Corby's Orbit

Corby's Orbit
Listening in All the High Places illustration by John Kricfalusi

Saturday, May 30, 2026

Playlist For Corby's Orbit Show Of 29 May 2026

 Commissioner of Selection - Paul Corby

* Canadian Artists in Asterisk'd RED

The Mixcloud Podcast Link is RIGHT HERE

Click on images to enlarge

( Brought to you by Track Facts & Beat Deets )

5:00 All A Little 'Fraid Of The Dark

* Working Royals ~ Jenny (Turn Your Light On) ~ Cross Country

* Bywater Call ~ No One Else ~ NEW RELEASE

* Bella White ~ Better ~ Sign In The Weather ~ NEW RELEASE

* Lido Pimienta ~ Toxica ~  NEW RELEASE

* Shania Twain ~ Dirty Rosie ~ Little Miss Twain ~  NEW RELEASE

* James Gordon ~ Is He Dead Yet? ~  NEW RELEASE @ Hugh's Room Live Tuesday 2 June for Smashing The Oligarchy

* Zochi ~ Sono ~  NEW RELEASE

* Wolf Castle & Jah'Mila ~ Water ~  NEW RELEASE

* Daniel Lanois ~ At The Foot Of The Skyway Bridge ~ Belladonna Nocturne ~  NEW RELEASE

* Lily Frost ~ More Love ~  NEW RELEASE

5:35 Somewhere To Lean

* Girma Woldemichael ~ Loca ~ Nafkoté ~  NEW RELEASE

* Hannah & Nathan ~ Love & Labour ~ Love & Labour ~  NEW RELEASE

* Julie Neff ~ Trapped ~  NEW RELEASE

Bombay Mami ~ Grown ~ NEW RELEASE

Drakulas ~ Singing With My Tongue Cut Out ~ Midnight City ~ NEW RELEASE

* Satellite Birdhouse ~ My Favourite Part ~ NEW RELEASE

* Rachel Bobbitt ~ Where Do You Want To Be? ~ NEW RELEASE

* Justin Saladino Band ~ Leave Me Blue ~ NEW RELEASE

* Malia Rogers ~ I Could Barely Drive ~ Chameleon ~ NEW RELEASE

6:10 Call My Wishes Down

* Nellie Furtado & Boi 1Da ~ Electric Circus ~ NEW RELEASE

* Mat Hughes ~ Coleslaw Summer ~ NEW RELEASE

Gretchen Parlato feat. Alan Hampton ~ Capricorn ~ NEW RELEASE

Jason Mraz ~ Turn Your Radio On ~ Grandma's Gospel Favourites ~ NEW RELEASE

Flavia Watson ~ Learning To Love Me ~ International Song Competition Winner

* Raglan Road ~ Three Bucks A Pound ~ NEW RELEASE

* Jenn Grant ~ Gonna Be Free ~ NEW RELEASE

* JABFUNG ~ Changes ~ In Real Life ~ NEW RELEASE

6:50 Sonny One So True

 * Ian North ~ Sonny Rollins Said ~ Everything Is Incomplete 

Sonny Rollins (September 7, 1930 – May 25, 2026) ~ Weaver Of Dreams 


 


Sunday, May 24, 2026

We Be Tripping The Light Fantastic This Friday

Playlist For Corby's Orbit Show Of 22 May 2026

 


Commissioner of Selection - Paul Corby

* Canadian Artists in Asterisk'd RED

The Mixcloud Podcast Link is RIGHT HERE

Click on images to enlarge

( Brought to you by Elemental Piques and Skeweresses )

5:00  Let These Days Be Our Delight

Illustration by Sarah Arnett

*The Outfit feat. Carson McHone ~ Cardinal Star ~ NEW RELEASE

* Julie Doiron & Status / Non-Status ~ Good Enough ~ NEW RELEASE

* Tia Wood ~ Stimulated ~ NEW RELEASE

Illustration by Igor Volkov


* Walk Off The Earth ~ Afraid Of Heights ~
NEW RELEASE 


Bruce Hornsby ~ Indigo Park ~ NEW RELEASE 

* Cat Clyde ~ Man's World ~ NEW RELEASE 

* Edwin Raphael ~ First Time On Earth ~ I Know A Garden ~ PRE RELEASE

* Allegra Jordyn ~ Fingertips ~ NEW RELEASE 

Illustration by Jim Woodring


* Aquakultre ~ What Are You Sayin'? ~ 1783 ~ NEW RELEASE 

* Geordie Gordon ~ Endless Line ~ River Round ~ NEW RELEASE

5:40 Crucial As Usual 


* Portage ~ Douglastown Set ~ Portage  

* The Southern Residents ~ Devyn Gale ~ Folk Signals ~NEW RELEASE / Juno Nominee

Daria Hlazatova Ukrainian artist


* Robben Ford ~ I Make My Own Weather ~ Two Shades Of Blue ~
NEW RELEASE 

* Matt Andersen ~ The Hammer & The Rose ~ The Hammer & The Rose  ~ @ Massey Hall Tonight ~Juno Nominee 

* Mimi Zenebe ~ Yegeremegn ~ Yegeremegn

* Jessica Rhaye & The Ramshackle Parade ~ My Heart Belongs To You ~ NEW RELEASE

* The McDades ~ Gardener's Child ~ Thread The Light ~ NEW RELEASE

Lola Young ~ Post Sex Clarity ~ I'm Only F**cking Myself 

Momoko Gill ~ No Others ~ Momoko ~ NEW RELEASE

6:10 Suzanne Holds The Mirror

* Suzanne Jarvie ~ Intro / Caterpillar / 40% ~ Mother's Day ~ NEW RELEASE 

6:20 Emotional Allure

* Charlotte Cornfield feat. Feist ~ Living With It ~ NEW RELEASE



Jorge Drexler ~ Toco Madera ~

* Olivia Penalva ~ Distance Makes A Love Story ~ NEW RELEASE

* Clela Errington ~ Don't Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down ~ Walking Each Other Home 

* Desiree Dorion & Status/ Non-Status ~ Daddy's Tattoo ~ NEW RELEASE 

* Semiah ~ Clementine ~ NEW RELEASE

* Boy Golden ~ Best Of Our Possible Lives ~ Best Of Our Possible Lives ~ NEW RELEASE


* Cris Derksen 
(1981 – May 15, 2026) ~ Top Shelf / Buffalo Girls ~ The Visit 

Saturday, May 23, 2026

Corby's Orbit Blog Receives Its One Millionth Hit - Obscurity Now Endangered


Intro by Heather Kitching. editor, Roots Music Canada:

In addition to writing for Roots Music Canada, Paul Corby hosts Corby’s Orbit on Radio Regent in Toronto and maintains a 16 year-old blog dedicated to the show.  This month, he is celebrating 25 years on air, and the one millionth hit on his blog today, and he wrote this lovely piece in celebration.

 

I am but a small-shot DJ, clinging to the precarious meniscus of Canadian radio. I have maintained a dedicated blog and a weekly music broadcast for sixteen years. I have been doing the job for even longer.

Twenty-five years ago this month, before anyone had ever driven a car into a crowd or an airplane into a skyscraper, I got up at 5 a.m. on a morning smelling of coffee, ozone and newsprint, and lugged a crate of L.P.s, and a bag of CDs slung over my shoulder, downtown to Yonge and Dundas on the very early, and eerily empty subway to go to air with my first show on CKLN.FM. I was the fill-in host for Bill Grove, the dark mega-far-out jazz cogno / renegade, who had recently been dismissed for one of his flammably candid on-air comments. I had gone down to complain about his firing to the station manager, Tim May, and he responded, astoundingly, by saying “You want a shot at the show?”


                                        photo by Leonard Poole

So at 7 a.m., I put on the headphones, slid up the faders, said good morning, and played Oscar Peterson’s rich solo version of “Django”, dedicating the day’s programming to its composer, the MJQ’s John Lewis, who had just recently slipped the surly bonds for real. Then I spun King Curtis’ boiling take on “The Swinging Shepherd Blues” (original title – “Blues a la Canadiana”), and on to Ornette, Kerouac, Charles Lloyd…”Thanks for keeping it real,” said a guy on the phone, and hung up. At eleven, my airwave idol, New Electronic Soul DJ, Denise Benson, came in to do her show and gave me some complimentary encouragement. As I left, DJ Tony Barnes advised me that I needed a course at “NO-‘UM’ school.”

Including those mentioned above, my thanks for generous advice and opportunities also go out to the late Ron Gaskin, Wally Dawson, Greg Lawson, Steve Balla, Victor Bains Marshall, Julie Hill, Ron Anicich, Ian Danzig, Stevie Connor, Denna Morgan, Daniel, Jackie, Stuart, Adonis, Amil, Tyrone, Pat, Erdine, my Orbital videographers Otis, Jake and Dimitri, and let me raise shouts to my three shining DJ exemplars, CKLN’s (now CIUT’s) David Kingston, the late Reiner Schwarz at CFNY, and the legendary Tom Shannon at CKLW. Special appreciation must be accorded to those legions of adventurous promoters and publicists who understand and empathize with talent, who have brought me music and personalities to feature on the Orbit. And most of all - thank you to all of my persistent Orbital listeners.


These fans and colleagues have nurtured in me a love for Canadian musicians that I had already begun to cultivate during 20 years of prolonged road-burn as a touring guitar player. I have learned to listen deep and to help to break artists out of their struggle with critical obfuscation and media blind-spots, and give them their interview time, a platform to play out their visions, the odd gig, and the chance to say, “Oh, we’re doing well on campus and community radio,” or “There’s a DJ in Toronto playing our record.” Thank you for beautifying my show with your music.

My programming allegiance has always been to the unique querulous voices maintaining their cool in the torrents of Toronto’s mass communication vortex. I have lost friends and alienated people by criticizing the mediocrity of many of our accepted CBC/Juno darlings, and especially their well-paid supporting cast. Consequently, many brave outlying iconoclasts have given me significant love as I have proceeded to wade my way through the dank and stormy programming bogs, while exposing my sometimes scabrous comments about the Canadian media model, which I prefer to think of as “being funny.” There are many of its many members who continue to fight the good fight (see above). My sincere appreciation goes out to them all, most especially to Heather Kitching, my editor and bestie at Roots Music Canada.


Last fall at a budget meeting, our station, Radio Regent, was almost extinguished overnight by a panel of accountants. Only a last-minute staff shuffle changed the vote and kept our station on the air.

 I gratefully maintain a tenuous place in your ear-waves for now. I hope to bring many more emerging and enduring voices across your event horizons as long as the need for exploratory radio survives. Until that time the Orbit remains up, and up, but definitely not, yet, away.