Radio and music
Radio & Music
CBC Radio was a big part of the early days of the project, with Jowi spending one day doing 22 CBC local interviews across the country as a way of generating leads for interesting pieces and stories to include. Once the guitar was built, Jowi was a frequent guest at CBC stations nationwide as well as at countless private radio stations. We don't have air-checks for most of these appearances but we did manage to find a few gems.
Jowi first saw Justin Rutledge live at the OCFF Conference in Guelph in 2005 and started dragging everyone he knew to experience Justin's music for themselves at his weekly residency at Toronto's famed Cameron Public House. It was following one of those great sets at the Cameron that Danny Greenspoon set up his mobile studio in the basement with a single Neumann mic in the centre of the room and f8 brought in a three-camera crew to record Justin leading his finale sing-along "Don't Be So Mean, Jellybean" as a promotion for Six String Nation. The video was never released but the audio recording became a favourite of CBC Radio 3's Grant Lawrence in the summer of 2006 and Jowi and Justin had several opportunities to recreate the song live at festivals across the country while they encountered each other on tour.
Justin Rutledge with Voyageur
at the Edmonton Folk Festival in 2006.
On August 25, 2006, Jowi was a guest on CBC Toronto's "Metro Morning" with then host Andy Barrie, who had been a tremendous supporter of the project in its infancy. In advance of the Harbourfront Centre Indie Unlimited weekend where Six String Nation would be featured, Andy interviewed Jowi about the project and Madagascar Slim played Voyageur in studio.
Andy Barrie with Voyageur
at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 2010.
Don Ross and Jowi at the Orangeville Opera House in 2007.
Early in the life of Voyageur, Jowi commissioned a new piece from finger-style guitar giant Don Ross. So the first time Jowi let the guitar out of his site was for Don to take it home and live with it for a couple of weeks. During that time he wrote an instrumental piece that captured the multiple characters of both Voyageur
and the country for which it stands. An early mix became the opening soundtrack for f8's Six String Nation trailer and Don performed a work-in-progress version of the tune when he and Jowi appeared on CBC Radio's "Fresh Air" in advance of a presentation and concert at the Orangeville Opera House on January 20, 2007. Don eventually finished the piece and titled it "Voyageur". It appears on his "Upright and Locked Position" album. You can click the album image to hear that or the work-in-progress version from Soundcloud above.
Don Ross and Rise Ashen are both generous souls. Rise Ashen was so taken with Six String Nation as a concept and by Don's composition "Voyageur" that he did a remix just for fun.
Don Ross with Voyageur
at the Orangeville Opera House, January 20, 2007
Robert Dickson and Jowi Taylor with Rise Ashen Photoshopped in the middle.
Jowi met Franco-Ontarian poet and CANO founder Robert Dickson in 2001 and they kept in touch as the Six String Nation project developed. Shortly after the debut of the guitar, Jowi commissioned a poem from Dickson to kick off a show at the infamous Townehouse Tavern in Sudbury in 2006. Dickson died on March 19, 2007. In 2011, DJ Rise Ashen remixed Dickson's recording of the poem as part of a performance by the Lata Pada Dance Company at the National Arts Centre also commissioned by Jowi.
