My guest today is singer-songwriter Lucy Clearwater, whose debut full-length album is called People Not Possessions. It's a title that tells you quite a bit about who she is before you even hear a note.

Lucy started playing violin at the age of 4 and by the time she was 12 she was teaching the instrument. Then she started writing songs on guitar, and she hasn't looked back.

Lucy grew up in the Bay Area, moved to LA, and spent some time in Berlin. She even learned enough German to write and record an entire album in the language.

At the heart of this new record is something simple: a belief in community, connection, and the people who shape our lives.

In our chat, we get into the long road to making a debut full-length; recording live to tape with producer Tyler Chester; writing songs about friendship, grief, and love, including one specifically about the perils of the intersection of friendship and love; and how a casual song-sharing night in her living room grew into an international network of musicians gathering in cities around the world.

It's a record about relationships, and a conversation that keeps circling back to the same idea: that our lives are shaped far more by people than possessions.

www.lucyclearwater.com

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠⁠

Or find me on Instagram ⁠@theandrewshaver⁠

⁠When We Wake with Andrew Shaver⁠ is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠⁠Andrew Shaver⁠ of ⁠Clever Hopes⁠⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by ⁠Noah Reid⁠

Tyson Ray Borsboom is one of those songwriters who seems decidedly less interested in polishing the edges than he is in just telling the truth.

Born in Winnipeg, shaped by Alberta - Lethbridge then Calgary - he’s now living out on the West Coast in Vancouver (at last, for the time being). His thoughtful blend of country, folk, and Americana feels built for long drives, which he’s done his fair share of driving trucks, and late-night reflection, which, quite frankly, with a couple kids at home, I’m rather partial to.

We talked about everything from getting inspired to write songs watching Canadian Idol as a teenager, to falling in love and proposing to his fiancée Charlotte along Vancouver’s seawall at sunset, where, rudely, no-one seemed to care...except for Charlotte, thankfully. He tells us the story.

We also get into his complicated relationship with co-writing and the way collaborative songwriting can feel a little bit like therapy, even while part of him wonders if asking for help is somehow cheating.

His new album These Days came out June 5th in the midst of a 30-day Canadian tour in support of it.

@tysonrayborsboom

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠⁠

Or find me on Instagram ⁠@theandrewshaver⁠

⁠When We Wake with Andrew Shaver⁠ is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠⁠Andrew Shaver⁠ of ⁠Clever Hopes⁠⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by ⁠Noah Reid⁠

You could say that Kelly McMichael took the long way round to using her own name. Born in Peterborough, Ontario and now based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, she spent years making music under different monikers and inside other people’s bands, touring with artists like Sarah Harmer, Gentleman Reg, The Hidden Cameras and The Burning Hell.

Along the way she made her own music as Rouge and then Renders, before eventually stepping forward using her name with her Polaris Prize shortlisted debut album Waves, and its Music NL award winning (and Polaris Prize longlisted) follow-up After the Sting of It.

In today's episode, we chat about those different musical lives, the process of finding her own voice, the winding path that led her to the front of the stage, and about sharing vocals on one of my new Clever Hopes songs, Long Way Round...which she absolutely, positively, knocks out of the ballpark.

KellyMcMichael.com

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠⁠

Or find me on Instagram ⁠@theandrewshaver⁠

⁠When We Wake with Andrew Shaver⁠ is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠⁠Andrew Shaver⁠ of ⁠Clever Hopes⁠⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by ⁠Noah Reid⁠

My guest today is one of those musicians other musicians talk about. Christine Bougie is widely considered one of Canada’s finest guitarists. She's a sought-after collaborator who’s spent years helping shape the sound of other artists’ songs on stages and records across the country. We’re talking Bahamas, Sarah Harmer, Jenn Grant, Amy Millan, Matt Anderson…and, trust me, the list goes on.

But she’s also an artist with a singular voice of her own, and her new album, How to Care for Introverts, brings that voice front and centre. The record is built around the expressive sound of solo lap steel guitar and was recorded with Chris Stringer at Union Sound in Toronto. It is beautiful, spacious, atmospheric music.

In our conversation, Christine talks about discovering jazz as a teenager, the encouragement she once received from guitar legend Bill Frisell, about how she continues to try to pay that one forward, and why stepping out front as a solo artist can feel both exciting and a little uncomfortable for someone who’s made a career as a side player.

We also talk about embracing imperfection in the studio and the creative power of making space.

@christinebougie

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠⁠

Or find me on Instagram

⁠@whenwewakeradio ⁠& ⁠@theandrewshaver⁠

⁠When We Wake with Andrew Shaver⁠ is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠⁠Andrew Shaver⁠ of ⁠Clever Hopes⁠⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by ⁠Noah Reid⁠

My guest today is one of Nova Scotia’s finest songwriters, and one-time touring bass player for Stompin Tom Connors, Pictou County’s Dave Gunning.

His new album Field Notes wasn’t recorded in a traditional studio at all. It was captured outdoors in Australia, under a gumtree, with one microphone on Dave and two more pointed at the birds (kookaburras?). No isolation booths. No endless second-guessing. Just voice, guitar, and whatever the day decided to offer.

On one track, Angels' Share, a bird chirps perfectly in key during the instrumental and stops as Dave starts to sing again. The kind of magic you can't recreate in a studio.

We talk about the decision to record this way and the leap of faith he took by travelling to the other side of the world to do so with producer Mark Lang. We talk about co-writing Vincent Coleman with his dear friend, the late Bruce Guthro. And we get into the time Stompin’ Tom Connors hired him after what might be the most unconventional audition in Canadian music history.

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠⁠

Or find me on Instagram

⁠@whenwewakeradio ⁠& ⁠@theandrewshaver⁠

⁠When We Wake with Andrew Shaver⁠ is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠⁠Andrew Shaver⁠ of ⁠Clever Hopes⁠⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by ⁠Noah Reid⁠

I met Rebekah Hawker about two weeks ago at Folk Alliance in New Orleans and within minutes we were laughing like we’d known each other for years.

What starts as a conversation about surviving conference adrenaline, and then inevitable crash that follows, turns into something much deeper. We talk about growing up in a church community, about the grief she felt after her mom passed away, moving back in with dad on the family farm, journaling and building an inner world as an artist.

And Rebekah shares the story behind “Quit My Habit,” the song I first heard her she sing in a noisy room in New Orleans that somehow brought the whole place to a hush. That is, when they weren’t singing along.

Also… we take a small but important detour into Linda Ronstadt.

rebekahhawker.com

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠⁠

Or find me on Instagram

⁠@whenwewakeradio ⁠& ⁠@theandrewshaver⁠

⁠When We Wake with Andrew Shaver⁠ is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠⁠Andrew Shaver⁠ of ⁠Clever Hopes⁠⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by ⁠Noah Reid⁠

My guests today are Tim Chaisson and Jake Charron from the genre-bending, Juno Award-winning, musical trailblazers from Prince Edward Island, The East Pointers.

Their new album, Schoonertown, is rooted friendships that stretch decades, small-town life, and the long road of making music together. It’s also shaped by loss. The record carries the presence of their late bandmate and friend Koady Chaisson, who was also Tim’s cousin, and whose spirit is felt all the way through these songs.

What’s striking is that Schoonertown isn’t a quiet record. It’s joyful, rhythmic, and built for rooms full of people. It's music that celebrates connection, memory, and the act of showing up for one another. And that's entirely by design.

Tim and Jake joined me for a generous, wide-ranging conversation about home, tradition, collaboration, and carrying someone with you as the music keeps moving forward.

@theeastpointers

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠

Or find me on Instagram

@whenwewakeradio & @theandrewshaver

When We Wake with Andrew Shaver is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠Andrew Shaver of Clever Hopes⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by Noah Reid

On today’s episode of When We Wake, I’m talking with Eric Duquette and Jena GoGo AKA Duke and Goldie - a duo whose entire story basically starts with a Craigslist ad in Toronto.

Jena put out a call for a guitar player and, perhaps unsurprisingly, a whole host of guys answered, but it was Eric who fit the bill.

So the two bonded over a shared love of Motown and Radiohead, played in a band together, fell in love, fell out of that earlier band and eventually spun all of it into Duke and Goldie.

It’s been a journey that’s taken Jenna from the West Coast to Toronto, Eric from east to Toronto, and now both of them to Vancouver, where they’ve made their home. And, where they recorded their new album, Romance and Ramblin', in the basement bunker at CBC.

We get into how this all unfolded, how they write, and how the partnership, musical and otherwise, keeps shaping the sound.

@dukeandgoldie

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠

Or find me on Instagram

@whenwewakeradio & @theandrewshaver

When We Wake with Andrew Shaver is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠Andrew Shaver⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Bonne Bay to Prince George.

Theme song Got You by Noah Reid