Sunday, January 5, 2014

CKUA

Music is such an integral part of my life.  It always has been.  And when it comes to genre, I'm all over the map.

The love of music was ingrained into all of us kids thanks to our mother.  I fondly recall her, either belting out "Rule Britannia", or dancing with my (then) little girls to one of her aerobic songs, perhaps conducting a piece of (probably) Mozart's, or humming along with one of the Hungarian Rhapsodies.  At her urging, we all took piano lessons, sang in choir, and joined the recorder club.

I was sewing last night for a little while, enjoying the music playing on one of the best things about Alberta: its community-supported radio station, CKUA. Because of the time difference between Alberta and the East, I don't get to listen to my favourite programme, The Friday Night Blues Party, but once a month at least, I try to catch the Natch'l Blues show, followed by Mulligan Stew and usually a half hour or so of Baba's Grooves on a Saturday.  Yesterday didn't disappoint.  I've been quite sick for more than two weeks, but I still found myself swaying, smiling, singing as various songs lifted my spirits, or sent me back down through the years. . .

Jethro Tull's "Bungle in the Jungle" - oh how I love Jethro Tull.  (One of my all-time favourite Christmas songs is "Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow")  Steely Dan, Pink Floyd...

Prior to some of those memorable tunes on Baba's show, TD Mulligan had a few for me too.  I only tuned in towards the end of his show, but he always plays a most interesting mix.  Within 20 minutes he'd gone from Little Feat to Feist to Fats Domino, to give one small example.

I also adore the Blues.  From Taj Mahal to Muddy Waters, BB King, Lucinda Williams, David Gogo, Bill Dowey, host Holger Petersen gets me grooving on Saturday afternoons.  He also hosts a Blues show on CBC Radio 2 on Saturday nights, but it conflicts with the CKUA line-up so I rarely catch it.  :-(

Most people see me as a Classical Music lover.  Which I am.  I need my daily dose of classical music because it calms my soul at times, and sets it to soaring at others.  I get most of my fix for classical from CBC Radio 2.  Yesterday, for example, I enjoyed the entire "Magic Flute" in the early part of the afternoon.  Oh! Talk about lifting spirits, heightening emotions:  "The Queen of the Night" aria -- I have no words.

This has been interesting writing this, because it came to me last night, to try to express how much I thrive on/adore/need music, and now I've put it in words, I see that I ran the gamut from Classical to Rock to Blues to Pop in just half of one day!  And that is not abnormal for me.  Nor is it for CKUA.  They have such an eclectic mix of programmes, announcers and music, that one never tires of them, unles there's a particular genre you dislike (for me that would be country and bluegrass).

There are times I need an hour of New Age yoga-type music, but then I may feel like Soundtracks are in order . . . enter my iTunes or YouTube playlists or Pandora.  Once again, I come back to technology and our ever-changing world, and I am so happy that we have all this available to us through our computers, that we don't have to buy the LP or CD to get the songs we want.  That sounds like I'm into ripping off music, which I'm not, but I could never afford to buy all the songs I love to listen to, so I am so thankful that we have the ability to create playlists on YouTube, to create our own radio station on Pandora in the US, or Jango in Canada, to listen to great independent radio stations like CKUA that give me new artists.  And when I want a song at my touch 24/7, the ability to buy it off iTunes or Amazon and have it playing within seconds on one of my devices?  Crazy!  In such a good way!

1 comment:

  1. Ya I remember how hard it was waaaaaiiiiting until a 45 (!) came out of a "single", or an LP. My kids don't even know those terms : LP, single, 45, album lol.
    Good grief, talk about dating ourselves (well of course you're much older, but still) ;p

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