Radio Days (Last Night A DJ Saved My Life)

(That song happened to come on the streaming radio as I was writing this, so I had to include it in the title.)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled playlist rundown for this reflection.

So it's been a few weeks now that I started doing this show on Radio Free Nashville. How's it going? Well, I've been journaling some of that here. But it's funny how you walk into an experience and you have some expectation about what you're going to get from it...and it turns out to be much more than what you bargained for.

I am blessed to be scheduled where I am in the Saturday lineup. The djs in the slots around me have raised the bar high. At this point, I am the rookie in the midst of it all, the little peanut that jumps up that tries to meet it. Once or twice I'm able to touch it fast with at least a couple of fingers. It'll take time, I know, before I'm able to fully grab it. But after all, patience has never been one of my great virtues.

What I have gotten from it is much more than getting a chance to come in and play music and indulge my little penchant for sharing all these music trivia facts I've gathered in my head since I was at least 10 years old. It's been new friends. People whose eyes don't glaze over when you're doing all this rambling on about some song or singer. It's sharing the goose bump moments. Learning that just by simply giving those who've been at their music for 20, 30 years or so a chance to be heard is making a big difference for such a time as this.

Like the next song that started streaming as I wrote this, these are the sweetest days.

Thanks for tuning in on the journey.

10/25/08 Playlist - Guest: Simpli Lauri

Playlist:

Brook Benton - Hotel Happiness
Sam Cooke - Soothe Me
Al Kooper - I Can't Quit Her (being inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame this week in Nashville)
Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools
Searching For My Love - Bobby Moore and the Rhythm Aces
The Name Game - Shirley Ellis
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My in-studio guest was one of the singer/songwriters I see often in Nashville who has one of my favorite voices: Simpli Lauri along with her co-writer husband, Steve. I was distracted all week and didn't have much opportunity to prepare for the interview. They got a little lost on the way, so they stopped someplace and pulled someone off a cell phone call to ask directions! But anyhow, we got the interview in.

Tracks from her CD Body and Soul:
Whispers of Angels
Let Go of Me

Websites:
simplilaurimusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/simplylauri

Book: Can You Feel My Tears?
Written to comfort and inspire other families who face a grave illness, this moving, deeply personal memoir Can You Feel My Tears? is a heart wrenching tale of loss and renewal and a testament to the love of life and the joy of family.

The cost is $15.00, paid shipping to anywhere in the continental US. Mail a check or money order to:

Lauri Merrow
PO Box 191
La Vergne, TN 37086

Project Child Smiles: The idea is to pair artists up with children who are going through the hardship of an illness, or find themselves in the joyfulness of a remission, and they can share the ups and downs together, bringing smiles to the faces of children.
http://www.myspace.com/projectsmiles
http://www.simplilaurimusic.com/project_child_smiles

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George Adams - Turn The Knife (rave review in Wendy V's Nashville Blend)
Cal Smith - Country Bumpkin (which was the track I wanted to play but I said I thought it would be Barbara Lewis, figuring the comp disk would be up to its old tricks again. That does it. I think on a future show I am just going to track through the disk and figure out what the missing song is and make sure I don't front announce anything.)

10/18/08 Playlist - Great Voices

Woo hoo--this was I think the best show I've done yet. No technical glitches, no wrong buttons pushed, I stayed fairly focused and relaxed!

My unofficial theme was "great voices". I love instruments but there's something about a great voice that captures my attention like nothing else.

Playlist:

4 Tops - I Can't Help Myself (RIP Levi Stubbs)
Patsy Cline - Imagine That
Petula Clark - Don't Sleep In the Subway
Floyd Cramer - Last Date

(Here's the thing: I've got this compilation disk together and I believe I have about 20 songs on it. However, one of the CD players at the station apparently doesn't like one of the songs and isn't recognizing it. So, when I've cued up a song from it the last couple of times, I've gotten the song after the one I wanted. I've learned to get used to it and roll with it. That's how an instrumental got into a great voices set.)

Lovin Spoonful - You Didn't Have To Be So Nice
Paul Revere and the Raiders - Kicks
Blues Project - No Time Like the Right Time
Rascals - Lonely Too Long

Sam Cooke- Nothing Can Change This Love. (I forgot to make this observation on air. Someday, listen to this song and "Loving, Touching, Squeezing" by Journey together. Methinks Steve Perry was attempting to channel Sam in this song.)
4 Tops - Ask the Lonely
Arthur Alexander - Anna
Esther Phillips - Release Me
(As I said, I should have flipped the order of those last two--lyrically would have made more sense. Hindsight 20/20.)

Michael McDonald - Baby I Need Your Loving
Mark Lowry - Whatcha Need
Alan O' Day - I Hear Voices (please check out the video for this song)
Gene Pitney - Town Without Pity
Herb Alpert and the TJB - So What's New

If you heard the show, I hope you tuned in early for the Geo on the Radio rebroadcast of Alex Harvey's in-studio performance. It was special. As Mark Lowry likes to say, "God showed up" in the studio that day. I do hope you also listen to Bobby Bob's Rock and Roll Revolution earlier at noon and Backstory on the Radio with River Jordan after me. I love my fellow DJ's shows and I'm honored to be in the same lineup as these folks.

10/11/08 Playlist - Technology is our friend (not always)

So I started my show a couple of minutes early...I began talking about Silver Stars at the Ryman last weekend. I was in the middle of thanking Billy Block for introducing me to Brenda Lee when suddenly we started hearing the automation kick in for one of my previous shows. Then, the online catalog disappeared and the computer started doing its own thing, much like if you're having a technical problem and a technician takes over your computer to resolve it. "Geo on the Radio", who is on before me, and I are shaking our heads wondering what on earth is happening. I didn't know whether to talk or what, so I stammered my way through the first couple of minutes of the show.

Eventually we learned that it was a couple of things: my automation from last week when I was off doing training hadn't cleared and there was some setup going on for the remote broadcast that River Jordan, whose "Backstory" show follows me, was doing from the Southern Book Festival. It kind of threw me off for the rest of the hour and I had to change a few things on the fly...luckily I had an hour's worth of CDs with me since I didn't have use of the online catalog. Anyhow, eventually I forged ahead:

Playlist:
Connie Francis-Many Tears Ago and Where The Boys Are (while we were trying to figure out what was happening)
Patsy Cline - Stupid Cupid (it was Connie's hit, but this was Patsy's live version from the "Live From The Cimarron Ballroom" CD)
Brenda Lee - All You Gotta Do

Beau Brummels- Laugh Laugh
Barbara Mason - Baby I'm Yours
Young Rascals - Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore

Electric Prunes - Too Much To Dream
Uniques- Not Too Long Ago
American Breed - Bend Me Shape Me
Grass Roots - Where Were You When I Needed You

Pat Boone - Moody River
Drifters- Sweets For My Sweet

Current:
Terry Pinnegar - Mississippi 1916 (from Silver Stars compilation disc)
Simpli Lauri - Flying Free (single track)
Boomer Castleman - Never Say Never Again (Silver Stars compilation)
Joe Cruz - Good Luck Man (Good Luck Man)

Tribute to Lloyd Thaxton:
LA Times obit feature
Lloyd Thaxton blog

In reference to Lloyd's show closing where he'd say "my name is Lloyd Thaxton" and the teens dancing on the show would respond, "So What?", I played a little of his end theme to end my show today: "So What's New" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

What can I say? Sometimes technology is a great thing, and sometimes it ain't.

I really wanted a smooth show today. Next time will be better. I figure it's going to take me a year to get good at this. Hope you'll hang with me.

PS: Oh, I forgot--one cool thing was I stopped in to the station earlier and met Bobby Bob, who hosts Rock and Roll Revolution, an all-oldies show from 12-1. I'm a big fan of his show and I finally decided I needed to meet this guy and give him a word of encouragement.