PopCult

It’s Valentine’s Day on Saturday, the wretched winter weather has subsided and people are making lots of plans. As such, there’s still things you can get into, so here we are with our trademark cursory list of cool STUFF TO DO all over the state, noted as briefly as possible. Please note that these are events local to WEST VIRGINIA, and not “West Virgina,” whatever the hell that is.

There are tons of smaller events that are escaping my radar, and a lot of couples are heading out of town to take advantage of the long weekend, or have other plans that don’t involve being in public, but if you want to get out and mingle in the local scene, here’s how you can do it.

Last week’s featured event was postponed due to frigid weather, and it will be rescheduled for a later date. I’ll keep you posted on that. This week our featured event happens on Saturday and Sunday, and it’s an annual event for Model Railroad hobbyists all over West Virginia.

As always, you should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.  Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, even if your promotional graphic uses cruddy AI art, contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky , Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote.

We are very happy to remind you that Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

Most weekends you can find live music at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and Friday and Saturday shows start at 7:30 PM.  Many Sunday afternoons at 2 PM they also have live music. This weekend they have Steve Himes on Friday, Pete Kosky on Saturday and Jordan Dyer on Sunday.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing.

You might also find cool musical events at Route 60 Music in Barboursville and Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.  You can also visit Coal River Coffee in Saint Albans for live music in an alcohol-free environment.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it. Besides, it’s too freaking cold for outdoor events now anyway.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events happening over the next several days that I was able to scrounge up online…

Continue reading

In observation of Valentine’s Day, which happens this coming Saturday, we offer up new lovey-dovey episodes of our shows that debut on Wednesday afternoon, as The AIR brings you new installments of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast, each of which offer their own slant on love.  You can tune in at the website, or just stay right here and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player lurking elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM (EDT) Beatles Blast brings you a solid hour of different artists performing the Beatles song, “All You Need Is Love.” Aside from it being my catchphrase on the show, and damned great song, our reason for this is pretty freaking obvious.

You will hear the song in question performed by a dazzling array of artists, as you will see listed below:

Beatles Blast 128

“All You Need Is Love”
by
New Musik
John Bayless
Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart and Joe Cocker
Neri Per Caso
Nada Surf
Jason Lytle
Daryl Hall
Jamie Lancaster
Yusef Islam and Paul McCartney
Echo & The Bunnymen
String Quartet
Elvis Costello
James Last
John Wetton and Robby Krieger
The Beatles

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon.

At 3 PM (EDT) on Curtain Call, Mel Larch brings you a mixtape comprised of three versions of the musical, She Loves Me.

You will hear songs from The Original Broadway Cast Album from 1963, the London Cast Album from 1964 and the 2016 Broadway Revival, which was the first-ever Broadway show to be streamed live. Listeners will be treated to performances by Gavin Creel, Rita Moreno, Jack Cassidy, Laura Benanti and more.

She Loves Me is a musical with a book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. The original Broadway run was directed by the legendary Hal Prince.

This is the third English-language adaptation of the 1937 play Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklós László.

The first adaptation was the 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner and the second was the 1949 musical version, In the Good Old Summertime. The plot revolves around Budapest shop employees Georg and Amalia, who, despite being consistently at odds with each other at work, are unaware that each is the other’s secret pen pal met through lonely-hearts ads.

Later, this same story was adapted into the movie You’ve Got Mail.

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. A six-hour marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday evening starting at 6 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Tuesday is always a great day to tune into The AIR  and today we prove it with a new episode of Radio Free Charleston to prepare you for the holiday of Love coming up this weekend. This week we have a new edition of The Swing Shift, too! To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

Radio Free Charleston brings you a new show with three full hours of newly-assembled music. We open with new tunes from Frenchy & The Punk and Ghoulbox, and fill the remainder of the first two hours with love-heavy songs from local and independent artists, just to get you in the mood for Valentine’s Day on Saturday.

Our third hour is a Valentine-themed MYSTERY BONUS TRACK MIXTAPE with a very appropriate, yet very specific theme…that you will have to tune in to discover.

Although there may be hints somewhere. Our feature image, in part, uses a design from episode 155 of our video show, “Love Robot Shirt,” which was a TeeFury design by artist, Rebekie B.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page, where available…

Radio free Charleston V5 258

hour one
Frenchy & The Punk “War on War”
Ghoulbox  “Juju Bag”
Payback’s A Bitch “Stop The World I Wanna Get Off”
June Swoon “Working Dog”
Gary Brooker “No More Fear of Flying”
Mind Garage “Paint It Black”
Cult Canyon “Real Sublime”
Tape Age“Hours To Days”
Nervous Twitch “Love 4 Me 2”
Falling Stars “Waiting For Love”
Novo Combo “Don’t Throw Your Love Away”
Government Cheese “Fall In Love With You”
The Aquabats “Spider Love”
Hello June “Soft Love”
Skafish “She Lives For Love”

hour two
Deni Bonet “All Around The World (Music Is Love)”
The Settlement “Only Love”
Three’s Company Blues “Addicted To Love”
Jim Lange“Love Is Casual”
Buni Muni “Love Spell”
Stark Raven “Feel Only Love”
The Amazing Delores “Love Magic”
The Cast of Paradise Park “Never Ending Love”
Go Van Gogh “Shut Up, I Love You”

hour three
Mystery bonus Valentine-y Mixtape

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM get ready for a new edition of The Swing Shift. Since I’m in the mood to be all mysterious today, all I’m gonna tell about this show is that, of course, it Swings like crazy, but it also features a solid hour of music by an unlikely Swing musician. You’ll just have to tune in to be surprised by who it is. You might find this show irrisistible.

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.

This week’s art is a meandering watercolor that I did when people who gave half a crap were watching The Super Bowl. I couldn’t have cared less, so this was a better use of my time, even with MG-afflicted fingers.

Usually when we take the train to Chicago, like we did in December, if we get stuck with a roomette, I’ll be sleeping uncomfortably on the top bunk and I’ll wake up around 5 AM. With nothing better to do, and not wanting to wake up Mel, I will just pull back the curtains a bit and watch the sunrise (if we’re lucky enough to be on the East-facing side of the train). This usually happens as we’re speeding through Indiana, where those poor folks can’t afford mountains, so the landscape is vastly different from what we have here.

Since I wasn’t terribly inspired, but wanted to make some art to distract myself from other things, I decided to slap some watercolors onto a new textured paper and, without reference, do my impression of what it looks like watching the sun rise from the Amtrak Cardinal in the Winter weather of Indiana.

It came out better than it had any right to.

If you want to see this image larger, click HERE.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR,  we bring you a new episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM we do the same with Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM, Nigel Pye brings us a Valentine-ish episode of Psychedelic Shack, with the entire hour devoted to the Welsh Psych/Blues band, Love Sculpture (featuring an embryonic Dave Edmunds). Here’s what you’ll hear…

Psychedelic Shack 108

Love Sculpture

“Sabre Dance”
“Mars”
“Morning Dew”
“Three O’Clock Blues”
“Don’t Answer The Door”
“In The Land Of The Few”
“Seagull”
“Why (How Now)”
“Farendole”
“Brand New Woman”
“The Stumble”
“People People”
“Summertime”

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM.

At 3 PM, Herman Linte explores the Art Rock/Prog Rock/Proto New Romantic Sounds of Roxy Music, with a two-hour retrospective on Prognosis…

Prognosis 135

Roxy Music

“Love Is The Drug”
“Do The Strand”
“Virginia Plain”
“The Thrill of it All”
“Out of the Blue”
“All I Want Is You”
“Tryptich”
“Prarie Rose”
“Angel Eyes”
“Jealous Guy”
“Mother of Pearl”
“Oh Yeah”
“Re-Make Re-Model”
“Ladytron”
“Avalon”
“He’ll Have To Go”
“Bitter-Sweet”
“Casanova”
“Same Old Scene”
“Over You”
“Dance Away”
“Both Ends burning”
“If There Is Something”
“In Every Dream Home A Heartache”
“More Than This”

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM.

Tonight at 9 PM we bring you our Monday night line-up featuring two hours each of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast, plus six hours overnight with an assortment of our programming from Haversham Recording Institute. The Haversham stuff starts at 1 AM and tonight it’s a three sterling editions of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat.

Our previously-announced video and photo essay will be delayed until later this week.

Above you see a video of my friend, Danny Boyd, talking about writing horror at ShockaCon in 2015. This is Danny in his element, teaching storytelling technique.

Danny passed away Friday. I’m not exactly sure what happened, and I don’t want to speculate. I just know that, for the fourth time in four months, I got caught off-guard by the loss of a close friend.

Professionally, Danny was “Daniel Boyd,” and his resume is diverse, impressive and also random as hell. Yes, he was a retired college professor. He was also an award-winning documentary filmmaker. He was a Fullbright Scholar. He built a film school program at West Virginia State (first College, now University). He wrote and directed delightful low-budget movies, some of which were picked up for distribution by Troma. He wrote magazine articles, children’s books, a novella and more. He taught graduate-level courses on creating graphic novels and wrote a few of his own. On top of that, at the age of 48, he decided to pursue a career as a professional wrestler, and as “Professor Danger,” he worked all over the world for major US independent companies and even for AAA in Mexico. I almost forgot, he adapted two of his movies into stage musicals, working with Marc Scarpelli and Larry Groce. The man never went long without a project or five in the works.

And he was always “Danny” to me.

When Danny was persuaded to come to teach at what was then West Virginia State College in 1983, I was one of his first students. We hit it off immediately and became friends. I am proud to say that I aced every class I took from him.

Of course, those classes included “Horror and Fantasy in Film,” and “The Importance of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone,” but still, for me that was an accomplishment.

I would tease Danny that he waited until I was gone to start teaching the meaty film making classes, and he’d tease back that, as a student, I was his guinea pig.

Danny was one of the few friends I was able to maintain contact with during my hellish first marriage. I’d introduced Danny to my brother, Frank, and they became close friends and collaborators, so he’d check in on me from time to time. For a while there, we became “divorce buddies,” commiserating through the ends of our respective unions.

When I finally broke into radio, Danny was one of my biggest boosters, and he played a key part in hooking me up with Michael Lipton, which would lead to a profile of me appearing in The Charleston Gazette, and that would be seen by one Melanie Larch, who decided she wanted to meet me.

Once again, I have lost a friend for decades who was very consequential in my life.

Danny was very supportive of me, as he was of all of his former students. Once I started writing PopCult, he became a regular presence at this website. Danny was also a contributor to the video incarnation of Radio Free Charleston. He very generously allowed me to butcher his short film, Coal Dust, Fairy Dust into a gag movie trailer, and contributed music videos and other short films, including an unreleased comedy short he did featuring animation by my brother.

Danny’s influence on me and on the late Brian Young shaped a great deal of the guerilla filmmaking style we used on RFC.

There are well over a hundred references to Danny in the twenty-years of this blog, with the first being less than a week after PopCult began, and the most recent being last September, when I was plugging his appearance at the first HurriCon.

That was the last time I saw Danny. I’d decided to go to the con as a civilian, so I didn’t take any photos or anything, but I went to Danny’s table and we spoke for nearly an hour. It was just two old friends catching up. I bought a copy of his novella, which I still have not had time to read, and he asked me how Frank was doing and we talked about some of the cool stuff that was happening locally. We also both felt really old when I reminded him that, when I took his film class, we had to shoot on Super 8 film because the Communications Department didn’t have portable video cameras yet, and the only 16 mm camera was bolted to an animation stand.

It was great catching up with Danny. It was always great seeing my old friend. I’m really going to miss him. I am far from alone in that. Danny had thousands of friends and former students who adored him, and he’s going to leave a huge void in West Virginia’s creative community.

He was a rare breed…a creative and energetic soul who was a tireless self-promoter, but also a generous and nurturing teacher and mentor. You don’t usually find all those qualities in the same person.

But you did with Danny. His legacy lives on with the works of his students and colleagues.

Come with us, back to November, 2012, for a wonderful episode of Radio Free Charleston that’s jam-packed with great music, an outtake from the world’s highest parachute jump and an introduction to a new Olympic sport!

“Calvin The Spiffy Spaceman Shirt” had music from Frenchy and the Punk, Amanda Brigette and The Nanker Phelge, plus a hilarious outtake from Felix Baumgardner’s Space Dive and a look at the newest Olympic sport, Spumling.

Frenchy and the Punk are seen on this show performing at The Empty Glass with the song “The Magician and The Dancer” from their 2010 CD, “Happy Madness.” They just released a brand-new song yesterday! You’ll hear that opening the RFC radio show on Tuesday.

Amanda Bridgette made her RFC debut with her lovely Contemporary Jazz song, “Fondly,” in a music video directed by Emily Burdette, whose talents as a singer/songwriter were on display in RFC 169 . This tune also features Charleston jazz icons Bob Thompson, Ryan Kennedy and Tim Courts. The music video was produced by Lisa Bragg and filmed in Charleston, West Virginia at the State Capitol.

The Nanker Phelge perform “Bankrobbers,” recorded live at the very first ShockaCon at the South Charleston Mound.

Of course, our major coup this week was our exclusive outtake from Felix Baumgartner’s space dive. It’s a little known fact that this worldwide sensation was actually a well rehearsed stunt and things didn’t always go as planned, as you will see in this hilarious blooper. Also in this episode of the show, sports videographer Frank Panucci brought us an in-depth look at the exciting new Olympic sport, Spumling. This was sure to be a worldwide phenomenon when it was officially unveiled at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi..at least it would have if not for the tragic Spumfire disaster that sadly left everyone in the world who knew how to play the sport either dead or injured.

You can find the original production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
February 6, 2026

Today I’m running a revised review of a new edition of a book that I first reviewed as a hardcover over a decade ago.

The book is so good that, now that it’s available again in a more affordable format, I want to tell you about it again.

First, I have two things to remind you about.

Tonight is the first Memorial Show for Lee Harrah at The Blue Parrot. The doors open at 8 PM and you can read more about it HERE. And there’s the graphic for it again at the right.UPDATE: The Lee Harrah Memorial Show will be postponed to a later date due to the Winter storm. I will keep you posted about the new date as soon as possible.  

Also, today is BANDCAMP FRIDAY! I told you about it yesterday, so if you missed it, go read it NOW. Then go buy some music and stuff.

And with those reminders done, it’s time for…

The PopCult Bookshelf

Creepy Presents Alex Toth
By Alex Toth and various
Dark Horse Books
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1506753201
$24.99 (discounted at Amazon)

Alex Toth was a genius comic book artist. He famously passed away of a heart attack at his drawing board at the age of  77 in 2006, but his legacy had been cemented for decades. He’s primarily known today for his work in animation, where he designed classic Hanna Barbera cartoons like Space Ghost, The Herculoids and Super Friends. His comic book work is far more impressive, but it’s sadly overshadowed by his more famous animation work.

There are several books on the market that present detailed looks at his life and career, but Creepy Presents Alex Toth lets his work do the talking, and his work stands on his own as some of the most innovative graphic storytelling in the history of the medium.

Toth’s innovative layouts actually helped the story, instead of hindering it

Creepy Presents Alex Toth collects all of the stories Toth drew for Creepy and Eerie Magazine during three stints working for Warren Publishing. His first work for the company was done under the editorship of Archie Goodwin, who still ranks high on most people’s list of the greatest writer/editor in comics. By this point in his career Toth had hit his stride and distilled his artwork to a deceptively simple-looking style that combined the austerity of animation design with the grand tradition of adventure comic strip art and highly innovative layouts that recal and surpass the experimental work of comics pioneer Will Eisner.

Eight of the twenty-one stories in this collection are written by Goodwin and feature Toth at his peak form. The short-story “mystery/horror” form is perfectly suited for Toth’s moody style and his work here is worth the price of the book by itself.

Continue reading

Tomorrow is Bandcamp Friday. It’s the first one of this year.

If you read PopCult regularly and/or listen to Radio Free Charleston on our sister internet station, The AIR, you know that my mantra for RFC is “Support the Local Scene. Support Independent Music. Buy your music in an ethical manner.”

One of the most ethical ways to buy music these days is by using Bandcamp, which on a normal day, passes along a much more equitable amount of the money you spend to the artists who make the music that keeps them in business.

On Bandcamp Friday, they waive their usual fees and the artists get to keep virtually ALL of the money spent on their music and merch that they sell through Bandcamp.

This is why I like to plug Bandcamp Friday. As I just explained, that’s the day when my favored streaming service, Bandcamp, foregoes their usual cut of the money and lets the artists keep all the money spent on their music and merch.

The artists get a much bigger cut of the proceeds.  If you scroll down and check out almost any post about an episode of Radio Free Charleston that has a playlist in this blog since 2023, you will find that the list of artists have links, many of which take you directly to that artist’s Bandcamp page.

I’m talking about the likes of The Settlement, Byzantine, Brian Diller,  Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess , Corduroy Brown,  Frenchy & The Punk, The M.F.B. , Saycouth , June Swoon, Samuel S.C, Custard Flux and many many others. Plus this is a good time to pick up older releases and merch from your favorite local and indie artists.

You know what to do to support the local scene and independent artists.

Remember, it’s not just digital downloads. You can order vinyl, CDs, Cassettes, T Shirts, hats and all kinds of other cool band merch.

To reiterate, let me quote from their website:

Bandcamp Fridays began in March of 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when the shuttering of venues led to a loss of vital tour revenue for artists. Since then, Bandcamp Fridays—on which we waive our revenue share and pass the funds directly to artists & labels—has resulted in millions of fans paying over $120 million directly to labels and musicians they love. In addition to helping artists pay the rent, or fund album recordings and tours, Bandcamp Fridays have also become a beacon for artists and record labels looking to raise awareness for causes or raise money for charities.

The first Bandcamp Friday of 2026 will be this Friday, February 6th.

Bandcamp Fridays will continue throughout 2026—check out the dates below, and mark your calendars:

March 6th
May 1st
August 7th
September 4th
October 2nd
November 6th
December 4th

So remember, wake up tomorrow and buy some music from Bandcamp. You know you want to!

Our two weeks plus of Arctic weather continue,  but there’s still things you can get intom so here we are with our trademark cursory list of cool STUFF TO DO all over the state, noted as briefly as possible.

This weekend is Super Bowl weekend, and a lot of folks see that as a reason not to go out. They’ll just stay in, eat and drink and watch one of the most unexciting Super Bowl matchups in years.  Still, there are some great events happening, including our feature event, which I mentioned yesterday during Radio Free Charleston...

We lost my friend, Lee Harrah Thanksgiving night, and this Friday Larry Shockley will MC an evening of Lee’s friends paying tribute to our fallen comrade.  Sadly, a prior committment means I won’t be able to be there, but EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD should go. There will be another concert for Lee at a future date, but this is your first chance to get out and here people talk about what it was like to know and love Lee.

As always, you should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.  Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, even if your promotional graphic uses cruddy AI art, contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky , Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote.

We are very happy to remind you that Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

Most weekends you can find live music at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and Friday and Saturday shows start at 7:30 PM.  Many Sunday afternoons at 2 PM they also have live music. This weekend they have Bugswrrrld on Friday, Isiac McAllister on Saturday and nobody wants to perform opposite the Super Bowl on Sunday.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing.

You might also find cool musical events at Route 60 Music in Barboursville and Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.  You can also visit Coal River Coffee in Saint Albans for live music in an alcohol-free environment.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute. Especially with our recent weather.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events happening over the next several days that I was able to scrounge up online…

Continue reading

Broadcasting from the Arctic Tundra of Dunbar Tuesday on The AIR  we manage to carve a partly-new episode of Radio Free Charleston from the ice. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

Radio Free Charleston kicks off with an hour loaded with great local and independent stuff, and the final two hours bring you the first part of a Beatles Tribute from Radio Free Charleston International that hasn’t been heard in more than nine years.

We open our show this week with Tyler Childers and the song that, just last Sunday night, won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song of 2025.  “Bitin’ List” is a remarkable choice, and is such a great tune that I’m opening the show with it, even though I already played it last year when it came out. It’s that damned good.

And it’s so surreal to realize that this is the guy I ran out to shoot video of in a bowling alley in Dunbar a dozen years ago.

The rest of our first hour is loaded with local and new music, including a couple of tracks featuing the late Lee Harrah. There will be a tribute show for Lee Saturday night at The Blue Parrot, and I will tell you all about that tomorrow in our STUFF TO DO post. We also bring you BRAND-NEW Music from June Swoon, The settlement, Moron Police, 4D Man, Kula Shaker as well as two new tracks from classic punk bands that mark their 50TH (!) anniversaries this year, The Damned and Buzzcocks.

Our second and third hours revive episode five of Radio Free Charleston International, from March, 2016. This was the first of two shows devoted to The Beatles, and it led to the creation of Beatles Blast, my show devoted to the Fab Four. While chunks of this show were recycled into the first four episodes of Beatles Blast, it has not been heard intact in more than nine years. It is loaded with rarities and curiosities from the Beatles canon, as well as some unusual covers.

The second part of the two-episode RFCI Beatles tribute will run the week after next. Next week we’re going to have a Valentine-appropriate show for you.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page in the first hour, where available…

RFC V5 257

hour one
Tyler Childers “Bitin’ List”
HARRAH “Pay The Piper”
CHUM “Headhunter”
Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess “Thankful”
The Settlement “Do It For You”
Moron Police “Nothing Breaks (A Port of Call)”
The 4D Man  “Revenge of the Gamma People”
June Swoon “Denver”
Heavy Set Paw Paws “Somebody Better (It’s OK)”
Kula Shaker “Lucky Number”
The Damned “Summer In The City”
Payback’s A Bitch “Burnin’ Love”
Buzzcocks “Seeing Daylight”
The Ghosts of Now “Needleface”

hour two
The Beatles “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)”
John Lennon “Serve Yourself”
Paul McCartney “Return To Pepperland”
George Harrison “When We Was Fab”
Ringo Starr “I Don’t Believe You”
The Wedding Present with Amelia Fletcher “Getting Better”
Sonic Youth “Within You Without You”
Michelle Shocked “Lovely Rita”
The Fall “A Day In The Life”
Tina Turner “Help”
Phil Collins “Tomorrow Mever Knows”
Annie Lennox “Don’t Let Me Down”
The Rutles “Get Up And Go”

hour three
The Beatles “What’s The New Mary Jane”
Mash Up “Only of a Lonely USSR”
Men Without Hats “I Am The Walrus”
New Musik “All You Need Is Love”
Paul Weller “Sexy Sadie”
Adrian Belew “Blackbird”
Kansas “Eleanor Rigby”
Alan Holdsworth “Michelle”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM  The Swing Shift is an encore of two recent episodes of our Swing Music extravaganza.

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.