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.”
This week's subjects include citrus for the Bay Area, July garden opportunities, gulf fritillary caterpillars and butterflies on passion flower vines, recommended tree lists, LInden trees, Arabian jasmine, low hedge suggestions, and more!
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.
Tonight’s show: Erskine Hawkins & and His Orchestra, Illinois Jacquet, Artie Shaw, Zoot Sims, Lou Levy Trio, Mundell Lowe And His All Stars, Gil Evans, Horace Parlan, Elek Bacsik, Kenny Burrell, and Buddy Collette.
Ukraine is far from Davis, but we reduce the distance today on Davisville by talking with Vince Sturla (pictured in the KDRT studio), a producer for the NBC News program Dateline who has lived in Davis for years. He went to Ukraine last fall to report on the war with Russia, and tells us what he saw.
“These are tough, tough, tough people,” he says. “I was there in November. It was snowing, it was cold, and these relentless missile strikes had really had an impact as far as taking out the electrical infrastructure across the country. [In Kyiv,] folks were typically without power for 20 hours a day. That’s light, electricity, everything.
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."
It was an honor this week to fill the seat normally held for Rod. I tried to stay true to the vision of Silver Nine Volt Heart.
In a wonderful mix (or thread) of music, I have included some local artists: Boot Juice (with a new single), Adrian West (and his amazing electronic fiddle), Nat Lefkoff ( a tribute song to his late grandmother) and Jim Fowler (a tongue-in-cheek music journey about his daily commute).
Thank you, Rod.
Pieter Pastoor
Today we talk about planting in summer, summer-flowering trees, evergreen trees, and more.
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?
