kdrtradio's blog

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?

This week's playlist forCeltic Songlines contains a few titles chosen with our current heat wave in mind: "Glass of Water" and "Sunny Spells."

In today's program you'll also hear: Téada (in photo, and arriving soon on the West Coast), Charmas, Clannad, U.K. bands Salt House and Moore-Moss-Rutter, Irish vocalist Nuala Kennedy, Ghizela Rowe with a reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's poetry, Bob & Carol Pegg, Shide & Acorn, Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy, the band Solas, and Vincey Keehan.

This week on The Golden Road, the Grateful Dead on stage 45 years ago, July 8, 1978, at Red Rocks, Colorado.

Show host Wayne Hagan asks, Is this the best Grateful Dead show ever? Listen and tell us what you think.

Jim is playing vinyl tonight on Live Tracks.

The experience is “complete[ly] analog if you’re listening on July 13 to the airwaves,” he says. “If you’re listening to the replays, it got digitized so that it could get replayed for you. Still pretty darn cool.

“I’ll be going to some very famous live recordings from around the country, from the 1940s, ‘50s, and possibly even the ‘60s.” Plus Beatles history, stories, a little trivia. And lots of music. Take it away, Henry Mancini.

“I have a mix of things for you this morning,” says Folk Brothers host Bill Wagman at the start of his latest program. “I’m going to start off with a cover of ‘Angel from Montgomery’ sung by Jessie Buckley (pictured), an Irish singer who starred in a movie called Wild Rose. She played a young country singer in Ireland and had dreams of going to Nashville and performing on the Grand Ole Opry. … It’s a good movie.”

And a great song, starting off a great set. Let Bill take it from here.

Chris Mussen devoted the 600th episode of his program A Constant Grin to previously unknown musicians performing eight farther-afield songs, each with "600" in their name. Six hundred strokes, 600 miles, $600 short on rent ... you get the idea. It's a lot of fun.

"600 shows," he says. "It's pretty crazy, even for me, and I made all of them."

Chris includes his ruminations on 15 years of indie rock broadcasting free of charge.

On this edition of Timeout Radio, explore how a 5,300-acre university came to exist in the little farm town that was Davisville, Calif. Davis was designated as a University of California campus in 1959 and is now the largest campus in the UC system. Find out how its mascot Gunrock got his name and why the campus has red London double-deck buses. UC Davis Chancellor Gary May tells us about his path to engineering, his humongous comic book collection, and his favorite Star Trek character.

Then visit London, where Big Ben's clock is still adjusted with an old penny, and where half the London Underground is actually above the ground.

Host Nick Saloman says he has received some feedback for this new show, Implosion. “I’ve had an email saying that, you know, they like it, but it’s a bit obscure. But then, you know, you don’t want to hear the same old stuff all the time, do you?”

We certainly don’t! KDRT exists partly so that we don’t have to hear the same old stuff. And we're not alone.

“We’re going to start, as is my want, with an instrumental," he says at the top of this week's program. "This is by the Syd Dale Orchestra. They did a lot of stuff for TV, and soundtrack stuff in the ‘60s, and Syd Dale was bandleader from York. This is a bit of a stormer for a TV show called The Hell Raisers, which came out in 1966 on the Decca record label.”

To continue this escapade, listen to this week’s Implosion.

Meraki Radio turns 5 years old this month. This KDRT program, hosted by Alison B, airs each Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., with repeats broadcast on Fridays at 8 a.m. Or you can listen online! Meraki (may-rah-kee) refers to doing something with soul, creativity, or love, and recent episodes display the variety of subjects Meraki Radio typically presents -- check 'em out, or go deeper into the vaults:

• Death rituals

• Gun violence in the context of suicide

• Men's health, focusing on prostate cancer, part 1 and part 2

• Debra McCarthy, on living with HIV since 1986

• Kate returns, and we talk gardening and crafting

• The Women Infants Children supplemental nutrition program, a discussion with professionals and participants

Some music shows just dive right into the music, like Tree Kilpatrick's Roots, Shoots and Leaves. After a few words at the start this week, he serves songs straight up to the bottom of the hour.

Turn it on and try it out, from 6 to 8 p.m. every Tuesday. He offers music old and new, known and unknown, plus ... well, this comes from his KDRT bio:

"I have been enjoying music since I can remember, as my mom used to sing me and my brother to sleep each night. I really got into recorded music around 9 or 10 and have been listening to all kinds of it every since those early radio days with Quiet Riot and Kenny Loggins. I think songs can do all kinds of things. Make you think, make you dance, make you cry, and make you happy. I'm just hoping that with music people can connect to something bigger than themselves, as I do on every show."