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Believe it or not, the Songwriters came about by accident...
Cosmic Debris was going into the fall season in 1999, and I was looking to try something different. During that summer, I had the pleasure to interview Arlo Guthrie, John Kay (of Steppenwolf), and several high profile musicians, but had no forum for the interviews, other than a one shot "Special" or "Filler" Show.
That September, Cosmic Debris moved from Prime Time Wednesday Night, to Monday night, so to mark the move, I decided to feature the Interviews as part of a series featuring Singer Songwriters. (The name picked itself)
Cosmic Debris was a 2 hour show, which became 1 hour of open format, followed by The Songwriters for 1 hour. The Series ran 13 episodes, Starting with John Kay of Steppenwolf, and ended in December of that year with a Best of the Songwriters Special.
By now, the Sunday Morning Hangover Cure was going strong, but the DJ after me on Sunday Mornings (Gabe Pillar) moved his show, leaving the slot after mine empty. To help out and fill the slot, I offered to do another series of the songwriters, this time featuring local artists, live in studio, every Sunday at noon. The Songwriters (As we know it) was born
My first guest in the new series was Ron Hynes, who was an incredible guest, performing two new, never before heard songs live on air! He has since been back twice, and in an excellent guest every time. Other local artists featured on the Songwriters include RASA, Hammingwell, Silverseed, Fergus O'Byrne, Chris Ledrew, Barry Canning, Pamela Morgan, Janet Cull Band, and a host of others from every musical style!
The show also hosted some impressive international artists like Neil Finn, Mark Knopfler, Richard Shindell, Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, and the list goes on. In the fall of 2002, the Songwriters featured a 15 part series of blues artists from interviews I did at the Cysco Systems Bluesfest in Ottawa. The show featured artists like The Holmes Brothers, Kenny 'Blue' Ray, CoCo Montoya, Dawn Tyler Watson, Colin Linden, The Mud Boys, Kenny 'Blues Boss' Wayne and the J.W. Jones Blues Band... to name a few.
In its short life, the Songwriters has reached some interesting people, and will continue to do so, as long as I am able to book them. For a list of some of my guests and links to their web sites, Click Here.
Listen to the Songwriters every Sunday at Noon, and only on 93.5 CHMR - FM or on the Web, Via MP3 Stream or Real Audio by visiting www.mun.ca/chmr