Shows
Hidden TrackCaptain Tractor | It's Gold Gold!Looking back on 30 years of Captain Tractor's hugely successful, beloved classic album East of Edson, practically everything about it seems unlikely. They came together as a bunch of theatre and music school kids, and became known all over Canada. With the release of that record, the band also hit upon a signature song that remains a buzz track to this day. Enjoy their chat with CKUA’s Grant Stovel in this episode of the Hidden Track Podcast. Learn more about Hidden Track at ckua.com/hiddentrack. CREDITS Host: Grant Stovel Associate Producer: Scott Zielsdorf Exe...2025-05-0937 min
Hidden TrackStarpainter | Live from Cold BonesCold Bones Fest was the site of this edition of the Hidden Track podcast, and Lethbridge band Starpainter takes centre stage. Starpainter is a favourite on the CKUA airwaves, and they have been outspoken about their support of the CKUA community. Their latest album, Rattlesnake Dream, has received international acclaim, with one of its tracks being named #1 Song of the Year by Americana and UK. They also had the opportunity to tour Japan for the first time. Enjoy this edition of the Hidden Track podcast, which was recorded live at the Drumheller Legion during Cold Bo...2025-04-2544 min
Hidden TrackAlan Doyle | Great Big CKUACanadian icon Alan Doyle shares his fascinating musical journey in this episode of the Hidden Track podcast. From his humble beginnings in Petty Harbour to performing on global stages, Doyle's narrative is filled with heartfelt reflections and vibrant storytelling. He discusses his evolution with Great Big Sea, his solo career, and his ventures into theatre and writing. He talks about his educational background, influences such as Ron Hynes, and his new introspective album, Welcome Home. Listen for an engaging tale of music, humility, and gratitude, and enjoy a bonus acoustic performance of "Hard Old Hands," live in C...2025-04-1135 min
Hidden TrackCaity Gyorgy & Mark Limacher | Modern ClassicsCaity Gyorgy and Mark Limacher are a formidable musical duo known for their brilliance and creativity on and off stage. Caity, a two-time JUNO Award-winning singer and songwriter, and Mark, a versatile composer and pianist, share a unique bond that enhances their collaborative performances. Their ability to blend their talents creates an enchanting experience for audiences, whether they are performing music or engaging in conversation. Recently, they reunited in Alberta for holiday performances before heading to Japan for a series of shows at The Cotton Club. Their visit included a special session at CKUA, where th...2025-03-2839 min
Hidden TrackMOONRIIVR | A Magical WorldMOONRIIVR is a band known for creating lush, cinematic, and atmospheric music inspired by timeless classics, yet uniquely personal in style. Comprised of seasoned musicians Gavin Gardiner and "Champagne" James Robertson, the duo brings a wealth of experience from the Southern Ontario music scene, blending indie rock, folk, jazz, and country influences. Their debut album, Vol. 1, and its follow-up, The Tascam Sessions, showcase their musical alchemy and innovative expression. We're treated to a sample of that magic in this Hidden Track Story, as the duo shares a bonus pair of live performances with us as part of t...2025-03-1430 min
Hidden TrackWyatt C. Louis | HomespunAfter releasing a captivating debut single called "Dancing with Sue" in June of 2020, Wyatt C. Louis created a stir that saw them gain fans across Alberta, Canada, and beyond. But it would be nearly four years until Wyatt's debut full-length album was released. The album Chandler, released on May 27, 2024, shot straight to #1 on CKUA’s weekly Top 30 chart. Their songs are pensive, deeply felt, and slow burning, while their supple voice and guitar work express wonder and vulnerability. The candid solo performances that Wyatt shared with us in CKUA's Studio A are intimate and beautiful. 2025-02-2835 min
Hidden TrackHidden Track x Music Yukon | Part 1For this special episode, Hidden Track is doing something utterly different. This isn’t a feature on one artist, song, or album. It casts a spotlight on a whole scene—on a whole Canadian Territory, in a sense! Yukon is a Canadian territory that’s bigger than most countries on Earth, but its nearly half-million square kilometres are inhabited by only about 40,000 people. In partnership with both Music Yukon and The Edmonton Fringe, CKUA invited five acts into CKUA’s Studio to share some of their music and their story with us. In Part 1 of this uniqu...2024-11-0130 min
Hidden TrackKaia Kater | Appetite for HealingKaia Kater has learned her craft through the influence of a diverse group of musical heroes, ranging from Herbie Hancock to Rhiannon Giddens. She recently turned her lens simultaneously inward and outward, to confront difficult truths and injustices – personally, historically, societally, and made them into album titled Strange Medicine. CKUA’s Grant Stovel caught up with Kaia shortly after the album's release, as she was entering the summertime festival season. And she's very much a child of the Western Canadian folk festival experience. Host: Grant Stovel | Producer: Scott Zielsdorf | Graphics: Craig Taffs | Music: Doug...2024-08-1638 min
Hidden TrackDakhaBrakha | Ethno-ChaosDakhaBrakha combines traditional folk and punk, drawing inspiration from their Ukrainian homeland with a global sensibility. Melodies from the ancient past collide with future sounds. They like to describe their style as “ethno-chaos.” At CKUA, we were treated to a visit from touring dignitaries DakhaBrakha while they were on tour. It was the full four-piece band in all their full, distinctive instrumentation, in full regalia and in all their glory. For this episode of Hidden Track Sessions, the band set up in CKUA’s Edmonton performance space and shared a scorching set of three e...2024-07-0526 min
Hidden TrackBe Part of Something (Year-In-Review)It's been an amazing Season 4 here at Hidden Track. We've had visits with an astounding array of inspired artists, ranging from local heroes to global greats; from a reigning Polaris Prize winner to a newly minted Grammy Award winner; from hip-hop to hardcore punk to homespun folk. It's been such a wild 2023! So wild, in fact, that we felt the need to do a special episode to wrap up the season. Given the daunting task of summarizing such an incredible season, Grant decided to call in a little help! For this year-end episode, Grant Stovel is joined by Hidden Track prod...2023-12-0858 min
Mulligan StewThe Juno Couch RecapJuno Couch: a luxurious seating area where artists may gather during Juno Weekend and exchange opinions, questions and minor insults. All for the entertainment of music fans everywhere. Music can also be played from the stage conveniently located right next to the Couches. Just for the record, the Juno Couch only happens when the awards are hosted in Alberta. It's been co-hosted by Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo – except for this year. Year one was in the bar lobby of the Hotel MacDonald, Year two was in a restaurant at the base of the Calgary Tower a...2023-03-2059 min
Hidden TrackWhitehorse | Breaking Up With SocietyCKUA's Hidden Track Podcast returns for Season 4! Kicking things off in 2023 is (currently) Manitoba-based folk rock duo Whitehorse! Composed of husband-and-wife duo Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, Whitehorse's sound spans from folk/americana to groove-driven pop rock. Doucet and McClelland have always been talented musicians, and both had successful solo careers before joining forces as Whitehorse. Released on January 13, 2023, the duo's eighth studio album, "I'm Not Crying, You're Crying", marks a tonal shift to the melancholic sounds of hurtin' classic country. Spurred on by feelings of loneliness and isolation due to the pandemic, I'm Not Crying, You're Crying has been described a...2023-01-1347 min
Hidden TrackFortunate Ones | Love Is A RiverNewfoundland-based musicians Catherine Allan and Andrew James O'Brien are the couple behind Juno-nominated band Fortunate Ones. The band's latest album, That Was You and Me, released early in June of 2022. Fortunate Ones recently embarked on a tour alongside fellow East Coast artists, The Once and Old Man Luedecke. That tour, dubbed the Anchors Up! Tour finds the band performing shows in Alberta in late November 2022. The duo behind this incredible folk outlet took time out of their busy tour schedule to chat with Hidden Track host Grant Stovel for a look at their personal and artistic journeys t...2022-11-1855 min
Hidden TrackSpoon | On the RadioSpoon, a critically acclaimed rock band from Austin, Texas, consists of front man Britt Daniel, drummer Jim Eno, Ben Trokan on bass, and guitarists (as well as keyboardists) Alex Fischel and Gerard Larios. Critics have often described the band’s musical style as “art rock” or “experimental rock.” Formed by Daniel and Eno in 1993, the band has released ten albums and undergone quite a few roster changes over the years. These days, Britt Daniel and Jim Eno remain the only founding members, with other current members having joined in the late 2010s. The band’s latest album is Lucifer on the Sof...2022-07-2251 min
Hidden TrackJr. Gone Wild | Too Dumb To QuitThey were alt-country before alt-country. By the time that became a buzz term in the mid-‘90s, Jr. Gone Wild had a legendary career, and called it a day. Over 25 years later, the Alberta music scene remains imprinted by the band's work. The cow-punk trailblazers are back with their first album in 25 years, ‘Still Got The Jacket’. On this episode, Grant Stovel talks with Corb Lund, Stony Plain founder Holger Petersen, and Jr. Gone Wild’s Mike McDonald about the band’s incredible legacy and exciting future.2021-11-0157 min
Hidden TrackOtis Redding | Try A Little TendernessIf Otis Redding were alive, he'd be turning eighty this month. Instead, the world lost him at the age of 26. Redding revolutionized popular music, created a lasting legacy, and was the personification of soul. This episode of Hidden Track traces his journey, from modest roots to chart-topping hits, and we wonder what might have been. On this episode, Jonathan Gould, author of Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life joins host Grant Stovel to explore the fascinating story of Otis Redding's life and career. 2021-09-011h 01
Hidden TrackKat DanserKat Danser's chance encounter with Al Green in a parking lot in Memphis was part of an experience that put her on a path to a place in her life that she could never even have dreamt of when she was growing up on a farm in rural Saskatchewan. It’s a voyage of discovery that’s involved travelling thousands of miles, while making an inward journey that led her to become Canada’s Queen of the Swamp Blues. On the eve of her induction into the Edmonton Blues Hall of Fame, Grant Stovel talks to the musician and ethnom...2019-06-0157 min
Hidden TrackJudy CollinsIt's not everyday you get to chat with a music legend, cultural force, and intergenerational icon. This week on Hidden Track, Grant Stovel talks to folk music giant Judy Collins. Her inspired work as a song stylist helped launch to fame songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, and Ian Tyson. We'll hear about those relationships, as well as the struggles and demons that have clawed at her along the way. Sixty years into her career, Collins has emerged as a truly self-actualized artist who is just hitting her professional stride. 2019-04-1323 min
Hidden TrackOde to Bobbie GentryShe skyrocketed to fame with a song that didn't sound like anything anyone had ever heard before. It was gentle yet tense, lurid yet mysterious. "Ode to Billie Joe" was driven by Bobbie Gentry's trademark acoustic guitar groove, and that low Mississippi drawl that seemed like it was murmuring secrets in your ear. On this episode, Grant Stovel explores the captivating legacy of an artist who has one of most sensational success stories in all of popular music, and also one of its most fascinating and enigmatic disappearing acts. Tara Murtha, author of Bobbie Gentry's 'Ode to Billie Joe' is Grant...2019-03-2941 min
Hidden TrackFeistThis week, Leslie Feist talks to Grant Stovel about how a conscious shift in perspective guided the approach to her latest album, Pleasure. She’ll tell us about the “dark nights of the soul” that led her to finding a better work-life balance. Plus, Leslie reflects on her tributes to Leonard Cohen, Gord Downie, and the milestone anniversary of her appearance on Sesame Street.2019-03-2224 min
Hidden TrackJeremy DutcherOn our debut episode, Grant Stovel welcomes musician Jeremy Dutcher. The classically trained operatic tenor and composer spent most of his 20's quietly crafting his stunning debut album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. The album blends his training in opera, and his contemporary musical sensibility, and features post-classical rearrangements of Wolastoq First Nation traditional music. The work recently took home Canada's top musical honour, the Polaris Music Prize, this past September. In this wide-ranging discussion, Jeremy talks about his musical upbringing, discovering the notable absence of classical music that reflects indigeneity, and uncovering the archival recordings that became foundational to his...2019-03-1453 min
Capital City Records PodcastCapital City Records Song of the Week - Marco Claveria Project "A Bellavista"CKUA morning announcer Grant Stovel was feeling worldly when selecting this Song of the Week. Here it is, "A Bellavista" by the Marco Claveria Project, a tune that gets lodged in Grant's head "for weeks at a time."2016-10-1305 min
Capital City Records PodcastCapital City Records Song of the Week - Mark Davis "Eliminate the Toxins"This week's Capital City Records host - CKUA's very own morning announcer Grant Stovel. Giving Grant a musical database the size of Capital City Records and telling him to pick out just one song is no easy task, but he did it. Here he is presenting "Eliminate the Toxins" from Mark Davis' new album of the same name. 2016-09-2906 min
TransCanada Music WestHutchinson Andrew Trio live at CKUAThis week on TransCanada Music West, host Grant Stovel welcomes Alberta jazz outfit Hutchinson Andrew Trio to CKUA’s performance space. The acoustic piano trio features bassist Kodi Hutchinson, pianist Chris Andrew, and drummer Karl Schwonik. They’ve been a staple of the Alberta jazz scene for over a decade, and as of late, have been touring on the strength of their 2013 album Prairie Modern. This week on the show, they give us a live preview of music from their forthcoming fall 2015 release.2015-02-2858 min
TransCanada Music WestKarla Adolphe live from CKUAHigh River, Alberta singer-songwriter Karla Adolphe joins TransCanada Music West host Grant Stovel in CKUA's Studio A. Karla performs songs from her latest album, Honeycomb Tombs, and shares stories about what inspires her songs. 2015-01-1657 min