Thursday June 26th 2008, 9:05 am
Filed under: Podcasts
Posted by: Melanie
Though the disaster and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has sadly receded in national consciousness, on a local scale, it will never be forgotten. Much of the vibrant city of New Orleans — whose music, food, voodoo and vibe is vital to the American cultural fabric — is still devastated. As one of the city’s most famous native sons, Dr. John feels an enormous sense of responsibility to keep reminding those of us outside the region that there’s still much work to be done. His latest effort, City That Care Forgot, is an exploration of many of the issues that Southern Louisiana and Mississippi still face. Sample some of its tracks in this Songlines podcast.
Wednesday June 25th 2008, 9:05 am
Filed under: Podcasts
Posted by: Melanie
Though Solomon Burke never had a top 20 hit, he has long been revered by most everyone who cares about soul music as an essential pioneer of the genre. And he’s also proven to have remarkable staying power, soldiering through the lean years of the ’80s and ’90s when his new recordings were rarely heard outside circles of soul purists. His career achieved a proper revival with the release of 2002’s Don’t Give Up on Me, a startlingly intense and wrenchingly beautiful affair produced by Joe Henry and featuring tunes by Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Elvis Costello, among others. That album won a Grammy, and since then, Burke has released three more terrific records to much acclaim, gaining legions of younger fans. The latest of those albums is called Like a Fire, and you can check out its sound in this edition of the Songlines podcast.
Tuesday June 24th 2008, 8:45 am
Filed under: Podcasts
Posted by: Melanie
Over the span of a few short years, Amos Lee went from working in a jazz record store to teaching elementary school to getting signed by Blue Note. The easygoing sound that characterized his first two records has gained more incisiveness with his latest, Last Days at the Lodge. Hear and enjoy some snippets in this podcast.
Monday June 23rd 2008, 11:57 am
Filed under: Podcasts
Posted by: Melanie
Scottish singer-songwriter Amy MacDonald is poised to make a big impact in the U.S. with her stateside debut, This Is the Life. Two months shy of her twenty-first birthday, she’s already beloved in her native land; she performs and writes with a grace and strength uncommon in artists twice her age. Hear tracks from her album in this edition of the Songlines podcast.
Monday June 16th 2008, 10:45 am
Filed under: Podcasts
Posted by: Julia
The breakup of one of New Jersey’s most popular bands has produced another promising lineup all too ready to fill the void. Todd Scheaffer, lead singer of From Good Homesnow fronts Railroad Earth, a Stillwater-based sextet that defies genre and defines eclectic with a rootsy blend of bluegrass, rock, jazz, Celtic and Americana. Originating as an informal acoustic jam session amongst professional musicians, Railroad Earth has amassed a huge following through incessant touring, and recently released their fourth studio album Amen Corner. Learn more about the making of the record in this edition of the Songlines podcast.
The band’s popularity on the jam circuit has allowed them the opportunity to play with some of rock’s finest, including Phil Lesh who employed them as his “friends” on Phil Lesh & Friends, and even learned some of their repertoire. Check out this video of Railroad Earth returning the favor with a rendition of the Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones.”
Amy MacDonald is a 20-year-old self-taught musician from Scotland who picked up her first guitar almost half a lifetime ago. This week, she learned her debut album This is the Life has already sold one million copies, two months before its August 19th US release. Many of the songs on the record, such as “Mr. Rock & Roll,”express her bewilderment at the celebrity-infatuated culture she lives in. Ironically, the album has elevated MacDonald to an object of adoration herself on account of her strikingly rich voice, genuine and clever lyricism, and exuberant guitar playing. Check out the audience reaction to MacDonald in this clip of her performing “Mr. Rock & Roll” at the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands on 5/31/2008, which drew 180,000 people over three days.
Pinkpop is the oldest annual festival in the world, drawing 1.5 million music fans and performances from the likes of R.E.M, Fairport Convention and Metallica over 40 years. Its name is originally derived from the Dutch word for Pentecost “pinksteren” because the festival was traditionally held on Pentecost weekend. However, the word “pop” in Dutch means “doll” and today the festival is represented by its logo of a pink doll.
Last February, New York Times writer Charles McGrath pointed to the success of public radio in contrast to the ever-shrinking government support for public television in a piece titled Is PBS Still Necessary? in which he reported public radio now boasts some 30 million listeners, up from two million in 1980. Or, 28 million listeners in 28 years.
Even despite the current recession, many of the stations I talk to each week reported record or near-record fund drives this Spring. Non-comm Triple A KTBG is one such station, where listenership, member dollars and community interest continue to improve in defiance of economic forecasts and cultural trends.
I flew into Kansas City International airport last month for a weekend trip, and after presenting myself at the rental car desk, promptly fainted when the lady informed me gas was running at about $4.28/gallon. I have rarely driven since moving to Manhattan, and still remember gas being less than a dollar a gallon when I arrived in Missouri only seven years ago. After peeling myself off the floor, I set off on the 45-minute trip east in my less than glamorous Kia Rondo to my alma mater, the University of Central Missouri, which owns KTBG.
It was about 11am when I arrived at the station. The sounds of Wilco were drifting through the speakers, and the place was deserted. Kind of like when I was a student working here seven years ago, I thought. Wrong: I’d soon learn this was just an unnatural lull. In addition to the paid staff, there are a record 19 students working at the station this summer. That’s about twice as many as worked there during the school year when I was a student.
I first landed in Warrensburg, Missouri on January 1, 2001, which I later learned was the very same day Jon Hart returned to his hometown to program the station after 23 years in Kansas City proper. At that point, it was actually a jazz station, KCMW, and had previously operated as a classical station, never having raised more than about $12,000 in either capacity during a single fund drive. Jon actually worked there originally as a high schooler (and was fired five times) and had now arrived back with the ambitious goal of transforming the station into a viable and valuable cultural commodity with little in the way of resources. I, meanwhile, was looking for a reason to stick around for the summer and thought: “Hey, being a DJ could be fun!”
By my count, there were nine of us students working there that first summer, and virtually all of the others have long gone on to non-broadcasting careers from law to teaching math. Some of us were in it for a “cool” (i.e. non-Pizza Hut) job, while others just had severe cases of audio visual nerdiness. Not one of us was there for the love of jazz. There was no real station image to embrace, no events or community initiatives. But over the summer, our enthusiasm for the job expanded exponentially as we were all let in on one big secret: at summer’s end, our underachieving little jazz station would flip formats to something called Triple A.
We held weekly meetings about what exactly that meant, while Jon built a music library from scratch using his own and our personal CD collections, including us in aspect, from picking core artists to station branding. Within a few short months we had new call letters, a logo, a music library, and most importantly real enthusiasm for our air shifts.
On August 1, 2001, 90.9 The Bridge signed on with “Some Bridges” by Jackson Browne, and the change was instant and palpable. Listener feedback was overwhelmingly encouraging (in fact, one such listener named Leslie ended up marrying Jon and working at the station, so she must have really liked the change). That very morning, five or six promising new students showed up to volunteer their time, almost all of whom have gone on to broadcasting or music-related careers. Very quickly, we became a noticeable force in the Kansas City market, with steady presence at area concerts, while little by little, each fund drive proved we were on the right track. It was tremendously exciting to be a part of a success story being built on nothing but passion and hard work, and I’m happy to say that since I left the station in 2004, things have continued to improve dramatically.
I recently spoke to my former colleague David Houghton, now sound engineer and web and promotions manager, who described a plethora of new initiatives that most recently includes their first summer concert series in Kansas City. The Bridge has also been streaming for the entire life of the station, offers a podcast series as well as an archive of all in-studios, and has recently launched a YouTube page to gain more exposure for artist visits.
Most significantly, KTBG membership has increased by a minimum of ten percent every year since the format change. In March, the Bridge had its best-ever fundraiser, reaching the pretty unrealistic goal of $59,000 set by the CPB: a 60 percent increase on the previous record, qualifying the station for a significant grant.
“This radio station represents a community, and it felt to us only fair to let the community know what we were facing, and let them tell us how strongly they wanted us to move forward. It was like a vote: do you want us to take a little step forward or a huge step backward? This is the beginning of the story. Now, we have to work hard to justify all of the donations that people made,” said Hart.
Monday’s New York Times featured a piece about those worst affected by raising gas prices. They are, of course, those people in rural America with a lower income and higher dependence on gas. But despite this trend, and the current economic recession, Bridge listeners are among those 30 million public radio listeners who still find enough value in their station to dig a little deeper in their pockets and continue to contribute.
Legendary singer and songwriter Steve Winwood is back with his best record in years, Nine Lives. Though it might be tempting to leap to the conclusion that the album’s title is a thinly-veiled reference to the many stages of Winwood’s decades-long and ever-evolving time in the spotlight, he offers a characteristically modest and pragmatic explanation: “Nine Lives is quite simply my ninth album, and there are nine songs on it. So it’s really no more complicated than that. Each song has a life of its own. It’s the opposite of a concept album: it’s a book of short stories rather than a novel.” Get snippets of some of these stories, as well as details about the record’s making, in this edition of the Songlines podcast.
After reuniting in February with Eric Clapton for three sold out and critically-lauded shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Winwood has hit the road with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for a summer tour. Find out when this great bill comes to you.
Monday June 02nd 2008, 11:33 am
Filed under: Podcasts
Posted by: Melanie
The latest release from the Old 97’s, Blame It on Gravity, is infused with the sounds of a renewed vigor. It’s power pop that rocks, and it’s hard not to delight in the guitar work of Murray Hammond as well as Rhett Miller’s characteristically clever and immediately comprehensible lyrics. Check out some of the record’s tracks on this edition of the Songlines podcast.
If you’re a production geek, you HAVE to read this article by engineer Rip Rowan about the making of “Ride” from Blame It on Gravity. You’ll love the insight and level of detail from a firsthand participant who’s also a longtime fan of the band.
There are dozens of reputable charities that are assisting in relief efforts for Katrina victims. Dr. John recommends the New Orleans Musicians Clinic. One of our other favorites is Edible Schoolyard New Orleans.
