sarahillis's blog

Yes, it's time once again for another infusion of Celtic goodies to be squirted into your week! (Wasn't that a great image? Well, moving on...) I've got yet another Simple Single in "Me Music," a "Celtic Cover" that just popped out at me from nowhere, and some great tunes from Planxty in "Fiddlin' Around." As ever, if you tune in this week, you'll get three hours of high-quality music with a healthy dose of less-than-high-quality wit courtesy of yours truly.

Yes, July 1 is Canada Day, and it's the 150th anniversary of confederation to boot, so we'll be going all Canadian on Come by the Hills. We have a fine Stan Rogers song in "Celtic Covers," a couple of segments on some great Canadian bands who sing about Canadian things, some great Quebecois music in "Fiddlin' Around," and a lot of obscure and interesting Canadian folk songs for you to enjoy.

More great Celtic music is the order of the day this week on Come by the Hills, including a "Celtic Cover" involving not one, not two, but three jugs of punch. There's also another simple single in "Me Music," some fiddle tunes from The Green Fields of America, and lots of other great listening as usual.

Join me on Sunday night after The Early Years or catch the replay on Friday morning after The Smorgasbord!

As my Apple Watch informs me, the days are getting longer and longer, and this coming week will be the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This day has traditionally been called Midsummer's Day and has been a time of dancing, bonfires and general merry-making to honour the high-point of the growing season. We're going to celebrate this on Come by the Hills this week with a few songs about summer for your enjoyment. We'll have a summer-themed "Celtic Cover," another one of my "simple singles" in our feature called "Me Music," and a whole lot more.

Before I tell you about this week's show, I want to thank everyone who wrote or tweeted in about the Stan Rogers show I did last week. I heard some lovely stories about the man whom I was never able to see perform which only reinforced my high opinion of his music and his legacy for Canada and humanity in general. I managed to impress some pretty knowledgeable folkies with my Stan picks. That's a pretty tall order as I myself should know. It's hard to be a folky sometimes, because so many radio stations stick to a few well-known songs from any particular artist.

Friday, June 2, marked the 34th anniversary of the tragic and needless death of Canadian folk singer-songwriter Stan Rogers. He died at the age of 33 when a plane he was on caught fire after making an emergency landing. He was a prolific artist, working steadily from 1970 till his death, which occurred while he was flying back to Canada from a folk festival in the US. He wrote songs about Canadian life, songs that were inspired by Canadian history and songs that told great stories. We'll be saluting him this week on Come by the Hills with a special tribute in the first hour.

Yes, Spanky and Our Gang said it all. However, little did they know their prophetic powers, because now that Mushroom FM has Celtic music on Sunday nights right after The Early Years and before Moon Dreams, your Sunday, gentle listener, really will never be the same again!

Alright, so here's what happened. I was sitting around all week procrastinating and wondering what I wanted to do for this week's episode of Come by the Hills, and then, like a firework streaking across the sky, it came to me. Since this is along weekend in Canada, why not do another "long songs" episode? (For my purposes, "long" means a duration of over 5 minutes.) So, that's what we're going to do.

It's time for another Celtic music extravaganza on Come by the Hills! Join me on Sunday at 8:00 PM for music from all over the Celtic world. We've got music from Wales and music made by Whales. We've got fiddles, harps and every instrument you cann think of! We've got a "Celtic Cover" in which Judy Collins meets Newfoundland folk group Ryan's Fancy, we've got music from the movie Titanic, and of course some great ballads and even some Celtic comedy.

Yes, it's all very exciting! In less than six hours, Come by the Hills is coming your way with another three hours of the best in Celtic music from around the world. We've got "Me Music" in the first hour, "Fiddlin' Around" in the second, and a really neat "Celtic Cover" featuring the scottish folk-rock band Wolfstone in the third hour.