The Stumble Forward

Linda Manzer is a Canadian master luthier, renowned for her archtop, flat top, and harp guitars.  Her instruments are owned and played by the likes of Pat Metheny, Bruce Cockburn, Paul Simon and Stephen Fearing.  She emanates from a very interesting Canadian guitar building cohort and was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2023.  Please welcome Linda Manzer.

More Linda Manzer
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Watch  e...

Daniel Victor is a Canadian, Juno Award-nominated recording artist and producer from Windsor, Ontario, best known for his collaborative music project Neverending White Lights.  Daniel's song "The Grace" featuring the voice of Dallas Green, was a number 1 hit in Canada and would be the song that would establish City and Colour as a stalwart on Canadian indie rock radio.  I had dinner with Daniel a few weeks back when ...

Alan Neal is a gifted and well-loved journalist and on-air host for CBC Radio Ottawa, a playwright and children’s author.  He was the long-time host of CBC Radio’s "Ontario Today" and now helms the hugely popular Ottawa drive home show, "All in a Day" whose listenership reaches from western Quebec through eastern Ontario.  I’ve been interviewed by Alan several times and I can say that they’re always the most int...

Kathleen Edwards is a 7-time Juno Award nominated, Polaris Prize short-listed singer and songwriter who has released 5 critically acclaimed full length records.  She’s toured extensively and even played Late night with David Letterman 5 times.  I think Kathleen is one of the best songwriters in the country and has amassed an intimidatingly strong body of work that stands as one of the greatest collected outputs of any Canadian song...

Cliff Cardinal is an award-winning playwright and actor most noted for his one man shows “Stitch”, “Huff”, “Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special”, and “As You Like It” (later named, “Land Acknowledgement”).  He’s toured his work all over the world including a stop at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he won The Lustrum Award which recognizes the greatest moments at the festival.  The Globe and Mail named him as a Canadian cultural icon i...

Agam Darshi is a British-Canadian producer, director, writer, screenwriter, playwright, and artist.  She has appeared in over 25 Television productions and more than 11 films.  In 2021 She wrote, directed and starred in Donkey Head which was shot in Regina and released in 2022.  I'm honoured and excited to have her here to chat today. Please welcome Agam Darshi.

 More Agam Darshi
Instagram / Substack / Twitter

Watch episode ...

Jeff Marek is a much-loved Canadian Hockey and Sports broadcaster and podcaster.  He started out as the host of Live Audio Wrestling and the Leafs Lunch.  He’s had turns at The Fan 590, Talk 640, Mojo radio, Sirius satellite radio, Sportsnet pre- and post-game shows for Toronto Maple Leaf telecasts, Hockey Night in Canada and also called Judo at the 2008 summer Olympics for the CBC.  He’s currently heard on his own "The Jeff M...

Ria Mae is an East Coast Music Award winning and Juno Award nominated artist.  I first discovered Ria Mae hearing her 2016 song “Clothes Off” in high rotation on the radio.  The single sounded fresh and decidedly "not Canadian" by my reckoning.  When it was revealed that Ria was an independent artist from the Halifax I was sold, and I'm excited to be able to talk with her today.  Please welcome Ria Mae.

More Ria Mae

In...

Larnell Lewis is an award winning Canadian drummer, composer, producer, and educator.  He’s maybe best known for his work with the celebrated jazz fusion outfit, Snarky Puppy, and he’s widely considered to be one of the greatest drummers in the world today.  He’s also risen to “first name” status within the musical colloquial… especially for drummers who refer to the “Larnell” thing, or playing with a “Larnell” type approach.  I mu...

Andrew King is a Manotick Ontario based visual artist, animator, writer, thinker and bon vivant. Andrew's twitter account is one of my favourites, with poignant Gen-X musings and a whisky Wednesday event (among other things) where he deep dives into the esoteric.  I love his art for its humour, emotion, heavy design leanings and echoes of mid-century modern and (to me at least) some Tamara de Lempicka thrown in.  He's got...

Sarah Harmer is a Juno award winning, platinum and gold selling singer, songwriter and environmental activist.  Sarah’s unmistakable voice and flowing melodic style has lifted her to icon status in Canada.  Her years of tireless activism have been nationally recognized and her perseverance has resulted in positive outcomes for many of the cases she’s been involved in.  I’m very honoured and grateful to be able to chat with her toda...

Ron Sexsmith  is a much loved, iconic Canadian singer songwriter who has released 17 albums and a novel. Ron has won 3 Juno Awards and  been nominated for 15, as well as being shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. Ron has performed all over the world and has played such venerable venues as Massey Hall (where he’ll perform again for his Sexsmith at Sixty show on February 29) the Olympia in Paris and Royal Albert Hall in London E...

Steven Page is a founding member of Canadian Indie stalwarts The Barenaked Ladies, he's a member of the super group The Trans-Canada Highwaymen, and in 2009 left Barenaked Ladies to pursue making solo records and doing solo tours, as well as composing for theatre and screen.  Steven is one of the most singularly recognizable tenors in Canadian popular music as well as writing songs that have gone on to become iconic for a whol...

Ivan Decker is an award-winning stand-up comedian and writer known for his sharp, polished, and multi-layered observational comedy. He is originally from Vancouver but is now based in Los Angeles.  He won a Juno Award in 2018 for comedy album of the year.  He's appeared on The Conan O'Brien show, has a Netfilx special, and he is one of the funniest regulars on CBC Radio’s excellent "The Debaters".  He's a l...

Matthew Good has 20 releases between The Matthew Good Band and his solo work.  He's won 4 Juno Awards, and famously never attended the ceremonies.  Through the late 90’s and early 2000’s he was a fixture on MuchMusic, Canadian Indie and Modern Rock radio formats.  His highly literate lyrics and signature, passionate, vocal performance style has won him a legion of dedicated followers that stick with him to this day.  His music...

Katie-Ellen Humphries is a stand-up comedian, writer and sketch performer whose work has been featured on CTV, CBC Television, ATPN and OUT_TV.  Her comedy album, Ladyfinger debuted in the top of the iTunes chart and she's a regular on CBC radio's beloved show, The Debaters where she's also worked as a producer and writer.  All of this and she's a 3-time Canadian National Open Water Swimming champ. 

Wa...

Sam Roberts is one of the most widely recognized Canadian rock and roll musicians with a 20+ year career in music with many radio hits that have become Cancon classics, he's won 5 Much Music Video Awards and 6 Juno Awards.  He's also recently attached himself to the Canadian super group, The Anyway Gang.  Today he's here supporting his 8th studio record, The Adventures of Ben Blank. 

Watch the episode on YouTube
<...

Terra Lightfoot is a Polaris Prize long listed, Juno Award nominated, powerhouse singer, songwriter, guitar player and live performer.  The first time I saw Terra was at the Drake Underground on April 24th 2012, playing her trusty Gibson SG.  That night I watched somebody so obviously infused with a great musical gift that almost anybody could have predicted her rise to prominence in the music business.

Watch episode on Yo...

Dave Foley is a comedian, actor, podcaster, director, producer and writer.  He's having a career with many interesting acts, highlights which include being a member of the iconic Canadian sketch comedy group, Kids in The Hall (which had a massive impact on me), his role as Dave Nelson on the sitcom Newsradio, Flik in A Bug's Life as well as his newest venture, Really!?, which is a podcast exploring UFOlogy, which rounds o...