Photo of Wally Desjarlais (left) and Harry Davies (right) at the third annual Windspeaker listener party in Slave Lake / Photo by Keith Driver
The CJWE and CFWE third annual listener party went up north to Slave Lake this year, where we partnered with the local Friendship Centre to host a $25,000 bingo bonanza and concert.
With local artists like Justin Hogg, Berylnn Broadhead, and Kyle Desjarlais taking the stage with original and crowd favorites, a grassroots legend was in the crowd.
Métis Artist Harry Davies, back in the 1980s, released a cassette tape which was sent to an Indigenous Radio Station that included Country covers and a track called The Bannock Song, which is a parody of Dolly Parton’s 1971 hit Coat of Many Colours.
The Parody was an instant hit with Indigenous communities across Canada and with Windspeaker Radio Listeners to this day, often request the song during Tuesday and Thursday’s 9-10 am request show.
During the listener concert on June 13, 2025, lifelong host Wally Desjarlais, who first interviewed Davies when it first played on CFWE, had a moment to revisit the song and talk about its impact and how it came to be.
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