All times listed are Eastern Time
*denotes part of our Roots and Branches series
*American Routes – July 4th with Ponderosa Stomp, Del McCoury Band & Preservation Hall Jazz Band
This Fourth of July, American Routes celebrates our nation’s birthday with two live concerts of all-American music. We’ll stop by the Ponderosa Stomp, dedicated to the “unsung heroes of rock n’ roll” for a good dose of rockabilly, soul, country and R&B classics, done by the originators themselves. Then it’s down the street to Preservation Hall, where bluegrass masters the Del McCoury Band mix it up with the Crescent City’s own purveyors of traditional jazz, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. So fire up the grill, pull out your lawn chair and turn up the radio for American Routes.
Bluegrass Breakdown – Larry Sparks/King Wilkie/Cadillac Sky Live
We’ll be featuring live segments from the Breakdown’s vaults. Larry Sparks will lend some insight into his landmark Rebel CD, 40, which celebrates his 4 decades in the Bluegrass biz; King Wilkie will be ganging around the microphones presenting their hard-driving, high, blue and lonesome wares; and Cadillac Sky will follow with their patented brand of new grass with songs about trains, drinking and … “cash crops.”
Bluegrass Master Class – Banks of the Ohio #90
This week’s show profiles Norman Blake with three early recordings from the 50s and 60s, and three from his more recent work. Other highlights include songs about demon trains, banjo great Mike Lilly, female pioneer Rose Maddox, and live cuts from Flatt and Scruggs (with Benny Martin and Curly Seckler) and Bill Monroe (with Del McCoury and Bill Keith). A production of the International Bluegrass Music Museum, hosted by Fred Bartenstein.
Bluegrass Review
We start out with new bluegrass by Brand New Strings, and find that the group’s style comes in part from Del McCoury’s. And why not? Del has been a bluegrass standard bearer for a couple of decades. The Gem of Bluegrass deals with high singing and how it marks passionate emotions in bluegrass music. In part II of the show, our focus stays on singing, as we play fancy singing, especially song endings, inspired by the Osborne Bros. We wind up with some bluegrass from Tin Pan Alley sources. The playlist is located at www.bluegrassreview.com. Join the Bluegrass Review discussion on Facebook. Just do a Facebook search for Bluegrass Review.
Bluegrass Signal – Up A Creek
This week, Bluegrass Signal’s Peter Thompson is up a creek. There are several renditions of creek-ish tunes by Jimmy Martin, Earl Scruggs, Clarence White, Watson/Blake/Rice, and The Roadoilers, plus songs from creek-ish bands based in NorCal (Adobe Creek, Bean Creek, Mossy Creek) and elsewhere (Nickle Creek, Polecat Creek, Spring Creek). Let’s go up whatever creek and have a little fun.
*The Dick Spottswood Show
Don’t miss this one! Besides being the birthday of our nation, It’s the silver anniversary of the Obsolete Music Hour, which first aired July 6, 1985, and the 43d anniversary of July 3, 1967, when Lyndon Johnson was still President, and the first Bluegrass Unlimited show, with Gary Henderson and me, aired on WAMU. Along with Independence Day anthems, we’ll hear excerpts from a 1969 show featuring the Stonemans, and one from 1968 with banjo giant Bill Emerson.
Very special thanks to Bluegras Country’s Katy Daley, who’s promoted the occasion on the Bluegrass Blog. She makes us all look good!
*etown – Vienna Teng (featuring Alex Wong) and Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Hosts Nick & Helen Forster welcome back guitarist and songwriter Dan Hicks. And of course he brings those great back up singers, The Hot Licks. His eclectic style and counter-culture appeal, driven by sharp-tongued and dry-witted lyrics, has twice landed him on the cover of Rolling Stone! Also with us in this encore airing is pianist and singer-songwriter Vienna Teng. She’s a Stanford computer science grad and software engineer whose career took a sharp turn several years ago, when she ditched that world to pursue her musical passions. She has since released two critically acclaimed independent albums which landed her on the Billboard album charts and Amazon’s bestseller list.
The Free for All – Wednesday, 6-9 p.m. LIVE, Friday 9 p.m.-12 a.m.
The Gary Henderson Show – Saturday 8-11 a.m. LIVE, Monday 12 p.m., Friday 12 a.m.
Irish Heartbeat with Dervish – Saturday 6 p.m. ET
The Katy Daley Show - Monday- Friday LIVE, 7-10 a.m. ET
The Lee Michael Demsey Show – Saturday 11a.m.-2p.m., Monday- Friday LIVE, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. ET
Lonesome Pine RFD with Carol Beaugard – Mon. 12 a.m., Wed. 9 p.m., Thurs. 12 p.m.
*Mountain Stage
Featuring Marc Cohn *Special One-Hour Performance*, Kate Miller-Heidke, Sahara Smith,
David Broza, Bob Thompson Unit. View Playlist.
Music from Foggy Hollow
In Mike Kear’s Music from Foggy Hollow this week he’s featuring the new CD from a new band called Volume Five. The CD is called “Down In A Cell” and Mike plays some songs from the CD and talks about the band members. Also this week, we have some great new music from Big River Bluegrass, Nashville singer songwriter Nora Jane Struthers, Steve Gulley and Tim Stafford, some classic bluegrass from JD Crowe & the New South the Bluegrass Album Band, Kenny Baker and Roland White and lots more. Also there’s the regular Portuguese segment from Erio Meili in Brazil and Mike looks back 5 years to see what was in the show back then, and lots lots more. It’s only for fun, so you’d be a wombat if you missed it!
Old Time Jam
Hubie reports on the Henry Reed Memorial Fiddler’s Convention at Glen Lyn, Virginia, with news from Kirk Sutphin, and plays a medley of Henry Reed’s tunes. Charleston, South Carolina is featured in a set of tunes with “Charleston” in their names. The rest is a variety including such artists as Chris Coole, Brad Leftwich, Rhys Jones, Gandydancer, the Cliffhangers, Boiled Buzzards, Mysterious Redbirds, New North Carolina Redbirds, and more.
Open Mic – Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Countdown
Lee Michael Demsey hosts the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Countdown for the month of July.
The Ray Davis Show – Monday- Friday LIVE, 3-6p.m., Sunday 10am-1p
Rotating Shows
The Tom “Cat” Reeder Show – Sunday 3 a.m. (June 27)
Tom will be joined by special guest Mitch Harrell, the son of the late Washington, DC bluegrass great Bill Harrell. During the 3rd hour, Nora Jan Struthers visits our Washington, DC studios for an interview and live performance.
The Old Home Place with Lisa Kay Howard– Tuesday 12 p.m., Thursday 12 a.m., Sunday 3 a.m. (July 11)
Special Programming - Nora Jane Struthers & Dierks Bentley
This week we feature a live performance and interview from our Washington, DC studios with up and coming Americana artist Nora Jane Struthers.
Also, we showcase an interview that Katy Daley conducted recently with Dierks Bentley at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in downtown Washington, D.C. Dierks discusses 5 cuts from his new bluegrass project and explains his long-time love of bluegrass music.
Stained Glass Bluegrass hosted by Bob Webster – Sunday LIVE 6-10 a.m., Tues. 9 p.m.
On this very significant holiday we’ll enjoy some patriotic songs for the 4th of July weekend plus a few new selections from Little Roy Lewis & Lizzy Long. Arthur Smith & The Crossroads Quartet add the 1903 hymn “Ready,” written by Charles Davis Tillman, to our list and start our singing at the start of the third hour. (Tillman, a popularizer of the gospel song, had a knack for adopting material from eclectic sources and creating a mix now known as Southern Gospel. Tillman gave us the popular versions of “My Mother’s Bible” and “I Am A Poor Wayfaring Stranger” among others. As for our addition of “Ready,” research reflects “Ready to suffer grief or pain” had a British author in the tradition of the Keswick Hymn-Book, but Tillman wrote the tune which is invariably and exclusively used in the United States.)
LIVE *Traditions with Mary Cliff – Saturday 2-6 p.m.
Uptown Bluegrass with George McKnight – Some Er’ Previews
This week’s show is a preview package of upcoming summer music, festivals and events in bluegrass music.
