We’re at Midweek With Our Great ‘Folk Music From A-To-Z’ EP, Karla Bonoff and a New Playlist Tonight, Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Good morning, music lovers! We’ve hit midweek once again and we’ve got a full slate lined up for you today, including a new playlist to wrap up the day about the rain.

Here’s today’s lineup:

9:00 a.m. Folk Music From A-To-Z: Various Artists

Folk brought us the music of both social justice and social unrest. In this EP you’ll hear from 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, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Townes Van Zandt, Phil Ochs and more!

4:00 p.m. Singer-Songwriter Series: The Music of Karla Bonoff

The second airing of Karla Bonoff as our featured singer-songwriter for this week.

8:00 p.m. Looks Like Rain: Various Artists NEW!

Not quite an EP, but with a great selection of artists. You’ll hear The Temptations, James Taylor, America, Willie Nelson, The Rascals, Linda Ronstadt, The Lovin’ Spoonful, the James Gang, Joni Mitchell, J.D. Souther, Gordon Lightfoot, Poco, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Carole King, Melanie, Maria Muldaur, The Beatles, The Eurythmics, Tom Waits, Fats Domino, Valerie Carter, Electric Light Orchestra, Creedence Clearwater Revival and more!

We’re halfway to the weekend again. They call this “hump day” for a reason. Great day to tune us in. No cost. No advertising. Just music.

Midweek Madness!

It’s ‘Ladies Day Out’ in The Mermaid Lounge, the Final Airing of “No Dice,” and the Introduction of Karla Bonoff as Our Featured Singer-Songwriter on Saturday, April 15, 2023

Good morning, weekenders! We have reached the first full day of the weekend! We have a great day with our five-hour, all-women music extravaganza to kick things off!

Here’s your Saturday lineup:

10:00 a.m. Ladies Day Out: Various Artists

Yes, the women of music own The Mermaid Lounge for a chunk of the day today. You will hear Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, 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, Dolly Parton, Dusty Springfield, The Ronettes, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Norah Jones, Phoebe Snow, Nicolette Larson, Sheryl Crow, Valerie Carter, Susan Tedeschi and more!

5:00 p.m. Album of The Week: No Dice by Badfinger FINAL AIRING!

We bid a fond farewell to this great power pop album by Badfinger, the album that put them on the map, particularly in the U.S., and gave us the hit No Matter What. Tomorrow there’ll be a brand new album here for you.

8:00 p.m. Singer-Songwriter Series: The Music of Karla Bonoff NEW!

Although Karla Bonoff has released several really wonderful albums, she is best known as one of the most brilliant songwriters of her generation. Linda Ronstadt feasted off Karla’s work, including Someone To Lay Down Beside Me, Lose Again, Trouble Again and others. Others who have sung Karla’s songs include Wynnona Judd, Lynn Anderson, and Bonnie Raitt (an amazing rendition of Home for one). Tonight, we get to hear Karla sing her compositions herself.

It is Saturday, folks, and we’ve made it to the weekend. Why not give yourself a real treat and tune us in. We’re on 24/7. We’re totally free of charge. We do not run any commercial advertising. And we offer great programming you won’t hear anywhere else. What’s not to love here?

Ladies Day Out!

Today, We Celebrate Ronstadt’s 76th Birthday Mixed in With All That Wide Open Stream, Sunday, July 17, 2022

Today we celebrate the 76th birthday of Linda Ronstadt, a woman whose indelible mark on music is legendary. From the very beginning, Linda Ronstadt made sure she was in charge of her own career, and she did a hell of a job with it. She defied those who wanted to pigeon-hole her sound to sing just about any damned thing she wanted.

***She can no longer sing, but her music is timeless.***

Here’s your musical landscape for today:

11:00 a.m. Album of The Week: Hasten Down The Wind by Linda Ronstadt

This was a very tough selection. Like asking me to pick one singular favorite Linda Ronstadt song. But in the end, it made its case. Released in 1976, this was Ronstadt’s seventh studio album during a time when she was the undisputed Queen of Rock. (Some of us believe she still is, frankly.) Although the Laurel Canyon influence is all over this album, Linda Ronstadt switched gears on this one a bit and began to sing the songs of some new songwriters, like Karla Bonoff and Warren Zevon, who would soon be on the map. Two songs were also co-authored by Ronstadt, Try Me Again and Lo Siento Mi Vida, the latter being her first move into the Spanish sound.

The album became her third consecutive million-selling album, the first such feat by a female singer. Hasten Down The Wind earned Ronstadt a Grammy for the Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, in 1977, her second of 13 career Grammys. It was also the second of four country #1 albums for her.

2:00 p.m. Linda Ronstadt Live at The Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA, May 14, 1995

I had the absolute pleasure of being at this show in 1995. I remember it well. It was a real treat to have two brilliant women on stage that night as the late, great Valerie Carter was the opening act and joined Ronstadt on stage for a couple of beautiful songs. The best thing about Linda Ronstadt is that she was never threatened by sharing the stage with others, male or female, and that she felt like she was better as part of a bigger whole…in spite of her amazing solo career. And this brings us to our final programming for the day.

7:00 p.m. Linda Ronstadt & Friends: Duets and More

We close out the day with a great playlist of songs where Ronstadt shares the limelight. She’s either a back-up singer or a duet singer on these songs, sharing the duties with the likes of Glenn Frey, Valerie Carter, J.D. Souther, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Bette Midler, Emmylou Harris, The McGarrigle Sisters, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur, Nicolette Larson, James Taylor, Hoyt Axton and others. A fitting ending to our birthday celebration.

Before, in between and after, there’ll be all that wide Open Stream. Join us for Linda’s 76th birthday bash today. We’re sure you won’t regret it.

Happy Birthday, Linda Ronstadt!

It’s Sunday Here in The College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge: 12/27/2020

Good Morning, Musicologists! Here we are with today’s lesson from the college, where nobody ever really sleeps much these days.

Here’s today’s lesson from The Lounge:

December 27, 1958: Buddy Holly makes his first appearance in his home town of Lubbock, Texas, since becoming a major star.

December 27, 1960: The Beatles played to a welcome home crowd at the Litherland Town Hall in Liverpool, after completing a residency in Hamburg, Germany. They played with a sit-in drummer, as Pete Best remained in Germany and would, actually, never return to the group. As a result of the crowd’s reaction to their performance at this event, the Beatles finally believed in themselves. The rest, as they say, is fucking history, people.

December 27, 1963: The Animals performed for the first time on a BBC radio broadcast called Saturday Club. This would lead to a contract with Columbia.

December 27, 1964: The Supremes make their first of 16 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.

December 27, 1967: Bob Dylay released the album John Wesley Harding.

December 27, 1969: The Supremes’ final release with Diana Ross, Someday We’ll Be Together, becomes the final #1 hit of the sixties.

Also on this day, Led Zeppelin II, goes to #1 on the Album charts, replacing Abbey Road after eight weeks.

December 27, 1974: Bob Dylan recorded Idiot Wind and You’re a Big Girl Now on this day.

December 27, 1975: Faces announced their break-up (unfortunately). Rod Stewart focuses on his solo career (I have a love-hate with this guy) and Ron Wood joins the Stones.

December 27, 1980: Weeks after his murder, John Lennon’s Just Like Starting Over goes to #1 in both the US and the UK. It was chosen as the release not because Lennon considered it the best song on the album, but because he thought it was appropriate after a five-year hiatus from recording. It was his only #1 solo release.

Born On This Day

December 27, 1944: Mick Jones, great guitarist and songwriter with Spooky Tooth and co-founder of Foreigner, was born in Somerton, Somerset, England.

December 27, 1948: Larry Byrom, guitarist for Steppenwolf, was born in Huntsville, Alabama.

December 27, 1951: Karla Bonoff, singer-songwriter, solo artist, and back-up vocalist for Linda Ronstadt was born in Santa Monica, California. She wrote several songs for Ronstadt’s Hasten Down The Wind album, and also wrote All My Life, the Linda Ronstadt-Aaron Neville duet which won a 1991 Grammy.

And that is it for today, my friends. We will be back with the line-up shortly.