On today’s episode, I chat with the pride of (or, at least, one of the prides of) Prince Edward Island, Lennie Gallant.

Lennie Gallant is not only a member of the Order of Canada, but he's also had a song (Peter's Dream) inducted into the Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. My goodness, he’s almost royalty.

Speaking of which, in our chat, we talk about the origin of his last name, which has something to do with his great, great, great, great, (great?) grandfather and a discussion that he had with one of the kings of France named Louis. We also get into Lennie's friendship with the late great Jimmy Buffett, a man he met - where else? - in the Caribbean after having sailed there on a schooner from Nova Scotia, and, on which, he very nearly died. I have nightmares just thinking about it. Lennie also boasts a couple cowrites on Jimmy's final album, Equal Strain On All Parts, released posthumously.

Lennie is in the midst of a Christmas Tour through Eastern Canada and, of course, we chat about that as well.

lenniegallant.com

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With a family heritage that goes back to the early 18th century in Witless Bay, Newfoundland, Con O’Brien is one of the province’s great musical treasures.

He is the only remaining original member in The Irish Descendants, a band that was at the heart of bringing the traditional music of Newfoundland to the rest of Canada and, indeed, the world.

The Irish Descendants are celebrating 35 years of bringing their impeccable musicianship and vocal prowess to the adoring masses. Along the way, they’ve garnered a couple Gold albums, a Juno Award, and handful of East Coast Music Awards.

As with many people in Newfoundland, Con’s family business was in the fisheries, and by 10 years of age he was on the payroll. He grew up intending to go to Law School, following in the footsteps of an uncle who was a lawyer for the fishery. Warner Music had other plans for him.

I spoke to Con in between show dates on the 15th annual The Irish Descendant Christmas Tour through eastern Canada.

theirishdescendants.com

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Mike O’Brien grew up loving the process of writing a song. Or, as we find out in this chat, what he prefers to call making up a song.

He began his career in Toronto at the turn-of-the-century playing with his high schools pals, one of whom was Afie Jurvanen. Mike and Afie would go on to form the band Paso Mino, which became a go-to backing band in the early oughts Toronto indie rock scene, most notably for Jason Collett.

As we get into in today’s chat, when Afie left the band to join Leslie Feist, and ultimately go his own way as Bahamas, it left Mike with a little extra time on his hands. He used it wisely and formed, indie rock stalwarts, Zeus with fellow Paso Minite and Barrie ON, ex pat Carlin Nicholson.

More recently, over the pandemic, as things slowed down for all of us, Mike turned some of his songwriting attention to his first solo endeavour, under the moniker Meko Brain, the fruits of which released earlier this month as Wonderment. It is a stunning collection of a dozen (mostly) laid back acoustic tunes that I've had in my ears on more than a few crisp autumn walks down to the Dartmouth ferry.

Meko Brain Bandcamp

@meko.brain

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