Let’s picture a forest as a neighborhood, just like yours.  Folks that have lived here for generations, while some have arrived a while ago. How are these neighbors getting along? Now imagine there are some immigrants from far off lands who have just moved in, how are they treated in the neighborhood? Are they viewed with suspicion or welcomed with open arms?  What can a forest tell us about how we humans live together?

Want to hear the conversations that are happening between the trees of the Laurier Woods? What would this sound like?  In my mind it sound like an old fashion radio-call in show!  Forest Talk Radio, a GPS smartphone app that translates tree-speak into English as you walk the trails.  Hear these trees tell their own stories, in their own words.

Coming to the Laurier Woods in North Bay Ontario, March 2019.  A media arts project funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

A site-specific audio-art installation exploring forest ecology through an oral storytelling driven radio drama, inspired by our natural affinity for digital communication.

Nope, you can’t have possibly heard all of the fun that happened at Campers’ Week this year. But, perhaps I can help fill in the gaps. As session historian I bring you Campers’ Week Radio. Click below.

Special thanks to Steve, and to John, Bill, Casey, Louise, Hannah, Anna and Dennis, Eric and Max, Liza, Sam, Jase, the Issacs, Fenton, Daroc the Mountain Dwarf, Alex, Ari, Andrea, and Jeff.

Where we turn storytellers into radio stars in just under an hour!

Here is a string of StoryIslandFM ‘news’ broadcasts performed live at the 2016 Storytellers of Canada conference “Live On Air” workshop facilitated by SCradioCC project Manager David Merleau.

Many thanks to all of the workshop participants: Barry Gray, Geneviève Falaise, Lesley Parlane, Linda Windham, Susan Boyce, Layton Jack, Susan Wheat, Laurie Malabar, Heather Whaley, Selina Eisenberg, Jennifer Martin, Alvin Sanders, Jack Howard and Peter Jarvis. Special thanks to the Queen Bumblebee Danica Lorer, and to the Sound Team leader Norm Walker.

David Merleau, recorded live at the Canadian Storytelling Night in Orillia Ontario, October 2015.

Dave: …Zeus and Thor have nothing on the shear unbridled tenacious arrogance of Squirrel! Do you see where I’m going with this folks!!…
Crowd: NO!!
Dave: Ah!, well I’ll tell you…

“David Merleau, in particular, had the audience hanging onto his every word at Saturday’s Canadian Storytelling Night event, Let the Fur Fly, at the Orillia Museum of Art and History Saturday night. From making squirrel shuffling sounds to squeals indicating the departure of a certain transdimensional teleporting critter, the audience was pulled in from start to finish.” The Orillia Packet

““He was wacko, but he was really good,” said Tim Greenwood, of Newmarket…”

Many thanks to Hannah Naiman for the doodle and to Jimmy for the bootleg recording!

Ever wonder why humans don’t eat rocks and aluminum foil? Seems it has something to do with the fact that Jug Bands are actually back from the future.  In this show we go off the beaten path in to the nether regions of the Canadian Blues Landscape. DownShift with Dave Merleau, Thursdays, 8pm EST BlueNorhRadio.com

I’ve been touring Northern Newfoundland the past few days, and though it is strikingly beautiful the experience has brought up some painful and hilarious trauma of my days working the highways in Northern Ontario. An experience fit for a bizarre Wagner opera produced by Kubrick! Take a listen!