The Guest List
Thursday April 17th, 2025 with Joe Reilly
The Ottawa Grassroots Festival - we talk to Executive/Artistic Director Alison Bowie and Devin Cuddy and Josh Ritchie who are performing

The Guest List is sponsored by Spaceman Music, located at 388 Gladstone Avenue, just west of Bank. Visit Spaceman for all of your music making needs and don't forget they have a great repair shop and offer music lessons. Check out Spaceman online at: https://www.spacemanmusic.com/ Today we focus on the upcoming Ottawa Grassroots Festival - the 13th edition is taking place April 24-27 at the First Unitarian Congregation, 30 Cleary Avenue. There are evening concerts and on the weekend afternoons you can take in FREE workshops, songwriter circles, etc. We open in conversation with the Executive/Artistic Director of the Festival, Alison Bowie who tells us all about the different elements of this intimate, community-based event. For more details about the Ottawa Grassroots Festival, check out the fest website: https://ottawagrassrootsfestival.com/ Then we talk to two of the performers at the Festival - both of whom have fathers who have been part of the Canadian music scene for years. Devin Cuddy is the son of Jim Cuddy (Blue Rodeo) and he has released several albums, including the acclaimed Dear Jane - his most recent recording. We talk about his narrative approach to songwriting and the importance of being accurate if his story has a specific historical setting - like the song Bleeding Kansas. For more information and music by Devin Cuddy use this link: https://www.devincuddy.com/ We tie Devin's song Bleeding Kansas to Josh Ritchie's song Buxton as they both tie into the American Civil War and fight to end slavery in the USA. Josh Ritchie's Buxton is a cover of a song that his Dad wrote and recorded with Tanglefoot. Here is the original version of that song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYQ9BArZc6I We talk to Josh about adapting this song and how it reflects a major focus in his songwriting - addressing human rights and trying to make the world a bette place for everyone. He tells us how he will be performing at the Ottawa Grassroots Festival and about the themes he will be exploring on a new album that he hopes to release in 2025. For more information and music from Josh Ritchie: https://www.joshritchiemusic.com/ Thanks for listening today. Get out and see some live music this week and support independent music in any way that you can.