The Tragically Hip Podcast Series

Fifty-eight days out from GEDfest 2026, more than $750,000 already written into cheques, and a first million sitting within reach this October.
That is where this one opens, and then the panel spends the rest of the episode refusing to look backwards. GEDfest is Gord Edgar Downie Fest, a community celebration of the life and legacy of Gord Downie and the music of The Tragically Hip, and the people running it are not interested in what it has been. They want to talk about what it becomes. Twelve chapters in 2026, the first of them outside Canada, and a board that sat down five years ago and wrote out what this thing stands for before it got big enough to lose the plot.
Keith Dyck's model for the whole enterprise is Terry Fox. Same idea, different hero, different setting - a rock show instead of a run. He is clear-eyed about the gap, too. The Terry Fox Run has raised something north of $850 million since it started. GEDfest is about to cross its first million. He would like the first one under the belt before anybody gets excited.
WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE
• Keith drove a rental car from Ottawa to Buffalo to Toronto this spring, and the thing that happened at a Buffalo gas station is the reason he now believes this can go anywhere.
• Buddy Herold went to his first GEDfest to carry amps and set up the water station. What he got asked to do instead is a cautionary tale about volunteering.
• Ian McDonald had a venue, a band, and a charity locked for Ottawa inside about 48 hours, and every single piece of it came from a phone call to somebody he already knew. Including the hockey coach.
• Sarah J. on why Buffalo was the only sensible place for the first American chapter, and what "the city of good neighbours" means when it comes to a fundraiser.
• Jeff Davison on why the rubber chicken dinner is losing, and what an event like this does that a gala cannot.
• Two men in Elks gear at the Labour Day Classic in Calgary who turned out not to live in Edmonton, or anywhere near it. Buddy has issued them a challenge and they have not delivered yet.
• The myth that The Tragically Hip were a Canada-only band, and the tribute act in the Netherlands quietly making the case against it.
• Buddy's plan involving a Blue Jays jersey with all thirty MLB parks on the back, and what he wants to put there instead.
• Keith's two current songs, both of them going into this year's set list, one of them by request from a corporate sponsor.
• Penny Gord. That is all anyone is getting here.
THE PANEL
• Keith Dyck, co-founder of GEDfest and the drummer in Trickle Down, from Calgary. Currently living inside 'Opiated' and 'Cordelia', because both are being added to the set. Would like it on the record that the first million is the hard one.
• Buddy Herold, director of sales and fundraising for GEDfest, from Calgary by way of Toronto. Five years running in Calgary, plus Regina and Winnipeg last year, and Toronto this year. Went with 'Ahead by a Century', which was the last song the band ever played live.
• Ian McDonald, Ottawa chapter lead, calling in from Vegas at 41 degrees. Came to this through his friend and colleague Ian Martin, had never run an event like it, and is now watching people he has not heard from in years buy tickets.
• Jeff Davison, CEO of the Prostate Cancer Centre, from Calgary. One in six Alberta men will get prostate cancer. His kids are now listening to The Hip in the truck, which he considers the win. Sings along to 'Locked in the Trunk of a Car' and admits it may be the only one he can manage.
• Sara Jachimiak of DATC Media, Buffalo chapter lead, from Buffalo, New York. All-time favourite is 'All Tore Up', currently deep into 'Let's Stay Engaged'. She is choosing Buffalo's charity herself, and she talks openly and without drama about the eight months of her own breast cancer treatment that shaped the choice.
GEDFEST 2026
GEDfest is Gord Edgar Downie Fest, and in its ninth year it runs in twelve chapters across Canada and, for the first time, in the United States. Every chapter picks a cause in its own community and raises money for it. Find your city at gedfest.ca. jD runs the Toronto chapter, playing the Horseshoe Tavern on Saturday, October 17, with Grace, 2 on stage, raising money for Campfire Circle and the Murphy Family Fund in Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer. Tickets and details at facebook.com/GEDfestYYZ.
THE HIP HANDBOOK
The free, non-monetized archive of the discography, the lyrics, and the live performances lives at thehiphandbook.tthpods.com.
YER LETTER
One email a month, no filler. Sign up at subscribe.tthpods.com.
THE TIP JAR
If you want to throw a couple of bucks at the shows, the jar is at buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40.
FIND US
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#TheTragicallyHip #GEDfest #GordDownie #Fundraising #podList #Diehards

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April 18th, 1992. The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, nearly six months before "Fully Completely" came out, and 'Radio Show' is fifth on the set list.
Twelve days later it's fifth again, at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney, Australia. Those are the only two Dave from Edmonton found on setlist.fm. Then The Tragically Hip shelved it for twenty-two years, until the 2014 deluxe reissue of "Fully Completely" put it out beside 'So Hard Done By.' It finished 123rd on the TTHTop40 Countdown. The live poll in the Facebook group didn't care: 60 percent love it, 96 percent love it or like it, and one holdout tolerates it.
If you've never heard it, you're in good company. One panelist met it a few months ago.
Then the lyric sheet comes out. It opens with somebody holding in a lungful while their father walks by, it stops to watch the election and the trial, and it ends on one word. We. Francois from Quebec City thinks Gord left the door open on purpose. Dave from Montreal has a radio guy's read, and it involves King of the Hill. And nobody agrees on where it belongs - a "Road Apples" leftover, or the most "Fully Completely" thing that never made "Fully Completely."

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE
- The icebreaker: one song by The Hip that sounds like fall. A forest at night with no leaves left on the trees, a drive-in Dave from Montreal has never been to, and a date in September that smacks every fan in the face.
- A grade nine class trip to Toronto, a bootleg shop up a flight of stairs across the street from MuchMusic, and a cassette Dave from Montreal still calls the definitive version.
- Rob's guitar talking back to Gord, and Paul playing something Dave from Montreal swears he's heard on another "Fully Completely" track.
- How one record ends up being somebody's best and worst at the same time.
- Dave from Edmonton wishes Canada had a British singles culture, and he brings Oasis to make the case.
- Massey Hall, September 27. The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the speech Dave from Montreal thinks Gord could have given.
- Next week the wheel lands on 'Poets,' the kick-off track on "Phantom Power," and the Discovering Downie panel reunites for it.

"It's really nice to have these little songs between us that don't belong to everybody." - Dave from Montreal

THE PANEL
- Francois from Quebec City. Plays the Paul Langlois parts in The Gracefully Hip, a Quebec City tribute to The Hip, and has heard 800 people in Montreal sing 'Ahead by a Century' back at him. Next gig: Friday, November 6, Grizzly Fuzz, Quebec City. grizzlyfuzz.com
- Dave from Montreal. Back again, an Anglophone Montrealer with twenty years in radio, and the only one here who has known this song since the 90s. Answered the icebreaker twice, the second en français, a first for the show.
- Dave from Edmonton. Back from Yer Hipstories: Reflections From The Final Tour in Edmonton. Built this year's song bracket for The Hip and ran it in the Facebook group. "Fully Completely" made him a fan at fourteen.
Big thanks to Francois, Dave, and Dave, and to the chat. Thirty-four years after The Tragically Hip played it at the Horseshoe, 'Radio Show' still belongs mostly to the fans who go looking for it. Gord Downie ended it on one word. The rest is up to you.
Recorded Wednesday, September 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. jD marked it by re-releasing the Discovering Downie conversation on "Secret Path," Gord's record about Chanie Wenjack, the twelve-year-old Anishinaabe boy who died in October 1966 after running from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, trying to get home.
"Secret Path": https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/e086ade9-373f-4bd3-9d84-513b2097cac5
THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN
A new show, and you set the order. Rate all fifteen records by The Hip before November 30, and the countdown starts Monday, January 4, 2027, at 8pm ET on YouTube. Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7
GEDFEST TORONTO - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17
The Horseshoe Tavern, with Grace, 2, raising money for Campfire Circle and the Murphy Family Fund in Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer. It's sold out, but if a ticket shakes loose, jD will hear about it first: tthpodcastseries@gmail.com. Updates at facebook.com/GEDfestYYZ.
THE HIP HANDBOOK
The free archive of the discography, the lyrics, and the live performances, where every tale of the tape starts: thehiphandbook.tthpods.com
YER LETTER
One email a month, the whole network in one place: subscribe.tthpods.com
THE TIP JAR
Editing is hard. Help keep the battery charged. Tips, never donations: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

FIND US
Home: home.tthpods.com
Email: tthpodcastseries@gmail.com
Facebook community: community.tthpods.com
Instagram: @tthpods
YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods
Yer Letter: subscribe.tthpods.com

MORE THE TRAGICALLY HIP ON SHUFFLE LIVE STREAM
'Pigeon Camera': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/49a9167c-6f8d-4641-8306-959189b38ec8
'The Bastard': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/11be433d-56cf-4213-8726-9fc7cec327f2
'Just as Well': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/ddf96225-1bd4-468b-881a-aa091a7e6148

Live dates via setlist.fm. Countdown rank and poll numbers from the show. Reissue details via Universal Music Canada and Wikipedia, Chanie Wenjack's via Wikipedia.

#FullyCompletely #TTHOnShuffle #TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #TTHAlbumCountdown #HipHeads

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Today the gang gets together to discuss the fifth album in Gord's discography, the haunting, Secret Path

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From a 400-person room to a 1,000-person room to twelve chapters in two countries, in nine years, on a formula nobody wrote down.
That is the middle chapter of the GEDfest story, and this is the episode about how it actually happened. GEDfest is Gord Edgar Downie Fest. It was born in Calgary shortly after Gord Downie passed away in 2017, and it is now the largest fundraiser in his memory in the country. The jump from one hometown night to a national organization did not happen because somebody drew up a plan. It happened because people kept walking up and asking how they could help.
Julie Johnson was in the audience on night one while Keith was on the drum stool, which means she saw something he could not see from up there. A woman came up to her in that tiny bar and started talking about a Canadian art gallery and all the images The Tragically Hip put into people's heads, and whether there was room for that next year. That was the first sign. There have been a lot of them since. This episode is Julie, Keith, Jaime McNichol, and Darcy McLeod trying to name the exact moment the snowball stopped needing to be pushed.
WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE
• Keith's confession about 'Courage'. It is not the confession you are expecting from a man who runs a Gord Downie tribute festival, and the night it changed is very specific.
• Julie on the one thing you cannot do if you want to scale something like this. It is the opposite of what most organizations try.
• The 2020 GEDfest. Masks, social distancing, two shows in one day, a capacity cut to the bone, and Dave Harris singing from inside a phone booth. Then the thing the host said afterward that opened the door to every chapter that followed.
• Darcy on the green room at the Blind Beggar, and why beers that arrive without you asking are a bigger deal to a working band than they sound.
• Jaime went to her first GEDfest in 2021 carrying something heavy, and found that a room full of people singing was the thing that helped. She says it plainly here.
• Three different people give three different answers for when the tipping point was. One of them says the Palace. One says it was the moment a stranger in Kelowna described a night they had never attended, exactly.
• The hip tribute band in the Netherlands who reached out, and the language barrier standing between them and a chapter.
• How Neil got Edmonton, and how a guy from Manulife got Kelowna. Neither one involves a job posting.
• Keith on the secret sauce, which is a two-word answer and is not the music.
THE PANEL
• Keith Dyck, co-founder of GEDfest and the drummer in Trickle Down, from Calgary. Reads 'the present' in "The Never Ending Present" as a double entendre, which is a level of thinking jD readily admits is above his pay grade.
• Julie Johnson, founder of GEDfest, from Calgary. Keith's wife, and the one who was standing in the crowd the first night. Went way off the board with 'Fight' as her current favourite, and had a reason at the ready.
• Jaime McNichol, GEDfest director, from Calgary. Julie's parents live next door, which is how she heard about a band called Trickle Down in the first place. Missed the first one because of the weather and has never quite gotten over it. Did three GEDfests last year.
• Darcy McLeod of DC and The Struggle, from Calgary. Opener, after-party act, ambassador, and self-described jack of all trades. Came to The Hip through a friend in junior high who put on 'New Orleans Is Sinking' and was, in his words, the coolest cat.
GEDFEST 2026
GEDfest is Gord Edgar Downie Fest, and in its ninth year it runs in twelve chapters across Canada and, for the first time, in the United States. Every chapter picks a cause in its own community and raises money for it. Find your city at gedfest.ca. jD runs the Toronto chapter, playing the Horseshoe Tavern on Saturday, October 17, with Grace, 2 on stage, raising money for Campfire Circle and the Murphy Family Fund in Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer. Tickets and details at facebook.com/GEDfestYYZ.
THE HIP HANDBOOK
The free, non-monetized archive of the discography, the lyrics, and the live performances lives at thehiphandbook.tthpods.com.
YER LETTER
One email a month, no filler. Sign up at subscribe.tthpods.com.
THE TIP JAR
If you want to throw a couple of bucks at the shows, the jar is at buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40.
FIND US
Home: home.tthpods.com
Email: jd@tthpods.com
Facebook community: community.tthpods.com
Instagram: @tthpods
YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods
Yer Letter: subscribe.tthpods.com

#TheTragicallyHip #GEDfest #GordDownie #Fundraising #podList #Completeists

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June 6th, 2000. Track six on "Music @ Work" opens on tabla, and the album credits name the player as Mr. Hussein. That's the whole credit.
'The Bastard' sits between 'Stay' and 'The Completists' on the record The Tragically Hip made with Steve Berlin and Mark Vreeken, the one that took the 2001 Juno for Best Rock Album. It was never a single, and Chris from Seattle has a theory about why. It finished 119th of 169 on the TTHTop40 Countdown, and Hipbase and setlist.fm log it live just fourteen times (submitted set lists only, so the real number runs higher). Then the live poll in the Facebook group came back 36 percent love it, 46 percent like it, and 13 percent tolerate it, one of the highest tolerate numbers the show has seen.
The panel spins a 2000 recording out of Cleveland, Gord singing his heart out, and Chris hears Godzilla in the rhythm section. Then the lyric sheet comes out. Crepuscular rays. Winged elephants. Purple Italians. A fire-and-brimstone preacher shouting about Philadelphia. One panelist thinks he's cracked it after twenty-six years of not reading the words. Another thinks Gord just liked how they sounded. Nobody's sure Gord would side with either of them.
Underneath all of it sits a record the band never quite got behind. Steve came in calling "Music @ Work" his least favourite record by The Hip and walked out rediscovering it. Chris has it in his top five and has defended it on this show more than once. And jD once asked Johnny Fay about a "Music @ Work" box set. His reaction is in here, and so is Greg's reaction to his reaction.
WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE
• The icebreaker. One song by The Hip each they never got to hear live, and a pair of Calgary tickets from 2009 that Steve sold and still thinks about.
• September 23rd in The Hip Handbook. A busy date, and two of the shows on it have somebody on this panel attached.
• Steve's first time seeing The Hip was at a zoo. Yes, a zoo. Gord took the setting to heart.
• "If this song was a car it would be a V8 with a manual transmission." Chris from Seattle, and he has the downshifts mapped.
• Billy Sunday. Chris has a theory about Philadelphia, and Steve adds a layer from the ballpark.
• Pell-mell, augurs, and augers (the ice fishing kind, per the chat). Greg's read on what's about to blow.
• Steve hears another song of theirs hiding in this one, and it's one he doesn't care for at all.
• Search for this song on YouTube and you might land on a Replacements cover at First Avenue instead. Steve did.
• Next week the wheel lands on 'Radio Show,' from the "Fully Completely" sessions, the one that stayed in the vault until the 2014 deluxe reissue.
THE PANEL
• Chris from Seattle. Back again, and the loudest defender of "Music @ Work" this panel has had. Saw The Hip three times at the Moore Theatre, and first saw them with Greg, who he's known since they were both 18. His band is Loud Flowers: loudflowers.band
• Steve from Toronto. Back again, a week ahead of schedule, and his plug this week is impending fatherhood. Originally from Thunder Bay. Heard 11 of the 14 songs on "Music @ Work" live. Not this one.
• Greg from Tacoma. Back again, once his audio caught up with him. Wore this record out on a portable CD player while painting his deck in the summer of 2000, and he's the one who turned Chris on to The Hip in the first place. Makes music as Hadees Market Music.
Big thanks to Chris, Steve, and Greg, and to a stacked chat. Twenty-six years in, 'The Bastard' still sounds like Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip with the pedal on the floor.
GEDFEST TORONTO - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17
The Horseshoe Tavern, with Grace, 2, raising money for Campfire Circle and the Murphy Family Fund in Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer. It's sold out, but if a ticket shakes loose, jD will hear about it first: tthpodcastseries@gmail.com. Updates at facebook.com/GEDfestYYZ. Twelve chapters across Canada and into the United States at gedfest.ca.
THE HIP HANDBOOK
The free, non-monetized archive of the discography, the lyrics, and the live performances, and where every tale of the tape starts: thehiphandbook.tthpods.com
YER LETTER
One email a month, the whole network in one place: subscribe.tthpods.com
THE TIP JAR
Greg dared you. Tips, never donations: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

FIND US
Home: home.tthpods.com
Email: tthpodcastseries@gmail.com
Facebook community: community.tthpods.com
Instagram: @tthpods
YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods
Yer Letter: subscribe.tthpods.com

MORE THE TRAGICALLY HIP ON SHUFFLE LIVE STREAM
'Just as Well': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/ddf96225-1bd4-468b-881a-aa091a7e6148
'Putting Down': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/6cfb0a5e-5909-40ec-8559-62ca0acd580e
'Tiger The Lion': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/718fe20e-83d6-4c69-86eb-cc2b4af02834
Live play counts come from Hipbase and setlist.fm, and the countdown rank and poll numbers from the show itself, as cited on the stream. Release date and the tabla credit come from the "Music @ Work" credits as listed on Wikipedia.
#TheTragicallyHip #MusicAtWork #TTHOnShuffle #GordDownie #HipFans #CanadianMusic

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

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