9/27/09 Blog/Playlist: Never Say Never?

I had very little sleep this weekend because of two awesome concerts. I will have a report on those in my Nashville Blend blog soon. But I knew this would be an interesting show in terms of my functionality here, to say the least...I warned the audience accordingly and I was right. Some interesting pronouncements came out of my mouth.

Segment 1: Never
I was originally going to call this theme set "Never Say Never". But I realized that, here I am with a show called "Never Too Old" and how would it look doing a never say never theme when I'm telling people they're never too old? So maybe that doesn't make sense. I planned a song called "Never Say Never Again" in the last part of my show, so I think that's okay. Thus I'll just take the first word of the show title and make it a "never" theme...and start with a classic from the Association.

Association – Never My Love
Lovin Spoonful – Never Going Back (Joe Butler on lead vocal, written by John Stewart. also the first "glitch of the day" I had in quite some time. I had the wrong track and was bound and determined to have the right one play.)
Gene Pitney – True Love Never Runs Smooth (and neither does a radio show when you've had little sleep...)
Seekers – I'll Never Find Another You
Laura Nyro – I Never Meant To Hurt You

Segment 2: Picking Through the Record Box
I have been searching and searching for a long while for a couple of songs I've always loved that I wanted to play on the show...and finally, I've found them! This first one is a song that came out in 1964 and was a hit on the pop charts right in the middle of the Beatles and the British Invasion. One of those stylistic anomalies (believe it or not, didn't stumble over that word in my zombie-like state!) that turned up as pop hits around that time. It's one that would be an unlikely favorite of mine for that time and would really be considered "square" by a rock and roll kid such as myself. But for some odd reason, it's one that always stayed with me...not sure why I liked it then but I do now. Just like those Lawrence Welk shows I did call square as a 60s kid but occasionally watch now for the pop culture factor. Anyhow, the song I'm talking about to start off with is Love Me With All Your Heart, by the Ray Charles Singers.

Ray Charles Singers – Love Me With All Your Heart
Peter Paul and Mary – If I Had A Hammer (in tribute to the late Mary Travers)
Ruby and the Romantics – My Summer Love
Simon and Garfunkel – Homeward Bound (live version)
Rose Garden – Next Plane To London

In case you haven't heard, WRFN is moving to 107.1 in October! With that move, we will be heard clearly all over Nashville. That will be happening around the weekend of October 24-25, so we'll be off the air during that period to install a new antenna and make station improvements. We do need your help in raising money for all of this. Please go to www.radiofreenashville.org to see about the many ways you can donate. And, if you are in the Nashville area you can also find out there about a benefit classic car and motorcycle show/concert event happening on October 2.

Segment 3: Soul Stew

A couple more "never" songs in the soul set. I'll start with this one by Eddie Floyd:
Eddie Floyd – I've Never Found Me A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)
Temptations – I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)
Dixiebelles – Down At Papa Joe's
Wilson Pickett – Funky Broadway

Segment 4: Non-oldie/Current/New

George Adams - Stronger Than Words
(George is a guest on my show next week. A singer's singer and I've been hoping to get him on the show for a long time. So I'm throwing out the format on this one and having him for the hour.)
Boomer Castleman – Never Say Never Again

Now what did those two songs have in common? A great big triple axel hitting, move in for the kill falsetto note at the end. When Boomer was here on the show a couple of months ago, he hit it live at 8:00 in the morning.

Frequency To The Heart

Well, I've had an hour to think about this whole "never say never" thing. The more that I thought about it, there are some times when you should think "never say never". It could be that goal you think you may never accomplish. Or that job test you thought you'd never pass (true story here!). Even perhaps, that love you thought you'd never have in your life. At those points, you might want to try a "never say never" mindset, open yourself up to encouragement and confidence. It could happen.

And for you all, one more song that I didn't have on CD to play but surely would have if I did: Styx- Never Say Never

9/20/09 Blog/Playlist: in-studio guests Dr. Jay & Miss Diana

Opening theme—So What's New – Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass

Well once again, I have some special guests in the studio: Dr. Jay and Miss Diana, a dynamic singer/songwriter duo and dear friends of mine.

But first, if you haven't already heard, we have some pretty exciting news to share here at Radio Free Nashville. In a couple of weeks, we are going to be moving to a new home on the FM dial! We will be moving to 107.1 FM...this is something we've been hoping to have happen for quite some time and we've now got the green light. The best news about it all is that we will then be heard all over Nashville. Before that happens, it's going take a bit of work. We'll need to invest in a new antenna and some studio improvements. So, this is where we need the support of all of you out there who love what we do here at Radio Free Nashville. Please go to our website at www.radiofreenashville.org and choose one of several ways to make a donation to the station. You can also go to www.goodsearch.com and designate Radio Free Nashville as your charity and every time you search there or shop through GoodShop WRFN will earn money.

I started out with a set of music.

Rascals – A Girl Like You
Swinging Medallions – Double Shot Of My Baby's Love
Supremes – Back In My Arms Again
Shadows of Knight – Gloria
Wildweeds – No Good To Cry
Survivor – The Search Is Over

My guests today: Dr. Jay and Miss Diana. I heard a little bit about them around town before I actually saw and met them at the Commodore Grille. The song that was the most memorable at that time was one that went I'm just trying to get your attention. And well, they certainly did. So much so that ultimately they were part of my birthday bash round at the Commodore.

They met when Dr. Jay (Jay Worth Allen) saw her as a telephone receptionist on an office visit. Once he heard Diana's voice decided he wanted to hear it the rest of his life. They hit it off personally and musically, married three weeks after they met and have stayed married for over ten years. Diana has sung in church choirs and folk settings, but didn't know any club songs. Jay brought her some recordings from some of the great female vocalists (Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, etc.) and they started off playing jazz.

Just hearing Dr. Jay and Miss Diana's music is half the picture. They need to be seen live. Diana is a performer who sings from her center and looks you in the eye as she sings. Believe it or not, when she first started performing, she sang with her back to the audience and kept checking with Jay to see if she was doing well!She emerged from her shell one day in the studio after getting frustrated with Jay telling her "that's not right". She decided she was going to sing her way, and out it came!

Besides the music, Jay is a prolific writer and artist. He's had a art exhibit going on this week...you can see samples of his art and writing on the website.

We played a few songs that will be on their upcoming Anthology CD which covers cuts from a few of their earlier CDs: Six Rhetoricals and Four Metaphors (named because a songwriting instructor told Jay you can't use rhetoricals and metaphors in Nashville!), Eleven Plays For the Radio, and Some Pretty Darn Good Songs.

I Do Believe
Just One More Time
I Love Only You
'Till My Money Runs Out


Plugs for Dr. Jay and Miss Diana:

www.drjaymissdiana.com
www.myspace.com/drjaymissdiana
Maxwell's (Millennium Maxwell Hotel in Nashville) regular Thursday night show starting 7 - 10 p.m.
10/2-3: Song Festival – Loretta Lynn's Ranch
10/23, 11/4: Commodore Grille

Frequency To The Heart

If it is true that our thoughts attract the types of things that come into our lives, then we all need to encourage each other to help keep our thoughts on track. We need to help one another maintain the positive outlook toward what we desire and keep those negative or fearful thoughts away. Find someone who needs a positive influence and show it and be it in their life. You can do more good than you can possibly realize.

Closer – Soul Serenade – King Curtis

Upcoming shows:
9/28 - "Never" opening theme set
10/4 - George Adams

A fun show this morning with great folks. Thanks Jay and Diana. And you all go see them live.

9/13/09 Blog/Playlist: in-studio guest Laurie McClain

Opening theme—So What's New – Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass

Laurie McClain was my guest on the show this morning. She's got a CD out called "Ascend" and she has an upcoming CD release show this Friday night at Fiddle and Pick in Pegram.

But first a couple of personal indulgences, if I may: today marks the first anniversary of the start of "Never Too Old". The show began on Saturday afternoons at 3 p.m. when I first came to Radio Free Nashville. It moved to this time slot at the first of this year. It's been a great journey, I've learned a lot since the beginning of this thing and I really appreciated everyone who has ever listened or read my show blog. Of course I want to thank Beau, Ginny, Greg and Matt here at the station for all their support and as I've always said, the best thing for me about being part of Radio Free Nashville is that I've made some life-impacting friendships here...and you know who you are.

Also, I want to thank everyone out there who came to my birthday bash at the Commodore Grille this past Wednesday. It was a great turnout and there were a couple of other RFN folks who turned out for it, my buddy TJ Kirby and his lovely Rene and Steve Haggard and Kimberly King played that evening and did a great job. So I did a brief set this morning and in honor of my party and Judy and Johnny who took such great pictures for me, I started with Lesley Gore!

Lesley Gore – It's My Party
Beatles – I'll Be Back
Joni Mitchell – Help Me
Sonny and Cher – Baby Don't Go
Janis Ian – Society's Child

Laurie McClain moved here in 1997 with four daughters from Lincoln, Nebraska. She and I had much in common. She grew up loving to watch the old Johnny Cash which always had such great artists as Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, etc. She knew from age six that she wanted to be a singer. And so she has, going on to do that and writing lovely songs. She did very well in the recent Just Plain Folks awards, with "Ascend" coming in third in the New Folk Album category.

Another thing she and I had in common was she had spent time playing in the Twin Cities, where I moved here from. One person we both know is folksinger Jerry Rau, a dear friend of hers who sang a duet on the tribute album to Kate Wolf that she made a few years back.

Plugs for Laurie:
www.lauriemcclain.com
www.myspace.com/lauriemcclain
9/16 Richards Café and French Quarter Cafe
9/18 CD release party at Fiddle and Pick, Pegram, 8 p.m.

Songs:
He Smiled Like An Angel (live in studio)
Somewhere In Kentucky (from the "Ascend" CD)
Rosy Glasses (live in studio)

I do understand what it's like to be on fire for an artist and want to share that music with everyone you come across. Laurie asked if I would play a song off a CD by an artist she met at the JPF awards. He's an Irish-born artist named Danny Ellis, who grew up in an orphanage. His CD, 800 Voices, is made of his songs about his life in that setting. We played a track called "Artane Boys Band". It was quite striking and he has a wonderful voice.

Frequency To The Heart:

When It's Not A Fit – Encouraging Words July 2007

Closer – Soul Serenade – King Curtis

As always with a guest, the time ends up flying and I wished I had more time in the hour for her music. However, I also like to hear the guests talk about themselves and their music. You can always buy a CD and listen to it however often, but it's not as often you get to hear from the arists themselves about their music and their inspiration...so I like to allow a chunk of time for that.

I hope I didn't come across as too self-indulgent today. There were some things regarding the past week that I needed to express. Plus, at times my interview with Laurie was more like a friendly conversation but I hope I didn't focus more on me and less on her than I should have.

Upcoming guests:
September 20 - Dr. Jay and Miss Diana
October 4 - George Adams (strong tentative)

9/6/09 Blog/Playlist: Weather

First, thanks to my buddy T.J. Kirby for having me on his show yesterday afternoon from 3-5. It was a blast just like last time...always fun getting together with him and there'll be more of that in the future. We also had folks listening in via Facebook and posting comments while we were on air, so that was cool.

It seemed that one of the CD players took ill yesterday while we were on the air. I just had to wait and see if that would be the case this morning. One seemed a little under the weather this morning as well, so I asked the audience for healing thoughts and prayers for it! I guess they worked--after one slight glitch this morning the rest of the tracks played fine.

Opening theme — So What's New – Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass

Segment 1: Theme-Weather
Well, the weather is about to change yet again. It does get kind of interesting year round here in Nashville—we can have good stretches of sunshine but when it does decide to rain, it does so in earnest. So I thought I'd play some weather related songs to start us off this morning. I say let's start with a little sunshine!

Gale Garnett – We’ll Sing In the Sunshine
Lovin Spoonful – Rain On the Roof
Lesley Gore – Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows
Dee Clark – Raindrops
Bobby Hebb – Sunny
Temptations – I Wish It Would Rain
Beach Boys – The Warmth of the Sun (This song's haunting, melancholy melody was inspired by the death of President Kennedy)

I notice a lot of people around here love thunderstorms. They're fine to watch, I suppose, but it is not fun at all when you are out driving in them and it's raining so hard that you can't see.

Segment 2: Picking Through the Record Box

I've been watching repeats of the Beatles Anthology special this past week. There's a Beatles Rock Band and remastered tracks coming out this week...on 9/9/09 in fact, which happens to be my birthday. I don't think I'll be getting it as a birthday present, unfortunately. So in honor of all that, let's start out with a Beatles tune.

Beatles – Things We Said Today
Honeycombs – Have I The Right
Little Peggy March – I Will Follow Him
Knickerbockers – Lies

Dates in music history: noted a few MTV Awards past winners and that tomorrow marked the anniversary of American Bandstand leaving Philadelphia for California in 1963 and cutting its TV schedule from daily to once a week on Saturdays. End of an era at the time.

Segment 3: Soul Stew
Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose in the game of love. I thought I'd put together a few soul songs that look at both sides of the coin.
Temptations – Since I Lost My Baby
Jimmy Ruffin – What Becomes of the Brokenhearted
Supremes – Back In My Arms Again
Drifters – Some Kind of Wonderful

Segment 4: Non-oldie/Current/New
One more artist who will be featured in my birthday round coming up this week at the Commodore Grille.

Beth Browne – Taking Back Your Better Half
Laurie McClain – He Smiled Like an Angel

Laurie McClain will be my in-studio guest next week.

Frequency To The Heart

Wendy V's Encouraging Words for September - The Face of Encouragement

Closer – Soul Serenade – King Curtis