The Audio Ecotone

International Workers' Day (aka "May Day") is celebrated annually around the world on May 1 to honor laborers and recognize the continuing struggle for working class rights. Everywhere, that is, except for the United States and Canada, who hold their "Labo(u)r Day" celebrations on the first weekend of September. Whatever. The change of date is ironic since the holiday initially commemorated the May 1, 1886 protests in the United States for an eight-hour workday, which resulted in the Haymarket massacre in Chicago on May 4, 1886. This week, we commemorate May Day with music from Billy Bragg and Wilco, Tom Waits, Phil Ochs, Fantastic Negrito, Merle Haggard, The Love Me Nots, Chumbawamba and the wonderfully named Flame N'Peach and the Liberated Waffles. 

The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. Initially devised as a national teach-in on the effects of 150 years of unfettered industrial development, Earth Day helped to galvanize the nascient environmental movement and was a catalyst for a decade of progress in regulating pollution that included the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and the Occupational Safety and Health Act. As we face the nihilistic rollback of the 55 years of environmental progress made since the first Earth Day and the darkening spectre of human-induced accelerated climate change, our Earth Day 2025 themed playlist includes music from Common, Justin Townes Earle, Stevie Wonder and John Legend, Vermillion Lies, Bo Diddley, Anthony da Rosa and more!

At 2:01 a.m. Pacific Time on March 20, the sun crossed the plane of the equator, marking the vernal equinox and the start of spring! Across the centuries and cultures, the vernal equinox and coming of spring has not only had practical meaning (time to start sowing seeds, coming of hay fever season, etc.), but has also naturally been imbued with including meaning and symbolism -- Rebirth, Rejuvenation, Renewal, Love, Youth and the Passing of Darkness. Couldn't we all use a little bit of that right now?

On today's Audio Ecotone, we celebrate those themes and the coming of spring with music old and new from Elvis Presley, The Flaming Lips, Blossom Dearie, Cibo Matto, Caroline Polarchek and a few other surprises.