Blogs

The King of Swamp Rock, Tony Joe White, has returned for his 19th studio LP over his illustrious 50 year career, and the haunting guitars and deep voice that have defined both White's sound and the genre are still as mysterious and engaging as ever. During his many years of work, Tony Joe has worked with artists as varied as Eric Clapton, Tina Turner and the Foo Fighters and toured with Steppenwolf, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Roger Waters, but on Rain Crow, it feels as if White never left his native Louisiana swamps.

A varied and listenable mix of music streams your way on "Gary Chew: Third Streaming" Friday at 3pm. 

Gary has creations by Prokofiev, Howard Hanson and Ernest Chausson.  Then from the world of film, two pieces by Thomas Newman, as used for the movie In the Bedroom and Miklos Rosza's Main Theme from Double Indemnity, that 1944 noirish delight with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson. 

Tailing out the hour:  Oscar Peterson does "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" as only Oscar can tranfix lovers of piano jazz; the 1st movement of Calendrelli's "Concerto for Jazz Clarinet and Orchestra" will astonish your auditory system as Eddie Daniels solos; the Quartetto Italiano re-establishes the aural beauty of that final movement of Claude Debussy's "String Quarter in G Minor." 

Great jazz from live performances tonight! 

• Joe Williams with The Count Basie Orchestra
• Ella Fitzgerald in Japan 
• Ramsey Lewis 
• Chet Baker & Gerry Mulligan at Carnegie Hall 
• George Benson at Carnegie
• Dave Brubeck Quartet 25th Anniversary Reunion
• Mel Tormé, the Classic Concert Live
• Jaki Byard and Tommy Flanagan
• Toots Thielemans
• The Taylor Eigsti Trio, Live at Filoli
  

Bob Wertzberger is well known in and around Davis, CA. The two main reasons are his music and his landscaping business. Bob has performed with several bands throughout his career, such as, Fun Attic, Anywhere But Iowa, Polyester Jones, Chickee Bob and B and K roadshow. He also performs solo. Bob will be appearing at the prestigious Davis Music Fest this year in June. Join us for an hour with Bob.

All Listening Lyrics shows are live on Fridays from 4-5PM (PDT) on KDRT 95.7FM. For those outside the listening area, the show will stream live online at KDRT.org. It will also be available for replays in the show archives or as an podcast on iTunes under Listening Lyrics.

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This Friday at 3 p.m. PT on the fabulous KDRT, Gary Chew features music from two fine motion pictures: Elmer Gantry and The English Patient. Both were great films, and the music is pretty great too. Gary Chew, third streaming on KDRT 95.7 FM/KDRT.org.

Yat-Kha is a Tuvan band (formed in Russia) led by vocalist/guitarist Albert Kuvezin. Despite the fact that this 2005 LP revolves around covers, the sound is absolutely unique, melding Tuvan-style throat singing with a rock feel. On Re-covers, Yat-Kha pays a distrinctive tribute to many influential musicans and bands, from Led Zeppelin to Joy Division, from Motorhead to Bob Marley. 

KDRT's Album of the Week airs every Thursday evening at 5 p.m. PT on KDRT. This week's host is Jess Goddesse.

Gon' Boogaloo is the third original album from Australian blues artist C.W. Stoneking. Record in only two days, the albums sound hearkens back to the swing and blues music of the 1950s, including artists like Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly. The production is refreshingly straightforward, refusing to complicate itself with fancy or exprimental production techniques, allowing Stoneking's gravelly voice and blues guitar to standout with none of the cluttered and overproduced sound that haunts much of contemporary music. Part of the album's appeal is the refusal to be trendy, instead being unapologetically and uncompromisingly original and old fashioned. Standout tracks on the album include the frantic and energetic "The Jungle Swing" and "Tomorrow Gon' Be Too Late," a relaxed and introspective blues tune. Overall, C.W. Stoneking continues to impress with his blues skill and sensibility, making music that will delight fans of old school blues and roots music.

Talk about a musician’s musician, Adam Block knows his way around a guitar. KDRT is thrilled he will be in the studio this Friday. Adam has played guitar for 20 + years.  After studying history and graduating from UC Davis in 2004, he continued studying guitar with Dave Lynch at Guitar Workshop and then decided to apply to Berklee College of Music in Boston. He earned a Bachelor degree in music and graduated from Berklee College in 2012.  Adam has since studied and performed various styles of music: blues, jazz, rock, R&B, Funk and soul. He has also studied Senegalese music as well as different styles of African guitar playing. He has worked as a sideman in many bands on the East and West coasts, and has also led bands performing his original songs and compositions. Adam has taught guitar students of all ages, young and old and enjoys sharing his knowledge of music and the guitar with his students.

I got into Bad Books after years of listening to Kevin Devine, a Brooklyn indie/punk musician who is one of my favorite songwriters. The group is a side-project featuring Devine and members of the band Manchester Orchestra, whose singer is Andy Hull. This is the second of their two albums, and it's a great listen.

Both Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra have albums I like just as much (and some more) than this one, but Devine and Hull are playing a show together in SF next month, so it feels like a good time for Bad Books. Plus, it’s just a tight 11-song indie record.

Also, unlike others, it’s free of profanity, meaning I won't have to do any on-the-fly lyric censorship during the show. I’ll have my three-year-old son in the booth (it’s take-your-kid-to-work day at UC Davis) and I’m sure he’ll be trying to stir up a ruckus in there, so I’ll need to keep my attention on that.