For this special episode, each of the Song Talk Radio hosts shared one of their own songs for discussion. We talked about: a Gaurdian article about the Hall & Oates song I Can’t Go For That our upcoming show on key modulations Bruce’s experience with his producer an email we got about our Comedy Songs …
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Songwriting with a purpose; Rebecca Lappa
Part way through her cross-country tour which began in her hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, singer/songwriter Rebecca Lappa stopped in at the Song Talk Radio studio to share two original songs. She was accompanied on piano by the talented musician Nick Samoil. We talked about: releasing your first album at the age of 12 FACTOR grants …
Randy Newman’s “Cowboy” & “Somewhere” from West Side Story dissected with Patrick Ballantyne
Patrick Ballantyne stopped by to pull apart two of his fave songs. The open and emotive “Cowboy” by Randy Newman, and “Somewhere” from West Side Story by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein. Stuff we talked about: Patrick Ballantyne’s website Randy Newman “Cowboy” Lyrics Somewhere Lyrics Northwood Records West Side Story Randy Newman Leonard Bernstein Somewhere …
Robert Priest – how to write songs for children
We had the pleasure of having the prolific Toronto poet, novelist, and singer/songwriter Robert Priest (with David Hynes on guitar) back in the studio to share a couple of his children’s songs. We talked about… testing a song on a 6-year old moving from writing for adults to writing for children on the same day …
Bridging Jazz and Pop with Sean Bertram
Sean Bertram returned to the show following the release of his debut album, The Right Place. We talked about: Sean’s studies at Humber College in Music Guitar poetics in your lyrics changing chords and melodic centre between sections of your song contrast in pop songwriting self-doubt in songwriting Taming Your Gremlin by Rick Carson how …
On composing jazz songs with Paul Novotny
Paul Novotny (born Peterborough, Ontario, 1958) is a composer, bassist, producer, and engineer. He is the bassist on the international runaway hit video-game, CUPHEAD; over 50,000 sales in 2017. As a producer, his record label has achieved three Juno nominations and one Juno win for Joe Sealy’s Africville Suite. He has composed music for feature …
How to write a break-up song
True to form for Song Talk Radio, the day before Valentine’s Day seemed a good day to talk about break-up songs. So Phil brought “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” by Jim Croce, Neel chose “One More Minute” by “Weird Al” Yankovic, Bruce performed a new original tune “I Don’t Love You Anymore”, and …
Gravely James: Rockin’ the blues with soul
Blues-rock-soul singer-songwriter Gravely James shares his journey from a trumpet-playing kid to a kickin’ singer-songwriter. He also treated us to two incredibly energetic performances of his songs. We talked about: Song Studio Niagara region favourite blues band More Bad News and the Horns from Hell, and Blood Sweat and Tears 12-bar blues How timbrel variety has …