Spinning Tales:: blues

This week we'll start our winter journey through the blues with Frank Hutchison, Hersal Thomas, Reverand J.M. Gates and Dora Carr. Then, woven around today's two stories, we'll hear the blues by women vocalists accompanied by the piano, songs by Bessie Smith, Louise Johnson, Alberta Hunter, Mama Yancey, Hattie Hudson, Lizzie Miles, Hazel Scott Nellie Lutcher, Nina Simone, Katie Webster, Odetta and Rory Block.

Today's first story, aired about 4:30 will be by Pattie Waters. It seems the pathways to becoming a vegetarian are many and diverse. I went over to Pattie's house in Shelburne Falls recently

Bringing You The Music From Before

Mike Seeger, arguably, did more than another musician to preserve the traditional music of the Appalachian hills and bring it to a larger audience during our lifetime. A superb multi-instrumentalist, here he is playing with the New Lost City Ramblers, a group he formed and toured with extensively.

Michael Doucet has been a primary force in bringing Cajun music to its widespread popularity today. A multi-instrumentalist, he received an NEA Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant to study Cajun fiddle styles from masters such as Varise Conner, Hector Duhon, Canray Fontenot, Lionel LeLeux, and Dennis McGee in 1975. He is a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and his group Bousoleil has received two Grammy awards.

While his brother Flaco Jimenez mixed the Norteño sound with modern influences like jazz and country, Santiago Jr. upheld the traditions of his father and concentrated on the basic formula of two-button accordion with guitar, bass, and voice accompaniment. Here he performs with Los Cenzontles (The Mockingbirds)a group also very active in preserving and performing the traditional music of Mexican Americans. As well as performing, the members of the group also founded and operate Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center in San Pablo, California.

Pages

Producer and Host Michael Pollitt with Co-producer Lance Smith

This Week's Show: January 7, 2011

TUNE IN ON THE RADIO OR ON THE WEB!!

Past Shows