Good morning, musicologists and happy Memorial Day! Yesterday was Doctor Petty’s musical highlight day; today it’s The Beatles, simply the greatest band ever.
Here’s your Memorial Day run:
9:00 a.m. Free As A Bird: Various Artists
Today we celebrate those who fought for freedom with songs about being free in all its forms. This is particularly apropos as we head into November. We’re at that point again in history. You will hear Cream, Steve Winwood, Joni Mitchell, Edgar Winter, Otis Redding, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Who, The Kinks, Chicago, The Byrds, Dave Mason, Van Morrison, Tracy Chapman, Delaney & Bonnie, Chicken Shack, Emmylou Harris, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Seeger, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Dylan and more!
3:00 p.m. The Beatles Top 100 Songs
Again, not by voting listeners or scientific calculation. It’s based on sheer love of the music. We’ve got 100 Beatle songs for you today simply for the sheer listening pleasure. There’s no competition among songs; they are not in order. They simply are.
We’ve got great programming today sprinkled among our excellent playlist of 27,000 ever-rotating songs. We’re on 24/7. We’re totally free. And we do not run commercial advertising. We’re all about the music.
Good morning, folkies! We’ve got a real treat for you today as our programming is all folk with a little touch of the blues at the end. The big ‘Folk Music From A-To-Z’ EP is smack in the middle.
Here’s your musical lineup:
9:00 a.m. Singer-Songwriter Series: The Music of Kate & Anna McGarrigle NEW!
The Canadian-born musicians from Quebec are a true gift to the music world. While Kate was studying engineering and Anna was studying art, they began performing together and writing their own songs. It wasn’t until singers like Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Judy Collins began covering their songs that they received their own recording contract in 1974. Not surprisingly, this was when Linda Ronstadt exploded onto the music scene in full force with her Heart Like A Wheel album, the title song being a McGarrigle composition. The sisters continued writing and making albums up until Kate McGarrigle’s death in 2010.
12:00 p.m. Folk Music From A-To-Z: Various Artists
Folk music gave birth to protest songs long before the sixties, and musicians from the sixties and subsequent generations have kept the folk music tradition alive. The artists featured in this EP include John Prine, Dave Van Ronk, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul & Mary, Odetta, Cat Stevens, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Beatles, Arlo Guthrie, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, The Band, Eric Andersen, Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Nanci Griffith, Jesse Winchester, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Lead Belly, Tim Hardin, The Kingston Trio, Simon & Garfunkel, Richie Havens, Jackson Browne, Guy Clark, James Taylor, The Carter Family, Harry Chapin, Linda Ronstadt, Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Kate & Anna McGarrigle and more!
8:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Brother Johnny by Edgar Winter FINAL AIRING!
We bid a very fond farewell to this great album today, but it is in our standard rotation now and you will be hearing airings down the road. We promise. Tomorrow when you roll out of bed, there’ll be a brand new album waiting.
Yes, we’ll tell you to give us a listen again today. We’re on 24/7 and we’re totally free. We do not clog up the airwaves with commercial advertising or endless chatter. We’re all about the music.
Well, are you ready for the country? Because we are. We’re talking about both real country and the pioneers who hung out in Laurel Canyon and fused country and rock together. And that’s just the beginning today.
Here’s today’s musical landscape:
10:00 a.m. Are You Ready for The Country: Various Artists
We’ve got them all here today, from Nashville to Laurel Canyon. You’ll hear Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris,, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, The Byrds, Gram Parsons, Pure Prairie League, Asleep at The Wheel, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, The Marshall Tucker Band, Jerry Jeff Walker, Mudcrutch, The Band, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Glen Campbell, Rosanne Cash, Dan Fogelberg, New Riders of The Purple Sage, John Prine, Chris Hillman, The Desert Rose Band and more!
5:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Brother Johnny by Edgar Winter
We’re winding down on this selection, and it’s a great one. Get in today on Edgar Winter’s 2023 Grammy-award winning tribute album to his brother, the great bluesman Johnny Winter.
8:00 p.m. Neil Young & The International Harvesters Live at The Moody Theater, Austin City Limits, September 25, 1984
Neil Young has had many musical phases during his long career, and tonight we’ve got his country phase with a great Nashville-based band, The International Harvesters. A lot of critics panned Young’s musical phases but that’s because they like to button-hole performers into a genre, much the same way the “experts” told Linda Ronstadt that her career would be ruined if she sang mariachi music (that was bullshit; just the opposite happened). We here love Neil Young’s phases. It adds to his mystique.
We are here 24/7 and totally free of charge, folks. It’s all about the music, not the money. We don’t accept commercial advertising either, another bonus of joining our international community of listeners.
It’s Tuesday Bluesday once again and we have got ourselves a blues trifecta going on today. All of the programming is blues related. It doesn’t get any better than that. Happy Valentines Day, folks! We LOVE da blues here.
Here’s today’s Tuesday Bluesday lineup:
9:00 a.m. The Best of Louisiana Blues: Various Artists
When it comes to music, Louisiana is culturally rich on many levels, including the blues. This is our newest blues EP, and you’ll hear familiar voices along with some you may not know, including Ray Charles, Lillian Glinn, Slim Harpo, Fats Domino, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Rodney Harris, Roosevelt Sykes, Shirley & Lee, Roy Brown, Papa Lightfoot, Guitar Slim, Annie Laurie, Fats Matthews, Big Joe Turner, Big Boy Myles, Little Walter, Mary Butler, Erline Harris, Marcia Ball, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Professor Longhair, The Neville Brothers, Irma Thomas, Dave Bartholomew and more!
4:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Brother Johnny by Edgar Winter
We have the second airing of Edgar Winter’s 2023 Grammy winner for Best Contemporary Blues Album, a tribute to the great bluesman and high-energy guitarist Johnny Winter. Not to be missed.
7:00 p.m. In the Spotlight: The Music of Stevie Ray Vaughan
SRV, as he is lovingly known, is probably best known as the front man for the blues trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, but he was more than that. His mainstream career spanned just seven years before his tragic death, but he is on the tip of everyone’s tongue in the blues world. He is one of the most influential artists of the blues genre, and one of its most revered guitarists.
Tuesday Bluesday is always a busy listening day in The Lounge. We’re crowded around the world here. Today will be no exception. Why not give us a listen today? You’ve got nothing to lose, and it won’t cost you a penny. Seriously. Ever.
Good morning, weekenders! Your weekend is winding down and mine is just beginning as we start off this fine Sunday morning in the church of music known as The Mermaid Lounge. We’ve got some great stuff on tap for you today!
Here’s your Sunday lineup:
11:00 a.m. Album of The Week: Brother Johnny by Edgar Winter NEW!
Edgar Winter’s heartfelt 17-song tribute to his brother, killer bluesman Johnny Winter, garnered him a 2023 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album just this past week at the age of 76. The Winter brothers are legends in the classic rock arena and, along with Bonnie Raitt (who won this year at the age of 73), just go to prove that the generation of musicians who inspired this radio station have real staying power.
3:00 p.m. Ladies Day Out: Various Artists
At mid-afternoon, we turn the whole deal over to the women of music to take us into the evening hours. You’ll hear Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Rait, Carly Simon, Emmylou Harris, Petula Clark, Laura Nyro, Cilla Black, Irma Thomas, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Etta James, Janis Joplin, Carole King, Maria Muldaur, Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash, Eva Cassidy, Wendy Waldman, Shawn Colvin, The Ronettes, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Norah Jones, Phoebe Snow, Nicolette Larson, Sheryl Crow, Valerie Carter, Dolly Parton, Dusty Springfield and more!
We’re ready and raring to go this morning. Until we begin, we are on continual wide Open Stream courtesy of The Music Mermaid who, as you know, runs the show here and has impeccable taste in music. We are totally free 24/7 with no commercial advertising to mess up the mojo.
It’s an odd day in the College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge today. Aside from two entries, all of the events seem to have happened in 1968. It was, as Frank Sinatra said, a very good year musically. Devastating in others.
The year that changed the world.
Here’s today’s lesson:
December 28, 1968: The Doors released Touch Me. Believe it or not, the song’s opening guitar riff was inspired by the opening of C’mon Marianne by The Four Seasons. I shit you not. (And I think that’s probably the only song I like by The Four Seasons, come to think of it.) Touch Me would peak at #3 in America.
These other musical events also happened on this day:
The Beatles’ ninth studio album, The Beatles (aka, The White Album), hits #1 in the US.
The Rolling Stones‘ Beggars Banquet debuts at #3 on the Album chart.
Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Jeff Beck and The Pretty Things appeared at the Flight to Lowlands Paradise II festival at the Margriethal-Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Marvin Gaye remained at #1 on the R & B chart with I Heard It Through The Grapevine. I’ll say it again, he remade Gladys Knight’s version, which was released in 1967. Hers also went to #1. I love Marvin, but the record needs to be set straight.
In what could be viewed as a dry run for Woodstock, Joni Mitchell, Three Dog Night, The Turtles, Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye, The Grass Roots, Chuck Berry, Steppenwolf, The Box Tops, Canned Heat, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, Procol Harum, The Grateful Dead, Jose Feliciano, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and others performed at the Miami Pop Festival at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Florida.
Whew.
December 28, 1970: John Lennon released the song Mother.
December 28, 1983: Depressed by mounting debt and his personal problems, Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys drowned while diving near his boat in Marina Del Rey, California. Brian Wilson, dealing with his own issues, did not attend the funeral.
Born On This Day
December 28, 1914: Roebuck “Pops” Staples, songwriter/guitarist/singer for The Staple Singers (I’ll Take You There, Respect Yourself) was born in Winona, Mississippi.
December 28, 1938: Charlie Neville (The Neville Brothers) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
December 28, 1946: Edgar Winter, multi-instrumentalist, leader of The Edgar Winter Group, and younger brother of Johnny, was born in Beaumont, Texas.
December 28, 1948: Joseph “Ziggy” Modeliste, drummer for The Meters, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
And that is today’s lesson from the College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge!
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