My Weekend Mornings/The Toasties

My weekend mornings start the same way every Saturday and Sunday.  At 5:55 AM, the strains of “O Canada” stream through the headphones I’ve gone to bed wearing, and the urge to stand at attention is strong, but the legs aren’t awake enough to safely leap out of bed as I should.

I’ve written before about my love for the CBC Weekend Mornings radio show, a treasure for us here in the Maritimes*, so I won’t extoll its virtues again here.  But this morning’s annual Toasties Awards is my favourite show of the year.  The awards are voted on by the listeners of the program, and I’m not gonna lie: I had to do a coin-toss bracket for one of the categories, because the artists are just that good.

Sitting here with my London Fog tea (I saved my last one for the auspicious occasion) and watching the sun gradually melt the lacy frost on my windows, I’m listening to the winners of “The Young Whippersnapper Award,” et. al., and thinking about what a wealth of musical talent we are blessed to have here.  Our cultural mosaic is well-represented, and that may be my favourite part of these awards: we share with and celebrate each other.

I don’t know if the podcast links will work outside Canada (Toasties Hour 1 and Toasties Hour 2), so you may not be able to hear the magic, whimsy, and occasional silliness (meow).  But thanks to the beauty of YouTube, I will share some of my favourites (in no particular order) from the past year here below:

• Classified featuring Breagh Isabel (and Owen “O’Sound” Lee) – Good News
• T. Thomason – Bliss Pt. II ft. Sarah McLachlan
• The Gilberts – Not Always
• Jah’Mila – Chant Their Names
• Terra Spencer featuring The Bombadils – Lunenburg Moon

and my very favourite:

• Morgan Toney – Ko’jua : Its fusion of both indigenous tradition and the Celtic sounds of Cape Breton is utterly addictive, and makes me want to finally learn to play the bodhran I’ve had sitting here for six years.  (I’ve never felt so thwarted by a stick in my life.)

Thanks for sharing a little slice of my life.  Enjoy the music, and let me know your favourites in the comments. 🙂

* “The Maritimes” — The Maritime Provinces of Canada are on the eastern coast of the country, and consist of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.  “The Atlantic Provinces” consist of the Maritimes, plus Newfoundland and Labrador.

This post was created as part of Two Writing Teachers’ March Slice of Life Challenge.

You can view other writers’ Day 7 contributions via the comments here.