CALGARY — The unsung heroes of Canadian folk music and their songs are being unearthed by local ethnomusicologist and podcaster Mike Tod.
The Folk is a 13-part podcast series that examines true stories of the history of folk and old-time music in Canada. Tod uses his deep knowledge and love of music to highlight these little-known tales for listeners in hour-long episodes.
Tod said he’s loved folk music since he was a child listening to his dad’s old records.
“I love the history aspect of folk music, it’s sort of like detective work in a way — chasing things back to the origins, the roots,” he said.
Each episode is dedicated to one province or territory and the musicians the podcast focuses on are mostly unknown. Tod said the research is the most difficult aspect of production.
Calgary musician and ethnomusicologist Mike Tod says The Folk podcast is a passion project for him.
Tod researches the subjects of each podcast, piecing together little bits of information, clipping newspaper articles, reading journals and talking to the musicians’ distant relatives and friends.
“They do not have biographies written about them, they do not have long documentaries about them,” he said.
“They’re just regular people, they’re not celebrities, they’re not stars, they’re regular folks as the music would imply, but without them we might not have some of the styles or players that we see in Canada today.”
It takes more than 100 hours for Tod to complete a single episode of The Folk and he does everything himself.
“Some institution like NPR have entire teams working full time on a podcast, I’ve done every single one of those jobs.”
But for Tod, it’s a passion.
“I just love the music itself, it’s some of the best storytelling I’ve heard in my life and I believe they deserve to be told.”
Tod will be offering a presentation about The Folk on Sunday November 24th at the Centeral Library at 7 p.m. for Podcast Live! The event is free and open to the public.
