By Don Jacobson

CBC Radio can be criticized for many of the same things that can fairly be said about National Public Radio in the United States: It can be pedantic, infuriatingly stodgy and its high culture outlook results in a lot of classical music references. Part of me is glad someone is out there being very, very smart – and, to be fair, the CBC does loosen up quite a bit on weekends with some very good jazz and avant-garde music programs. But on the whole it’s just not something I’d listen to much if it were down to a choice between that and, say, a hockey game, eh?
But also north of the border they’ve got something of a commitment to indie rock, hip-hop and electronica through a program on the CBC Radio 2 FM network. Airing Saturday nights across Canada from Moncton to Burnaby, it’s called (confusingly enough) CBC Radio 3, and subtitled Breaking New Sound. It’s hosted by CBC jock Grant Lawrence, who has fashioned the show into a satisfyingly rich free weekly podcast of strictly Canadian music.
The podcast and website will soon be the only ways even Canadians can listen to CBC Radio 3 without paying. Starting this month, it will be kicked off the terrestrial CBC schedule and be broadcast exclusively on Sirius Satellite Radio. But it’s worth tracking down. Is it really the best radio show in the world as some claim? Maybe this playlist will help you judge that assertion. This is from the CBC Radio 3 podcast for the week of March 4, 2007.

Read More

Posted on March 5, 2007

By Matt Cook and John Dorr

Every Monday from 12-2 Matt Cook and John Dorr host Trucker Caps and Cowboy Hats on WIIT-FM Radio 88.9, from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Each week they concoct some sort of theme to hang the show on and this is what they’ve been listening to this week in light of their hand-picked motif.
With the recent news of the minimum wage hike, it seemed a good time to examine the nexus between economics and country music. So let’s look at some famous and not-so-famous country artists who opine on being poor, rich, on the dole and longing for the day that they might could have made $7.25 an hour.
First, it is important to know that having money isn’t really all that it is cracked up to be. So, if you’re like me, be glad that you’re poor.
1. Porter Wagoner, “Satisfied Mind.” Porter always comes off a jackass most ways but word is that he drinks more than his share and is an OK guy once the clown suit comes off. This was a No. 1 hit for Wagoner in 1955 and stayed at that spot for more than a month.
2. Bobby Hebb, “Satisfied Mind.” Hebb is known best for his smash hit “Sunny,” but his country cred is A-number-1. He grew up in Nashville and joined Roy Acuff’s Smokey Mountain Boys and played the Grand Ol’ Opry with Acuff in the early ’50s. This romp is a country soul classic and an instant hit and should be included in any party mix.
3. Jeanne Pruett, “Satin Sheets.” Known first as a songwriter with some success (penning Marty Robbins’ Top-10 hit “Love Me”), this tune was Pruett’s first hit going No. 1 in 1973, which led in turn to her joining the Grand Ol’ Opry. Not just a songwriter, she also wrote a cookbook in 1986 called Feedin’ Friends which you might have seen hawked on TNN. I’ve always just loved this three-chord ballad largely because of its simplicity. In the Encyclopedia of Country Music under the Pruett entry, it says that her manager sent out several hundred copies of the single to radio programmers with a piece of pink satin stapled to the dust jacket. Why aren’t unsigned bands doing stuff like that now?

Read More

Posted on February 12, 2007

By The Beachwood Marfa Affairs Desk

Jeff Tweedy
January 21, 2007
Liberty Hall
Marfa, Texas
*
Home of Marfa Public Radio
General Manager: Tom Michael, Chicago-born Friend of the Beachwood
*
1. Be Patient With Me
2. Remember The Mountain Bed
3. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Read More

Posted on January 23, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

I spent some time on YouTube this Christmas Eve and ended up watching the following.
1. Thunder Road/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1976. Greatest rock song ever. The piano is hope; the harmonica despair.
2. Thunder Road/Shannnnon lip synching in her backyard. “I guess bruce springsteen is all i think about.” The comments are priceless.
3. The River/Bruce Springsteen. Live 2003, Milan. The economy with which Bruce tells this story is breathtaking. Each line is more haunting than the last.
4. Badlands/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1980, Landover. Lights out tonight, trouble in the Heartland.
5. Backstreets/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1984, Toronto. Dreams, promises, faith, love, desperation, and betrayal. Tying faith between our teeth, sleeping in that old abandoned beach house, getting wasted in the heat. We swore forever friends.

Read More

Posted on December 26, 2006

By Kathryn Ware

Listening to Christmas carols on Internet radio all day at work.
11: 07 – Man, Xmas carols from my youth suck. Carols to the tune of electric guitar, triangle, boing-boing bass, harpsichord and a chorus of generic white voices are the worst. And three decades ago while we were listening to these holiday songs, we (meaning me and my family) were eating iceberg lettuce and pancakes from a box. Ugh.
11:19 – Holy yule log, is Mel Torme ever boring! He’s like the William Hurt of crooners.
11:27 – Ah, my absolute least favorite holiday genre . . . adults singing like children. Nails on a friggin’ chalk board. It’s beyond me how this was ever seen as cute or charming.
12:30 – Yet another choral carol where it sounds like the group slammed a case of Red Bull and then SANG AS FAST AS THEY COULD!!!
12:33 – Followed by Elvis on quaaludes singing a verrry melllllow “Silent Night.”

Read More

Posted on December 18, 2006

By The Beachwood Playlist Affairs Desk

“The way Men’s Journal editors see it, a road trip isn’t really a road trip without the perfect soundtrack. That’s why they selected the 25 greatest traveling songs from eMusic’s massive catalogue of hits.”
– Special advertising promotion, Men’s Journal
1. On The Road Again/Willie Nelson
2. To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)/Ryan Adams
3. Sun Is Shining/Bob Marley

Read More

Posted on November 8, 2006

By Don Jacobson

Mmmmm, Stony Brook. I know it’s probably just another crappy-ass town on Long Island, but the name sounds so cool. Like there’s a bunch of folks hanging out down by this beautiful babbling brook who are, well, getting stonyed. And they all gather ’round to listen to their fine local non-commercial radio station, WUSB-FM – also known as Radio Free Long Island – especially on Tuesday nights, when the Tuesday Night Rock and Roll Dance Party is on the air. As Gene Vincent sings about pink Thunderbirds, they start dancing across the stones, deftly avoiding the rushing water below. In my mind’s eye, it’s truly an inspiring sight. Three hours later, the dancers are still high and dry, yet drenched in the sounds of garage rock at its best.

Read More

Posted on November 3, 2006

By Don Jacobson

Out in the suburban expanse of Southern California is a little lady named Wanda who’ll steer you right when it comes to the best roots music in sight: she’s running a great, Internet-streamed radio show that Minnie Pearl could yodel from one end of the O.C. to the other.

Read More

Posted on October 9, 2006

Swingin’ Doors is a three-hour weekly radio show on KEXP in Seattle, in my opinion, one of the five best public radio stations in the country. Why? It’s all about the music on KEXP, lots of great shows and great DJs as well. And its Internet streams are the best – high-speed and crystal clear. Don Slack is the host of Swingin’ Doors, and his taste in roots and country-rock is awesome, as evidenced by the playlist below.

Read More

Posted on August 26, 2006

By Don Jacobson

Playlist from the Aug. 6, 2006, episode of the syndicated Little Steven’s Underground Garage show, which airs in Chicago Mondays at 10 p.m. on WXRT Radio.
Read on for a sampling the world’s best taste in new and old garage rock, that of Little Steven. He may run Bada Bing, but he’s king of the garage.

Read More

Posted on August 8, 2006