Great Lake Swimmmers early morning Surprise

Well the CBC Radio One's GO audience was geared up and ready to see and hear "Zeus" perform early Saturday morning. But who shows up, completely unannounced to do the show - The Great Lake Swimmers!

Now you probably know that the Great Lake Swimmers are doing amazingly well. They just came back from performing in China, so they have become music ambassadors of the world. They have a few songs that are getting some radio airplay (wow, in Canada?!), besides the CBC airplay I might add. I was in Pizza Pizza a couple of weeks ago, and one of their videos was on the PP channel. When you hit Pizza TV channel you know you are cooking with hot oil, as the old record industry saying goes!

Check out the three clips from CBC on the DirkFimbob channel...here is one to get you started...

Chris Murphy of Sloan - Underwhelming on CBC's GO

Chris Murphy is one funny dude! Not only is he one of the driving forces behind Sloan, he's also got a radio show on CBC (natch). He surprised the early morning crowd at GO on Saturday morning with his unplugged version of the Sloan hit Underwhelmed.

Although his appearance on the show was great (and funny), it was in the question and answer portion of the show where he really shone. This portion of the show does not go live to air, but is for the audience only. They should be broadcasting this portion of the show - totally off the hook and unfiltered!

Off air Chris talked about meeting Celine Dion back stage at a Juno presentation a couple of years ago. He witnessed Celine getting ready for her Juno performance - "is there anything on my teeth" she asks one of her people just before she goes on stage. Yes she is a real person, says Murphy. He also had the line "as Celine gets skinnier, she gets uglier - are we still taping?" Hilarious off the cuff comments that just scream for Chris Murphy to have his own drive program - if CBC could stand the heat of Murphy without a lease!

Check out his unplugged performance on this You Tube clip, performed live on CBC Radio One's GO.

Best Radio Show Host of 2009 - Brent Bambury of CBC Radio One's GO

There is no bigger friend of Canadian Independent recording artists than Brent Bambury. His name is synonymous with great musical talent from Canada. Brent has been a big booster of new music at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp for many years.

Brent launched his radio career at CBC stations in Saint John, Halifax and Montreal. He began to work for Radio Two's Brave New Waves in 1984, and he became that show's permanent host one year later. Brent became known as a purveyor of obscure and emerging music, and a guide to alternative culture. He stayed up late and drank the best coffee in Montreal.

In 1995 he joined Tina Srebotnjak on CBC TV's Midday. He's since come to his senses and returned to radio.

Brent thinks radio should be kinetic, full of life, fun, outrageous and thoughtful all at the same time. He lives this idea of radio every Saturday morning hosting the best variety show on CBC Radio One - GO.

The generosity Brent shows while hosting is incredible for a National Radio host. Case in point would be the clip attached. Arick Howser is a fan of the show who is in the studio audience on a regular basis. In this clip Bambury has the young aspiring comic come on the show, for a totally unscripted one on one. This just does not happen on most shows - a most generous host indeed.

And the reason for this blog is the music. The incredible live music that pours out of the studio every morning is absolutely ear bending! To get musicians
up that early on a Saturday morning to perform live in front of a studio audience, shows the importance of the show.

Hats off to Brent Bambury - our Radio Show Host of 2009. Must mentions in conjunction with this award are his amazing team - Contest Nana (Nana Aba Duncan), British Pete (Peter Morey), Anshuman Iddamsetty, Jeff Goodes (ex-host of Fresh Air), Bronwyn Page, Erin Noel and David Carroll. Also a big shout out to "Producer Paul" who's ears ensure the music feed going out on the radio show is perfect.

Let's hope this is the future for CBC Radio - relevent, funny, irreverent, and in touch with the audience - a live audience at that. This, and an amazing platform for our Canadian Musical talent!

Tiny Bill Cody - Humourist of the Year - 2009

Tiny Bill Cody, is of course not so tiny. He's well over 6 feet tall, and is hard to miss in a crowd. But as a musical talent he is heads and shoulders above his compatriots. The other thing Bill has going for him is his absolutely knock down funny die laughing lyrics. In this You Tube Clip from earlier this year, Tiny Bill and a few other folks were asked to write a new national anthem. They were given a half an hour and then were asked to perform the song on National radio.
Bill came on and did an interesting and pretty funny first effort (also found on the DirkFimbob You Tube Channel). Once he heard the other versions he begged to do another one - to hilarious results. Once you hear this song you'll never think of Canada's geography in quite the same way again.

Check these clips out and you'll see what I mean. He's got a quirky, subversive streak to his writing. He's also the guy who did a send up of former deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps - in the song he talks about Copps loosing her virginity in an auto body shop! Only Cody could get away with that.

Best Instrumentation of 2009 - The Hidden Cameras

This band had the most interesting instrumentation of any bands seen in 2009. What pop band can claim to have a harpist (real harp player, not a harmonica), and a cello player and an upright bass player in the band?

Here The Hidden Cameras perform live in the CBC Radio One's GO studio early one Saturday morning.

They are like tonic to sooth your aching mind. Relax and float downsteam listening to this...