sarahillis's blog

Come along and join me this week for another episode of Come by the Hills, the Celtic Music Show on Mushroom FM! I've got all the usual features: "Me Music," "Fiddlin' Around" and "Celtic Covers," plus songs of protest, songs of love and death, and everything in between.

I have just returned from my vacation and am suitably happy to be home. The cottage was lovely and the company was even better, and consequently, I'm quite pleasantly nackered. Don't worry though. We at Mushroom FM have planned for this eventuality, and for the first time in the history of Come by the Hills, the Celtic Music Show, your host for this week will not be me, Sara Hillis. Instead, Anne Cosgrove, fellow fun guy and Celtic enthusiast, has a great show lined up with some amazing song and artist selections!

Yes, even though I'm on vacation this week, Come by the Hills is still going ahead thanks to the miracle of modern technology. We'll have a few songs that remind me of summers up north at cottages by lovely lakes, and of course the usual selection of lovely Celtic music. Dervish will be our featured artist in "Fiddlin' Around," and we'll have a "Celtic Cover" which is all about the rugged beauties of the land and lakes of the Canadian Shield. We'll also have one of my "simple singles" in "Me Music."

If you want to know exactly what that title means, you'll just have to tune in! It's another episode of Come by the Hills, the Celtic Music show on Mushroom FM. We've got three hours of every kind of Celtic music you can imagine, including a Donovan song performed by the Irish Descendants in "Celtic Covers," a setting of a Dylan Thomas poem in "Me Music," and plenty of other great music from artists such as Mary Black, Mackeel and Meg Davis. Mmmmmmm! That sounds good, doesn't it?

Yes, it's time once again for another infusion of Celtic goodies to be squirted into your week! (Wasn't that a great image? Well, moving on...) I've got yet another Simple Single in "Me Music," a "Celtic Cover" that just popped out at me from nowhere, and some great tunes from Planxty in "Fiddlin' Around." As ever, if you tune in this week, you'll get three hours of high-quality music with a healthy dose of less-than-high-quality wit courtesy of yours truly.

Yes, July 1 is Canada Day, and it's the 150th anniversary of confederation to boot, so we'll be going all Canadian on Come by the Hills. We have a fine Stan Rogers song in "Celtic Covers," a couple of segments on some great Canadian bands who sing about Canadian things, some great Quebecois music in "Fiddlin' Around," and a lot of obscure and interesting Canadian folk songs for you to enjoy.

More great Celtic music is the order of the day this week on Come by the Hills, including a "Celtic Cover" involving not one, not two, but three jugs of punch. There's also another simple single in "Me Music," some fiddle tunes from The Green Fields of America, and lots of other great listening as usual.

Join me on Sunday night after The Early Years or catch the replay on Friday morning after The Smorgasbord!

As my Apple Watch informs me, the days are getting longer and longer, and this coming week will be the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This day has traditionally been called Midsummer's Day and has been a time of dancing, bonfires and general merry-making to honour the high-point of the growing season. We're going to celebrate this on Come by the Hills this week with a few songs about summer for your enjoyment. We'll have a summer-themed "Celtic Cover," another one of my "simple singles" in our feature called "Me Music," and a whole lot more.

Before I tell you about this week's show, I want to thank everyone who wrote or tweeted in about the Stan Rogers show I did last week. I heard some lovely stories about the man whom I was never able to see perform which only reinforced my high opinion of his music and his legacy for Canada and humanity in general. I managed to impress some pretty knowledgeable folkies with my Stan picks. That's a pretty tall order as I myself should know. It's hard to be a folky sometimes, because so many radio stations stick to a few well-known songs from any particular artist.

Friday, June 2, marked the 34th anniversary of the tragic and needless death of Canadian folk singer-songwriter Stan Rogers. He died at the age of 33 when a plane he was on caught fire after making an emergency landing. He was a prolific artist, working steadily from 1970 till his death, which occurred while he was flying back to Canada from a folk festival in the US. He wrote songs about Canadian life, songs that were inspired by Canadian history and songs that told great stories. We'll be saluting him this week on Come by the Hills with a special tribute in the first hour.