Random Play with CBC's Alan Neal
with Lydia Ainsworth, Basia Bulat, Kathleen Edwards, Kobo Town and Tom Wilson
Presented in collaboration with RBC Bluesfest
What an evening. I have watched musical theatre in London, Paris, New York, Stratford in England and other places and I have never seen anything like what you did last night. Truly amazing"
RANDOM PLAY returns, this time in collaboration with RBC Bluesfest!
It's a Writers Festival tradition that's always one of the most-talked about evenings in town, when Alan Neal of CBC Radio's ALL IN A DAY brings his strange i-Pod 's collection of songs and a truly amazing collection of musicians to the stage for another night of unpredictable magic.
What musicians, you ask?
How about...
LYDIA AINSWORTH
BASIA BULAT
KATHLEEN EDWARDS
KOBO TOWN
TOM WILSON
Alan takes his i-Pod, of nearly 18,000 songs of folk, pop, rap, jazz, rock, calypso, country, soul, showtunes and superhero children's stories...of oh-so-many eras... And put it on "random" (or "shuffle" if you prefer).
He wrote down the first 10 songs that came up and made it his job to find out everything that he can about how those songs came to be... and analyze what messages are in the music. And with luck brings the songwriters to the stage to explain and perform the songs themselves.
What results is a wonderful and bizarre combination of journalism, live performance and musical discovery, tied together with Alan's love for lyrical analysis and archival research... plus some of the strangest cover tunes you'll see.
Highlights from Random Plays past:
• Craig Finn of The HoldSteady duetting with Iskwe on a Springsteen song.
• Measha Brueggergosman singing Madonna.
• Jim Bryson singing a Loudon Wainwright tune with Kellylee Evans.
• Jenn Grant singing a song from the Dallas TV soundtrack.
• Lynn Miles singing Luscious Jackson.
• Tanika Charles taking on Millie Jackson.
• That time Rose Cousins, Bonjay and Iskwe became Josie And The Pussycats.
See what you've missed? So what will happen THIS year?
And then, there's usually an Aquaman radio play. We're not making this up. (We're sure the film was good and everything, but it did not feature Rich Aucoin as Aquaman, Elliott Brood as fishermen, or Hannah Georgas as Topo The Octopus. That only happens at Random Play.)
