kdrtradio's blog

KDRT Events Outlook – daily on air, always online

There's a lot of fun coming your way in Yolo/Sacto this week — including our very own KDRT Suds & Sounds this Wednesday eve at Armadillo Music, Halloween happenings galore, and some excellent touring bands. Keep up to date this and every week with the KDRT Events Outlook, airing live daily at noon at 6 p.m. and always available via kdrt.org!

Merry Clayton, Ventures, Dave Mason and 'an odd holiday tune or two' on this week's pre-Christmas Implosion

On Implosion this week, host Nick Saloman says he's including “an odd holiday tune or two in a fine mix of music from the Ventures, Merry Clayton (pictured), Dave Mason, and more.”

This promises to be another fun show. Find it today (Wednesday, Dec. 20) at 5 p.m. Pacific time, and stream it anytime after then.

The latest Na Mele o Hawai'i presents a visit with Pili Moreno

The latest Na Mele o Hawai'i features an in-studio visit with Bay Area musician, composer, and cultural practitioner Pili Moreno (shown here with program host Beth Post). Pili shared his new album and brought some awesome vinyl to spin, sharing music that inspired him to learn slack key guitar as well as 'ōlelo Hawai'i!

This week on Celtic Songlines: The Shee, Salt House, Gerry O'Connor and a lot more

This week's Celtic Songlines features fiddler Gerry O'Connor, Cherish the Ladies, Ian MacInnes, from Scotland The Shee (pictured), Ashley Davis, Anúna with Michael McGlynn, Martin Hayes with The Common Ground Ensemble, from the UK the band Salt House, The Furrow Collective, Runa and the trio Molloy, Brady & Peoples.

The News Cycle asks Davis High students: Is it OK for teenagers to go trick or treating?

Are high schoolers too old to go trick or treating? On this week’s News Cycle, students from Davis High School’s Blue Devil Hub "dive into the spooky season":

 • Rowan Reising interviews Spanish teacher Carlos Diaz about Dia de los Muertos, and how he celebrates with his class

 • Marion Delarue reports on Halloween traditions

 • And Alessandra Trask investigates whether or not high schoolers are too old to trick-or-treat.

'Is It Alive? Tracks' brings out its annual Halloween show

Dead Tracks.

It's Alive! It’s Alive! It’s Alive! Tracks.

Live Tracks That Head Off Into the Snow and Inexplicably Vanish.

It’s difficult to come up with a proper title for this week’s Live Tracks, the KDRT program nearly as old as that derelict house in the woods that has been empty for decades but where a faint light sometimes flickers in the attic window after midnight.

Songs, skits, Vincent Price recordings, atmospheric sounds ... as host Jim says, it’s one heck of a Halloween program. “Turn out the lights and grab a recreational beverage. A lava lamp is sweet, also.”

Feel the wind, see the stars on this week’s Cowboy Tracks

The autumn sky, with its earlier sunsets and stars made visible by the clear fall winds, feels like a good background for this week’s Cowboy Tracks.

Host Nancy Flagg starts with the title track from Throw a Saddle on a Star, the latest and 42nd album from Riders in the Sky (they have some NorCal shows in November, by the way — the closest to Davis is in Grass Valley Nov. 9). She follows with Barbara Nelson’s version of “They Call the Wind Mariah” from her 2023 release, Pick of the Litter.

“Listen for the flutes,” Nancy says, “making wind kinds of sound during the song.”

And then head deeper onto the trail for songs including the Timberline Cowboys’ “Where the Wildflowers Bloom,” “Annie Oakley” by the Biscuit Burners, and “Goodnight to the Trail” by Eli Barsi. The territory is wonderful, and Nancy will have you back home when the hour is up.

David Byrne's music shapes this week’s Sometimes Folk

The latest Sometimes Folk “is informed by David Byrne’s music,” says program host Bill Wagman on today’s show. “The other night I went to see the Talking Heads’ concert movie Stop Making Sense,” he says, “and while I was watching I was thinking of David Byrne’s album Rei Momo, in which he investigates a lot of Latin music.” (The photo, from David Byrne’s website, was taken during his 1989 tour for the album.)

So Bill starts today's show with "Independence Day," a song from Rei Momo featuring Kirsty MacColl, then follows with her song “There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis” and the Tom Tom Club’s version of “Under the Boardwalk.”

“I think that’s my favorite version of ‘Under the Boardwalk,’ he adds.

Grace Garden is a great Davis story

Grace Garden (pictured), created by neighbors to help neighbors, is a formerly weedy plot at the back of the Davis United Methodist Church at 1620 Anderson Road that has blossomed over the years into a prodigious produce patch. It has yielded thousands of pounds of vegetables and fruit, all grown by volunteers and given away. 

Program host Lois Richter tells this great Davis story on her latest That's Life.