare the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie “dead.”

The thought so appalled citizens in Canada and the United States, they forced their national governments to act.

Because, of course, the Great Lakes shape the life of both Canada and the United States. And, of course, the Great Lakes are a single system stretching from Duluth to Ottawa and down the St. Lawrence seaway. What happens to any of the Lakes will soon happen to the others.

So, the politicians of 50 years ago negotiated the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, “for the purpose of restoring, protecting and enhancing the Great Lakes and the Great Lakes basin.”

50 years later, we can see the agreement worked. We see more fish, cleaner water, and less pollution. Unlike the early settlers and colonials, who mostly saw the Lakes as a resource to tap, we now recognize, like the First Nations, the Lakes are part of our identity. They shape our relationships, our songs and celebrations of place, the way we eat, how we play, and what we make, or sell, or harvest.

50 years since the wake-up call of a burning river, Great Lakes Odyssey wants to learn how we live and love, hurt and restore the incredible gift which is the Great Lakes.

We will explore Great Lakes art and artistic expression, and meet the artists, writers, musicians who make it. We will also dip into Great Lakes history and lore – and learn from the people who have been here the longest and know it the best: The People of the Three Fires, the Anishinaabek.

On our Odyssey around the Great Lakes, we will also hear from people working to prevent poisonous algal blooms or stop the spread of invasive species. We will meet visionaries undoing decades of development that hardened shorelines, emptied marshes and wetlands, and destroyed critical spawning grounds. We will talk to people working to ensure all beings have access to pure drinking water.

Because none of us can live without pure drinking water.

In this wondrous place we call the Great Lakes, we know we are blessed by these Sweet Water Seas. We claim them as our H.O.M.E.S. as the emotionally accurate mnemonic says. They are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, and they are our HOMES.

As long as humans have lived in, and of and through the Lakes, people have told stories about them, sung about them, and gloried in this great gift of the long departed Ice Age. Left by glaciers thousands of years ago, they are the World’s storehouse of fresh water. If they are drained… or ruined… or damaged, they can never be replaced.

So, as we travel around the Great Lakes basin, we want to see how we are doing – what we are doing – how we’re feeling and what we’re learning as we try to live as lovers and restorers – and children and family – of the being whom the Anishinaabek call Nayaano-nibiimaang Gichigamiin, the five freshwater seas.

We hope to galvanize, inspire, and motivate you to strengthen, support and steward the Great Lakes to a beautiful and healthy future.

So please join us on this magical, dare we say “magical mystery tour” of the Great Lakes basin and Great Lakes culture.

Date:16 August 2026 .

LIVEWIRE BLUES POWER is powered by the support of Long & McQuade, 647 MacDonald Ave, Sault Ste. Marie, ON

DOIN’ IT SOO RIGHT

Doin’ It Right (music bed) – Powder Blues Band

> Bye Bye Little Bluebird – Redwood Central

> My House – Redwood Central

> Le Ciel – Lindsay Pugh

> The Preacher – Lindsay Pugh

> Let Me Be – Catherine Taddo

> This Way – Catherine Taddo

> Live Off of Love – Catherine Taddo

> Going Fishing Blues – Taj Mahal

> Blues Inside of Me – Mike Yurich

> Television Eye – John Mayall

> Swing Me Baby – Jay Scali & Mocombo

> Eleanor Rigby – Jay Scali & Mocombo

> Singing The Blues – Mike Yurich

> Blue Fox – John Mayall

LIVEWIRE BLUES POWER with dj Danny Mott

The blues tradition began in North America, coming out of the very soul of the earth. Blood, sweat and tears enriched the fertile ground that formed the roots that fed the soul of the people. It exuded itself through the music, we are the blues.

Having grown up on the borderline of the USA, and picking up that great late night blues radio, coming clear from Detroit and Chicago, we grew up accustomed to blues power. It was coming from everywhere. It makes for a vast reservoir of musical knowledge and experience to draw from.

Livewire Blues Power plays classic recordings from the all-time blues greats, as well as blues from around the world rooted in the tradition, and Livewire Blues Power also introduces the music of the Soo’s blues artists to blues fans everywhere.

“IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE BLUES, YA GOTTA HOLE IN YER SOUL”

About Your Host

DANNY MOTT was born in England and raised in Canada. Danny has been involved in myriad recordings and in various countries, most notably in Jamaica and Cuba.

Danny’s music is released under the moniker, “Mocombo” where he acts as composer, producer, engineer and musician. Mocombo is a versatile band project that shifts effortlessly between world music, traditional blues, Cuban jazz and blues rock.

Danny has a rich academic background in music that includes various diplomas, degrees and certificates. Danny’s studies include; Classical guitar from the Algoma Conservatory of Music; Composition, performance, music history, music business and retailing from Humber College of Applied Arts; North Indian Hindustani classical music at the Academy Of Eastern Fine Arts; Adult teaching techniques for music at Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology; Music education at the University of Victoria; Studio recording from the Institute of Recording and Arts; Music theory at the Royal Conservatory of Music; Music and anthropology at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Dean’s Honour List; Religious traditions of Islam at the University of Waterloo.

Danny’s music performance and work history are also impressive. As a tour promoter, acts like Gordon Lightfoot and Ravi Shankar; as a music teacher at Nelson Music in B.C.; Music Marketing Director and music technician at Saved By Technology in Toronto, with a client list including the Rolling Stones, Rush, Barenaked Ladies, Jane Siberry, and many more; Marketing and Sales Director for On Publications Inc., a national distribution of music print medium company; Marketing Director for Roy Creations International in Montreal, for the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

Danny has orchestrated several projects, including a film in the Cuban language, with the participation of Cuba’s National Dance Company.

Danny’s project, Mocombo, has issued seven outstanding CDs: Odyssey, Zubie Zubie, Dreamscape, Flophouse Daddy, Flophouse Daddy Returns (Boldly Going Nowhere), Global 360 and Mocombo in Habana Project (2 CD set).

“Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about jazz and blues.”

Danny Mott (with Jimmie Vaughn)

Date:15 August 2026 .

Playing an average of 150+ shows per year around the world, John Allaire is easily one of Canada’s top independent road warriors. In fact, he recently celebrated his 3,000th career show with a series of sold out concerts in 2024. John has won many awards, including the Americana Songwriters’ Association award in Nashville for best lyricist and the Toronto Independent Music Award for “best live show”. Penguin Eggs magazine has called John “the next Canadian music legend” and “a new Neil Young”.  His storytelling and quick wit make him a perennial festival favourite and a stalwart club-land institution.

John is best known around the Nation’s Capital as the host of “The Allaire Show”, a weekly singer-songwriter series at Quinn’s Ale House in Old Ottawa South and Brews and Blues in Stittsville, featuring guests from around the world. He, along with his backing band, The Campistas, were asked to be one of the opening acts for Neil Young and Crazy Horse on their 2024 Love Earth Tour.

John was a founding member of the ‘80s and ‘90s alt-rock band, The Town Cryers, and has shared the stage with hundreds of other popular acts, including The Black Crowes, Steve Earle, Snoop Dogg, Wilco, Three Days Grace, City and Colour, Blue Rodeo, Alejandro Escovedo, David Lindley, Donovan, HooDoo Gurus, BoDeans, Alanis Morrisette, Drive-By Truckers and many more.

He has, in recent times, become known as the “poet laureate” of the NHL Network. Basically, he writes songs and parodies for the sports network and appears live at their headquarters in Toronto or on site for special events.

John is versatile in presentation and can perform as a solo act, duet or with his 4-piece band, “John Allaire & the Campistas”.

Date:13 August 2026 .

Kyle McKey riffs on a career that has spanned over 20 years already. From his very early start in The Family Band, with his father Fred and brother Dean, to his solo work fresh out of Korah Collegiate’s outstanding music program, Kyle laid a solid foundation.

Veteran local players saw the talent and soon he was playing some lead guitar and singing with the blues rendition of Danny Mott’s project, Mocombo. His own songwriting powered rock outfit Sailor’s Tongue, and continuing as lead guitar and vocalist, Kyle now makes his mark with songwriting and band partner, Grant Tomkinson, and their group The eMTee’s, based out of Pembroke, Ontario.

Kyle, ever the versatile musician, has gigged with countless bands in all genres, and notably, was inducted into the Great Northern Opry in 2014.

The eMTee’s have released their first album, Fill ‘Er Up. It is available at Stone’s Office Supply downtown in Sault Ste. Marie, ON.

Contact: facebook.com/kyle.mckey.3

“Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones.”

Date:13 August 2026 .

River Noble is the co-founder of Sacred Hearth. “This was an idea I had one February night a year ago while laying in bed contemplating how much it bothered me that there were so many people silently struggling. At that time I knew something needed to be done but I could have never fathomed the support and growth that was to come from actually putting it out there, asking for help to make this happen and building. Thank you to everyone involved, thank you for making this real.”

Sacred Hearth is fervently devoted to breaking down barriers to mental health accessibility for everyone. We believe that every individual deserves the chance to flourish within our community, to embark on a journey of self-discovery, and to revel in the warmth of acceptance as we evolve together, hand in hand.

The Sacred Hearth is a free, community-based program on St. Joseph Island, Ontario, designed to support mental, emotional, and physical well-being through structured monthly gatherings.

On a family trip in 2015, Andrea found herself in Duluth, Minnesota and up close to the longest freighter that sails the Great Lakes, dubbed the Queen of the Lakes, the Paul R. Tregurtha. Her passion for photographing all vessels that pass through the Soo Locks took seed.

Since then, her adventurous attitude led to meetings with shipping officials and boating aficionados, eventually landing her on the American Spirit, aboard as a guest photographer, for a seven day rotation.

What once was a hobby has become a side career. Andrea has photos, videos and merchandise available for purchase, of all things related to Marine Traffic in the Great Lakes including Lakers, Tugs, U.S. Coast Guard, Canadian Coast Guard, cruise ships, etc..

Date:12 August 2026 .

Mary-Lynn Murphy is the author of the book ‘Finding Grace’ and a life-time poet. Mary-Lynn talks with host Lisa Tucker about dreaming up Grace, and creating her story.

Mary-Lynn Murphy lives in Goulais River, Ontario, north of Sault Ste. Marie, near Lake Superior’s north shore. Her poetry has appeared in several Canadian journals. Finding Grace is her first novel.

Finding Grace
by Mary-Lynn Murphy
Fourteen-year-old Iris stops speaking after an unsettling event involving her older sister. She later marries; their daughter, Maggie, leaves home for Toronto at age seventeen, cutting off all communication with her parents. In a small logging town, Henry witnesses something that he keeps secret, at great cost. Grace, who possesses an unfettered curiosity about the natural world and a somewhat eccentric artistic aesthetic, fills the yard of her home with bizarre installations. It is Gracehe’s musings about the natural world, human nature, and art that tie the threads together, reflecting the novelhe’s themes of loss and possibility, the shortcomings of language, and the ways in which art and nature can help us to see ourselves more clearly.

Contact:
Facebook: @Mary-Lynn Murphy
www.49thshelf.com/Contributors/M/Murphy-Mary-Lynn

 “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.”

Date:11 August 2026 .