The GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – Ode To The Lighthouse Keeper

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

s4.e8. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – Ode To The Lighthouse Keeper

A centuries-old history of the lighthouse as beacon tells of lightkeepers that braved harsh conditions, isolation, and challenging circumstances in carrying out hard duties to guide navigating ships to safety.

Patricia Majher, Editor, and Author of Ladies of the Lights, pays a richly deserved homage to an inspiring group of women that overcame gender expectations and shone bright as Great Lakes lightkeepers.

Bob Cailor, President of the Marblehead Lighthouse Historical Society, on the MLHS helping the State of Ohio to accept ownership of the lighthouse and its grounds and designate it Ohio’s 73rd State Park.

Bruce Lynn, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, on the historic Whitefish Point Light Station in continuous operation since 1861, as the oldest working lighthouse on Lake Superior.

Featured Music: Guy Smith (feat. Sheldon Jaskalainen). Denielle Bassels. Tough Old Bird.
Music beds: Doug Wilde. Rusty McCarthy. Craig West.
Theme music: Ray Bonneville. Rusty McCarthy.

Artwork: St. Joe by Adriano

s4.e8. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – Ode To The Lighthouse Keeper – MUSIC CREDITS

Title – Big Five Water
Artist – Ray Bonneville

Title – The Storm (pt. 1)
Album – Back In The Bottle
Artist/Composer – The Billy Bastards

Title – Storm Of Love
Album – River Of Song
Artist – Guy Smith (feat. Sheldon Jaskalainen)
Composer – Guy Smith

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

Title – Lighthouse
Album – It Goes Like This
Artist/ Composer – Denielle Bassels

Title – Blue Sky Day
Album – The Sixth Dimension
Artist /Composer – Doug Wilde

Title – Water Music
Album – The Sixth Dimension
Artist /Composer – Doug Wilde

Title – Zephyr
Album – The Sixth Dimension
Artist /Composer – Doug Wilde

Title – A Conversation
Album – The Sixth Dimension
Artist /Composer – Doug Wilde

Title – Sketches Of Tomorrow
Album – The Sixth Dimension
Artist /Composer – Doug Wilde

Title – Summer Calling
Album – The Sixth Dimension
Artist /Composer – Doug Wilde

Title – You Can’t Take The Boogie
Album – Rusty Blues
Artist /Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Whole Lot Of Trouble
Album – Rusty Blues
Artist /Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – City Blues
Album – Rusty Blues
Artist /Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Comfort
Album – Rusty Blues
Artist /Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Let’s Fool Around
Album – Rusty Blues
Artist /Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – What Makes Her Happy
Album – Rusty Blues
Artist /Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Soldier
Album – Rusty Blues
Artist /Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Detroit
Album – Rusty Blues
Artist /Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Come And Gone
Album – Rusty Blues
Artist /Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Song For The Lighthouse Keeper
Album – The Old Great Lakes
Artist – Tough Old Bird

Title – End Credits
Artist /Composer – Craig West

Visit: raybonneville.com

Visit: rustyandmaja.com

Visit: guysmith.ca

Visit: dougwilde.com

Visit: press.umich.edu/Books/L/Ladies-of-the-Lights2

Visit: deniellebassels.com

Visit: marbleheadhistory.org

Visit: shipwreckmuseum.com

Visit: tougholdbirdmusic.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.