October 12, 2026

On the page on the CJSW site for this edition of Breaking The Tethers (you can listen to the show on this page), I said that this show was "a solid six". I meant that six solid tunes were featured in the program. And solid they were, I think. We had some avant jazz with Cecil Taylor, some new boy Canadian jazz from Josh Warren and Ardeshir, a trip to the 70s that wasn't a trip to the 70s from Azar Lawrence, a real trip to the 70s by Marion Brown, and more. Be sure to give it a listen.

As normal, I'll be back with another BTT outing on Monday, October 19. Please come hang with me and dig the music starting at 10 am MT. Go to cjsw.com or 90.9 FM.

I've also been called back for service on Alternative To What. I'll be filling in for Kerry twice, very soon, on Thursday, October 15, and Thursday, October 22. The start time will be 4 pm MT, same station.

Thanks.

Andrew

PS Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving, one and alll!

PPS CJSW Funding Drive 2026 is coming... October 23 to 30... more info to follow... 

October 5, 2026

Lots of music squeezed into a mere 60 minutes, 11 tracks in all. We had a couple of jazzy Bowie covers for kids, lots of piano, some free jazz, grunge turned jazz, and more. Simply, this was a fun show. To give it a listen, go to shorturl.at/lfNKy. 

We keep on going into October, musically, with the next BTT show on Monday, October 12. Come hang out with me on CJSW, 90.9 FM or cjsw.com, at 10 am MT. 

Thanks.

Andrew

PS CJSW Funding Drive 2026 is coming!

September 28, 2026

I’ve said it before, maybe too many times, but some episodes of Breaking The Tethers (BTT) just work well and this was one of them. Eight tracks played, nothing too long and nothing too short, with nice stylistic variation. It all came together nicely. And you can listen to the whole thing here (which I recommend you do!)

Thanks.

Andrew 

September 21, 2026

I was back doing my thing on Breaking The Tethers after last week's absence and all went well. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this was a super-solid show (at least musically 😂). The right tracks were played at the right time. In addition, there was one song that caused some (positive) hubub, the tropicalia-infused cover of Nirvana's "In bloom", sung by Benny Benack III, from the new release Kind of grunge by Ulysses Owens Jr and Generation Y. A bunch of folks texted in - "What is this??!!" It was nice to have this reaction. Please listen to this edition of BTT here.

There's one more September show for Breaking The Tethers, in a week's time, on Monday, September 28. Please go to cjsw.com or 90.9 FM at 10 am MT.

Thanks.

Andrew

September 14, 2026

Breaking The Tethers is my program on CJSW but this wasn't my show. I took sick that morning (or I was locked in a tiger cage) and didn't make it to the station. CJSW station manager, Adam Kamis, stepped in and hosted BTT in my place and did a fine job, playing some great tunes. It was very smart the way he did this; basically, he played music that I would play when I guest-host Alternative To What but he did this on Breaking The Tethers! Listen to it all here.

Everything returns to "normal" (should such a thing actually exist) on Monday, September 21. Barring disaster, I'll be back behind the board and on the mic for the next edition of BTT. Please join me for this last-day-of summer 2026 (or last-day-of-winter 2026 if you're in the southern hemisphere) show at 10 am MT at 90.9 FM or cjsw.com.

Thanks.

Andrew

September 10, 2026 - Alternative To What?

This week, I felt the call back to host Alternative To What. Well, actually, Kerry Clarke messaged me and asked me if I could host this show. And, of course, as always, I said "yes"! There were 19 tracks featured in two hours, from here, there, everywhere, and beyond. Here's a word list (salad) of some of what showed up on the program, in no order:

an Ace Frehley live guitar solo

Arab instrumental pop

Captain Beefheart

late period John Coltrane

new Dinosaur Jr.

new (yes, new) Strawberry Alarm Clock

creepy ambient sounds

Indo-violin

And much more.

You can take in the whole mess here.

Thanks.

Andrew

September 7, 2026

This might be one of my top BTT shows. The music was great and everything flowed well. Looking at the music, two of the tracks played really made this episode, I think:

"Slightly all the time" by Soft Machine, from the album Third. An all-time fave, I nearly played this as part of the BTT 20th anniversary shows in June (I played "Out-bloody-rageous" from the same album instead) and figured it needed an airing.

"War pigs" by Russ Anixter's Hippie Big Band from What's next. I didn't announce what the title of the song was before I played it (I mentioned the group and album) and some listeners went nuts (in a good way), texting in. This one will definitely be on the BTT Funding Drive 2026 playlist.

Here's the podcast of this show: tinyurl.com/y6zvthmr

Thanks.

Andrew