Radio free Charleston jumps back into the swing of things with episode 118, “Not Kool Shirt,” featuring music from Fox Elipsus and White Chapel District, plus a preview of the latest show from the Contemporary Youth Arts Company. That’s it right up there at the top of this post!

“Norman Rockwell’s An American Love Story” opens Thursday at 8 PM at The WVSU Capitol Center Theater, 123 Summers St., in Charleston.  This is a brand new original work with words by Dan Kehde and music by Mark Scarpelli.

A follow up to a previous CYAC show, “Norman Rockwell’s American Paradise,” this new show tells a sweet love story (just in time for Valentine’s Day) with scenes based on different Norman Rockwell paintings. You can see a song from “American Paradise” on RFC 66.

The song we feature this week is a solo performance by Sarah Schleiss, accompanied on piano by Mark Scarpelli.

Next week you’ll get to see the full cast performing a beautiful song, with parts sung in Italian.

Sarah Schleiss

You can see “Norman Rockwell’s An American Love Story” February 10-12 and 17-19 at 8 PM with a matinee on Sunday, February 13 at 2 PM.

For reservations and group discounts call 304-342-6522 during regular business hours.

By the way, you’ll notice that in the introductions I refer to the show as “Norman Rockwell: An American Love Story.” This is because sometime my brain no hurt. I was not trying to sound like a cartoon Canadian.

Our namesake shirt on RFC this week is “Not Kool.” It’s designed by BeastPop ArtWorks and was sold through Teefury.com.  I liked it enough to buy it and wear it on the show. Oh yeah!

We’re beginning a run of several brand-new shows, and you’ll get to see a ton of cool new T Shirts, which as long-time fans know, is where we get the names for most of the episodes of our show.

Fox Elipsus at Taylor Books

We have music from a special visitor from the mother country on this episode of Radio Free Charleston. Fox Elipsus is an amazing musician. Originally from Oxford, England, Fox moved to Buffalo a few years ago, and he makes his living by driving all over the country playing in coffee houses and selling his CDs.  He plays around 300 dates a year, but last month was the first time he’d performed in Charleston.

A fairly-well packed house crowded into Taylor Books on a sunny, but cold, Saturday afternoon, and were treated to two hours of great music with loads of witty banter. Fox had played Parkersburg the night before, and some new fans followed him to the Capital City to hear him the next day.  Some Charlestonians made the trek to Huntington, where Fox played later on Saturday.

We;re bringing you two songs by Fox this week.  “Unrequited” is a lovely tune that recalls the more dreamy work of John Lennon.  You’ll also get to hear “Anderson Brown,” Fox’s foray into Hip Hop with a song about his cat.You may notice that the lighting conditions were less than ideal.  With a bright sun streaming in through the windows that Fox was standing in front of, you’ll see Fox in sillouette part of the time. Think of it as a partial eclipse of the Elipsus.

If you like what you hear, check out Fox’s website, where you can buy his CDs (double discs for ten bucks, quite the deal).

Tim Simon from WCD

Filling out the rest of this music-packed show, we have returning favorites, White Chapel District. WCD first appeared on RFC back on episode 72, and they make their long-awaited return with a hot performance of a brand-new song, recorded on New Year’s Eve at Tomahawks Smokehouse and Saloon.

We had a blast recording these guys that night. We even got to meet Kevin Sawyer and Metal Maiden from WV Metal. White Chapel District brought out three original songs that they’re recording for a new CD release.  The lead single is “Revolution,” and we are proud to present a wild live rendition of it on this episode of the show.You’ll be hearing more from The District on RFC in the coming weeks.

Rudy with Metal Maiden and Kevin Sawyer at Tomahawks on New Year’s Eve

That’s about it for this week’s show, but come back in one week for the next episode of the show, which will feature more from “Norman Rockwell’s An American Love Story,” plus a special treat from Ryan Hardiman and the Radio Free Charleston debut of Sasha Colette.

We’re going to try to take the show weekly for the next couple of months, since we have a huge backlog of terrific music, including Tofujitsu, OVADA, The Nanker Phelge, Josh Buskikrk, Red Audio, Dennis Hopper’s Army, The Dad Horse Experience, Slate Dump, Happy Minor and tons of other great local musical acts.