Threads and Tangents Music Hour

This week, the musical thread is Festival Time.  Summer’s here and there are great music festivals taking place, every weekend.  
To make this musical thread manageable, I’m going to focus on musicians that are playing at a single festival. So we’ll hear from some of the bands playing at this year’s Grey Fox festival.  Grey Fox is located in the Catskills in upstate New York and the festival’s been around since 2000.  It’s a well-respected music festival and draws fans from more than 30 states and a dozen countries. 
Bands and musicians we'll hear include: Alison Brown Quartet, Sam Bush Band, Charm City Junction, Della Mae, Donna The Buffalo, Jerry Douglas, Steve Earle & The Dukes, Béla Fleck ‘My Bluegrass Heart’, Sierra Hull, Del McCoury Band, Mr. Sun, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, and Peter Rowan & Los Texmaniacs.

This week's episode will be a little different, I tied up some Loose Threads.  Each week, I come across way more songs than I can fit in a one-hour program. So this is my chance to go back to a few of the episodes and play some songs that I wished I’d been able to play the first time around.  
Musicians/bands include: The Blasters, David Bromberg, Rosanne Cash, Donovan, Steve Goodman, Janis Ian, The Kinks, Buddy Miller, Neville Brothers, Conor Oberst, REM, Santo & Johnny, Bob Weir, Amy Winehouse, and Neil Young.
 

This week, the musical thread is Prison.  Well, it started out as songs about prison, then it expanded to include jail – apparently there’s a difference  – and then murder ballads creeped into the playlist.  So, tonight’s musical thread is really more like a web. The musicians we'll hear are: Bryan Bowers, The Clash, Sam Cooke, Tom T Hall, Hamell on Trial, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Wanda Jackson, The Kinks, The Louvin Brothers, Magic Sam, Morphine, The Pretenders, John Prine, Sally Timms, and Dinah Washington.

This week, the musical thread is Summer. Makes perfect sense since Tuesday was the Summer Solstice. The most popular summer songs tend to be about cars and sunshine and romance, all things designed to make us feel nostalgic and joyful when we hear them. So, we’ll have plenty of those; and to go along with them, a few that are a bit darker. The musicians we'll hear are: Eva Cassidy, Dick Dale, The Hold Steady, It's A Beautiful Day, Lovin’ Spoonful, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, NRBQ, Pavement, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Ramones, Jonathan Richman, Sly & the Family Stone, Loudon Wainwright, The Who, and Wilco.

This week, the musical thread is Dogs. The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show starts this week and that’s a good enough excuse to go digging into this idea of songs about dogs – both the 4-legged and 2-legged varieties. Some of the dog-loving musicians we'll hear are: Marcia Ball, Bobby “Blue” Bland, George Clinton, Dr. John, Tom Dundee, John Hiatt, Etta James, Norah Jones, Darren Nicholson, Charlie Parr, Duke Robillard, Chris Smither, Chris Stuart & Backcountry, and Uncle Tupelo.

This week's musical thread is Blues From Chicago. The annual Chicago Blues Festival starts in a couple of days so it was a good enough reason for me to dig through the last 70 years of great Chicago blues and share some gems with you.The first generation of artists – like Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Howlin' Wolf – were exemplars of the Chicago blues style. The distinctive sound of these artists changed popular music.As important as that first generation is to Chicago blues, this week I'm playing musicians that don’t get heard as much as those Chess masters. So we won’t hear any Muddy or Wolf tonight – at least not as band leaders – but don’t worry, we’ll hear some amazing Chicago talent, past and present. 

Tonight, the musical thread is Radio.  So, over the next hour we’ll hear songs that were written about radio.  
"The power of radio is not that it speaks to millions, but that it speaks intimately and privately to each one of those millions.”  Hallie Flanagan
Musicians and bands include: Bow Wow Wow, The Clash, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, John Hartford, Hot Rize, Joy Division, Joni Mitchell, The Ramones, REM, The Replacements, The Modern Lovers, The Selector, Steep Canyon Rangers, Velvet Underground,  and Wall of Voodoo.

This musical thread is the “Next” Dylan. May 24th is Bob Dylan’s 81st birthday but instead of a survey of Dylan’s work, we'll hear from some of the musicians that have been cursed with the “next” Dylan label.  The music from these folks is excellent, and this Thread gives me a good reason to feature songs by them.  Musicians include: Joan Baez, Courtney Barnett, Dan Bern, Steve Forbert, Jason Isbell, Willie Nile, Phil Ochs, John Prine, Patti Smith, Loudon Wainwright III, Sammy Walker, and Bob himself.

This week the musical thread is It’s Tele Time – featuring the Fender Telecaster.  WAIT, this is NOT an episode just for guitar geeks … it’s an episode for fans of great music that just happens to feature Telecaster players.  The Telecaster was one of the earliest mass-produced, solid body electric guitars, and its distinctive twangy tone and no-frills aesthetic was an instant hit with guitarists.  As we’ll hear, it played an important role in the development of the blues, rock ‘n roll, country, and R&B.
Musicians/bands: Booker T & the MGs, Roy Buchanan, The Byrds, Albert Collins, Danny Gatton, The Pretenders, Bill Kirchen, Julian Lage, Pink Floyd, Tom Principato, The Spellcasters, Muddy Waters.

This week the musical thread is Mother's Day.  Tonight, all the songs will have something to do with mothers and there's a special guest opening up the show.  Musicians/bands: Barbeque Bob, The Beatles, Peter Case, Ray Charles, Steve Goodman, Grateful Dead, Hamell on Trial, Jimi Hendrix, Sara Hickman, Blind Willie Johnson, BB King, Van Morrison, Mothers of Invention, The Shirelles, Herschel Sizemore, The Supremes, and The Temptations.