Playlist for Sunday, September 26, 2004

JOINT KITCHEN PARTY/FOLK FROM THE HEARTLAND SHOW
with Thom Pease and Jeff Cannon
Sunday, September 26, 2004 7-9 PM EST

SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW PLAYLIST--Sorry, I'll work on the coding for next week!

"From the Archives" featured two tracks from Lamont West's 1956 collection of music of Plateau and Plains Indians. Again, special thanks to the Archives of Traditional Music for making this segment possible every show this year.

I'll see you in the ether on October 10--with new CDs by Sharon Shannon, Téada, Beyond the Pale--a Celtic band from the U.K., and Beausoleil!

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM TITLE	RECORD LABEL	YEAR
Wailin' Jennys	Saucy Sailor	40 Days	Red House	NEW 2004
Wailin' Jennys	Saucy Sailor	The Parting Glass	Red House	NEW 2004
Jeffrey Focault	Tropic of Cancer	Stripping Cane	Signature	NEW 2004
Salamander Crossing	Paul and Peter Walked	Bottleneck Dreams	Signature	1998
The Mammals	John Henry	Rock That Babe	Signature	2004
Chris Whitley	Ballpeen Hammer	Rock That Babe	Messenger	1998
James Gordon	Saugeen Gypsies	Endomusica	Borealis	2004
Sean Doyle	Flower of the County Down	The Light and the Half-Light	Compass	NEW 2004
Railroad Earth	Long Way to Go	The Good Life	Sugar Hill	NEW 2004
Kathy Kallick and Laurie Lewis	Used to Be	Sugar Hill Collection	Sugar Hill	1995
Patty Griffin	Mary	A Kiss in Time (Live)	Ato	2003
Lee Murdock	Casting Your Cares to the Deep	Between Two Worlds	Depot	NEW 2004
k.d. lang	The Valley	Hymns of the 49th Parallel	Nonesuch	NEW 2004
Oisin Mac Diarmada	Mary Brennan's Favorite	Ar An Bhfidil (On the Fiddle)	Green Linnet	NEW 2004
Dave Carter & Tracy Grammar	Ordinary Town	Drum Hat Buddha	Signature	2001
Le Vent du Nord	Au Bord de la Fontaine	Maudite Moisson!	Borealis	2003
Beyond the Pale	Chasenjah	Routes	Borealis	2001
Eric Andersen	I Ain't Marching Anymore	The Street Was Always There	Appleseed	NEW 2004
Peter Mulvey	The Trouble with Poets	The Trouble with Poets	Signature	2000
Kevin Connolly	Take Me to the Sea	This is Boston, Not Austin	Eastern Front	1997
Patrick Street	Stewball and the Monaghan Grey Mare	Live from Patrick Street	Green Linnet	1999
Susan Werner	Barbed Wire Boys	New Non-Fiction	Susan Werner	2001
Cree Indians	Sun Dance Song	Lamont West Collection	Archives of Traditional Music	1956
Cree Indians	Praising Song	Lamont West Collection	Archives of Traditional Music	1956
Fairport Convention	I'm Already There	Over the Next Hill	Compass	NEW 2004
Richard Julian	Good Life	Good Life	Black Bird	2002

First show playlist for fall 2004 forthcoming

What an exciting show that was for me last night. Jeff Cannon and I co-hosted, and I heard a lot of music that he played that was quite interesting. I'm working on formatting the playlist right now, so it should be up by tonight. Check back soon, and remember KP airs next in two weeks on Sunday, October 10 at 7:00 EST.

From the Archives- new regular feature

"From the Archives" will be a continuing feature on this season's "Kitchen Party." Every show I'll feature a recording or series of recordings from the Archives of Traditional Music, the "largest university-based ethnographic sound archives in the United States," housed here on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington.

This week's show will celebrate the grand opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. And while the DC folks are having fun at the First Americans Festival with a wide diversity of music and artists from Alaska to South America, I'll be playing some field recordings of Native American tribes, collected by LaMont West, Jr. in 1956.



You are really in for a treat with this Archives feature. Their collection boasts: "2,000 field collections; unique and irreplaceable recordings collected by anthropologists, linguists, ethnomusicologists, and folklorists throughout the world; as well as extensive holdings of Native American, African, and Latin American music and spoken word, and several large collections of early jazz and blues 78s."

I'll meet you in the ether tomorrow night at 7 pm EST on wius.org or AM 1570 for you Bloomington residents.

It starts this Sunday Sept. 26 from 7-9 pm

This Sunday on AM-1570 WIUS is this semester's first show. This week is a special co-presentation of "The Kitchen Party" and "Folk from the Heartland" co-hosted by myself and Jeff Cannon. Jeff's show is on at the same time every other week that I'm not on with "The Kitchen Party."

This year I'll be airing a special feature on every KP, called "From the Archives." I'll be playing examples of world music: commercial recordings and field recordings housed in the Archives of Traditional Music here on IU's campus. More on that later...

Rachael Davis- A New Songcatcher?

I had the pleasure of ending tonight's Lotus Festival by listening to an enormously talented young singer from Boston named Rachael Davis.



Her voice could have come out of the movie Songcatcher. It was that southern mountain sound which is pretty straight, high and lyrical. And yet, she crooned, she scatted, and sang like a jazz diva at times. (Are you listening, American Idol?) For example, she sang a soulful version of "All of Me," a cappella, after relating to the audience a story of how her first CD her dad gave her was a recording of the Ella Fitzgerald Songbook. (I think that was one of my first too). Discographic searching will have to wait for another day.

Her rendition of "Pretty Saro" was quicker than I'm used to, but it brought the desperateness and pathetique of the characters, along with the sorrow and trouble-in-mind more generally associated with interpretations of the song done by such artists as Iris DeMent. I was impressed with her version of the "Cuckoo Bird" as well as "Shady Grove." "Shady Grove" is one of those Appalachian songs that everyone sings, but it goes by so quick that you can't even make sense of the lyrics. That changed for me once I heard Michael Johnathon's version.

Back to Davis, who was accompanied by a fine guitarist named Brett Hartenbach...Here is a young musician who's not only a good singer, but one that has the potential to really make it. She knows what her voice can do, has great dynamic contrasts, can belt and wail, yet hold back when she needs to. She can really breathe life into a song through dramatization and phrasing. Less is usually more, and silences can be very important in telling a story. I think Rachael knows this. Also, she has great musical intuition, a high wiry soprano voice that won't quit, and it doesn't hurt that she knows how to use a microphone.

It turned out that I was seated next to her mother and father, who had both sung to her as a child. She named some of her musical influences which included the Carter Family, Bob Dylan, Joel Mabus, and John McCutcheon. This is a young folkie who's going places...Look out Nickel Creek!

That's all for me for tonight. I also saw Väsen and Susan McKeown, but I'll write about them later. I was looking forward to seeing the Irish band Kila, but they got on stage late, so I'll see their act tomorrow night! Buenos noches!

Le Vent du Nord (The Wind from the North) at Lotus Friday night

.

The winner of a Juno Award in the category of "Roots and Traditional Album of the Year/Group" for the cd "Maudite moisson!". Congrats guys!

I played some of their music on the "Kitchen Party" this summer--their most recent album is called "Maudite Moission!" out on the Borealis record label.

They're from Québec, and play traditional Québécois music. Their sound check was entertaining, and I was impressed by the resonance of the guys' voices. The band is made up of four musicians: Nicolas Boulerice (hurdy-gurdy, accordion, bodhran, piano, voice, foot tapping), Olivier Demers (fiddle, guitar, voice, foot tapping), Benoit Bourque (dance, accordion, bones & spoons, mandolin, voice), and their newest member, Simon Beaudry (guitar, voice).

Olivier was foot tapping/clogging on a miked piece of wooden floor board nice and loud. And Nicolas's hurdy-gurdy playing was great, esp. when he was dancing around with it The hurdy-gurdy has a distinctive sound--and LOUD once it gets cranked up! Here's what a hurdy-gurdy is.

There was a lot of step dancing going on in front of the stage. I love this type of high-energy folk dance music. It's really nice to see a diverse crowd of college students and older folks out on a lovely late summer evening enjoying music together.

Lotus Festival 2004- Friday night

This weekend's Lotus Festival got off to a great start. Even though I got there a wee bit late, I saw a total of four acts tonight: Le Vent du Nord, Väsen, Susan McKeown, and Rachel Davis.

The streets of Bloomington were bustling with activity--people carrying flags, buying merchandise, and having a great time. There was a circle of drum players outside the Buskirk-Chumley. I could hear the sounds of a group of Virgin Islands musicians called Jamesie & the All Stars wafting through the air. My first mission of the night was to listen to a band called "Le Vent du Nord."

Lotus Festival this weekend

For all you Bloomington residents, don't miss the opportunity to come out and see the Lotus Festival this weekend.

I got to one of the events at the Archives of Traditional Music today-- the African Showboyz. (I work at the Archives part-time also). The room was packed, and everyone was really enjoying themselves. A good omen for the festival.

Great acts I definitely want to check out tonight and tomorrow include: Mari Boine (Sami contemporary [Sami=Scandinavian equivalents of Inuits]), Susan McKeown (Irish folk-rock), Väsen (Swedish contemporary folk), Kila (hot Celtic band), Le Vent du Nord (Traditional Québécois), Kepa Junkera (Basque trikitixa), Andre Thierry (zydeco), Jan Yragagy (Traditional Kyrgyz), Maura O'Connell (Country/folk song), and Fruit (Australian folk-pop).

There are a bunch of free events too, including a family concert with Le Vent du Nord at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater at noon on Saturday, Indian storytelling by storyteller Patty Callison and Shobana Ram, a dancer in the South Indian Classical tradition of Bharatha Natyam for school-age children and older at the Monroe County Public Library Auditorium (303 E. Kirkwood) from 11-11:45 am and 1-1:45 pm. Admission free, reservations required at 349-3100.

A free World Spirit concert on Sunday from 2:30-5:30 pm at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater (114 E. Kirkwood) featuring the Srinivas Krishnan Ensemble w/ dancer Sunaina Rao, Rachael Davis, Abdelli, and Mongolian singer D. Jargalsaikhan.

A free film on Sunday: "Los Zafiros: Music from the Edge of Time" (An award-winning documentary on a 1960s Cuban band) on Sunday night 7:30 pm at the Buskirk-Chumley.

Hope you can all make it to some of the events. Lotus is definitely one of the perks of living in Bloomington.

If you want to sample the artists, check out:

* WFHB-FM 91.3 and 98.1 which is playing a lot of live music, and featuring Lotus Festival artists this week.

* On WFIU-FM 103.7, "Just You and Me"'s Joe Bourne is sampling a few of the festival artists today between 3:30-5:00 this afternoon.

I'll try to post my thoughts on the acts tonight or tomorrow. Radio is good, but live music is usually better.

First show: Sunday, September 26

According to our fearless PD, Lauren, that's when the first show will air on WIUS AM-1570. Stay tuned!

Ways to Explain a Kitchen Party

Here's an article that's probably the best thing I've seen on the Web that describes a "kitchen party."

Stan Rogers- great Canadian folksinger

I've been listening to songs by Stan Rogers for years thanks to folk hosts Jim Blum (WKSU, Kent, Ohio) and Mary Cliff (WETA-FM, Arlington, Virginia). He definitely has that lived-in voice you hear from some of the great folk singers. The title track "Northwest Passage" from "Northwest Passage" (Fogarty's Cove Music FMS-004-D, 1981) is a great place-name song. I've always loved to read maps, and hearing some of the strait and island names in the Arctic region of Canada...well, they take me back to my childhood when I would picture myself in some of those far-flung places. I don't think I'd really care to visit for a long period of time, but still it's a good song. It also lists some historical figures of Canada, namely Gordon Thompson and Alexander MacKenzie. I'm glad I added this disc to my collection, and look forward to playing it soon.

I found a Stan Rogers tribute page here. That should keep me busy for awhile.

Next week is the callout meeting for the fall season at WIUS. So, it shouldn't be long now before "The Kitchen Party" returns to the air. Jeff, another folk host at WIUS, and I are splitting the shift this year. But we're doing the first show together to debut the new format. With library school and my other jobs, this should be a welcome respite.

Rock that Babe / Andrew McKnight

Listening to "The Mammals." Late night, head-banging, banjo-strummin', mandolin-pickin', hound-doggin' folk-protest music ala the Mammals' latest release, "Rock that Babe." Love their version of John Henry--YEE HAH! And no one I've ever seen can make a ukelele sing like Ruth Ungar.

Also looking forward to Andrew McKnight's fourth and newest album "Beyond Borders" coming this fall, along with seeing him on his Midwestern tour. Hopefully he'll hit Bloomington. If you've never heard Andrew's music before, check out any of his three albums (Traveler, Where This River Runs, and Turning Pages). He writes evocative lyrics especially of geographic regions like the South and the West. He lives in Loudon County, Virginia and some of his best songs reflect that region's land and history. In the five years I lived in that part of the country (DC area), I came to admire and respect the region more through knowing his work. I'll post where he's coming once I learn his itinerary.

Music to come this fall on Kitchen Party

I was just at the record store looking at some CDs for the show on WIUS-AM 1570. Too much good music out here. Here's what you can expect to hear once I'm back on the air: 'Wailin' Jennys (Red House Records 177, NEW! August 2004) , the late Stan Rogers's "Northwest Passage" (Fogarty's Cove Music FMS-004-D, 1981), k.d. lang's "Hymns of the 49th Parallel." (Nonesuch 79847, new July 2004) and the soundtrack to "Return of the King" (2003). That last one's for my own collection: a moving soundtrack to a phenomenal movie. More to come about other music to be played on the show.

Welcome to the Kitchen Party!

Hi! I'm Thom, the host of "The Kitchen Party" heard on WIUS-AM 1570 from Bloomington, IN. I'm a graduate student in library science, and I do this folk/world music program on the weekends. Hope you can tune in--I'll announce the schedule for the fall once it's up. Check out the station's page at wius.org, where you can listen with RealPlayer or ShoutCast.