Playlist: Womenfolk Food Special (September 14, 2008)

Since Matt insists...here's what I played this past Sunday on my radio show...

I presented a special food show, featuring some tasty songs and an interview with Barbara Spenader of Barsy's Almonds, who talked about how she turned her passion for food into a new business. We shared information about Twin Cities farmers' markets, co-op groceries and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). You can get more info and listen to the archived show here. Enjoy!

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WOMENFOLK: Food Special (September 14, 2008)
Hosted by Ellen Stanley.
Fresh Air Community Radio, KFAI 90.3 FM Minneapolis/106.7 FM St. Paul
Sunday 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
*New Releases
**Womenfolk Theme Song


**Kris Delmhorst / Everything Is Music / Strange Conversation / Signature Sounds


Crooked Still / Come On In My Kitchen / Shaken By a Low Sound / Signature Sounds


Julie Lee / Made From Scratch / Stillhouse Road / Compadre Records
Barb Ryman / Strawberry Pie / Earthbound / Renegade
Lui Collins / Making Pies / Closer / Waterbug
Kim Barlow / Gingerbread / Gingerbread / Caribou Records


[Womenfolk Find - Featured Artist of the Month]
*Red Molly / Beaumont Rest Stop / Love and Other Tragedies / Self
Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem / Butter & Egg Man / Cocktail Swing / Signature Sounds


Natalia Zukerman / Ice Cream / Only One / Talisman Records
Sue Foley / Sugar In My Bowl / Change / Ruf Records
Kate McDonnell / Sticky Buns / Don’t Get Me Started / Self
Michelle Shocked / Strawberry Jam / Arkansas Traveler / Mighty Sound


Jamie Anderson / A Little Chocolate / A Promise of Light / Tsunami Recordings
Ann Reed / Deep Fat Frying / By Request / A Major Label
Christine Lavin / Cold Pizza For Breakfast / The Bellevue Years / Philo


[Behind Twin Cities Women’s Calendar]
Katie McMahon / Katie’s Kitchen / Shine / Swallowtail Records
Abigail Washburgn / Coffee’s Cold/Tater Patch / Here In This Room / Self


[Live in the Studio: Barbara Spenader of Barsy’s Almonds]


Karen Mueller / Shortening Bread/Shady Grove / Clarity / Streamline Productions
Full Frontal Folk / Angeline the Baker/Cuckoo’s Nest / Sweet Myster of Life / Self


The Ginn Sisters / Let It Burn / Blood Oranges / Self
Gillian Welch / Wayside/Back In Time / Soul Journey / Acony


Ruthie Foster / Church / Stages / Blue Corn Music
Kate Campbell / Funeral Food / Visions of Plenty / Compass


10,000 Maniacs / Eat For Two / MTV Unplugged / Elektra

Kasey Chambers on Conan O'Brien Tonight

I'm a big fan of Kasey Chambers as a writer and a performer, so although I haven't heard her new album with husband Shane Nicholson, I'm betting she'll tear up the Late Night Studios as she takes the stage tonight on Conan O'Brien!

More on the Park Slope Jamboree

Peter Matthews over at The Feast of Music has put up a nice post about the Park Slope Bluegrass and Old-Time Jamboree including some nice things about me. (Although I have to confess that I've made it out to Park Slope for nearly all of the Jamborees but not actually all of them.) Most importantly, he has some photos from over the course of the night. (Can you find the back of my head?) Here is a really nice shot of David and Linda Lay:

Playlist: The Moonshine Show - 14 September 2008

Without having consulted Ellen to see how she feels about it, I've decided that Ellen and I should start posting our radio playlists here on The Sound of Blackbirds.

So here is my playlist from this morning's Moonshine Show. I spent some time remembering Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music, whose 97th birth anniversary was yesterday. I played some material from No Speed Limit, a great, young bluegrass band from Virginia who are playing at Jalopy tonight. And then Alex Battles and the Mighty Sammo stopped by to play two songs and tell us about next weekend's Brooklyn Country Music Festival.

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The Moonshine Show - 89.9 WKCR-FM, NYC
14 September 2008 - 10 a.m. to Noon
Host: Matt Winters

Bill Monroe [13 September 1911 - 9 September 1996] and His Blue Grass Boys; "New Muleskinner Blues," "New John Henry Blues," "Brown County Breakdown," "I'm Sitting On Top of the World"; _1950-1958_ (Bear Family)

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Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys; "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (1946); _The Classic Bluegrass Recordings Volume 2_ (County LP)

Elvis Presley; "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (1954); _The Sun Sessions_ (RCA LP)

Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys; "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (1955); _1950-1958_

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Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys; "Live and Let Live," "Devil's Dream," "With Body and Soul," "Travelin' Down This Lonesome Road"; _Anthology_ (MCA/Decca)

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John Hartford and the Hartford String Band; "The Cross-Eyed Child"; _Good Old Boys_ (Rounder)

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No Speed Limit; "Blue Night," "New East Virginia Blues"; _Sweet Virginia_ (Arhoolie)

Steve Barr; "Sally Ann"; _Stevie Barr with Friends_ (Arhoolie)

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Red Molly; "Coal Tattoo"; _Never Been to Vegas - Live_ (self-released)

Salamander Crossing; "Rocky Mountain Side"; _Passion Train_ (Signature Sounds)

The Dixie Bee-Liners; "Down on the Crooked Road"; _Ripe_ (Pinecastle)

Ralph Stanley with Laurie Lewis; "Old Love Letters"; _Clinch Mountain Country_ (Rebel)

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Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs; "Don't Cheat in Our Hometown"; _Second Generation_ (Rebel)

Red Allen; "Hello City Limits"; _The Folkways Years, 1964-1983_ (Smithsonian Folkways)

Balsam Range; "The Boat of Love"; _Marching Home_ (Mountain Home)

Tony Trischka; "John Henry Medley"; _Territory_ (Smithsonian Folkways)

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Alex Battles and Sammo LIVE in WKCR-FM Master Control
"Last Night in Town"
"Community Property"

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M Shanghai String Band; "Devil, You and Me"; _From the Air_ (Red Parlor)

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Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys; "I'm Working on a Building"; _Live from Mountain Stage_ (Blue Plate)

11th Annual Park Slope Bluegrass and Old-Time Jamboree

Yesterday was the 11th Annual Park Slope Bluegrass and Old-Time Jamboree (or is it the Park Slope Old-Time and Bluegrass Jamboree? -- it seems to switch every year) at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture.

Organized by James Reams and Tina Aridas, this event is a consistently wonderful weekend of music in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It starts with a James Reams and the Barnstormers concert on Friday night, and then Saturday afternoon is dedicated to workshops and jamming all over the grounds of the beautiful 1900 neo-Jacobian mansion on Prospect Park West. In recent years, there has also been an afternoon film festival. Then on Saturday evening, a group of great old-time and bluegrass bands -- definitely with more of the former than the latter -- come together for a concert.

A few highlights from this year:

• American Flyer - A bluegrass group featuring Ben Freed on banjo, Bill Christophersen on fiddle, Gene Yellin on guitar and vocals, Phil Zimmerman on mandolin and vocals, Ethan Kende on bass and Deb Griner on vocals and guitar, these guys put on a really, really solid set of music consisting mostly of bluegrass standards. I found myself particularly impressed with Ben Freed's banjo last night. He took a really nice solo on Bill Monroe's "Travelin' Down This Lonesome Road", provided the classic kick-off to Jimmy Martin's "Hold Whatcha Got" and also hit the right notes on Red Allen's "Hello City Limits." Gene Yellin had some wonderful vocals, too.



• John Cohen and Annabel Lee - This set was exactly what I would have wanted from John Cohen, one of the founding members of the New Lost City Ramblers -- celebrating their 50th anniversary this year -- and an important folk music collector and scholar. With Annabel Lee singing and playing guitar, and John switching between guitar and banjo, we heard a number of great old-time tunes.
  
  "Rolling Mills," a song that John collected from George Landers of North Carolina, featured this particularly evocative verse:
  
  Now bring my revolver here.
  Come and shoot out my brains.
  For I'd rather be dead and buried in my grave
  Than to be in the trouble I'm in.
  
  "Going Down the Georgia Road" was a variant of "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" that featured a slight melodic variation. (Having had a sip from the brown jug after being awarded the annual Brown Jug Award (along with Tom Paley), John Cohen said, "Whoa... I forgot where that one ended!")
  
  And then John told a terrific story about looking up Cousin Emmy when the New Lost City Ramblers were playing out at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles, and he and Mike Seeger went to her house, and she was giving them a hard time, not really wanting to talk to them. So when she stepped out of the room, John picked up her banjo and started playing her version of "Johnny Booker." This instantly changed her tune -- so to speak -- and she came back in the room and said, "Where did you learn that? ... You got that note wrong there!"



• Tom Paley - The other founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers on hand -- Mike Seeger wasn't there -- Tom Paley played a solo set with a couple of terrific classics ("Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train" and "Oh My Little Darling") and a lovely Swedish fiddle tune.



• New Lost City Ramblers Reunion - Tom Paley and John Cohen did get together to play a few tunes with Bill Christophersen, the consummate journeyman who doesn't need to leave New York, on fiddle. They played only a few songs, and the ratio of time tuning to time playing was approaching 1-to-1, but the crowd jumped right in on the choruses of Charlie Poole's "Baltimore Fire" and "Leaving Home" (the encore), which I think spoke to the importance of the band in the collective memory of the audience.



• David and Linda Lay - From Virgina, this husband-and-wife team (married after 10 weeks of dating and one true-love foot massage complete with udder cream) put on a really great show. Linda plays autoharp and sings absolutely beautifully, while David plays rhythm guitar and sings shy harmonies. They opened with "Just Someone I Used to Know," known as a classic Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner or George Jones and Tammy Wynette duet and done here with an autoharp! The crowd felt free to join in immediately on the chorus of "Drifting Too Far from the Shore" and also "Angel Band" with which they closed their set. Her autoharp playing was lovely, and the level of professionalism in their performance was a notch above. On tour as part of the Virginia Folklife Program, definitely do try and catch these guys.

Le Poisson Rouge

All right, I have to confess that I haven't been there yet, but Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street seems to quickly be becoming the hippest music venue in New York. I just keep hearing about one great show after another there.

Check out Peter Matthews' post on Feast of Music.

Ralph Stanley Weighs in on the Presidential Race

Ralph Stanley has endorsed Barack Obama!

Edie Carey in the Paste Rock 'n' Reel at Sea Cayamo Contest

News from Edie Carey in my inbox this morning:

I just heard the exciting news that I am one of 20 semi-finalists in the Paste Rock 'n' Reel at Sea Cayamo contest. If I win, I will get to perform aboard the Cayamo Cruise in February '09 alongside Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin, Lyle Lovett, Brandi Carlile, The Indigo Girls, and more! (gasp)

Now that I made it to the semi-finals, I need to gather as many votes as possible to advance to the finals. I would be so grateful for your vote(s). You can vote once per day per email address, and the way they've got it set up, you get to listen to a bit of each artist's song to vote. I just did it, and it took me about 7 minutes.
It's a bit more time-consuming than your basic select-and-vote,
but it's a great way to hear some wonderful new artists.

Voting begins today, and it will be up for 2 weeks: http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/rnr_vote

Sisters Folk Festival.

And now for my quarterly post..... I had a great time at the Sisters Folk Festival this weekend with The Wailin' Jennys (I do love to be a roadie sometimes...). Its not new news that I love them. Though I must say that for a while I was pretty sad that Annabelle Chvostek had left the band, and worried that I'd never quite love it as much again. But Heather Masse rocks. I hope they record an album with her. In the meantime, you should check out her solo stuff. And see them live.

You should also check out Rose Polenzani (her main web site is under construction right now, but listen to You Were Drunk on her Myspace page) and The Waifs, if you haven't before.

I'd like to say that I saw a lot of new and interesting acts at the festival, and while I did catch a few others (Tim O'Brien, Richard Julian, Keith Greeninger, Joe Craven, Stonehoney....), I mostly just saw a lot of The Jennys, Rose, and The Waifs. I like what I like, I guess.

Radio in Eastern Congo

Here's a story about an unusual radio DJ in North Kivu. His playlist consists of "Rwandan and Congolese pop hits and American country music," but his back announcements are not very much like mine or Ellen's.

(Discovered on Chris Blattman's blog.)