by RocketChimp Records staff
If you missed The Ragged Flowers appearance on Pat Moore’s “Saturday Morning” show on CKCU-FM (93.1), you can click here to check out the Almonte band’s 47-minute interview and live performance that starts at the 1:58 mark. A singer-songwriter as well as a longtime CKCU radio host and Artistic Director of the Spirit of Rasputin’s Art Society in Ottawa, Moore also played a couple of band’s studio recordings during their time on air with her.
Moore gave her take on the band during a joyful interview. “You guys are unique,” she said. “You have an awesome, awesome vibe, the whole sound, I just love it!” She continued, “I think one of the things I just love about your music, is, that well, first of all, people cannot sit still. I’ve been to a bunch of your live concerts including the outdoor ones and people are up and they’re dancing. You can’t sit still at a Ragged Flowers concert. There’s so much going on.”
The Ragged Flowers played four live songs on Moore’s show, including a still-unreleased tune written and sung by guitarist Steve Reside called Lift Me Up. During their interview the band paid homage to past members Ric Denis and Terry Tufts, and introduced their latest addition, singer-songwriter and guitarist George Birchall.
Rounding out the current line-up is Ian Douglas (drums, keyboards and vocals – he was in Europe during this radio appearance) Rob Riendeau (bass and vocals) and Nathan Sloniowski (guitar, other stringed things and vocals). Reside, Riendeau, Douglas and Sloniowski have ridden the entire ragged wave over 20 years of music-making together.
The Ragged Flowers appeared most recently at Almonte Old Town Hall at a sold-out show for the folkus concert series on March 25th with opening act Claire Hunter, an exciting singer-songwriter from Almonte who now lives in Toronto.
With two studio CDs and a live CDs of original music under their belts, (all available in the music section of Almonte’s Mill Street Books), Reside explained that a fresh recording project is in the works over the coming year. Sloniowski spoke about two upcoming gigs – a 5 Days in July concert in Almonte’s Augusta Park July 19th, and another show at The Herb Garden near Carp on Friday Sept. 8th. The band’s also booking house concerts for 40 or more guests through the fall and winter.
Two immediate results of the CKCU-FM interview: Moore is going to propose The Ragged Flowers for a 2018 gig for the Spirit of Rasputin’s Art Society in Ottawa. And on the way out of the CKCU studios, the band ran into past Ottawa Folk Festival Artistic Director and Canadian Spaces radio show host Chris White. When White handed off from Moore, he stated on air that he’s planning to host Almonte’s neo-psychedelic folk-rockers on his show, which is Canada’s longest-running folk music radio program.
Upcoming gigs, radio appearances, photos and music selections from The Ragged Flowers are available on their web site, theraggedflowers.com, or the Facebook page of RocketChimp Records.
