If this week’s show were a party, it’d be one that would keep you dancing til dawn.
With a musical resume that includes show busking across Europe, and a stint performing alongside circus acts in Granada, The Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra makes folk music with a worldly sound.

In this set, you’ll hear Spanish, Celtic, Roma, and African influences on display as the band shares their unique brand of roots music. The performance you’ll hear tonight was recorded on the weekend of the 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards. And, as you’ll hear, the crowd was in a mood to celebrate.

The Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra is Ian Griffiths on vocals, keys and accordion, Kurt Loewen on vocals and guitar, Paul Wolda on percussion, Mack Shields on fiddle, and Keith Rodger on bass and mandolin.

This week on TransCanada Music West, we look back on a year’s worth of great live music from Western Canada’s best emerging and established acts. We’ll help you relive the glory days of summer with live songs from Jr. Gone Wild and Reuben and the Dark, recorded at the Calgary Folk Music Festival. Then we’ll take you to the west coast with Jay Malinowski and Close Talker captured during Breakout West in Victoria. Then, we’ll bring it all home with Colleen Brown and Michael Rault in full force in CKUA’s performance space.

"What A Great Day" Jr. Gone Wild (Live at Calgary Folk Fest)
"Ready to Go" Petunia (Live at the Mercury Room)
"Burning the Candle at Both Ends" Matt Patershuk (Live from Grande Prairie)
"Devil's Time" Reuben and the Dark (Live at Calgary Folk Fest)
"Heads" Close Talker (Live at Metro Theatre)
"Donzoko Blues" Jay Malinowski & the Deadcoast (Live from Alix Goolden Hall)   
"Moncton Flight 179" Colleen Brown (Live at CKUA)
"Lost Something"  Michael Rault (Live at CKUA)
"Prairie Girl" Rah Rah (Live at CKUA)
"Rambleaway" Ryan Boldt (Live at the Mercury Room)
"Institution" Slow Leaves (Live from Bailey Theatre)
"Damn Tattoo" John Wort Hannam (Live at The Club)
"Lick Your Wounds" Andy Shauf (Live from the Mercury Room)

This week on TransCanada Music West, we feature the instrumental styling of Victoria's Weird Party! The five piece group describes their sound as a “weird ambient melange” drawing on elements of funk, jazz, and soul to create a somewhat psychedelic sound. The band is made up of staples of the Victoria music scene, including Andrew Poirier, Chris Mackenzie, Piers Henwood, and William Farrant. In 2012, the band entered the studio with Ted Gowan of Tegan and Sara behind the board. The group would record their improvisational debut album live off-the-floor in just one weekend. They followed up that record in 2014 with their sophomore album Mellow Funk Vol. 1. This week's feature set includes live renditions of songs featured on that album, and a brand new, yet to be released track.

This week, we feature the live sounds of Swedish Canadian songstress Sarah MacDougall, in concert at Victoria’s Wood Hall during Breakout West. Four albums into her career, Sarah has found success both in Sweden, and right here in Canada. Just days after performing her Music West featured set, the Whitehorse-based musician took home the 2015 Western Canadian Music Award for Roots Solo Album of the Year.

The songs on that award-winning record, Grand Canyon, take inspiration from Sarah’s time working at a home for at risk youth. The record features collaborations with Rose Cousins, Jesse Zubot, and Leah Abramson of The Abramson Singers. This intimate set was recorded at midnight on the first night of Breakout West 2015, and includes songs from Grand Canyon, and Sarah’s 2011 album The Greatest Ones Alive.

This week on the podcast, Victoria folk outfit Fish & Bird are our featured act. The band recently performed a hometown show during Breakout West 2015 at Wood Hall.  Taylor Ashton and fiddler Adam Iredale-Gray formed the band in 2007 when they bonded over their shared love for traditional folk music. The band’s fusion of traditional and contemporary influences has earned them a reputation as trailblazers in the folk music world. In this episode, you’ll hear songs from their latest album, Something in the Ether.

This week on the show: indie-rock melodies delivered live by Saskatoon’s own Close Talker. The band has only been a going concern for three years, but they’ve already captured national attention. Close Talker formed when lead singer Will Quiring met guitarist Matthew Kopperud at a B.C. bible college. In the spring of 2013, Close Talker became finalists in a cross-Canada music competition on the merits of their single, “By the Lake" from their debut 2013 debut Timbers.

The album was release was written and recorded in just two weeks. But it so well received, it put Close Talker on radar of notable Canadian indie label, Nevado Music. In the summer of 2014, the band entered Montreal’s Breakglass Studios to record the follow-up record. It was produced by Besnard Lakes co-founder Jace Lasek (Wolf Parade, Stars, Mark Berube,Young Galaxy.) Unlike the quick outing that was their last recording, the group describes the approach to their sophomore effort, Flux, as a more “intentional” one. The band spent more than a year and a half on getting the songs on this record just right.

This week on TransCanada Music West, you’ll hear more than a few of those songs. Recorded live at Breakout West 2015 in Victoria BC.

Setlist:
Burnstick
Heads
Slow Weather
Strange Feelings
Blurring Days
The Coast
Great Unknown

This week on TransCanada Music West (Fridays at 8pm MT on CKUA), we take you back to Alix Goolden Hall in Victoria for a hometown performance by Towers and Trees. The Folk outfit was founded in 2012 by Adrian Chalifour. The singer-songwriter had been working away on songs as a solo artist for the better part of a decade. After trying to make a go in music as a solo artist in Vancouver and Kamloops, Adrian returned to Victoria, and formed an eight-piece band featuring some of city’s most talented supporting players.

The group released the first Towers and Trees EP, Broken Record in 2012. Building on the success of that record, Towers and Trees celebrated the release of their debut full length album, The West Coast this past October.

Featuring Adrian Chalifour on vocals, Jesse Boland on bass, David Zellinsky on lead guitar, James Liira on keys and vocals, and Dave Arter bass –CKUA presents Towers and Trees live from Alix Goodlen Hall in Victoria during Breakout West.

Tracklist:
Tide I
We're Not Islands
West Coast - Tide II
Bad Heart
Montreal
Last Breath
FREE

This week on the TransCanada Music West podcast, it's Jay Malinowski and the Deadcoast live from Victoria's Alix Goolden Hall during Breakout West 2015. Jay Malinowski has earned a reputation as a young, commercially successful creative force. In his late teens, he fronted the JUNO Award winning reggae-rock outfit Bedouin Soundclash. The band recorded a plethora of pop gems, including “When The Night Feels My Song.”But in the decade since that breakthrough hit, Jay has continued to hone his craft.

In 2010 he released his first solo album, Bright Lights and Bruises. That was followed by an EP collaboration with Coeur de Pirate, released under the moniker Armistice.  Jay returned to his family’s home base of Vancouver in 2012, formed The Deadcoast (Elliott Vaugh on the Viola, John Kastelic on violin, and
Martin Reisle on cello) and set to work on their first EP, Indian Summer.

That record was followed up by the full length album, Martel. The concept album draws inspiration from the life of Malinowski’s ancestor Charles Martel – A mid-eighteenth century sailor who fled France for the New World…only to find himself fighting the French in the Siege of Louisbourg. Many of the songs you’ll hear on this week's show were featured on that record.

Tracklist:
Donzoko Blues
Patience Phipps
Singapore Sling
untitled
Life Is A Gun
How It Comes Is How It Goes
Up The Cross
The Reckoning
I Was Walking Through A Dream
We've All Got To Be Going Somewhere

This week on TransCanada Music West, it’s Reuben and the Dark recorded live at the 2015 Calgary Folk Music Festival. A little over a year ago, Reuben and the Dark were here in our studios to debut their album Funeral Sky. That record has been a bit of a breakthrough for the alt-rock outfit since its release in May 2014. Reuben and the Dark have underwent a couple of line-up changes since, but they haven’t let that stopped them from working on new material. In fact, on this week’s TransCanada Music West, you’ll hear some brand new – unreleased tunes.

This week on the TransCanada Music West podcast, we kick off a new season of the series with a live performance from Jr. Gone Wild captured on stage at the 2015 Calgary Folk Music Festival. The Edmonton band became synonymous with the cow-punk genre they helped to create during their 15 year career, which spans six releases from 1982-1995. In 2013, they re-formed for a reunion gig after disbanding nearly twenty years earlier. The overwhelming reaction to those reunion shows lead the group to continue to perform live and record music together.

The new lineup features founding member Mike McDonald, along with former Jr. Gone Wild alumni Dove Brown, Steve Loree and Larry Shelast.

Tracklist:
Just the Other Day
Raisins
I Don’t About All That
Downtime
The Bachelor’s Suite
What a Great Day
Why I Hate the ‘60s
Barricades (The Hockey Riot Song)
Slept All Afternoon
Annie Get Your Gun
Rhythm of the Rain