4/26/09 Blog/Playlist: Don't Hate Me--It's the 80s!

Segment 1: Theme – Don't Hate Me – It's the 80s

I'm going to feature a set of 80s music today. Now, before you go wondering if I've sold out, look at it this way. Next year, the 80s are going to be 30 years old! I think a lot of you were still young enough to perhaps like a lot of the music from that decade, and were probably excited about the debut of MTV as I was. If nothing else, it's a hat tip to the younger end of the demographic of the listeners today.

I'll start with a song that I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard it. I was at work and I had the radio on at my desk. I heard this voice that sounded like honey. Afterward, the DJ went on and on about how you just had to see the lead singer of the group. I was thinking, well, love the voice, who cares what he looks like. When I finally saw Boy George, I still didn't care what he looked like. In fact, I thought he was pretty!

Culture Club – Do You Really Want To Hurt Me (At the beginning of this version, a voice, presumably Boy George, says "popularity breeds comtempt." Well sometimes it does, doesn't it?)
Greg Kihn – Jeopardy
Steve Perry – Foolish Heart (from his solo LP "Street Talk")
Dionne Warwick – Heartbreaker (written by Barry Gibb)

Now, how many of you back in the 80s had big hair? I did for a while. I had one of those big curly perms. Back then, my hair was thick and stubborn and I used to scare the hair stylists because my hair would wait until the last minute to take a curl. I'd see the look of concern in the stylist's face when it was time to check it midway and they'd breathe a sigh of relief when it would finally take.

Segment 2: Picking Through the Record Box
I picked an obscure song to play in this set. This is one of my favorite Three Dog Night songs, though probably not one of their best known..it was in fact their last charting single, written by Dave Loggins of "Please Come To Boston" fame.

Three Dog Night – Till The World Ends
Survivor – The Search Is Over
Bobby Vinton – Blue on Blue
Styx – Too Much Time On My Hands

Here's another 80s memory I have...my first trip away from my home state of CT was in the 80s. A bunch of us who were fans of Styx and Tommy Shaw met up in Niles, MI to meet Tommy and each other at a horse show where Tommy had a farm at the time and showed some horses. This was a time where Tommy had taken a break from Styx for a bit and was doing some solo things and I had a little correspondence with him around then, back in the days before e-mail. It was then I realized there was more than where I was living and ended up moving to the Midwest before I got here and I've also seen about 21 states since then. So just one way that music can profoundly affect your life!

Show plug: TJ and Company with TJ Kirby, which started a couple of weeks ago in my old time slot of Saturday at 3 p.m. – part music, part talk show, he's a real radio professional and a baseball fan too; you'll hear all kinds of good stuff.

Segment 3: Soul Stew
This first song was a hit in the 80s by Mark Almond and Soft Cell, but here is the original.

Gloria Jones – Tainted Love
Major Harris – Love Won't Let Me Wait
Jimmy Ruffin - What Becomes of the Brokenhearted

That last song is always good to hear, but not part of the plan today. I really wanted to play "Don't Disturb This Groove" by the System, but the wrong track started to come up. I don't know why there is a difference between the tracking on my backup disks and the station CD players, but I seem to be running into that again. Then, when I tried to get the right track I couldn't get anything to go for about a minute. Thus, the technical glitch of the day. I blamed it on things getting too steamy in the studio from "Love Won't Let Me Wait". Then again, if I played "Don't Disturb This Groove", I think the steam factor would have been greater, and I would have run overtime anyhow.

Segment 4: Non-oldie/Current/New (Outside the Box..yes, new title for this part of the show too!)
I am going to have a couple of in-studio guests coming up in May. One of those is Les Kerr, who is a popular singer/songwriter in town here who does a lot of New Orleans/Cajun type music. He'll be with me on May 24. Coming up on May 17 is a guy who I'm going to play a track from... Mark Elliott .

Mark Elliott – Baseball and Beatles
George Adams – Turn The Knife

Frequency To The Heart:

We all have our different "styles" of who we are. What's on the surface, though, can fool us sometimes. At first glance we might think, well, I don't know that I like this person very much or say, hmm...might be too much baggage here, I think I'll pass this one by. I know there have been times in my life when I've been so grateful that I didn't stick with my first impressions about people because they went on to be very dear to me in my life. So before you write someone off, take that deeper look beyond the surface. There may be more of value to you that what you first see.

Closer – Soul Serenade – King Curtis

Speaking of technical glitches, I just played my archive file of the show and it sounds fuzzy and distorted. I wonder if it sounded that way on the air or it's an internal thing?

4/19/09 Blog/Playlist: Dreams

I think I was half asleep and daydreaming for much of the show today...kinda got into the zone here and there listening to the music and cut it real close on some of my cues.

When I came in to the studio this morning, something smelled kinda funky. The explanation for that came from our program director, Beau Hunter, who stopped in to note that most likely a mouse died in the walls (They'll be dealing with that. The smell was worse earlier in the week, he said, which makes me grateful for my weekend slot). I hadn't given a thought to the possibility of mice being around. I am terrified of them and can tell you several horror stories. So, if you are ever listening and you hear my voice get extremely excitable while on mike or just hear a blood-curdling scream...that might mean there's a mouse in the studio.

Anyway...I want to say a very grateful thank you to Steve Haggard, who is co-host with Kimberly King of the Haggard King Radio Hour here on WRFN on Tuesdays from 4-5, for the very kind words about yours truly in his Nashville Free Press column, "The Real Music City". He was kind enough to allow me to share some thoughts about supporting local music here in Nashville. You can pick up an issue on newsstands and I also encourage you to read the column online. Like I've said before I've gotten more out of this gig here at Radio Free Nashville personally than I ever bargained for.

Segment 1 – Dreams
Today I started with a set of songs about dreams. When you think about dreams you think of two things, that which involves sleeping (and I'll tell you that the older you get the harder that is) or going for your hearts desire. This set is sort of a mix of the two ideas here, so I'll start with one of the greatest female singers who ever lived---Patsy Cline.

Patsy Cline – Sweet Dreams
Bobby Darin – Dream Lover
Roy Orbison – In Dreams
Jimmy Clanton – Just A Dream
Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (Live) (from "The Dance" CD--the only version I had)

Segment 2: Record Box
Lovin Spoonful – Daydream
Rascals – Girl Like You
Paul Revere and the Raiders - I Had A Dream
Supremes - Baby Love
Bob Welch - Sentimental Lady

Segment 3 – Soul Stew
One dream song here to start you with in this set.
Jerry Butler- Mr. Dream Merchant
Gladys Knight and the Pips – Midnight Train to Georgia
Brook Benton – Rainy Night In Georgia
(You know, when you have those last two songs handy, you just gotta play them together!)

Segment 4 – Non-oldie/new/current
I'm excited because I got an EP last week from of my favorite singers I've been playing on my show, Samantha Mooney who hails from the gold coast of Australia. She was kind enough to send me a few songs which will be on her upcoming album to be completed sometime this year. This is one song I absolutely fell in love with when she had it posted on MySpace so I'm thrilled to have a copy of it now.

Samantha Mooney- Somebody You Once Knew

Greg Lamboy – War of Words
I wish I could have used this song in the complicated love show but couldn't fit it in. I found this song when I was doing some music screening for an independent music organization. This guy just nails what can happen when communication breaks down between two people—very effective storytelling here.

Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband – Dream Big

Frequency To The Heart (That's the new name of the encouragement section. There's a motive behind it. I won't tell you about it just now, though):

In the aforementioned Nashville Free Press column, Steve used a quote of mine in which I said that everyone deserves a certain amount of respect for following their dreams. This came up as we were discussing some of the struggles musicians go through out here. Not everyone needs to be, or should be, a critic. Many times all that's needed is a kind word, or showing up and being present and listening. People do feel that support and you'd be surprised just how much it means to them. I've heard a songwriter say that very thing from the stage at a writers night just this past week. It's something simple that we all can do.

I am also happy to say that my workaround for the online catalog system worked and no "dance mixes" today!

Behind the Scenes at Never Too Old

Since I've taken a break from doing the show this Sunday for the Easter holiday, I thought I'd take this week's blog to give you a look "behind the scenes" of how I put it together.

I usually start my show planning around mid-week. I go through my collection or try to think of what the station has in its catalog to see what I can put together for a "theme" for the first set. Sometimes, if I have enough material, that theme will move into other segments of the show. For the rest of the segments, it's mainly a matter of what I've got and what I haven't played too often. In my song choices for the show, I try to use less of the "time tested" older songs and lean toward those that don't get much play on these "oldies" stations (using that term loosely) that are left in commercial radio.

As I've mentioned before, I script the show. I write my narrations and commentary but try to let it sound as conversational as possible. I don't really have the gift of flying by the seat of the pants and being spontaneous like a couple of the other programmers do. Without a map, I tend to get lost. When I do try to go too off the cuff, I can tell the difference in those spots when I play it back from my archives.

The last part of the show is the encouragement piece. Coming up with something new each week there is the biggest creative challenge I've had in doing this show, but I think it's been a good one for me. I will either write something fresh for the week, or go through my archives from my past "Wendy V's Encouraging Words" column from my Embrace Encouragement website and rework it. I always share the current column at the beginning of the month (as I did this past week).

I'll usually show up at the studio early and use that time to read through the underwriter announcement, stack my CDs in order, write down the track numbers and go through the online catalog if I've left room in the show for additions. There are two CD players in the studio, so while I am on air I use post-it notes on each one to remind me who's in what player. It's easy to be confused and forget when you're managing so many details. Also, we are required to keep logs of what we play on air, so I write down the artist and title of each track on my log sheet.

My opening theme is "So What's New" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, a track from the 60s. I remembered it when popular 60s music TV show host Lloyd Thaxton passed away last year; it had been his show theme song. I got it when I paid tribute to him that week and thought with its peppy, snappy opening it would make a great front theme and a fresh beginning when I made my time change. Plus, it gets me in a good groove to start the show! My closing theme is the smooth soul instrumental "Soul Serenade" by King Curtis. That was chosen because it sounded good and done primarily as a courtesy to the following DJ, Kerry Miller, host of "Samurai Songs". I like to ensure a prompt start time for him and not run over on to his time (though he is a very gracious gentleman about it all). When he comes in, he can fade it down accordingly and start on time.

I will start having guests again occasionally. When that happens I will probably do one or two short "record box" sets (depending on the plan for the guest) and give the rest of the time to the guest for music and interview, and get my encouragement piece in at the end. Here are a list of some of the people that have said they'd be willing to do the show, so I'll be working on getting them scheduled in the future: Boomer Castleman, Walter Egan, Mark Elliott, Lance Hoppen (Orleans), Gary Talley...and more to come.

By now, I've been at this just about six months. Over these past couple of months, I've actually enjoyed listening to the playbacks of my recent shows. If I were to aspire to a radio career, I'd be probably more realistic in a "behind the scenes" role rather than on-air. I know I have at least a couple of loyal listeners out there, and I'm grateful. But the main point of all this is to have fun. Thanks for indulging me each week either by listening or reading (and if you do both—love ya!).

4/5/09 Blog/Playlist - Back to the Brill Building

Opening theme—Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - So What's New

First off, just a personal indulgence...this weekend marks my second anniversary that I moved to Nashville. I rolled in with a friend driving my little car and another driving a Dodge Caravan from St. Paul, MN with all of my stuff I decided to keep. Life has been amazing here, with getting to be a part of the music community in Nashville as a support person and to have hooked up with Radio Free Nashville and do this show, and here I must say I got more out of this personally that I ever bargained for. I do wish now that I kept much more of my music collection I could have been using here, I certainly would have had I known I would do something like this, but be that as it may. It's all good and I'm grateful!

Segment 1 – Back to the Brill Building
For the theme set today, I thought we'd pay a return visit to the Brill Building which is that legendary spot in New York City where some of the greatest hits of the 60s were written. I'll play some songs that are from the "Brill Building Sound" collection that came out in the mid 90s. This compilation has some great track notes and facts about the songs, and that's of course one of my favorite things, so I'll be sharing some of those with you. I started with a song that was written with the Drifters in mind but ended up with Jay and the Americans.

Jay and the Americans – Only In America
Gene Pitney – Every Breath I Take (Gene Pitney sang his last notes in falsetto due to vocal fatigue!)
Timi Yuro – What's A Matter Baby (early pre-Phillies Phil Spector production)
Shirelles – Foolish Little Girl (Co-written by frequent Neil Sedaka collaborator Howard Greenfield)

Segment 2: Record Box

I have a special dedication I want to make. I'm going to first share some notes on this song which I found out on YouTube. In 1972 in Victoria, Canada, a rookie policeman wrote a poem for his girlfriend while driving home in his police car. Dave "the Cop" Richardson gave the poem to his young friend David Foster, an aspiring musician looking for material for his new band. Foster passed it along to Skylark guitarist Doug Edwards who set it to music. It was the first song Edwards had ever composed.

The song, Wildflower, went to Number Eight on the Billboard Top Ten sold over a million copies and launched David Foster's career.

I have always loved the way the song described a tender hearted person. The song was written about a woman, but you know, there are a lot of tender hearted guys out there too. I don't care for the macho type, I totally love the type of guys who aren't afraid to cry at the drop of a hat or a little more open and honest with their tender emotions, so guys, don't hold back, or pretend your feelings aren't happening. It's okay to feel and show it. So this song's for the tender hearted women and men out there, and those that stand behind them and support them.

Wildflower – Skylark
Walter Egan – Magnet and Steel
England Dan and John Ford Coley – Love Is the Answer
Major Lance – Um Um Um Um Um
Vogues – Five O'Clock World

Segment 3 – Soul Stew
I got hold of a Rhino collection called the Incredible Soul Collection and yeah, it does have quite a few heavy hitters on there. So I played a few songs that are on this compilation.
Chi Lites – Oh Girl
Stylistics – You Are Everything
Delfonics – La La Means I Love You
Moments – Love On A Two Way Street

Segment 4 – Non-oldie/new/current
The reason I was barely able to talk in spots was because I was barely awake. This past week was Tin Pan South here in Nashville with dozens of showcases all over town with an amazing array of singer/songwriters. Two of those I went to were Hippie Chick Twang on Friday night and Michael McDonald and friends on Saturday. Go here to read the reports on those.

I first met Eve Selis at a gathering before the Hippie Chick Twang showcase. You know how an artist can just capture you with not only a voice or a song, but with heart and passion in performing? Well, this precious gal just did it for me...she sings from her center.

Eve Selis – Cryin Days
Bonnie Koloc - You Played Me Just Like A Piano
I did not mean to play the last song. I had another set to go. Remember, I told you I was barely awake. But, the more I thought about it, I decided that Someone other than me decided that song was supposed to be played, I guess.

Encouragement:

This piece comes from my Embrace Encouragement website, my "Encouraging Words" piece for the month of April. I have already shared this on my Wendy V MySpace and I've been pleasantly surprised at the reaction that it's gotten..it sort of continues the question of last week's show. This is called Who I Am..Or Who I Should Be.

There's no live show next week. I'll be off and there will be a rebroadcast (I will have a blog, though), so a happy Easter to those who'll be celebrating.

Closer – King Curtis – Soul Serenade