WSGE - Music Sage Extraordinaire

When I first moved to NYC from Louisiana I was convinced that one of the local NPR stations, Fordham’s WFUV (Fordham University Voice) was a radio station that I could have done the programming for.  They played all my favorites from the Old 97’s to Johnny Cash, introduced me to quite a bit of folk, including John Prine (check out “The Glory of True Love”), some gospel, and even some more “adult” sounds like Bruce Hornsby.  I was convinced that radio stations just didn’t get any better, especially north of the Mason-Dixon line.

I had no idea how much better it could be.  While googling the lyrics to some song a year or two later I came upon a play list for WSGE, the radio station of Gaston College in Dallas, North Carolina.  Whatever the song was, I found it, but even better, I realized that I could just look at any of their play lists and reconstruct hours of WSGE’s programming by pulling up those songs on Rhapsody, my streaming music service and still one of the best deals on the internets.  The thing that’s so amazing about WSGE, is that it hits music I will love, like WFUV, but trolls much wider spectrum of of the music scene for its programming thereby exposing me to so much more of what’s out there.  Sadly, a while back they got a new station manager who ended the practice of posting the play lists online.  Thankfully a WSGE employee let me know that I could go to yes.com which is a website that somehow seems to track every song on every radio station and then tries to make money by linking to iTunes (with the stations seeing no revenue from this, unfortunately).  You can see what’s playing on WSGE here.

The best programming on WSGE is the Eclectic Blend which you can catch from 6am to 6pm and at least from 11pm to midnight EST.  Best of all, it streams.

Oh!  And if you need some new music, just check this out!

One Last Word on Christmas Tunes

So the Christmas mix isn’t going to happen just yet, but if the Jewish guy from the Northeast might be so presumptious as to suggest one more country Christmas album it would be Chris Isaak’s from a few years ago.  There’s quite a bit of stylistic overlap with the Elvis album, but the modern production and a few different songs make this a worthwhile addition.  The track “Last Month of the Year” is a must.

 Reviews on the excellent O’Death show last Friday at the Mercury Lounge and Abbie Gardner and Anthony DaCosta set at the Rockwood Music Hall last Saturday to follow shortly I hope.

Christmas Time Means Christmas Music, Y’all

I haven’t quite worked through my Country Christmas mix yet.  And while I hope it will be posted before the big day, you might want to check out Pandora’s sampling in the mean time.

Also, I think these albums are musts:

A Very Special Acoustic Christmas, Elvis Christmas,  Loretta Lynn’s 20th Century Masters Christmas Album

And Fold’em All Night Long ‘Till I Got Me a Hand

Last night marks my first ever Texas Hold’em tournament victory. I have minimal poker skills but I’ll still take some credit for the victory. It was the first time I was able to consistently avoid betting just out of the temptation to make something on the flop and, perhaps more importantly, started reading the community cards for what they meant for the other players making hands rather than just my making a hand. Basically, players 5, 4, and 3 went out on account of the blinds and I was lucky enough to make a gut shot draw to break number 2 when he went all in.

Incidentally, this posting’s title comes from the Corb Lund (of Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans fame) song “Gonna Shine Up My Boots” which I first got turned on to from it’s being featured in the horror-comedy Slither. Two chords, alternating bass notes, and pure genius.

What I’m Listening to This Week - Beta

  Delphia, Chris, and Emma have been regular recipients of my Pop Country and Not So Pop Country series since I left Louisiana in 2004.  Recently, Delphia suggested that I use the blog to create some sort link to Amazon or iTunes with musical suggestions and what not.   It looks like wordpress might frown on this practice and so I’m looking into the possibility of setting up some sort of plug-in that will allow streaming of mp3 files.  In the mean time try to look into the following.  In most cases these songs should be taken as a suggestion that you look into the artists, or at least albums, they come from.  Below is the “in the works version” of Not So Pop Country - Volume VI: Discoveries from WSGE and More.  I’ll annotate where appropriate but some of these are going to appear on my New Year’s mix (with apologies to the great Matt since the New Year’s album is his idea which I am unabashedly stealing).

1. Old Dominion (Live) - Eddie from Ohio on Three Rooms
2. Feel Alright - Steve Earle on I Feel Alright - I first caught this song on the first season of NBC’s Friday night lights.  It’s more refined than his stuff on Guitar Town which is amazing from start to finish but awesome nonetheless.
3. Rattle My Cage - The Red Stick Ramblers on Bring it on Down - Inspiring the blog of the same name.  It’s off their first album but somehow I never listened to it, forsaking it most often for 16 Tons or the beautiful When the Sugar Cane’s Tall.  Heart wrenching vocals.
4. Oh, Girl - Hackensaw Boys on Look Out - A find from WSGE.  And yes, she is avoiding you.
5. Night Rider’s Lament - Nanci Griffith on Other Voices, Other Rooms - I was discussing Amos Lee’s cover of John Prine’s Speed of the Sound of Loneliness and he mentioned covers this album of the same name as the Truman Capote collection.  Amos ain’t got nothing on Nanci.
6. Long Way to Go - Railroad Earth on The Good Life - Another WSGE find.
7. Walk Away - Tom Waits on Orphans, Brawlers, & Bastards - This came on rotation on the iPod a while back and I’m so glad it did.  The minimal instrumentation, the Waits voice.  It still gives me chills.
8. Alabama Shamrock - Hackensaw Boys on Love What You Do - Again from WSGE, but as though after they were just listening to the Jayhawks.
9. Worried Man Blues - George Jones on The Unbroken Circle: The Musical Heritage of the Carter Family - WSGE again.  I had never heard this version before.
10. Long Island Cowboy - Red Molly on Red Molly EP - I stopped singing this one as I walked around and started whistling instead.  Reactions haven’t improved much.
11. Momsong - The Be Good Tanyas on Blue Horse - I have my friend Tanya (no relation to the band) to thank for turning me on to them and by association Po’ Girl.  Haunting.  Beautiful.  A must.
12. Go Tell the Savior - Jack Hardy and the Company on Fast Folk Musical Magazine (Vol 8., No. 6) 1995 Fast Folk Revue-Live at the Bottom Lin - One of his earliest and still my favorite.
13. Redemption Song - Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros on Streetcore - White man sings Bob.  It’s good.  Really.
14. Darlin’ Do Not Fear (Rhapsody Edition) - Brett Dennen on Rhapsody Originals (Exclusive) - WSGE - this version is much better than the overproduced album version.
15. Walkin’ the Floor Over You - Teddy Thompson on Up Front & Down Low - Son of guitar legend Richard Thompson.  Matt turned me on to this album after seeing a show of his.  Classic country done well.

Links to follow.

A country road. A tree. Evening.

How great can art be? This great. (Picture by Lee Celano for the New York Times)