Shows
Deeper Cuts6.6: Steely Dan - Can't Buy a Thrill (1972) What grabs you as a kid listening to songs on the radio may still grab you as an adult... but the nuances often come out after you’ve had years to process them, all informed by life experience. This was true for Rob and Steely Dan’s 1972 debut record Can’t Buy a Thrill. It was an album he immersed himself in his twenties during his first flush of CD buying. But as a little kid, the big radio singles sounded weird and even terrifying – and sometimes hilarious – to him. So, what’s the real identity of the music beyond what...
2023-03-2458 min
Deeper Cuts6.5: Age of Mirrors - Screenplay (1987) When you find out your friend is in a band and has made a record, it’s like finding out that they’re a practicing wizard, a superhero, or secret agent. It often turns music fans/friends into evangelists – “Everyone! Listen to what my friend made!” In the heady days when melancholic northern new wave roamed the earth, Graeme’s friend Bob, alias “Simon DeBeaupre”, along with his bandmates in Age of Mirrors put out 1987’s Screenplay. Graeme made sure we all had a copy. He’s still making sure of that by way of this episode of our show – thirty-five y...
2023-03-171h 02
Deeper Cuts6.4: Sweet Honey in the Rock - Breaths (1988) Music runs deep and has the power to enlighten, educate, and empower. This doesn’t have to be a didactic thing and the best of it isn’t. Great songs can do all of those things as one listens and enjoys them. It does all that at the soul level. Music is weird – and sometimes very, very sneaky. Shannon connected with the world of acapella from her time in college, solidifying her well-earned status as theater and choir kid. All the while, the music of Sweet Honey in the Rock and their album Breaths was a stalwart influe...
2023-03-0959 min
Deeper Cuts6.3: Nick Heyward - North of a Miracle (1983) There reaches a point in a young music fan’s life when they begin to detect the emotional complexities of the songs and albums they love. This usually corresponds with a capacity for sensing these things in real life between real people. One discovers that some things can seem happy on the surface, while being full of tumult and struggle underneath. Nick Heyward’s 1983 debut record North of a Miracle was the key example for Rob when he was 14 and going on 15. It also provided the soundtrack for what followed in his own life as things changed dramatically in his...
2023-02-2254 min
Deeper Cuts6.2: Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing (1997) We often find an attachment to certain music during times of emotional upheaval and loss. And it can be a double-edged blade. We love it and find it painful at the same time... because, hey, music is weird – and mysterious. For Graeme, the ending of a relationship led him to this exact place. Around that time, Sarah McLachlan’s 1997 record Surfacing was his soundtrack – not just on his personal stereo, but with the music playing as a musical accompaniment in his head as he navigated his way through a painful period. Join Graeme, Shannon and Rob as they a...
2023-02-0755 min
Deeper Cuts6.1: Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) As is often the case with music, love can grow in increments. The Deeper Cuts trio touched on that in our discussion on Tom Waits’ Mule Variations album all the way back in Season Two when Shannon first saw the artist’s incendiary performance of “Chocolate Jesus” on Letterman. But even as listeners grow into a sound over time, artists themselves reveal something of their art through various stages of their careers, too. It was this phenomenon that struck Shannon when she heard 1974’s The Heart of Saturday Night, which presents Tom Waits in an earlier incarnation. The album revealed n...
2023-01-1058 min
Deeper CutsHoliday Special 2022Twas two weeks before Christmas (a little bit less) and all through the podcast, Shannon, Graeme and Rob were receiving holiday presents... from our listeners! That's right, this year we've outsourced our traditional gift exchange. Listeners Martin Hajovsky, Drew Walco and Sarah Irvin have given Graeme, Shannon and Rob respectively albums that they like. Will the Deeper Cuts trio have a holly jolly Christmas with the listener gifts? Or will they be like the abominable snowman before Hermey the Elf's dentistry? As ever, we liven up the proceedings with questions about music and making the show from even more...
2022-12-131h 16
Deeper CutsThe Live Sessions 3: Paul Simon - Concert in the Park (1991) Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Live Sessions – a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the live music albums that were meaningful to them, and pondering what makes a great live album. After exploring a theater and a concert hall as a setting for great live records, this time we consider the large-scale outdoor live show. To illustrate this context best, Shannon showcases a go-to live album for her – Paul Simon’s 1991 live offering, Concert in the Park. For Shannon, it was a high school record; a put-it-on-in-the-car-and-drive-anywhere record. It meant freedom, adventure, and was a...
2022-12-061h 00
Deeper CutsThe Live Sessions 2: Indigo Girls - Live With The University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra (2018) Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Live Sessions – a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the live music albums that were meaningful to them, and pondering what makes a great live album. During a hellscape of a summer marked by a never-ending work crisis, Graeme learned about the Indigo Girls' new live album through a Deeper Cuts fan (and friend of the program) Sarah Irvin. This new album-- a collaboration with the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra-- pushed the boundaries of a live performance for the folk duo, and proved to be a balm fo...
2022-11-291h 02
Deeper CutsThe Live Sessions 1: James Brown - Live at the Apollo (1963)Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Live Sessions – a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the live music albums that were meaningful to them, and pondering what makes a great live album. There are wake-up calls and there are WAKE UP! calls. When Rob was growing up, his Dad’s copy of James Brown and the Famous Flames’ Live at the Apollo record was one of those... and in more than one respect. For Rob, one form was literal, while another form took hold over a much longer term, helping to shape his musical outloo...
2022-11-2258 min
Deeper CutsHoliday Special 2021 Ho! Ho! Ho! Our annual holiday special has returned and so has our traditional gift exchange! Join Shannon, Graeme and Rob as they exchange albums with each other (this year as a duo-- double the potential catastrophization!) and find out if their gift is a stocking hung by the chimney with care, or a Grinch-robbed home instead. Throughout, the Deeper Cuts trio will be answering listener questions about holiday music and about the show! It's the one holiday party you can be guaranteed a good time. Stay warm, metaphorically speaking, from the glow of our Spotify Playlist...
2021-12-201h 11
Deeper Cuts5.7: Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording (2015) (Part Two) In part two of our exploration of the 2015 soundtrack to the musical Hamilton, the Deeper Cuts trio continue their discussion of the resonant themes in the musical that helped Shannon become the person she wanted to be and how music can help us set our values. We also talk about what Hamilton has to say about American history and the musical's use of references to other works. For this finale episode to the fifth series of the Deeper Cuts, Shannon, Graeme and Rob throw in everything but the kitchen sink (and possibly even that). Will we find a way...
2021-12-171h 13
Deeper Cuts5.6: Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording (2015) (Part One) How can art shape our very identities? How can it give us a sense of direction from the people we are to the people we want to be – shaping our very values? Shannon adopted the city of New York as her home, and many of her album selections for this show across multiple seasons demonstrate her love for the city as she made memories there and became an independent and more confident person. But with the 2015 musical Hamilton, New York loved her right back, and the production transformed her. What was it about this grand and unique production that re...
2021-12-161h 00
Deeper Cuts5.5: Steve Taylor - On The Fritz (1985) When one is at a young age, the way isn’t always as straightforward as we initially think. This is true of the subcultures, ideology and even faith communities we find ourselves in. But what remains after we find ourselves on a different path years later? How do those lessons we picked up from a bygone age play now? They remain with us perhaps just as unexpectedly, even when we’ve become completely different people years down the line. Steve Taylor’s 1985 album On the Fritz, an example of the emerging movement of Christian Contemporary Music in 1980s, was an art...
2021-12-0958 min
Deeper Cuts5.4: The Finn Brothers - Everyone Is Here Being connected. Feeling surrounded by those who support you. It’s vital to happiness, particularly during life-altering events like the birth of a child, for instance. This was on Rob’s mind as he anticipated the arrival of a new daughter, and the feelings associated with being surrounded by an extended support system of soon-to-be aunties, uncles, and grandparents, too. The soundtrack for all this was 2004’s Everyone is Here by the Finn Brothers, a record that is about these very same sorts of connections and how they affect who we are and how we perceive the world. So, what d...
2021-12-0357 min
Deeper Cuts5.3: Van Morrison - Poetic Champions Compose (1987) Romance! Everyone has an idea of what it means to them. It is certainly attached to intense emotional states, especially when we’re young. By the late eighties, Graeme was in college in doing content creation in a time before podcasts – this time as co-editor of the school newspaper. It was there that his fellow editor turned him onto the finer things in literature and in music – including Van Morrison’s Poetic Champions Compose. The record spoke to Graeme in his earnest romantic state of mind during a time when he was trying to find his way through the briar pa...
2021-11-1859 min
Deeper Cuts5.2: Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope (2006) A clean slate. A new era. A dedication to a new focus. When Shannon moved to Boston’s Fenway neighborhood for graduate school, these were some of the things that characterized her life at that time. As we’ve learned by now, for every era in a music fan’s life, there is a soundtrack. Regina Spektor’s 2006 record Begin to Hope was just that, as Shannon immersed herself in the world of books, academia, and a new sense of independence as a person living in the city – a theme that would certainly recur in her life from there. So, what d...
2021-11-1258 min
Deeper Cuts5.1: A-ha - Hunting High & Low (1985) Some records become the soundtrack for pivotal periods of self-discovery in our lives, even if we’re not aware of the importance of those times to our personal development – maybe even especially so. In the summer of 1987, Rob took a trip to Barbados to stay with his cousin. Driving around the island, A-Ha’s 1985 album Hunting High and Low played in the car often; music from a northern and sometimes wintry country serving as a sonic backdrop to adventures in the sunny Caribbean. More importantly, its underlying tone and emotional content allowed 18-year-old Rob the space to consider his direct...
2021-11-0458 min
Deeper CutsThe Soundtrack Sessions 3: Ennio Morricone - The Mission (1986)Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Soundtrack Sessions - a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the the intersection between film and music while looking at albums that were meaningful to one of them. As a teenager, Graeme was drawn to the world of orchestral film scores. Thanks to a friend at church who gave him a (wait for it) mix tape of movie soundtracks, Graeme was well on his way. One of the big ones around this time was Ennio Morricone’s score for the 1986 film The Mission, a story about faith, politics, co...
2021-09-221h 01
Reality Bomb - a Doctor Who podcastDeeper Cuts Special: Doctor Who - The Music IINever fear, Reality Bomb listeners. There's nothing wrong with your podcast! The gang from Deeper Cuts -- Shannon Dohar, Rob Jones and Reality Bomb's very own Graeme Burk -- have been timescooped over to Reality Bomb's feed (in honour of the Deeper Cuts miniseries, The Soundtrack Sessions, available now!) to do their thing with us-- talking about an album that was of significance to one of them. Because it's Reality Bomb, they're talking about a Doctor Who soundtrack: 1984's Doctor Who - The Music II, which Graeme bought as 17 year-old as it was the sequel to an album he...
2021-09-1054 min
Deeper CutsThe Soundtrack Sessions 2: High Fidelity (2000)Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Soundtrack Sessions - a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the the intersection between film and music while looking at albums that were meaningful to one of them. When favourite films and favourite soundtracks converge at exactly the right time in our lives, magic happens! In Shannon's case, this was also a time when she worked in a video store with her fellow movie and music tastemakers among the all-female staff, so she had the additional joy of reveling in pop culture banter at the retail level, experiencing...
2021-09-0750 min
Deeper CutsThe Soundtrack Sessions 1: Prince - Batman (1989)Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Soundtrack Sessions - a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the the intersection between film and music while looking at albums that were meaningful to one of them. Some years really stand out as landmarks in our lives. The summer of 1989 was one such year for Rob (and for Graeme): a "crossfade year" which was both the end to an era and the beginning of another all at the same time. This was Rob's gap year, working his first full time job at a bookstore and with the...
2021-08-3156 min
Deeper CutsHoliday Special 2020Our annual holiday special has returned and so has our traditional gift exchange! Join Shannon, Graeme and Rob as they exchange albums with each other and find out if their gift a Christmas cracker or a lump of coal. But this time they're not alone: we did this episode live in front of an audience on Zoom! Join the Deeper Cuts trio for Q and A and find out what their pals are bringing as musical gifts for the rest of us. It's a holiday party you don't want to miss... and you have the best seat in the...
2020-12-071h 15
Deeper Cuts4.6: The Muppet Movie (Original Soundtrack) (1979)Why are there so many songs about rainbows? In this last episode of our fourth season, the Deeper Cuts trio indulge in some comfort listening, true to our well-established Muppet Agenda. This time, it revolves around the soundtrack album to 1979’s The Muppet Movie. Saving his money from a paper route, a young Graeme bought this, his first self-financed music purchase and, as much as he loved the movie, this soundtrack was a separate and equally worthy experience for him. Years later, what value remains to be found between the grooves of this platter that still matters? What are th...
2020-10-271h 00
Deeper Cuts4.5: Rufus Wainwright - Out of the Game (2012)A year and a half in a new city. A raffle for concert tickets. The tail-end of a slowly declining and not very healthy relationship. It was a time when Shannon realized that things were coming to a head in that phase of her life. This was Shannon's emotional context when she went to a concert as a part of the PBS series The Artist’s Den and saw Rufus Wainwright for the first time. Rufus was singing songs from his then new album, 2012’s Out of the Game and the music, and the artist, attached themselves to Shannon’s spiri...
2020-10-2052 min
Deeper Cuts4.4: Sade - Diamond Life (1984)Remember record stores? Those magical places which seemingly contained all the music in the world? Rob remembers one such record store fondly -- Cactus Records in Oakville -- because it was there he encountered an album that he'd been interested in for years: Sade's sophisiti-pop opus Diamond Life. How were Sade's stylish sounds received by Rob's fellow panelists? What were their favourite record stores of yore? What strategies did everyone employ when they shopped at record stores... and what were their great finds? Come with us, dear listeners, as the Deeper Cuts trio write a collective love letter to...
2020-10-1358 min
Deeper Cuts4.3: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced (1967)Parents are good for one or two things. Sometimes, one of them is how they serve as vectors for great music; how to spot it, what to listen for, and how to form your own lifelong love for musical artistry. At a young age, Shannon’s dad helped her hone an appreciation for music by listening to records with her, and particularly ones centered around the guitar. One of the big ones at the time was 1967’s Are You Experienced? by the Jimi Hendrix Experience; a formative album for many generations of music fans. The album was representative of a se...
2020-10-0657 min
Deeper Cuts4.2: Elvis Costello and the Attractions - All This Useless Beauty (1996)The end of a road can take on many different forms. Sometimes, the road branches off in two or more directions. Sometimes, it’s a dead end. At other times, that road is shrouded in mist with no road signs to indicate what’s ahead. In any of these situations, you have to decide on what to do next to the best of your ability. At the end of his university career, Rob faced the end of a road, and the end of an era while the way forward became suddenly uncertain. During that time, Elvis Costello and the Attr...
2020-09-2952 min
Deeper Cuts4.1: Sting - ...Nothing Like The Sun (1987)Sometimes, you find yourself growing up. You realize that some of the things you believed and thought were solid in your life really aren’t – and in fact are even harmful to you. You find you have to question those things to create a new path for yourself. You’ve got to start again. This was Graeme’s experience at the end of his high school years and the beginning of his college years. Sting’s 1987 record …Nothing Like the Sun was Graeme's "first grown-up record" and was an important part of his personal soundtrack at the time when he was calli...
2020-09-2259 min
Deeper CutsThe COVID Sessions 3: John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch (original soundtrack) (2019) Welcome to Deeper Cuts: the COVID Sessions -- a three episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio taking deep dives into music with deep meaning for us right now as we shelter in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Living in modern times can be exciting, and also terrifying. Sometimes, it feels like we’re just children in a big imposing world, sparking our anxieties, and making us feel overwhelmed. While sheltering in place during this strange and scary COVID-19 era, Shannon turned to fellow New Yorker John Mulaney’s Sack Lunch Bunch soundtrack, an accompaniment to his...
2020-05-1446 min
Deeper CutsThe COVID Sessions 2: Bruce Cockburn - Night Vision (1973)Welcome to Deeper Cuts: the COVID Sessions -- a three episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio taking deep dives into music with deep meaning for us right now as we shelter in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Right now during the COVID-19 lockdown, a lot of us find ourselves waiting. We're waiting for conditions to change, waiting for a resumption of everyday things, waiting for any good news whatsoever. Graeme's go-to album during this pandemic that's he's been waiting with is Bruce Cockburn's 1973 album Night Vision which Cockburn mega-fan Graeme... never really liked all that...
2020-05-0854 min
Deeper CutsThe COVID Sessions 1: Fountains Of Wayne - Traffic and Weather (2007)Welcome to Deeper Cuts: the COVID Sessions -- a three episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio taking deep dives into music with deep meaning for us right now as we shelter in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. During his time sheltering in place, Rob turned to Fountains of Wayne’s 2007 album Traffic and Weather, a record that’s all about everyday things, of sometimes mundane travels, vignettes of middle-class suburban life, and of the quiet drama and raw humanity that lies at the heart of all that. What he found while listening is that there is b...
2020-04-3043 min
Deeper CutsHoliday Special 2019 It’s that time of year again, Deeper Cuts fans; the season of our holiday gift exchange! With some (actually, quite a lot of) trepidation in the hopes that our gifts are yuletide treasures rather than lumps of coal, the Deeper Cuts trio explore a range of musical styles from synthpop to blues-rock to yet another nod to our patented Muppet Agenda. What are the results? A Christmas miracle? Or does Santa’s sleigh crash into the (go tell it on the) mountain? Find out in this special 2019 holiday edition of the Deeper Cuts podcast! And happy holidays, one and...
2019-12-1843 min
Deeper Cuts3.6: ABBA - Super Trouper (1980)Home. What does it mean? What associations do people commonly hold about what their home means to them? How can music help to tie us to home, especially when one is far from it and missing it? When Graeme went to a military school at the age of 12, ABBA’s penultimate 1980 album Super Trouper helped him to keep his feet on the ground while he was regularly apart from his family. How did this record help Graeme during this trying period to make that connection? What is it about this record that brought him joy then, and what is it...
2019-03-2657 min
Deeper Cuts3.5: EELS - Daisies of the GalaxySometimes, it’s just time to move on. And yet, after struggles, trials and tribulations and painful endings, sometimes that’s not the easiest thing to do. How do you find the right path? How do you redefine your life once an important chapter has closed? This is a situation we all face in one way or another. For Rob, the 2000 album Daisies of the Galaxy by EELS was the soundtrack to a tumultuous chapter in his life. Luckily in that very record, he found some perspective on the subjects of pain and struggle, loneliness, and how to look on t...
2019-03-1955 min
Deeper Cuts3.4: Green Day - American Idiot (2004) Rebellion. Anger. Even disillusionment. These are only some of what makes up the human experience. This may be even more pertinent during our youth, and when times of great turmoil are reflected in the headlines, and in the lives of the people we know. It could also be just about the drudgery of our existences, and the feeling that we need to get the hell out and find something new! It all makes us want to cry out in protest and demand a better life for ourselves and for everyone in the world...
2019-03-1253 min
Deeper Cuts3.3: Mavis Staples - Have a Little Faith (2004) The world can be a place of trouble and darkness. But in that darkness, there is hope to be found if one is open to doing so. That was just the message that Rob needed as grim world events were coming to a head and as the call to fatherhood to a baby daughter beckoned him at the same time, fears, doubts and all. It was former Staples Singer, soul proponent, and civil rights-era voice of hope Mavis Staples’ 2004 album Have A Little Faith that provided a pathway into the next phase of hi...
2019-03-0544 min
Deeper Cuts3.2: Backstreet Boys - Backstreet Boys (1997) Some music in our lives gets us at a young age. It bonds itself to our DNA for the rest of our lives, connecting us with memories of unfiltered teenaged joy, posters plastered onto bedroom walls, and the reckless abandon of dance moves and hairbrush microphones in front of the mirror. Our first pop album is all about the heart and about the enthusiasm that came so naturally to us when we were kids. Immortal boyband Backstreet Boys and their 1998 self-titled debut was an impactful force along these lines for our...
2019-02-2653 min
Deeper Cuts3.1: Wendy Carlos - Switched-On Bach (1968) People are constantly doing things to improve themselves, to help make themselves a little smarter (or make themselves think that they’re smarter). Sometimes music can be part of a self-improvement. That’s what Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On Bach was for Graeme; as the revolutionary electronic music album started the a-little-too-serious teenaged Graeme on an excursion into the wider world of classical music. But how does that seminal record resonate with him all these years later? What do his compatriots in the Deeper Cuts trio think of it? There’s only one way to find out...
2019-02-1947 min
Deeper Cuts3.0: The Band - The Band (1969) (Happy 50th Birthday Rob!) Surprise! Before the new season of Deeper Cuts debuts next week, we did a bonus episode as a surprise party of a podcast for our beloved Deeper Cuts co-host Rob Jones, who turns 50 today (February 15, 2019)! Join Graeme and Shannon as they talk about a favourite band and a favourite album of Rob's, The Band's 1969 self-titled album (which was made the year Rob was born!) Two-thirds of the Deeper Cuts trio also discuss the joy of making, and sharing, music and have a few things to say about the birthday boy himself. So join i...
2019-02-1539 min
Deeper CutsHoliday Special 2018Happy holidays, Deeper Cuts fans! In anticipation for our upcoming third season, we have the 2018 edition of our holiday episode. This time, the Deeper Cuts trio gather around the yuletide tree to exchange gifts to celebrate the season. What gifts are we exchanging? Music, of course. Each of us gave another of our group a musical gift; an album each chosen specifically for Graeme, Shannon, and Rob based on their tastes, and wrapped up in a bow. What albums are we talking about here? Do our gifts to each other light up the Christmas tree? Or do they pour...
2018-12-2033 min
Deeper Cuts2.9: Bruce Cockburn - Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws (1979)Spirituality. It’s a pretty open-ended term. But one thing common across the faith spectrum (or the absence thereof) may be the sense of becoming part of something bigger than yourself and experiencing mystery and wonder. It isn’t easily defined and categorized as some systems of faith might have us believe. But it’s significant all the same. Former fundamentalist Christian Graeme associates Canadian singer-songwriter-guitarist Bruce Cockburn’s 1979 album Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws as the soundtrack to a significant shift to how he perceived spiritual things. What were those things? What sticks with him now? What did his com...
2018-07-3145 min
Reality Bomb - a Doctor Who podcastReality Bomb Episode 059On the fifty-ninth edition of Reality Bomb, we have a super-sized episode as, one year after they first talked about Jodie Whittaker's casting in episode 048, Graeme Burk talks to Petra Mayer, Angelique Roche and Sage Young about the new Doctor's debut at San Diego Comic Con... and the brace of teasers, trailers and news articles all saying very little but meaning so very much. Joy Piedmont talks to vlogger and member of Doctor Who Magazine's Team Team Claudia Boleyn about the ways Doctor Who could improve representation in a variety of ways as we debut a new segment, Perception Fi...
2018-07-251h 25
Deeper Cuts2.8: Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (1959)Music doesn’t always make it easy on you. It often challenges you. It shocks you. It confuses you. And through that, it makes you hear other music differently after a journey down a twisty path leading you through unfamiliar cultural and artistic territory to destinations you didn’t anticipate. Soon, you find yourself both challenged and delighted, too. That’s what Charles Mingus’ classic 1959 LP Mingus Ah Um did for Rob as a young jazz fan. What lessons did he take from it? What do his bandmates in the Deeper Cuts trio think of the record? What journeys did they...
2018-07-2446 min
Deeper Cuts2.7: Nanci Griffith - Flyer (1994)Moving on. We all find ourselves at the end of one era of our lives and with a new one ahead of us. It can be exciting. It can be sad. It can be both at the same time. Sometimes, it happens when you’re a kid, and there’s a feeling of helplessness attached to leaving a place and a time behind you. That’s what Shannon experienced at one point as a child. It was Nanci Griffith’s 1994 record Flyer that provided the soundtrack during a time when life in one place was ending, and one in a new pl...
2018-07-1745 min
Deeper Cuts2.6: Tori Amos - Under the Pink (1994)Sometimes, that’s the best advice you can follow is shut up and listen. That way you learn more, particularly about the stories of others that often remain hidden from you, yet are vital to know and understand. During a period of discovery for Rob around the issues of feminism and the burdens placed on women by our culture, Tori Amos’ 1994 Under the Pink album served as his primary soundtrack. What role did the songs play in his journey? How do the Deeper Cuts trio react to the record, and how are the issues to which it alludes very much...
2018-07-1052 min
Deeper Cuts2.5: OK Go - Of the Blue Colour of the Sky (2010)The comfort album: in times of trial, it offers just the right song to make things bearable. It give us lyrics that speak directly to us when we’re most in need. They make us feel less alone, and remind us that “this too shall pass” – sometimes very literally. That was Graeme’s predicament at one point. And it was OK Go’s 2010 record Of The Blue Colour of the Sky that provided the aural comfort food he needed to get through. What did the Deeper Cuts trio think of the album, though? What surprises lay in store, musically and thematically...
2018-07-0342 min
Deeper Cuts2.4: Tom Waits - Mule Variations (1999)Sometimes an album can offer you a point of departure: that moment when suddenly – WHAM! – everything clicks and new musical vistas are in front of you. We return to a theme we discussed back in episode 7 of our first season as we talk about Shannon’s journey with Tom Waits, specifically with his 1999 album Mule Variations. In this episode, we talk about how we perceive music and its affectations. We talk about how we are confronted and challenged by music that comes out of left field in a way we don’t expect. We talk about how we’re charmed by i...
2018-06-2648 min
Deeper Cuts2.3: Anne Murray - Let's Keep It That Way (1978)Your parents’ music. It can shape your own taste in various capacities. Or it can give you something to rebel against. Sometimes, it can be both. Either way, the music your parents put on when you were a kid isn’t just a soundtrack to your childhood; it’s a part of the tapestry of their personalities, of what they value. And that in turn helps to tell you something about yourself, as well. These threads are a part of Graeme’s connection to Anne Murray’s 1978 record Let’s Keep It That Way, an album bought by has parents on t...
2018-06-1953 min
Deeper Cuts2.2: Nick Drake - Bryter Layter (1971)Sometimes you find your favourite music. But in those rarer moments, that music seems to find you. That’s the experience Rob had with 1971’s Bryter Layter by singer-songwriter Nick Drake. The record was Drake’s second album, exploring English folk-rock textures with some chamber pop and jazz thrown in, and with some interesting lyrical content to ponder, too. The Deeper Cuts trio talks about that and the album that finds you: music that seemed as if had been waiting for us all our lives. They also discuss the surprises found in Bryter Layter even years later and the beauty...
2018-06-1243 min
Deeper Cuts2.1: Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1999)Break-ups! Autobiography! Pop crossovers! Season 2 of Deeper Cuts kicks off with a HUGE record from the late nineties, and a formative one for Shannon to boot while she was a musically curious 14-year old. Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill consolidated the nu-soul movement as it connected with hip-hop, reggae, and other genres by the end of the twentieth century. It also provides some clarity on some of the ways that young people learn, correctly and incorrectly, about how love works and how it doesn’t. Dipping our toes back in for season 2, Graeme, Shannon and Rob talk abo...
2018-06-0542 min
Deeper CutsHoliday Special: John Denver and the Muppets - A Christmas Together (1979)What is it about Christmas and holiday music? One thing’s for sure, it definitely takes us back to our childhoods. That’s precisely where the Graeme, Shannon, and Rob went on this special holiday episode of Deeper Cuts; specifically, to the 1979 album John Denver and The Muppets - A Christmas Together. They discuss favourite tracks, common themes, and what makes for a great Christmas record (and even throw in a few Muppet impressions for good measure!) Together, the Deeper Cuts trio explore why this album still checks all of the boxes, and why our favourite holiday music stays with...
2017-12-1947 min
Deeper Cuts9: Supertramp - Breakfast In America (1979)Pop music; we all have to start somewhere. For Graeme, pop music was a big part of his journey as a pre-teen, skipping a grade in school and finding himself surrounded by the monstrous reality known as Junior High School. During that time of awkwardness and alienation, it was Supertramp's massively popular 1979 album Breakfast in America that made him happy and gave him solace. It was his starting point to music he could call his own. In episode 9 -- the final episode of this first season of Deeper Cuts -- we talk about pop music starter albums and what...
2017-12-0748 min
Deeper Cuts8: Beethoven - Mass in C majorClassical music. It’s old. It’s complex. It can be intimidating. But somehow, the best of it goes beyond mere academic appreciation and makes you feel things. This is especially true if, like our Shannon Dohar, you get to participate in it. Shannon performed Beethoven’s Mass in C as a member of a choir and this piece became a signpost for her to what the possibilities are, helping her to form an appreciation for music as a whole. In episode 8 of Deeper Cuts, we talk about classical music and its relationship to the feels. We talk about how sa...
2017-11-3039 min
Deeper Cuts7: Joe Jackson - Night and Day (1982)Have you ever felt a page of your life turn, moving from one chapter to another? It’s a common experience that can be tumultuous but also pretty exciting, too. During a time of transition for Rob, it was Joe Jackson’s 1982 album Night and Day that provided the soundtrack. It was what we term an "experimental album" that provided a means of opening new musical vistas for him, from the world of top 40 hits and new wave anthems to the world of jazz and after-hours Latin rhythms and back again. This is our focus for episode 7, as the Deep...
2017-11-2342 min
Deeper Cuts6: Indigo Girls - Rites of Passage (1992)Road trip! It’s a common and very welcome battle cry, even if we’re just taking a journey by ourselves. The best and most memorable road trips are very often, if not always, accompanied by a great soundtrack. For Graeme, that soundtrack was Indigo Girls’ 1992 offering Rites of Passage, an album that he took with him on his first solo trip abroad. In our sixth episode, the Deeper Cuts Trio – Graeme, Shannon, and Rob – talk about that record, and also about the common denominators of what makes for a great road trip soundtrack. So, put on your travelling shoes, goo...
2017-11-1636 min
Deeper Cuts5: XTC - Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999) Location, location, location. Sometimes, a record is vivid enough to make you feel as though you’re in one as you listen. Maybe it can even help you make sense of your physical location, too. For Rob Jones, XTC’s eminently pastoral and Anglocentric 1999 album Apple Venus Volume 1 provided both of those things to him as a Canadian living in England trying to decode his surroundings and his life at the same time. As usual, Rob is joined by co-hosts Graeme Burk and Shannon Dohar who talk about cultural context, ecstatic lyrical imagery, all things British, and lite...
2017-11-0940 min
Deeper Cuts4: The Weakerthans – Left and Leaving (2000)Very often, we outgrow the place where we’re from. That can be one of the signs that we’ve come of age. But leaving an old familiar place and finding a home in a new one is rarely simple, especially when you’re young. That’s the subject of our discussion around The Weakerthans’ 2000 album Left and Leaving, a go-to album for our own Shannon Dohar. In the episode, we talk about the minutiae of life as expressed in “found lyrics”, densely packed metaphors, emotional awkwardness and missed connections, and the nature of coming-of-age tales in general. So, don’t sit on the...
2017-11-0230 min
Deeper Cuts3: The Sesame Street Record (1970) Chances are, our first encounters with music was that which was aimed right at our hungry little learning minds and dancing little feet. For generations of kids, including our own Graeme Burk, a heavyweight in this department was the original cast recording The Sesame Street Record, released in 1970. Like the groundbreaking TV show it was based on, the music was designed to entertain and educate in tandem, with the songs imprinting themselves on many not only as artifacts of childhood, but also as well-written and well-played music in their own right. What else makes for great children’s m...
2017-10-2639 min
A Year With The BeatlesAnnouncing... Deeper Cuts!Ten months after our year with the Beatles, Graeme Burk and Rob Jones are back with Shannon Dohar to talk about their new music podcast, Deeper Cuts. Every week on Deeper Cuts, Graeme, Rob and Shannon will listen to an album that meant something one to them and discuss what it means to them now. The show features albums from every genre, every era, just as long as the album is of importance to one of our panel. It's a podcast very much in the style of A Year With The Beatles and we hope you'll check it out.
2017-10-2107 min
Deeper Cuts2: Ani DiFranco - Not a Pretty Girl (1995)Everyone needs a role model. This is true even those who become role models themselves later on including Shannon Dohar. At one time, Ani DiFranco’s 1995 album Not A Pretty Girl served as her template, including the cover art that informed her ideal wardrobe! Shannon, Graeme, and Rob discuss the album that explores the complexity of adult relationships, control over one’s own work, and coming-of-age in an often cruel and morally questionable world. We talk about open tunings, earnest lyrics, various genres found in the music itself, and (of course) how this record connects with Shannon and with her tw...
2017-10-1938 min
Deeper Cuts1: Tears For Fears - The Hurting (1983)Being a teenager is tough. We all have those albums that we went to for solace when we were slogging through our teen years that helped us to realize that we’re not alone in our awkward gloominess. Rob submits this one as his go-to teenage angst record; Tears For Fears’ 1983 debut album The Hurting. With Graeme and Shannon, our questing Deeper Cuts trio explore the themes of emotional states of mind reflected in the music, how lyrics connect with an audience, and how a once treasured album holds up (or doesn’t) all these years later.
2017-10-1833 min
A Year With The BeatlesEpisode 12 - Let It BeIn the twelfth and final month of our year with the Beatles, Graeme Burk and Rob Jones are joined one last time by Shannon Dohar to discuss the Beatles final album (at least according to release date) Let It Be. The three get into a … spirited discussion of the merits (or lack thereof) of Phil Spector’s after-the-fact production of the album and talk about their favourite songs (with Graeme, again, taking on all comers about “The Long and Winding Road”!) as well as the less recommended but still notable tracks. And they talk about whether, under the strictest of defin...
2017-01-041h 01
A Year With The BeatlesEpisode 8 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
In the eighth month of our year with the Beatles, Graeme Burk and Rob Jones are joined once again by Shannon Dohar to talk about Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in a far-ranging conversation that considers how it changed the record album, the qualities that make it unique, its contribution to the Summer of Love, the songs that deserve to be a museum and the songs that you want to take on a desert island. And we get a jump on all the thinkpieces coming next year about how Sgt. Pepper changed the face of popular music completely.
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2016-10-101h 02
A Year With The BeatlesEpisode 5a - Films About The BeatlesAs a supplement to our fifth episode, Graeme Burk and Rob Jones talk with Shannon Dohar about films that have been about the formation of the Beatles or the relationships between the Beatles, particularly 1979's The Birth of the Beatles, 1990's The Hours and the Times, 1994's Backbeat, 2001's Two of Us and 2009's Nowhere Boy. Graeme, Rob and Shannon discuss what makes a film about the Beatles compelling, how historically accurate does such a film have to be (and how close to the actual musician does a portrayal have to be) and what are the best films about the f...
2016-06-1241 min
A Year With The BeatlesEpisode 5 - Help!In the fifth month of our year with the Beatles, Graeme Burk and Rob Jones are joined once again by Shannon Dohar for their discussion of Help! They talk about several songs on the album -- including "Help!", "I Need You" and "I've Just Seen a Face" -- that solidify the direction of the band. They also talk about the Beatles' flexibility with genre and what made "Yesterday" the song that not only changed the trajectory of the Beatles, but that of popular music.
For extra-credit homework, Graeme, Rob and Shannon all watched the 1965 film Help! and delighted in...
2016-06-0242 min
A Year With The BeatlesEpisode 3 - A Hard Day's NightIn the third month of our year with the Beatles, Graeme Burk and Rob Jones are talking with Shannon Dohar about A Hard Day's Night, which is the four lads' first album with all original songs as well as the tie-in to their first feature film. There's a small dispute about whether the album innovates, a discussion of Lennon-McCartney's growth as lyricists, a discussion of surprising songs and much more.
For extra-credit homework, Graeme, Rob and Shannon all watched the 1963 film A Hard Day's Night and marvelled at the band's adeptness with film comedy and the uncommonly good script b...
2016-04-0332 min