country music

[dubstar]

I'm sure more than a few epiphones were used in these recordings : )

 

WKCR 89.9 FM NYC Radio (non-profit, non-commercial)

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http://wkcr.org

 

2008 Country Festival

 

Join us for the 2008 Country Festival beginning at 12 pm, Friday, March 28th and lasting until 12 pm, Sunday, March 30th.

Friday, March 28, 2008

 

Great Songwriters - 12pm - 3pm

Since country is such a songwriter driven genre, in this segment we will pay tribute to the greatest country songwriters, including music from Bobby Braddock, Billie Joe Shaver, and others. This segment will possibly include interviews with musicians.

 

Modern Country Storytellers - 3pm - 6pm

Growing out of the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, borrowing from the folk singer-songwriter genre and paralleling developments in the broader alt-country field, a group of underheralded country storytellers has been traveling the highways of the United States delighting rowdy roadhouse crowds and Southern college campuses while failing to break through into the commercial country mainstream. This segment will hone in on the musical characteristics that unite songwriters like Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider and Butch Hancock, tracing their evolution back to mainstays of a slightly earlier generation like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. The segment may include archival interviews with Butch Hancock and Todd Snider.

 

Live Music - 6pm - 7:30pm

A live studio session featuring local country musicians.

 

Gram Parsons Rediscovered - 7:30pm - 10:30pm

Over 30 years after his untimely death, there's been a release of previously undiscovered live recordings. Amoeba records has just released The Gram Parsons Anthology vol 1. This segment will air some of these recordings and also include the back story about how these recordings resurfaced after so many years. The segment will include an interview with a representative of Amoeba Records, a small west- coast label centered around a three-chain record shop.

 

40 years in Folsom Prison - 10:30pm - 1:30am

This segment will celebrate the 40th anniversary of this landmark recording by Johnny Cash (with June Carter and Carl Perkins) on January 13, 1968 and the subsequent release of what would become one of the greatest albums in country music. We'll air large portions of this the concert (from 2000 re-release), along with background info and historical context. Possibly interview(s) also.

 

Saturday, March 29

 

Uncle Tupelo Family Tree - 1:30am - 4:30am

Will include the music of this seminal neo-traditional country band from the 1990's and trace the post-breakup music created by it's members.

 

Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs 1913-1938 - 4:30am - 7am

Based on 2007 3-CD box set of same name put out by Tompkins Square Records (local label).

 

Zydeco Love - 7am - 10am

Zydeco and cajun love songs from 1930 to today. Since we don't really play too much of this on the station normally, I think it would be good to devote some time to some of the creative renditions of the genre. I would want to start out with a chronological theme, picking love songs from chenier and the like and moving up and out in time and place. The second part would be more creative, with modern versions of old songs from counter-intuitive US cities, and contemporary originals.

 

Norman Blake and Tony Rice - 10am - 1pm

Two of the most prominent flatpicking guitarists ever, Norman Blake (b. 1938) and Tony Rice (b. 1951) have influenced countless bluegrass and country musicians and have written and recorded numerous bluegrass and country classics. Tony Rice is recognized as a genre-bending innovator, who has combined jazz stylings with classic bluegrass tunes first as a member of the David Grisman Quintet and then as the leader of the Tony Rice Unit. Rice also was a member of bluegrass supergroups The Bluegrass Album Band and Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen. Norman Blake, on the other hand, is best known for his guitar recordings of classic fiddle tunes but also has contributed backup guitar and dobro to such classic albums as Bob Dylan's _Nashville Skyline_, John Hartford's _Aereo-Plain_ and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's _Will the Circle Be Unbroken_. Blake and Rice also have recorded two highly regarded albums together. In addition to all of these great studio releases, this segment will treat listeners to a WKCR archival recording of a 1974 visit to the station by Norman Blake and John Hartford.

 

A Tribute to Porter Wagoner - 1pm - 6pm

A tribute to Porter Wagoner, who died October 28, 2007. Wagoner was an American country music singer. Famous for his flashy Nudie suits and blond pompadour, Wagoner introduced a young Dolly Parton to his long-running television show. Together, "Porter and Dolly" were a well-known duet team throughout the late 1960s and early '70s. Parton wrote the song "I Will Always Love You" after Wagoner suggested she shift from story songs to focus on love songs. This segment will feature an interview with Wagoner from the WKCR archives conducted in the late 1980s.

 

A Tribute to Hank Thompson - 6pm - 12am

A tribute to Hank Thompson, who died November 6, 2007. Thompson was a country music entertainer whose career spanned seven decades. He sold over 60 million records worldwide. His musical style, characterized as Honky Tonk Swing, was a mixture of fiddles, electric guitar and steel guitar that featured his distinctive, gravelly baritone vocals.

 

Sunday, March 30

 

June and Johnny - 12am - 3am

A segment featuring duets by June Carter and Johnny Cash.

 

Country Rock - 3am - 8am

An exploration of how commercial country music has incorporated, or appropriated, elements from other genres like rock, blues, and gospel, while remaining true to its original influences and boundaries.

 

Country Gospel - 8am - 10am

A festival tradition, this segment will feature country gospel recordings from a variety of musicians, including Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, the Carter Family and musicians recorded in Appalachia by Alan Lomax in the 1930s.

 

Early Traditions of Black String Bands 10am - 12pm

The banjo is a product of Africa. Africans transported to the Caribbean and Latin America were reported playing banjos in the 17th and 18th centuries, before any banjo was reported in the Americas. When most of people think of fiddle and banjo music, they think of the white southern Appalachian Mountains as the source of this music. This segment will trace the history of the sting bands back to its African-American roots well before the Civil War. Included will be interviews with historians and/or musicians versed in this tradition as well as contemporary recordings of traditional songs.

 

Everybody Loves Hank - 12pm - 2pm

Parker The festival will end with a segment featuring the music of Hank Williams.