Episode 98
Billy Bragg – City of Heroes
Joy Oladokun – Nothing Comes Easy
The Cynz – Love’s So Lovely
Aysanabee – Dream Catcher
Jenn Grant – Lying on the Beach
Mon Rovîa – Old Fort Steel Trail
The Molotovs – Wasted On Youth
Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Elizabeth Glenn-Copeland – Laughter in Summer
Bruce Springsteen – Streets of Minneapolis
Notes
Joy Oladokun – Nothing Comes Easy
Joy Oladokun – Nothing Comes Easy (Official Music Video)
a beautiful song by an artist I don’t know. In StereoGum, she writes about this song
I wrote “Nothing Comes Easy” about how getting hurt can happen quickly but healing takes time. This past year, I dealt with a lot of change in my personal life and career and for a moment it felt like nothing good would ever come again. In my backyard, there is a planter filled with the most resilient sunflowers I’ve ever seen. I wrote this song about watching them find life over and over again and how they taught me to celebrate good things because oftentimes they have fought hard to be good.
and from Wikipedia
Olubukola Joy Oladokun (born April 6, 1992[5]) is an American singer-songwriter. Oladokun’s music spans the genres of folk, R&B, rock, and pop and is influenced by her identity as a queer person of color. She has released five studio albums: Carry (2016), In Defense of My Own Happiness (The Beginnings) (2020), In Defense of My Own Happiness (2021), Proof of Life (2023), and Observations From a Crowded Room (2024).
In October 2024, she released her fifth studio album, Observations From A Crowded Room.
Aysanabee – Dream Catcher
Aysanabee – Dream Catcher Official Video
From NextMag review of his latest album – Edge of the Earth
A member of the Sandy Lake First Nation, the Oji-Cree singer-songwriter has crafted this album on an expansive canvas designed to show that he doesn’t feel limited by any genre or particular or sound. It’s an album that reaches for the stars but never loses sight of the album’s central theme of loss and contemplation with Aysanabee’s vocals always the central focus of each song, always rising above the instrumental beat thanks to the raw power of his voice
Dream Catcher is the last song on the album and it was released in January 2026.
Ending the album, Dream Catcher ends things on an optimistic note. Backed up by soulful backing vocals from Hill Kourkoutis, who is pulling double duty on the electric guitar, Aysanabee charts a path forward in which the dreams he holds in his heart will be fulfilled. Aysanabee and Kourkoutis’s voices blend as the song fades out, showing that Aysanabee is opening up to others to move past his struggles.
Aysanabee won Songwriter of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year for his EP, Here and Now. He’s the first Indigenous artist to win in either of those categories.
Mon Rovîa – Old Fort Steel Trail
a beautiful song and a new artist for me
Mon Rovîa has shared his new single “Old Fort Steel Trail,” the latest track from his forthcoming debut album, Bloodline, arriving January 9, 2026. The Folk-influenced song explores “where Mon comes from and how those experiences, from Liberia to the U.S., continue to shape him.”
Here is the song
Old Fort Steel Trail
Mon shares where the song comes from
The road I lived on for three years near Olney Montana is set in my mind. If it weren’t for the two boys who lived to the right of us, I don’t think the memories would have stayed as long. There was a river behind our house that ran for miles. We used to walk up it, barefoot, against the current. Our parents never asked where we were. We were one with nature, one with the hush of pine and water.
some great lyrics in this song
Don’t stare too long at your mistakes without action. And once you have done the work, lay it to rest. Don’t continue grave robbing yourself. Little by little, I’m learning to put the past down.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Elizabeth Glenn-Copeland – Laughter in Summer
Beverly Glenn-Copeland featuring Elizabeth Copeland – Laughter In Summer (Live at Hackney Empire)
about the song and upcoming album, from Transgressive Records
A song born almost accidentally, Glenn at first composed music for a series of instrumentals meant for listeners to write their own lyrics. When he played the piece for Elizabeth, by a lake, listening to loons and gazing at the sky, words rose up in her: laughter in summer, how I remember.
Diagnosed with dementia 2 years prior, Glenn and Elizabeth have discovered new ways to navigate the world together, and to create the art and music that so pulls them.
Profiled recently in The Guardian and the recipient of the legacy award at the 2025 PTP Pink Awards, Beverly Glenn-Copeland is a legendary singer, composer and transgender activist whose creative output has spanned over 50 years. Together with his wife Elizabeth Copeland, they’ve made a life sharing their unselfish hearts—ones too large for earthly configuration—through art and community.
a beautiful write-up
Now, as Glenn lives with a version of Dementia known as LATE, their walk has taken on a different weight. Out of this season comes Laughter In Summer, an album the couple made together—realizing, before long, that it was a love letter to one another: a tender ledger of memories, shared devotion, grief and joy.
from Exclaim! Magazine, we learn that Copland was on Mr Dressup for 20 years
Mr. Dressup Music Mash-Up
His story is really incredible. Exclaim! writes about how Copland became homeless during the pandemic
In November 2019, before the worldwide impacts of COVID-19 had become clear, Copeland and his wife Elizabeth sold their home in Sackville. They had planned to purchase a new house in Quebec, but when the pandemic caused an end to his touring plans for the year ahead (alongside their source of income), the bank loan required suddenly became an impossibility. Sadly, they had already put the wheels in motion for their Sackville home to be vacated in spring 2020, leaving them without a roof over their heads.
Their story made it to CBC which initiated a Go Fund Me Campaign to help them out.
Primarily through increments of $15 or $20, Copeland’s GoFundMe campaign ended up raising $91,676. The CBC interview also brought their predicament to the attention of a couple who made their fortune as lawyers earlier in life. They offered one of their homes in rural New Brunswick to the stranded couple for as long as they need before they move elsewhere…
I decided to play this music after hearing parts of his interview with his wife on CBC Q. Here is the full interview. Really lovely.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland and Elizabeth Copeland have ‘places to go’
Billy Bragg – “City of Heroes” -single
I have been an ardent Billy Bragg fan since 1983 when I heard this gem.
He has always been actively involved in social justice issues and left-wing political causes. In response to the horrible events in Minneapolis, Bragg quickly penned this song.
This is great interview where Bragg discusses the song’s origins.
The Cynz – “Love’s So Lovely” – Confess
The Cynz are a New Jersey band that’s been around since 2011. One writer described them as , “the closest thing to the 1970’s CBGB’s you will get from a band that formed in 2011.” You can hear The Ramones, Springsteen and Mitch Ryder influences in their music.
Jenn Grant –“Lying on the Beach”- Songs from the Gang
Halifax based Jenn Grant has been a fixture on the Canadian music scene since the earliest years of the 21st century. She has performed and collaborated with a frightening large group of Canadian performers such as Matt Mays, Ron Sexsmith, the Heavy Blinkers and Jill Barber among others. I selected her track from the Joel Plaskett surprise birthday lp, Songs from the Gang.
The Molotovs – “Wasted On Youth”- Wasted On Youth
This is a just out of adolescence trio who proudly wear their 1979 mod influences on their sleeve. In the last couple of years The Molotov’s have grown to the point where the band is opening large venue gigs for Blondie and The Sex Pistols. They are to tour with Yungblud in the spring.
The selected track sounds mighty good live…
Bruce Springsteen – “Streets of Minneapolis” single
We’ll end simply with his words:
“I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. “
Stay free,
Bruce Springsteen
Whole-Hearted 
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