songs and dances

thanks for the great response to the bob dylan special. you can be sure that sir edward and i will do some more. we've also planned yet one more beatles anthology special for some time in december. some of you may remember that we did about five shows featuring rare and unreleased beatles tracks, some of them before the official anthology was released. we think we have one more in us, so we'll see how it goes. we certainly have some more live tracks that bear listening to. on sunday, october 8th, i'll have what i'm calling a musicians open house. we'll feature an entire show of live performances from various local artists. there will also be an acoustic jam outside the station (weather permitting) on the 8th from 1 till 6 pm. i'm hoping that the last hour of the show that day will also be a jam. i'll see how many of the visiting artists are up for it. the following week, october 13th, in fact, the kkfi fall fund drive arrives. if you've liked what you've heard so far this year, please consider donating to support signal to noise and kkfi. i will match the first $100 donation out of my own pocket. we will also be joined on sunday the 15th by lonesome cowboy bill of moby's trip. we'll give you an idea of what it's like when we do 4 hour stints on kjhk. bill and i will also work on some new promos for the fund drive that hopefully you'll be hearing soon. those of you who don't need sleep on the weekends should tune in to moby's trip on saturday mornings from 3-5 am. this week's show will also feature some home grown music from david hakan, chad rex, and pendergast. chad rex will appear live on the 8th with howard iceberg. we also are expecting appearances from bob morris, darrell lea, forrest whitlow, kasey rausch, and some more folks i won't reveal yet. i've really appreciated the feedback i've gotten back from listeners so far, as i enter my sixth month back on the air. it feels good to be back.

It goes in...it must come out...

working on the show for this sunday after a two week vacation, it became even more clear to me how what i see and hear and experience becomes part of the show. caroline and i went through kentucky, tennessee, and the virginias during those weeks. we visited the carter fold, homeplace of the carter family, as well as bristol, tn., where the carters and jimmie rodgers first recorded. in the process we drove over 2,000 miles, mostly through the rural routes, and spent time in not only some of the economically poorest parts of the country, but also at the birthplace of our constitution, thomas jefferson's house. also, prior to the trip, i had some health issues that could have potentially been serious in addition to hearing about the death of ron rooks, so death was on my mind, too. once i finished selecting the songs for the show, i noticed how much the south had seeped in to the sets. even the first set, which is a requiem for ron, has songs by southerners lucinda williams and kevin gordon in it. the other sets about current rural life, downtowns, travelling, and the anti war set--which came from and was inspired by seeing thomas jefferson's home and realizing how far this country has strayed from his ideas and ideals--all had their genesis from the trip. when i'm in the car for long periods of time, i usually get ideas of sets or certain songs i want to use in the show. i came back with lots of scribbled notes jotted down when inspiration struck me. i think this is not dissimilar to what songwriters experience. they get input and then, after it gestates for awhile, it comes out as a song. for quite a long time now, i've thought of the show and it's various sets like songs, or as a poem, with each song being a line or verse, so to speak. if you listen to the whole two hours, if i've done my job, the show should be an organic whole--with some subjects and themes reoccurring and sometimes the songs within a set are a counterpoint to each other or relate to each other. most listeners aren't going to notice or care about this, but this is what i try to do each week, when possible. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. i like to think that by listening closely to each week's show, you can tell how my week went and what was on my mind. if the listeners don't want to go that deep, i at least try and make it entertaining to hear.

War and Remembrance

It will be nice to be back in the saddle this Sunday. Thanks to Harry for filling in so ably, as always. The first part of the show will be a musical requiem for Ron Rooks. Will also do a long anti-war set in the second hour. Other shows coming up: October 8th will be a street jam as well as an acoustic jam and concert on my show. So far, I've got commitments from Howard Iceberg, Chad Rex, Darrell Lea, Kasey Rausch, Bob Morris, and Forrest Whitlow. There will be others I can't announce yet, also. We'll probably have each artist do a couple of songs and then end the show with a long jam during the last half hour. Also started work on the Dylan special, which will be the Sunday after this coming Sunday. My friend Sir Edward Chavez will co host. The semi-annual KKFI fund drive will start on the 8th, so I'm looking forward to hearing from some of my new-found listener friends as well as old friends, too. This station is a precious commodity and a rare thing in radio today--a station where the DJs can do what they want and are allowed freedom to create shows as they see fit, not as some marketing consultant wants them. We'll talk more about this in a later post. I'll also post a couple of photos from my trip to the east coast soon.