kdrtradio's blog

Wildfires have scorched the Hawaiian island of Maui this week, with at least 55 people killed and thousands of people driven from their homes as of this morning, Aug. 11. Na Mele O Hawai’i host Beth Post has dedicated the first hour of her program for Aug. 10 to honor Maui.

“These wildfires have blown through all sorts of land, flattened the very precious town of Lahaina, and displaced thousands of people,” she says. "Our thoughts are with Maui, with the ohana we all have. Many of us have friends or family who live on the island. Some have lost homes or beloved pets, or have been displaced.

“We send our aloha to all of those, and all the people who are sending their aloha as well. We can lift one another up, as we lift Maui.”

Her first song this week is by Kuana Torres Kahele from Music for the Hawaiian Islands, Vol. 3 (pictured).

David A. Reynolds, host of Celtic Songlines, co-hosts the latest Album of the Week with a friend of KDRT from back in the years -- Dr. Strangely Strange (aka Davis Dr. Ron Cotterel), who hosted Magical Music Box until the early 2010s.

Their choice for Album of the Week is Lightbulb Sun by the band Porcupine Tree. The doctor says wunderkind musician Steven Wilson, born in 1967, began Porcupine Tree in 1987 as a hoax, but it evolved into a full band that reached fruition with this record, which features lush production and beautiful harmonies.

“I’m going to devote this morning’s show to musicians who are based in France," says Crossing Continents host Gil Medovoy, "and I will start with the one musician I feel is probably, as far as world music is concerned, is very much at the top for me. His name is Thierry 'Titi' Robin (pictured, in a photo from his website). He started his musical career in the early ’90s. This is just about the time when I started delving into world music, and sharing it on the air.

“I was very much taken by what I’ve heard. He grew up in central France … his neighbors, his friends, many of them were Romani folks who lived in the area. As a young child, he engaged with this community very freely, and the results can be heard throughout his music.”

Crossing Continents, a world music show, covers the Middle East, the Mediterranean region, North Africa, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, including traditional and contemporary music. Gil launched the program on KDRT six months ago, and hosts new episodes on Mondays at 10 a.m.

Hostèsse Jess Goddèsse is back with new music, Vinyl Vespers, and more — listen for your own enjoyment and at your own risk. ;-D

The latest program includes new music from Guided By Voices, Tech N9ne, Palehound, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Protomartyr, Feeble Little Horse, and our Goddess of the Month (pictured), Ms. Dolly Parton!

Bill Wagman has renamed his KDRT program, but doesn’t want anyone to forget his former co-host.

Bill co-hosted The Folk Brothers with Peter Schiffman each Wednesday at KDRT starting in September 2015 (the first show is still available in the archives!). And then this lovely run of programs ended, at least in that format, when Peter died in May 2023.

Bill is carrying on. The show is now called Sometimes Folk. Don’t read the name change as a turn away from folk music, Bill says. He might choose songs now and then that stray outside the mainstream — one of the things we do anyway here at KDRT — but as he says, “I can make an argument for a lot of music being folk.”

He says Peter’s influence continues to shape the program and the songs Bill chooses to play each week. Not that Bill is a novice about the music. He is known — among overseas musicians, even — for the house concerts he has hosted at his Davis home over the decades, and for his decades as a DJ at UC Davis station KDVS.

As long as Bill Wagman stays on the air, The Folk Brothers -> Sometimes Folk will continue to be a reliable hour of great music and community, and a bouquet of forget-me-nots on the table in memory of Peter Schiffman. Here’s the latest show.

Celtic Songlines launches its musical lineup for this week with a song from Dramagical, a brand-new release “inspired by nature and Scotland's magical otherworld” from fiddler Seán Heely (pictured).

Host Craig Reynolds follows up the song with more “wonderful Celtic fiddle energy,” and it's all ready for you now on this week’s show.

Host Nancy Flagg titles her latest program “Big Country,” to convey “the wide open spaces and the breadth and the depth and diversity of our country.”

She plays a song by that name near the end, and starts this week’s Cowboy Tracks with a tune by cowboy musician Rod Taylor (pictured), “Bonita Canyon Drive.”

Show hosts Ned and Clyde open this week’s Davis Music Connections with an audio clip from American Movie and memories about legendary singer Tony Bennett, who died on July 21 at 96.

Each saw Bennett perform, Ned about 30 years ago, and Clyde in the early 1950s (!) — few performers had a career as long as Bennett’s. “He hadn’t quite got popular yet," Clyde says. "We were staying at the Statler in LA, and they have a small room there, and Tony Bennett was doing about three sets a night. He had a single guitar player behind him. It was really cool.”

Ned riffs on American Movie, a movie about a guy making a movie. The late film critic Roger Ebert gave it four stars, calling it "a very funny, sometimes very sad documentary.” And then we move on to the music, starting with “Rag Doll” by the Four Seasons.

That’s Life has returned, and host Lois Richter has chosen an apt subject for Davis and especially for this time of year: trees. This week’s program is part 1 of 2 or 3 on the topic, or, as she says, “as many as it takes.”

Her guest is Don Shor, who co-hosts the Davis Garden Show with Lois every week. He owns Redwood Barn Nursery and is a member of the board of Tree Davis.

Among other things, Lois and Don talk about some noteworthy feats of volunteerism, like Tree Davis' staff hand-watering 200 newly planted oak trees along Russell Boulevard west of Arthur (see photo)  for the trees' first three summers. Don adds, "that's 200 of 1,000 trees, roughly, that we're doing that for throughout the city."

Album of the Week explores a variety of music, one LP (CD, 8-track, whatever we've got) at a time. This week’s host, Frank Fox, brings you O Brother, the Story Continues, the sequel to the soundtrack for the 2002 movie O Brother Where Art Thou.

“This is roots music at its finest,” Frank says.

Frank hosts The Wild Fox Party  each week on KDRT. You might also know him from Frankie and The Fabletones … which by the way if you haven’t heard them perform Heidi Bekebrede’s “The Davis Song,” well, what are you doing for the next few minutes?