The GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – Underground Railroad

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

s3.e2. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – Underground Railroad

Escaping for the north terminus to freedom, African American slaves of the mid 1800s risked their lives on the Underground Railroad to reach the safety of the Great Lakes basin.

The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a train. Instead, it was a brave network of heroic people working together to do the right thing.

Dr. Richard Smith and Leslie Strong Williams, of the Fred Hart Williams Genealogical Society, dedicated to the research and preservation of African-American history.
Duane Blackburn of the Blackburn Brothers, descendants of freedom seekers through the Underground Railroad, delivers a powerful message with their soul funk blues music.
Bruce Kemp, award-winning writer of The Fugitive’s Son, a seldom told story of the people that made history in an unseen side of the Civil War.

Featured music: Kingston Trio
Music beds: Pierre Schreyer & Ian Clark. Rusty McCarthy.
Theme music: Ray Bonneville. Rusty McCarthy.
Painting: Field Hands by Graham Thomas

s3.e2. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour Music Credits

Title – Big Five Water (GLO Theme)
Artist / Composer – Ray Bonneville

Title – Sneaky Train
Album – Behind The Times
Artist / Composer – Redwood Central

Title – Took A Train
Album – Fork In The Road
Artist / Composer – Andy Chillman & The Chillmen

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

Title – Road To Freedom
Album – The Kingston Trio #16
Artist – Kingston Trio
Composer – John Stewart

Title – Leaving Lerwick
Album – Heat Of The Moment
Artist – Pierre Schryer & Ian Clark
Composer – Willie Hunter

Title – Cape Clear
Album – Heat Of The Moment
Artist – Pierre Schryer & Ian Clark
Composer – Traditional

Title – Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Artist – Fisk Jubilee Singers
Composer – Traditional

Title – My Train
Album – Brothers In This World
Artist / Composer – Blackburn Brothers

Title – Freedom Train
Album – SoulFunkn’BLUES
Artist / Composer – Blackburn Brothers

Title – Talk To Me
Album – Brotherhood
Artist / Composer – Blackburn Brothers

Title – Thank You Mother
Artist/ Composer – Eugene Smith

Title – Bobby’s Blues
Album – SoulFunkn’BLUES
Artist/Composer – Blackburn Brothers

Title – Hey Hey
Album – Brothers In This World
Artist/Composer – Blackburn Brothers

Title – Old Jim Comfort
Album – Skin & Bones
Artist / Composer – Whiskey Jack

Title – Southbound Passenger Train
Album – Skin & Bones
Artist / Composer – Whiskey Jack

Title – Big John McNeil
Album – Skin & Bones
Artist / Composer – Whiskey Jack

Title – Fiddle Medley
Album – Stories and Songs of Stompin’ Tom
Artist / Composer – Whiskey Jack

Title – Cryin’ Holy
Album – Skin & Bones
Artist / Composer – Whiskey Jack

Title – Farm Song
Album – Skin & Bones
Artist / Composer – Whiskey Jack

Visit: raybonneville.com

Visit: rustyandmaja.com

Visit: alwoodblues.com

Visit: fhwgs.org

Visit: blackburnbrothersmusic.com

Visit: whiskeyjackmusic.com

Visit: brucekempphotography.net

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

Great Lakes Odyssey

Inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the Great Lakes Odyssey 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.