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Tom Allen will bring his entertaining wit and love for music to RADIO 2 MORNING, airing 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekday mornings.
A passionate music lover, storyteller, accomplished trombonist, writer and broadcaster, Allen continues to bring a wealth of experience to CBC Radio 2. Allen hosted Radio 2's former morning drive show MUSIC AND COMPANY from September 1998 - 2008. Prior to this, his weekly stories aired to a keen Ontario audience on CBC Radio One’s Fresh Air, and nationally on This Morning.
He has had three books published - Toe Rubber Blues (1999), Rolling Home - A Cross-Canada Railroad Memoir, (2001) and most recently The Gift of The Game, a wonderful reflection on hockey and the role the game plays in the life of a divorced hockey parent.
Allen studied at McGill University, graduated from Boston University and received his MA at Yale University. While looking for full time work as a trombonist, he worked as an office temp on Wall Street and as a cook in a Mexican restaurant. One of his favourite musical memories is of joining 87 other trombonists on the first-base line at Fenway Park for the Boston Red Sox home opener in 1982. In 1987 he began touring with the Great Lakes Brass until he joined CBC Radio in Halifax.
Tom lives with his wife in Toronto and is a father of two teenagers. Aside from his passion for music and literature, he's an avid cyclist and plays recreational hockey and baskeball.
An acclaimed jazz and blues singer and philanthropist, Molly Johnson has earned her reputation as one of Canada's greatest voices.
Johnson brings her warm voice to the airwaves weekend mornings. From favourites to up-and-coming Canadian artists from across the country, RADIO 2 MORNING can be heard Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and Sundays 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.
Born and raised in Toronto, her artistic career began at a young age when she and her brother Clark were handpicked by Ed Mirvish to appear in his production of Porgy and Bess. By the time she was 15, Johnson's artistic interests were focused on music and she was lead singer in a disco band. Johnson then fronted a funky art rock group that was an influential part of Toronto's Queen Street scene and simultaneously pursued a career as a jazz singer. She's since flourished to international solo stardom for her masterful hybrid of jazz, pop and funk vocals.
She made history at the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival by becoming the first Canadian female vocalist in the festival's 17-year-history to sell out a show on the main stage. Her 2003 solo jazz album Another Day was a huge success, skyrocketing her onto the international music scene. In 2007, Johnson's album Messin' Around received a Juno nomination for Jazz Vocal Album of the year.
In February 2007, Johnson was recognized for her outstanding contribution to Canadian music with the honour of becoming an Officer of the Order of Canada. She has regaled royalty during a private command performance aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia before the Prince and late Princess of Wales, and has also performed for Nelson Mandela and Quincy Jones.
Johnson started the Kumbaya Foundation and Festival, raising awareness and funds for people living with HIV/AIDS, and she continues to work with countless other charitable organizations every year.
2009 Juno winners Chic Gamine entertain with their wonderful vocal harmonies at the Regina Folk Festival.
A real Winnipeg favourite, this quartet brought its urban-rootsy, homespun sound to the Park Theatre. Their guitars, banjo, accordion, bass and drums are topped by the sweetest vocals and enhanced, strangely, by the theramin. Their sound captures the duality of the prairies in that it is at once contemporary and old-fashioned, dark and light, lonely yet cosy.