The writer and broadcaster Connie Kuhns discusses her new book Rubymusic: A Popular History of Women’s Music and Culture (Caitlin Press, 2023), her radio show, and more, with Joseph Planta.

Rubymusic: A Popular History of Women’s Music and Culture by Connie Kuhns (Caitlin Press, 2023). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Rubymusic

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Connie Kuhns joins me now. She’s just published Rubymusic: A Popular History of Women’s Music and Culture. It’s collects just some of the remarkable work Connie has done in over forty years, whether as a writer, a broadcaster, a music critic, and an interviewer. In 1981, she approached Vancouver Cooperative Radio to host a music show dedicated solely to playing music by women. There was some doubt as to whether there was enough music that she was only given a half hour. But even before the radio show Rubymusic, which she hosted for fifteen years, going off the air in 1996, when she was on weekly Friday nights for two hours, she was chronicling the music scene here in Vancouver and beyond. The book has got profiles and interviews with a myriad of artists including Ferron, Etta James, kd lang, Michelle Shocked, Amy Grant, Ellen McIlwaine, as well as essays on Yoko Ono, Janis Joplin, and Joni Mitchell. Some of the interviews are previews of an artist’s appearance in Vancouver, some are reviews of the shows themselves. It’s a marvelous time capsule of the music scene here, and the various venues gone and still around. The book also provides insight about Kuhns and the role music plays in her life. It’s a book everybody ought to read. Connie Kuhns’s essays have been finalists for Canada’s National Magazine Award, Western Magazine Award, and PRISM International’s creative non-fiction prize. She was a finalist for Canada’s Salt Spring National Art Prize, receiving the award for Outstanding Salt Spring Artist. This new book is published by Caitlin Press. She joined me from Salt Spring Island this past weekend. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Connie Kuhns; Ms. Kuhns, good morning.

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