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CKMS Community Connections

CKMS Community Connections for 11 November 2026 with Valdy

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Show Notes

A balding man with a white beard wearing a gray sweater, sitting in front of a red backdrop. There is a red poppy on the breast of his sweater.
Valdy

Valdy is playing a concert at Emmanuel United Church at 7:00pm on Friday 13 March 2026, and joins Bob Jonkman on a web conference to talk about Salt Spring Island, being a touring musician, writing songs on the road, how songs (and musicians!) change over the years, an upcoming album, Valdy’s guitar, and Remembrance Day.

The interview starts at 1m22s.

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Podcast

Download: ckms-community-connections-2026-11-11-episode280-Valdy.mp3 (52 MB, 56m35s, episode 280)

Index

Time Title Album Artist
0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc CKMS Sunflower logo (yellow petals surrounding a black centre with white wavies all on a teal background)
CKMS Community Connections 		Steve Todd
0m50s The Rock ‘N’ Roll Song (excerpt) 20th Century Masters The Best of Valdy The Millennium Collection (very close-up photo of Valdy ca. 1975, a man with a reddish beard)
20th Century Masters: The Best of Valdy 		Valdy
1m22s Play Me A Rock ‘N’ Roll Song was the song that made Valdy famous. Valdy tells us of his previous visits to Waterloo, but he’s on Salt Spring Island as we speak. Valdy tells us of his history there.
3m50s Talking about making a living as a musician: Making sure you get to the airport on time, that you have all your equipment with your. Valdy tells of his upcoming tour, launching in Waterloo and ending at the end of November in Watson’s Corners.
6m00s Bob gives the info about the Emmanuel United Church concert, but gives the wrong address (it’s 22 Bridgeport Road, Waterloo).
6m55s Valdy still enjoys touring, adding some new material from other writers as well as his own. New material takes a while to develop. Valdy has a producer for his albums, which loses some creative control, but he’s OK with that because he trusts the producer. Valdy gets more writing done on the road, working by himself in his room.
9m20s For the Emmanuel United Church concert Valdy will share the stage with another performer, Kaleb Hikele, and also at Hugh’s Room.
9m55s Valdy doesn’t play the new songs while he’s on tour, they need to “get some hair on their face.” Then Valdy corrects himself, “Songs can be equally feminine as well as masculine.” He waits for the songs to “get some flesh on their bones.”
10m45s Does waiting for the song to mature change it? Yes, not just playing it, but the exposure it gets and the feedback Valdy receives, whether it’s working or not working.
11m25s Valdy introduces A Good Song, which he wrote in a hotel room in Calgary. He can still sing it in the original key.
11m29s A Good Song 20th Century Masters The Best of Valdy The Millennium Collection (very close-up photo of Valdy ca. 1975, a man with a reddish beard)
20th Century Masters: The Best of Valdy 		Valdy
14m35s Bob remembers Valdy from the 1970s, “Those were good years.” Valdy is going back in the studio with Claire Lawrence, his producer from the 1970s, to record an album to be called Shadowland, about dealing with dementia.
15m35s When Valdy performs the old songs, have they changed? “Yes, I’m learning to sing. The more I play, the better I get.” The form remains the same, but Valdy can sing them better. Hearing himself on recordings helps. But the lyrics haven’t changed. Valdy is happy with the way the old songs have been produced.
17m05s
A guitar head with an inlaid image of a woman in a long dress
Valdy’s guitar
Bob admires Valdy’s guitar. It was built in the 1980s; it has a self-portrait of Heather McRea, who did the inlay in the guitar head. And Valdy demonstrates “Hot Rod Pegs”, with little cranks on the pegs to wind them quickly.
18m10s Valdy is concerned about his beard length. He may trim it before leaving tomorrow. Jet lag doesn’t bother Valdy when he travels east, but going west throws off the body clock.
19m10s Valdy and Bob talk about Remembrance Day. Valdy opens every concert with Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream, a plea to end the terrible things going on.
20m30s Valdy has to leave, so Bob and Valdy exchange goodbyes. Bob recaps the Emmanual Concert info.
22m00s Rock ‘N’ Roll Song 20th Century Masters The Best of Valdy The Millennium Collection (very close-up photo of Valdy ca. 1975, a man with a reddish beard)
20th Century Masters: The Best of Valdy 		Valdy
24m53s Simple Life (Ode to L.A.)
28m00s Streets of Whitehorse
31m7s Six Feet Away
33m09s City Musician
35m49s Magdalena
39m54s Dirty Old Man
43m22s Peter & Lou
46m52s Renaissance
51m27s Landscapes
53m50s Yes I Can

CKMS Community Connections airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 from 3:00pm to 4:00pm on Mondays.

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Bonus Video

Video: CKMS Community Connections for Wednesday 11 November 2026, 100 MB (Radio Waterloo video)

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2026 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders. The theme music is written and performed by Steven Todd.