The GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – Connecting Canals & Bridges

The Great Lakes Odyssey Radio Hour is broadcast on NPR (National Public Radio)

s3.e5. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – Connecting Canals & Bridges

Ideas that build cities require connections that build relationships. Canals and bridges are essential means that bring the peoples and stewards of the Great Lakes region together.

Lee Murdoch, Great Lakes folk singer/songwriter, with a history lesson on the Thomas S. Allen song, ‘Low Bridge, Everybody Down/Erie Canal Song.’
John Hartig, Chair of the Great Lakes Way Advisory Committee, promotes the Gordie Howe International Bridge, built on Anishinaabe Territory and joining the U.S. with Canada.
Songwriting brothers Matthew and Nathan Corrigan form the band, Tough Old Bird, and ruminate on The Old Great Lakes in their melancholic musical style.

Featured Music: Lee Murdoch. Great Lakes Myth Society. James Gordon. Elliott Brood. Tough Old Bird.
Music beds: Kevin Closs
Audio Clip: John F. Kennedy remarks courtesy Michigan DOT
Audio Clip: Life Of A Legend: Reflections on Gordie Howe courtesy Sportsnet YouTube

Painting: ‘Sault Ste. Marie Waterfront’ by Amy Williams

s3.e6. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour Music Credits

Title – Big Five Water
Artist – Ray Bonneville

Title – Across The Bridge
Album – Great Lakes Myth Society
Artist/ Composer – Great Lakes Myth Society

Title – St. Mary’s River Fantasy
Album – Nocturnes
Artist / Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – The Sault Ste. Marie Canal (St. Mary’s)
Album – The Song The River Sings
Artist / Composer – James Gordon

Title – Low Bridge Everybody Down
Artist – Billy Murray
Composer – Thomas S. Allen

Title – Low Bridge Everybody Down/Erie Canal Song
Album – Cold Winds
Artist – Lee Murdoch
Composer – Thomas S. Allen

Title – Great Lakes
Artist – Elpten92
Composer – Traditional

Title – JP’s Guitar
Album – Sans Voix
Artist /Composer – Kevin Closs

Title – 20 Bucks There, 20 Bucks Back
Album – Sans Voix
Artist /Composer – Kevin Closs

Title – For The Love Of A Lake
Album – A Longing For Innocence
Artist / Composer – Ian Tamblyn

Title – The Bridge
Album – Ambassador
Artist / Composer – Elliott Brood

Title – Harbor Song
Album – The Old Great Lakes
Artist – Tough Old Bird
Composers – Matthew & Nathan Corrigan

Title – The Old Great Lakes
Album – The Old Great Lakes
Artist – Tough Old Bird
Composers – Matthew & Nathan Corrigan

Title – Lake Erie Come Home
Album – The Old Great Lakes
Artist – Tough Old Bird
Composers – Matthew & Nathan Corrigan

Title – Song For The Lighthouse Keeper
Album – The Old Great Lakes
Artist – Tough Old Bird
Composers – Matthew & Nathan Corrigan

Title – Seven Lights
Album – The Old Great Lakes
Artist – Tough Old Bird
Composers – Matthew & Nathan Corrigan

Visit: raybonneville.com

Visit: rustyandmaja.com

Visit: jamesgordon.ca

Visit: leemurdock.com

Visit: gordiehoweinternationalbridge.com

Visit: kevincloss.com

Visit: elliottbrood.com

Visit: tougholdbirdmusic.com

Visit: artbyamywilliams.com

This program produced by GLOW Radio Partners in venture with The Borderline Events Co.

Great Lakes Odyssey World

Inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the Great Lakes Odyssey World is a multi-national effort to strengthen and explore our relationship with the natural wonders known as the Great Lakes.

In this part of the project, we have created a multi-part audio series looking at the way the Great Lakes shape our lives, our livelihoods, our health and our culture.

50 years ago, folks in the media and elsewhere were ready to declare the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie “dead.”

The thought so appalled citizens in Canada and the United States, they forced their national governments to act.

Because, of course, the Great Lakes shape the life of both Canada and the United States. And, of course, the Great Lakes are a single system stretching from Duluth to Ottawa and down the St. Lawrence seaway. What happens to any of the Lakes will soon happen to the others.

So, the politicians of 50 years ago negotiated the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, “for the purpose of restoring, protecting and enhancing the Great Lakes and the Great Lakes basin.”

50 years later, we can see the agreement worked. We see more fish, cleaner water, and less pollution. Unlike the early settlers and colonials, who mostly saw the Lakes as a resource to tap, we now recognize, like the First Nations, the Lakes are part of our identity. They shape our relationships, our songs and celebrations of place, the way we eat, how we play, and what we make, or sell, or harvest.

50 years since the wake-up call of a burning river, Great Lakes Odyssey wants to learn how we live and love, hurt and restore the incredible gift which is the Great Lakes.

We will explore Great Lakes art and artistic expression, and meet the artists, writers, musicians who make it. We will also dip into Great Lakes history and lore – and learn from the people who have been here the longest and know it the best: The People of the Three Fires, the Anishinaabek.

On our Odyssey around the Great Lakes, we will also hear from people working to prevent poisonous algal blooms or stop the spread of invasive species. We will meet visionaries undoing decades of development that hardened shorelines, emptied marshes and wetlands, and destroyed critical spawning grounds. We will talk to people working to ensure all beings have access to pure drinking water.

Because none of us can live without pure drinking water.

In this wondrous place we call the Great Lakes, we know we are blessed by these Sweet Water Seas. We claim them as our H.O.M.E.S. as the emotionally accurate mnemonic says. They are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, and they are our HOMES.

As long as humans have lived in, and of and through the Lakes, people have told stories about them, sung about them, and gloried in this great gift of the long departed Ice Age. Left by glaciers thousands of years ago, they are the World’s storehouse of fresh water. If they are drained… or ruined… or damaged, they can never be replaced.

So, as we travel around the Great Lakes basin, we want to see how we are doing – what we are doing – how we’re feeling and what we’re learning as we try to live as lovers and restorers – and children and family – of the being whom the Anishinaabek call Nayaano-nibiimaang Gichigamiin, the five freshwater seas.

We hope to galvanize, inspire, and motivate you to strengthen, support and steward the Great Lakes to a beautiful and healthy future.

So please join us on this magical, dare we say “magical mystery tour” of the Great Lakes basin and Great Lakes culture.