blog post Tom Power shares his shuffle playlist

Tom Power is the host of Radio 2 Morning, and Deep Roots on CBC Radio 2. He’s also a founding member of the Newfoundland folk band, the Dardanelles. As he told CBC Live’s Calum Shanlin, it was a love of folk music that originally brought Power to broadcasting.

“Folk music has just always been my life … it was an avenue to play records. I had a college show playing bluegrass music, just doing that for a living was the greatest dream.”

We asked Power to put his iPod on shuffle, and tell us about the first 10 tracks to play. He shares some folk gems, and his take on songs by Fleet Foxes, Wilco, Muddy Waters and more.

1. “When I Get to the Border”       
Richard and Linda Thompson
“Though I've been a pretty hard-core folkie for something like 10 years now, it's only in the last year that I got into Richard and Linda Thompson. There's something about this song – the marching rhythm, the triumphant vocal tone, the use of pipes and mandolins battling with Richard's electric guitar – that makes it everything a folk rock tune really should be.”

2. “Fred Finn's Reel/Sailing into Walpole's Marsh” 
Andy Irvine and Paul Brady 
“This record was called ‘The greatest folk record of all time,’ and while I think that's a pretty huge and un-provable statement, there's not much to hate about this record. Two masterful musicians at the peak of their career banging out fiddle tunes on guitars, bouzoukis, citterns and mandolins. Worth it for Paul's guitar break.”

3. “I Would Die Before You”   
Repartee 
Listen “This is my girlfriend's band, so it was originally on my iPhone just so I could have a listen while she was working on it – and after she'd get out of the studio we'd talk about the record and music and songwriting forever. It's stayed on my iPhone because: a) It's nice to hear her voice while I'm away and b) It's a really beautiful and poignant pop song.”

4. “Either Way”   
Wilco 
“Wilco have been one of my favourite bands since I was 18 and my brother and I went to see them at the Metropolis in Montreal. “Either Way” is a great example of Wilco's contrast between acoustic country music and dreamy space-pop (I know that kind of doesn't sound like anything, but when you listen to it, ‘space pop’ seems actually pretty apt). It starts acoustic and as soon as Jeff Tweedy sings ‘today,’ it all goes crazy.”

5. “Some of Shelly's Blues”    
Michael Nesmith
“A lot of people give the Monkees a hard time, but I think they were a pretty great band. Michael Nesmith was the frustrated (and tall) Monkee whose mother invented liquid paper so was able to not have to work for a living too much anymore. He quit the band and started writing and singing his own country music. This is one of his best songs. My dad and I listened to it a lot, he really loved this song.”

6. “I Feel so Good”   
Muddy Waters
“Muddy Waters’ 1960 Newport Folk Festival performance was important, but that's not what's great about this. What's great is that it's a really archaic electric blues band just SLAYING a pretty folky and nerdy crowd. Bringing sex to the academics. This is macho, good-time, late night music.”

7. “Meadowlarks”   
Fleet Foxes
“My cousin Joe showed me the Fleet Foxes a couple of years ago while he was in town for a wedding. As soon as I heard them, I knew I had a new favourite band. I've gotten to see them live and while their stage presence leaves something to be desired, their performance is always mind-blowing. This is hard music to recreate, and they do it.”

8. “Unkind”   
Sloan
“Only Sloan could write a song that sounds like the Rolling Stones, but still sounds completely original. This is a jam for the car.”

 

 9. “You Led Me to Believe”   
John Southworth
Listen “My friend (and R&B community producer) Jeanette Cabral showed me John Southworth's music a few years ago when I first started working at CBC. She took me to his concert, and to be honest I thought I would leave after a few songs since I was tired and wanted to go to bed. I knew by the first phrase he sang of this song, that I'd be staying all night.”

10. “Lorena”   
John Hartford 
“This was one of the oldest hit songs, and it's actually credited with ending the American Civil War. Story is that it depicted missing your loved one back home so eloquently, that after hearing this song, many of the soldiers defected and headed home. John Hartford does a masterful banjo version of it. Best part is the B section and the line: ‘But the heart beats on as warmly now/As when the summer days were nigh/Oh, the sun can never dip so low/A-down affection's cloudless sky.’ Beautiful.”
 

What did you think of Power’s playlist? Let us know in the comments.