Corby's Orbit

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

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Shine ~ Canada's 150th Birthday ~ Our 17 Best Songs ~ Eleventh Post

Joni Mitchell ~ born Roberta Anderson, 7 November 1943 in Fort Macleod Alberta ~ has made songs, paintings and honest declarations of freedom (and bondage) all her life.
She has suffered abuse by the media and her peers and made her stand over all the shamers and blamers. She has titled her 19th and most recent album (2007) with her career's most accurately descriptive verb ~ Shine

In the title song, she comes out laughing at the stubbornness of dualistic thought, which has interfered with her at life's every turn. Her paintings and philosophic contributions have yet to be seriously appreciated. Best to encounter her in the music itself, or in Malka Marom's book Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words.


Saturday, May 27, 2017

Playlist For Show Of 26 May

Commissioner of Selection: Paul Corby 

( Brought To You by Initial Descents, Final Clearances, and Happy Landings )

Guests: Kele Fleming, Dorjee Tsering and Lou Natale
5-7 p.m. Fridays online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.com .  
Canadians in Asterisk’d RED. 

5:00 Cure For Solitaire

* Scott Cook ~ Dogs and Kids ~ Further Down The Line NEW DISK @ Junction City Music Hall 15 June

Norah Jones and Billie Joe Armstrong ~ Rockin' Alone ~ Foreverly ~ Norah Jones @ Massey Hall Friday and Saturday

* J.D. Edwards ~ Big City Dreams ~ Roads And Roads 

* Cold Jack ~ She Takes Me High ~ Spitfire Angels NEW DISK

5:20 Current Defense

* Jah Cutta ~ Tribute ~ The All Skanadian Club vol. 5

Frankie Paul (19 October 1965 – 18 May 2017) ~ Fall In Love With Me / Kissing In The Moonlight / Tomorrow ~ Legend Of Reggae

* k-os feat. Tuku, Saidah Baba Talibah and Shannon Maracle ~ Living In A World Corrupt ~ Peace Songs

The Beach Boys ~ I Guess I Just Wasn't Made For These Times ~ Pet Sounds

5:40 Superannuated Pianists 

Leon Russell ~ Stranded On Easy Street ~ Anything Can Happen ~ Mad Dogs & Englishmen: The Music Of Joe Cocker and Leon Russell @ Hugh's Room tonight

Little Richard ~ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ~ Shake It All About

6:00 Total Re:Kele

* Kele Fleming ~ Ecologic / Interview / Me Oh My (live) /  In My Dream (live) No Static NEW DISK @ Saving Gigi tonight

6:20 Grand Dranyen

* Fraser & Girard ~ Hellhound On My Lawn ~ The Songs Of Tony Quarrington NEW DISK

Galactic ~ Second & Dryades ~ From The Corner To The Block

* Dorjee Tsering and Lou Natale 


Amma Changma (Mama`s Wine) / Interview / Thakring Kyi Garog (Faraway) (live) / Thank-You Canada CD Release for Thank-You Canada NEW DISK@  Lula Lounge Tuesday 6 June



* Melanie Peterson ~ Malibu ~ Unbreakable Castro`s tonight 

Stefon Harris Grand Unification Theory with Toronto Music Listings

* Austra ~ 43 ~ Future Politics @ Echo Beach for CBC Music Festival Saturday 














Monday, May 22, 2017

Pamphleteer ~ Canada's 150th Birthday ~ Our 17 Best Songs ~ Tenth Post



The songs of John K. Samson bleed out through the deliberate and epic patience of his band The Weakerthans. The songs render the listener progressively more and more helpless as the lyrics congeal into private articulations that make more sense to the feelings than to the mind. They have never had breakout success, although in 2005, Left and Leaving was named one of the ten best Canadian albums of all time in Chart magazine's reader poll.  The song Pamphleteer, from that epic second album, has an organic connection to Aside and My Favourite Chords and the title track, but stands above them, perhaps most for its noble Canadian stubbornness against all that I could never overcome.” 
 Nowadays, the band is essentially broken up, although they claim to be merely cryogenically frozen”.
It all sounds weird, I know, but that is because they are from Winnipeg, even more so than they are from Canada. Here is a summation from someone who has insightfully explained the significance of the band, and their special city, from an article in GEIST: http://www.geist.com/fact/essays/city-still-breathing-listening-weakerthans/
“ One of my favourite Weakerthans songs is about politics, or maybe about the limitations of politics. It’s called “Pamphleteer” and it’s written from the point of view of a weary, discontented activist standing on a street corner at rush hour, handing out leaflets. The song borrows nicely from the literature of the left; it ends with the line “A spectre’s haunting Albert Street,” echoing the first line of the Communist Manifesto: “A spectre is haunting Europe.” And it quotes from the protest hymn “Solidarity Forever,” like this:
Sing “Oh what force on earth could be
Weaker than the feeble strength
Of one” like me remembering
The way it could have been.
The quote is from “Solidarity Forever”— there’s a footnote in the lyric sheet that says so—but what I love about it is the way that the lyrics subvert the anthem, so that it’s no longer about political struggle but about lost love. City Still Breathing: Listening to the Weakerthans by 

Friday, May 19, 2017

Playlist For Show Of 19 May


Commissioner of Selection: Paul Corby 

( Brought To You by Infinite Elements, Elephant Imminence, and Eminent Innocence 
)

Guests: Nathan Lawr of Minotaurs, Terry Gillespie, Dani Nash & Mark Calderone, and Brother Neil
5-7 p.m. Fridays online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.com .  
Canadians in Asterisk’d RED. 

5:00 Pop Corners

Paul McCartney ~ The Song We Were Singing ~ Flaming Pie

* MINOTAURS ~ All Hail / Interview with Nathan Lawr ~ AUM NEW DISK ~ @ Junction City Music Hall tonight

5:20 Pentatonic Boom

* Terry Gillespie ~ The Devil Likes To Win ~ Home Boy NEW DISK @ Dakota Saturday and @ Junction City Sunday

 5:40 Maximum Explosure

Greg Brown ~ Pledging My Time ~ A Nod To Bob ~ Bob Dylan (b. 24 May 1941) Don't Think Twice Songs @ Hugh's Room 

Misda Oz vs. Mirkan Dede Ab-i Beki ~ Buddha Bar X

Van Daler & Low Pressure feat. Natasja Saad ~ Real Love ~ Buddha Bar X

Jamie XX feat. Romy Madley Croft ~ Loud Places ~ In Colour Echo Beach Monday- Tuesday 22-23 May

Selwyn Birchwood Are You Ready ~ Pick Your Poison NEW DISK

6:00 Glimmerland Slim

Dani Nash feat. Mark Calderone ~ Interview / Wired Up (live) / Waiting For A Wave (live) @ Cameron House Wednesday 24 May & @ The Horseshoe Thursday 25 May 

* Anne Lindsay ~ The Cold Told A Tale / Dogs In The Hollow ~ Soloworks @ Aga Khan Museum Saturday for World Fiddle Day

Corey Gulkin ~ So It Goes ~ Northeast Southwest @ Tranzac Saturday for Little York Folk Festival 

Easy Star All Stars ~ Human Nature ~ Thrillah ~ The Music Of Michael Jackson feat.Treson & T-Dot Batu Lula Lounge Sunday

6:30 Brass Moon Cool


* Brother Neil ~ Interview / Away Avenue Away (live) / Time (live) ~ Away Avenue Away NEW DISK

Lee Konitz ~ If I Had You ~ The Art Of Jazz Saxophone / Toronto Music Listings

* Kim Doolittle ~ Let Love Be Your Goal ~ Into The Blue NEW DISK live on Corby`s Orbit next week and Hugh`s Room Thursday 8 June for CD release party

Paul Oakenfold vs.Afrika Bambaata and The Soul Sonic Force ~ Planet Rock ( Swordfish Mix) ~ Swordfish Sdtrk.









Thursday, May 18, 2017

Sophisti- Candy and Other Sonic Sweets

Aural taste buds and stereophonic sweet teeth will be treated to the most salivacious music just now emerging from the upper shores of the Lake Of Shining Waters. 

MINOTAURS have historic roots in the cavities of Ontario's geomystical rock candy arcana. Their new disk AUM is being released and performed live at Junction City Music Hall this very Friday. Some tracks and facts will be available at 5:15 when major Minotaur Nathan Lawr rings up the Orbit.

Semi-Jamaican jammer Terry Gillespie, currently sojourning in the temperate zone has a new live disk, Home Boy, out and is touring the left side of Toronto with his recent confections. He'll be playing and conversing live at around 5:30.
Saturday May 20 (7-9 p.m.) Dakota Tavern, 249 Ossington Ave., Toronto (with full band). Brian Blain opens. $10.00
Sunday May 21 (8-10.30 p.m.) Junction City Music Hall, 2907 Dundas St. W (full band). Jenie Thai opens. $10.00
 Dani-time will commence at 6:00 when all-day jawbreaker Dani Nash, whose carmelized singing and Skittles drumming will coalesce at the Horseshoe Tavern next Thursday evening, serves up some live tunes and chat about her wide-ranging career and talents.


And down around 6:30 we should be ready for Brother Neil and his new Kinder Surprising disk, with some more live performance and assorted jelly beans.

Don't tell your dentist but it will be so-waaay so-weet. 



Saturday, May 13, 2017

Playlist For Show Of 12 May


Commissioner of Selection: Paul Corby 

( Brought To You by Cannon Fathers, Maternal Sunshine and 
First And Last Parental Deposits )

Guests: Christine Bougie, Amely Zhou and John Stetch
5-7 p.m. Fridays online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.com .  
Canadians in Asterisk’d RED. 

5:00 Crucial Crucibles

Ray Charles ~ The Spirit Feel ~ Jazz + Blues ("the only true genius in show business." ~ Frank Sinatra )

* Terry Gillespie ~ Little By Little ~ Home Boy NEW DISK @ Gate 403 7 Wednesday 17 May


* Chloe Watkinson ~ 899 Park Eddy ~ @ Grossman`s tonight

5:20 Sliding Open

*Christine Bougie ~ Who Has You Now? / Interview / I Can Never Remember His Face / Do I Ramble Whistle Up A World NEW DISK ~ @ Burdock Wednesday 17 May 6:30 

5:40 Incidental Insights


* Clara Engel ~ Your Halo Is A Swarm Of Bees ~ @ Array Space tonight

Tommy Emmanuel Struttin` Endless Road ~ @ St. Lawrence Center For The Arts tonight

Miranda Lambert ~ That`s The Way That The World Goes Around ~Revolution

Selwyn Birchwood ~ Police State ~ Pick Your Poison (Alligator) NEW DISK

* Kobo Town ~ World Is Turning ~ Where The Galleon Sank

* Lori Cullen ~ Strange Is This Life ~ Sexsmith Swinghammer

6:00 World On A String

* Amely Zhou ~ Birds Have Returned To The Forest / Back Home / Interview ~ @ Aga Khan Museum Saturday for World Fiddle Day brought to you by Small World Asian Music Series

6:10 Peripheral Periscopes

 Lee Scratch Perry Curly Dub ~ @  Danforth Music Hall Sunday

Common feat. Stevie Wonder Rewrite The Black American Story (Thank-you Diva Dee)

Fred Hammond feat. John P. Kee ~ They That Wait 

Painting: Mary Pratt ~ Dishcloth

6:30 Home Stetch

* John Stetch ~ Phun Toon  / Interview / Vulneraville  NEW RELEASE ~ @ The Rex Jazz & Blues Bar Saturday 9:45

6:40 Exhilarating From One To Ten

* Louis Simao ~ Flor Amargurada ~ A Luz ~ @ Burdock Thursday 18 May

Da Lata ~ Da Do Da ~ Mash Banana  / Toronto Music Listings

*The Eisenhauers ~ Thank You For The Years ~The Road We Once Knew NEW DISK (Mothers Day Sunday)

* Scott Helman ~ Intro Kites ~ Hotel De Ville NEW DISK






















Friday, May 12, 2017

Acadian Driftwood ~ Canada's 150th Birthday ~ Our 17 Best Songs ~ Ninth Post

Deportation Sculpture in Grand Pre in Nova Scotia


Burnished by Robbie Robertson's robust imagery and his flair for nuanced incident, 
The Band's Acadian Driftwood 
from 1975's Northern Lights Southern Cross LP presents an episodic insight into the historic disgrace known as the Expulsion of the Acadians.

"They signed a treaty and our homes were taken..."


  From 1755 onwards, Maritime French settlers were uprooted and forced from their land by Charles Lawrence and the British government because of their language and allegiances, transformed into refugees by a harsh political environment. 

"Loved ones forsaken, they didn't give a damn."


There was no claim to neutrality permitted: all were removed. Racial and religious motivations expedited British political and military goals. Roman Catholicism was unwelcome, and the Mi'kmaq alliance with the French needed to be dismantled as well.

The pathos of this epic song is enhanced by Byron Berline's haunting fiddle and Garth Hudson's synthesized military fifes, by the lyrical coda of nostalgic patois and by the retrospective knowledge that this would be the last great song produced by this country's most musically significant rock ensemble ever.