Month: February 2024 (Page 1 of 3)

This week we need to bend the boilerplate a little for a new batch of STUFF TO DO in and around the Charleston/Huntington WV area (and beyond) this weekend, because before we get to the usual coolness, it’s time for a big annual event in Charleston.

Today we’re going to cover The Celtic Calling, which actually started yesterday. The 8th Celtic Calling Gathering is taking place downtown and around Charleston WV from last night until Sunday.

This celebration of all things Celtic has become an annual tradition here in Charleston.  If you can, come out to enjoy this immersion into Celtic culture.

Many of the events are free, and it’s a way better way to celebrate the home countries of many Appalachians than green beer and leprechauns.

Here’s The Schedule:

Thursday, February 29th
9 – 7.30pm: Children’s Craft and Story Book Activities – 4th Floor, Kanawha County Public Library, 123 Capitol Street – FREE.

Noon – 1pm: Celtic Poetry Sharing and Workshop with James Cochran – Kanawha County Public Library: 123 Capitol Street. – FREE.

*5.30-7.30pm: Celtic Open Mic/Jam: Celtic musicians can request a time slot in advance by contacting pepstein52@gmail.com or 304.343.5074 – All tips donated to Celtic Calling. The Empty Glass, 410 Elizabeth St. – FREE.

7.30pm: Film: ‘Let the Wrong One In’ – ‘Let The Wrong One In’, an Irish horror comedy. Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF, 230 Capitol Street — Admission – $10 Adults, $5 Students. Tickets in advance at: https://www.wviff.org/floraleeharkcohen/

Friday, March 1st
9 – 4pm: Children’s Craft and Story Book Activities – 4th Floor, Kanawha County Public Library, 123 Capitol Street – FREE.

5pm: Film – ‘Let The Wrong One In’, an Irish horror comedy. Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF, 230 Capitol Street — Admission – $10 Adults, $5 Students. Tickets in advance at: https://www.wviff.org/floraleeharkcohen/

6 – 10 pm: Beni Kedem Highlanders Tartan Ball 2023, Bedi Kedem Temple, 100 Quarrier St, Charleston, WV 25301. Admission – $50 Call Shrine for Tickets: Phone: (304) 343-9405

*7-10pm: 7-10pm: Celtic Ceilidh – Scottish Country Dancing – Music by St Albans Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. Kanawha United Presbyterian Church, Fellowship Hall, in rear of Church, 1009 Virginia Street East, or enter adjacent Parking from Kanawha Boulevard – Admission – $5-10; Children under 10 Free.

7 30- 9 30pm: Dave Haas and Friends – Taylor Books, 226 Capitol Street, Charleston, WV 25301 – FREE

Saturday March 2nd
9am: Celtic Calling 5K Kilt Run and 2K Walk
Spring Hill Cemetery, 1555 Farnsworth Drive –

Downtown Charleston Venues: All Events FREE unless indicated:

4pm: Celtic Calling Parade- Lee Street Triangle to Kanawha Blvd – 3 Pipe Bands, Dancers, Loch Ness Monster, St Patrick, Unicorns, and more.

*10am- 3 45pm: Celtic Calling Village – City Center at Slack Plaza, 169, Summers Street. including:
Clan Tents, Craft Vendors, Food Trucks Children’s Crafts and Games,
– Children’s Mini Highland Games (Age sections 5-8 and 9-12)
12:15pm – Toss the Sheaf – t-shirt prizes
1:15pm – Toss the Caber – t-shirt prizes
2:15pm – Tug O’ War – For all Children to participate in.

Music and Dance Stage
Times are approximate.
10 30am: Opening Music
10.45am: Lincoln County Cloggers
11 15am: Kinnfolk
12 15pm : Savanna Brown, Scottish Dance/Bagpipes, Kanawha Valley Pipes And Drums
1pm: Crowning of Chieftain, Queen and Court – Who will wear the crowns, and win a prize package of Gift Certificates, Celtic Calling T-shirts, Tickets to the FOOTMAD, ‘Daimh’ Concert. Wear your best Celtic Garb, sections for the young ones as well. Contest judged by Celtic Calling Board Trustees.
1 20pm: Lincoln County Cloggers
1 50pm: West Virginia Highlanders Pipe and Drum
2 15pm: Childrens Tug O’War in front of Stage.
2 30pm: Celtic Calling Dog Show – All breeds welcome. Awards for best Celtic Breeds, Fancy Dress (best Celtic garb), Red Head and more
3pm:Kinnfolk

Kanawha County Public Library: 123 Capitol Street.
9 – 4.30pm: Children’s Craft and Story Book Activities. Making Irish Badges – 4th Floor
10- 11 30am: Ireland- A Travelogue and International Discussion- Andy Gallagher
Noon – Elementary Age Children Dance Workshop , with Appalachian Lads and Lassies, 4th Floor.
2-3 30pm: Celtic Container Gardening with Kanawha County Extension Master Gardener Program
3pm: Celtic Storytime: Read Along with Ricky the Red Bearded Dragon

Rock City Cake Company: 205 Capitol Street.
1130 – 12 30am: Aubrey Cale – Harp Performance, Q&A, ‘petting zoo’.
1- 2 30pm: Tim and Maggie share Different Tunes and Instruments in the Celtic Tradition
3pm : Almost Heaven Dulcimer Club
5pm: Appalachian Lads and Lassies, Scottish and Irish Dance Performance

Sam’s Uptown Cafe, 28 Capitol Street
11 30-2pm: Legendary Celtic Brunch

Short Story Brewing Charleston: 186 Summers St
12.30pm: George Daugherty Tall Tales Contest—Short Story Brewing
5.30pm: Father Son & Friends at Short Story Brewing Charleston
8.30pm: Father Son & Friends –

5-7pm: The Charleston Rogues – World’s Greatest Happy Hour at the The Blue Parrot, 14 ½ Capitol Street – $5

7 30pm: FOOTMAD presents: Dàimh from Scotland in Concert. Capitol Theater, Resurrection Church., Ticket information: FOOTMAD.org or Info: 304-729-4382

7:30-9:30pm: An evening with Tim and Maggie – Music – Taylor Books, 226 Capitol Street, Charleston, WV 25301 – FREE.

10 pm: Traditional Music Session hosted by Kinnfolk – Adelphia Sports Bar & Grille, 218 Capitol St. -FREE.

Sunday March 3rd
11am: Kirkin of the Tartans, Kanawha United Presbyterian Church, 1009 Virginia Street.

11 30-2pm.: Celtic Brunch – Sam’s Uptown Cafe, 28 Capitol Street

Noon – 4.30pm: Children’s Craft and Story Book Activities – 4th Floor, Kanawha County Public Library, 123 Capitol Street – FREE.

1-3pm: Celtic Calling Highlander at Rock City Cake Company March 3rd -‘Paint a Highlander’ by Alto Design Paint Party & Craft Classes, Rock City Cake Company: 205 Capitol Street. – $35

2 pm: Team Irish Road Bowling at KSF – Registration from 1 30pm- Kanawha State Forest – FREE.

2pm: Film – ‘Let The Wrong One In’, an Irish horror comedy. Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF, 230 Capitol Street — Admission – $10 Adults, $5 Students. Tickets in advance at: https://www.wviff.org/floraleeharkcohen/

4pm: Celtic Readers Theatre–5 plays , Stage Readings of 5 Top Playwright Competition Entries – Short Story Brewing: 186 Summers St

So go get all geared up and ready for when Saint Patrick’s Day in a couple of weeks.

As I have been copying and pasting of late, this a good time to remind you 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.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday it’s Dave Haas and Friends, as part of a weekend tie-in with Celtic Calling. Saturday Tim & Maggie take the stage at the beloved bookstore/cafe/art gallery.

RFC faves, Golden, will be at Louie’s Loungeat Mardi Gras Casino Saturday at 8 PM.

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about. Thursday at 5:30 PM the Helping Hour with Swingstein & Robin turns into a Celtic open mic. Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour.   You can check below for the graphics for other cool weekend shows at The Empty Glass.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. It’s still a going concern with the ‘rona surging again. And now there are seasonal allergies, the flu, turtles announcing their retirement, grumpy Leprachauns, tp-dancing street squids and other damned good reasons to be careful. 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.

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

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the weekend, roughly in order…

The mid-week finds us at our usual spot, and The AIR still manages to bring you a new episode of Curtain Call and a recent edition of Beatles Blast to put the hump in your hump day.  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) in an encore of a show from last August, Beatles Blast brings you a mixtape tribute to Abbey Road, with cover versions of every song on that classic album, some of them twice. It’s a wild mix of veteran prog-rockers, 1960s legends, alternative rock icons, and a few people you probably never heard of before. Heck, we even have three keyboardists who spent time in YES. You can find the playlist and more notes HERE.

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 pays tribute to Stephen Sondheim, who, over two years after his passing, is the hottest composer on Broadway.  Mel introduces a mixtape that’s made up of incredible performances from an all-star line-up of stage legends, and none of these performances have ever been heard on Curtain Call before.

There are currently two of his musicals running on Broadway. His final work just wrapped up a successful off-Broadway run, and is rumored to be moving to the Great White Way this summer. There are also rumors that the revue of his work, Old Friends, may transfer to New York from London. Revivals of his classic works are happening all over the world, in community theater, professional houses and major tour productions.

And that’s without mentioning the two Broadway revivals that ended last year. There’s even a Reddit group devoted solely to guessing which Sondheim show will be revived on Broadway next.

With all that going on, Mel thought the time was ripe to, once again, pay tribute to the master. Check out the playlist…

Curtain Call 141

Sondheim Tribute

“Sorry-Grateful” by Mandy Patinkin
“Send In The Clowns” by Glynis Johns
“All Things Bright and Beautiful/Bang! /All Things Bright and Beautiful (Part 2)” Suzanne Henry and Craig Lucas
“A Little Priest” by Michael Ball and Maria Friedman
“I’m Still Here” by Millicent Martin
“Not A Day Goes By” by Patti Lupone
“The Ladies Who Lunch” by Carol Burnett”
“Franklin Shepard Inc.” by Evan Pappas
“Chrysanthemum Tea” by John Cashmore
“Tonight” by Chita Rivera and the company of West Side Story
“Old Friends” by Stephen Sondheim, John Barrowman, Carol Burnett, George Hearn, Ruthie Henshall, Bronson Pinchot

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.

Also on The AIR, Wednesday at 11 PM,  The Comedy Vault brings you an hour of stand-up comedy from Lewis Black.

Tuesday means cool new stuff on The AIR.  We have new episodes of  Radio Free Charleston and The Swing Shift.  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 tons of replays throughout the week.

Our first hour is a collection of cool local, independt and brand-new music. We open with a classic track from Mind Garage, the pioneering Morgantown band that invented Christian Rock back in the 1960s. I do wonder why this band is not in the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. They should’ve been inducted years ago.

The track from the band is “Stain Glass Window,” which was posted by band member, Norris Lytton, in the Facebook group, Mind Garage Music and Art, which he moderates, and which is one of the few things I spend any time reading on Facebook these days. Mind Garage was: Larry McClurg – lead vocals, Norris Lytton – vocals, bass and sax, Ted Smith – percussion, Jack Bond – vocals, keyboard,  and John Vaughan – vocals, lead guitar.

The remainder of our all-new first hour has new music from Disco Risque, Andy Prieboy, The Paranoid Style, The Settlement, Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates and more cool tunes to which you may well groove.

Our second and third hours are an early episode of Radio Free Charleston International, that acted as the pilot for Beatles Blast. This is the second of two parts, and you many have heard the first part last week.

The links in the first hour of the playlist will take you to the pages where you can learn more about each artist and buy their music or find out where to see them (where available)…

RFC 165

hour one
Mind Garage “Stain Glass Window”
Disco Risque “PreFluffPartyFyfe”
Joi “Blue Magic Melody”
Teddy Kumpel & Nome Sane “Wrong Song”
Slate Dump “My Precious Moonbeam”
Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates “The Blues”
The Paranoid Style “Client States”
The Settlement “Blindman Parts 1 & 2”
Andy Prieboy “Putting The Laundry Away”

hour two
Beatles “Free As A Bird”
John Lennon “Yer Blues”
Paul McCartney “Blackbird”
George Harrison “If I Needed Someone”
Ringo Starr “With A Little Help From My Friends”
Dawn Penn “Here Comes The Sun”
Vanessa Mae “Because”
Hamilton de Holanda “You Never Give Me Your Money”
Beatles “Sun King”
Frankie Howerd “Mean Mr. Mustard”
Roy Wood “Polythene Pam”
Joe Cocker “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”
Ben Folds “Golden Slumbers”
Phil Collins “Carry That Weight/The End”
Chumbawumba “Her Majesty”
The Smithereens “All My Loving”
Harry Nillsson “You Can’t Do That”
Lemmy “Back In The USSR”

hour three
Under The Radar “Eleanor Rigby”
Dons of Quixote “Savoy Truffle”
The Marlowes “Old Brown Show”
The Blue Cartoon “I Want To Tell You”
Jamie Hoover “Only A Northern Song”
Eytain Mirsky “Don’t Bother Me”
Journey “It’s All Too Much”
Frank Zappa “I Am The Walrus”
The Vines “I’m Only Sleeping”
Yes “Every Little Thing”
Robert Palmer “Not A Second Time”
Eddie Vedder “Hey, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”
Heather Nova “We Can Work It Out”
The Donnas “Drive My Car”
Sweet “Paperback Writer”
Sparks “I Want To Hold Your Hand”

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,  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 we offer up a new mixtape episode of The Swing Shift.  This is the first of a three-week dive into Boogie Woogie and its essential contribution to the success of Swing Music. The next two episodes of the show will include me telling you more about the histories of both Boogie, and Woogie, but this week it’s just a solid block of eight to the bar rhythm and blues. This is the engine that drives the the dance music of Swing, and we’re going to wallow in it for two more weeks.

The Swing Shift 154

Professor Longhair “Boogie Woogie”
Ivory Joe “All States Boogie”
Bill Johnson “Elevator Boogie”
Big Bob Daughtry & The Kampus Kats “Big Bob’s Boogie”
Louis Jordan “Caldonia Boogie”
Wynonie Harris “Wynonie’s Boogie”
Johnny Otis “Good Boogie Googie”
Joe Turner “Mardi Gras Boogie”
George Jenkins “Shufflin’ Boogie”
Bob Gaddy “Little Girl’s Boogie”
Billy Wright “Married Woman’s Boogie”
Tommy Ridgley “Boogie Woogie Mama”
Dave Bartholomew “Good Jax Boogie”
Milton Willis “Little Joe’s Boogie”
Willie Johnson “Got The Boogie Woogie Blues”
Harold Burrage “Way Down Boogie”
B.B. King “B.B. Boogie”
Marvin Johnson “Save Me A Boogie”
Amos Milburn “Roomin’ House Boogie”
Hal Singer “Disc Jockey Boogie”
Bump Myers & The King Porter Orchestra “Bump’s Boogie”
Lightning Hopkins “Moving On Out Boogie”
Doc Pomus “Too Much Boogie”

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 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 Thursday and Sunday evenings.

This week I’m going to give you a little insight into my art process.

Sometimes, with a piece intended for a painting of some sort, I’ll start with a tiny colored pencil sketch on a small piece of rag paper from one of the small sketchbooks I keep around. This is where I rough out the composition and color and decide if I want to continue in that direction.

If I like what I came up with, I’ll do a bigger piece on different paper using whichever medium I am comfortable with that day. The smaller studies, many of which turn up as Monday Morning Art, are more detailed and larger, and get filed away to be transferred to canvas someday when I have all the time in the world (this doesn’t happen too often. I think I painted between three and six full-canvases last year, and that was prolific for me).

Today I’m letting you see one of the pieces where I didn’t like what I saw that much. I may revisit the scene from a different angle later, but it just didn’t work for me when I envisioned it as a finished painting. So it went into my ever-growing discard pile, which is where it gets its title.

After looking at it a couple of months later I decided to scan it and blow it up, and I like better.  Blown up, the pencil looks like pastel crayon work, and not being tightened up makes it more abstract than I’d intended. I like it enough to share here this week, if not enough to pursue any further.

Plus I didn’t have anything else done that I could’ve used here. Unless you’re looking on this on a phone with a smaller-than-normal screen, you’re seeing it way bigger than it was originally drawn.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we have brand-new episodes of  Nigel Pye’s Psychedelic Shack and at 3 PM,  Herman Linte’s Prognosis, and we do not have the playlists for either show because they are promising them to me Monday morning, and I’m writing this Sunday afternoon. So keep your fingers crossed.

However, I’m told that the new Psychedelic Shack sees Nigel Pye’s usual mix of mind-expanding music from throughout the timestream way more tightly focused, as he concentrates on the 1980s Psychedelic revival in the UK.  

Herman Linte tells us that this week’s Prognosis is a special presentation of Rick Wakeman live, recorded just over a year ago, and including new live renditions of both “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” and “The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table,” plus a selection of Rick’s arrangements of classics from his days in YES.

You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays next week Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays next week Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM.

At 8 PM you can hear an hour of classic the crazy music of Spike Jones on a recent episode of The Comedy Vault.

Tonight at 9 PM the Monday Marathon presents a night of music recorded live in concert, with local acts like Hybrid Soul, mixed in with artists like Peter Gabriel, Joe Jackson, Sylvester and more, as we offer up a grab-bag of our music specialty programs.

This week we are re-presenting a couple of videos we originally posted here over eleven years ago. Since that time, the video URL’s had gotten mangled and the videos disappeared from the post, so since these are really cool things, we’re just bringing them to you again. Enjoy!

Above you see a 1973 animated short by John and Faith Hubley, starring the voices of their preschool daughters, Georgia and Emily.  “Cockaboody” was in heavy rotation as between-movie filler on HBO, back in the early 1980s.

This was the second cartoon the Hubley’s made using the surreptitiously- recorded voices of their kids.  Years earlier they created “Moonbird,” using the voices of their sons, Mark and Ray, and took home the OSCAR for best animated short in 1959. You can see it below.

This week we head to May , 2009 for the sixty-ninth episode of Radio Free Charleston.

May 2009 was “Mark Beckner Month” on Radio Free Charleston. Mark is a long-time friend and was a fixture on the original radio incarnation of RFC as a member of both Go Van Gogh and The Tunesmiths. After stints in bands like Hitchcock Circus and The Nanker Phelge amd relocating back to the Charleston area, Mark is now the leader of Nixon Black, and can be heard often on the new internet radio incarnation of RFC.

However, in May 2009, he was preparing to play his first real show in Charleston in years, since he’d moved to Nashville back in the 1990s. It turned out to be quite the homecoming, since unbeknowest to me, he was returning to town for good.

I had a wealth of archival material and new video featuring Mark, so I decided that, as a way to plug his “return” show with his band, Hitchcock Circus, I would devote an entire month of shows to Mister Mark Beckner.

We kicked it off by digging deep into the vaults to present Go Van Gogh: The Sad Truth, a mockumentary starring the band, which I had totally forgotten about, directed by Timothy Rock, the bassist for GVG. Stephen Beckner showed it during a movie night at his house, and I started wondering why it seemed familiar. Then it got to the scene where I’m crouched over a toilet blaming the band for the RFC radio show getting cancelled, and it all came back.

It turns out I was the cameraman and was the offscreen interviewer in addition to my cameo as myself. I have this bad habit of forgetting really cool things that I’ve done.

I was able to get a copy of the film from Stephen, and trimmed it a bit for time so I could present it as an episode of RFC. This is a rare episode of the show which was not named after a T Shirt for the simple reason, it does not include a “host segment,” instead empoloying a simple voice-over.  This is also one of the few RFCs that doesn’t have the opening theme, and with this 2014 remastering, I  corrected one shocking omission–after the end credits and remastering card, I put the “Ya-Hooo” guy back in.

The original production notes with the full background story can be found HERE. If you like what you see, you can see just about every scrap of video of Go Van Gogh, including the unedited version of Go Van Gogh: The Sad Truth, in THIS POST, which I put up here after the death of GVG’s drummer, and a friend to everyone, Johnny Rock.

The PopCulteer
February 23, 2024

This week’s PopCulteer column once again reverts to radio notes mode. We have a great new episode of MIRRORBALL to tell you about, and a very special artist spotlight episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, both debuting Friday afternoon on The AIR.  The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear our shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes her hour of Disco to more club hits of the late 1970s, as MIRRORBALL shines its multicolored spotlight on the songs that were moving butts on the dancefloor and creating a huge club scene.

It’s a short list of long songs designed to make you want to sweat and groove. You’ll get everything from Disco Diva, Thelma Houston to Sylvester, Love and Kisses and even a Disco version of the Batman theme song.

Take an hour and dance your cares away. Don’t worry. They’ll still be there when you get done.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 092

Thelma Houston “I’m Here Again”
Sylvester “Over and Over”
Love and Kisses “I’ve Found Love”
First Choice “Let No Man Put Asunder”
Brainstorm “Lovin’ Is Really My Game”
Camoflage “You’ve Got The Power”
Bad City Band “Batman 77”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the following week Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM and a mini-marathon Saturday nights at 9 PM

At 3 PM we bring you a two-hour salute to Douglas Colvin, John Cummings, Thomas Erdelyi, and Jeffrey Hyman, or as most people know them, Dee Dee, Johnny, Tommy and Joey Ramone.

Fifty years after The Ramones formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, and ten years after the last original member passed away, Sydney thought it was time to pay tribute to the group that just wanted to play music and have some kicks, and along the way inspired Punk and New Wave Music.

Sydney has chosen to focus on the band’s first six albums, and ingore their later descent into heavy metal, but you’ll still get the cream of the Ramones’ crop. Because this is The Ramones we’re talking about, Sydney was able to cram forty-nine songs into her two-hours. It’s fifty if you count the one playing backwards at low volume while she’s talking.

Not too shabby a legacy for four dead guys from Queens.

Check out the playlist…

BEC 113

The Ramones

“Blitzkrieg Bop”
“Beat on the Brat”
“Judy Is a Punk”
“I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”
“Chain Saw”
“Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”
“I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement”
“Loudmouth”
“53rd & 3rd”
“Let’s Dance”
“Glad to See You Go”
“Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment”
“Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”
“Suzy Is a Headbanger”
“Pinhead”
“Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy”
“Swallow My Pride”
“California Sun”
“Cretin Hop”
“Rockaway Beach”
“We’re a Happy Family”
“Teenage Lobotomy”
“Do You Wanna Dance?”
“I Don’t Want You”
“I Wanna Be Well”
“I Can’t Give You Anything”
“Ramona”
“Surfin’ Bird”
“I Wanna Be Sedated”
“I Just Want to Have Something to Do”
“Don’t Come Close”
“Needles and Pins”
“I’m Against It”
“Go Mental”
“She’s the One”
“Bad Brain”
“Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”
“Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?”
“I’m Affected”
“Chinese Rock”
“The Return of Jackie and Judy”
“Let’s Go”
“This Ain’t Havana”
“We Want the Airwaves”
“All’s Quiet on the Eastern Front”
“The KKK Took My Baby Away”
“Don’t Go”
“7-11”
“Sitting in My Room”

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon,  Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday morning at 10 AM.

That’s what’s new on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for our regular features every day.

Let us dig deep into the boilerplate for a new batch of STUFF TO DO in and around the Charleston/Huntington WV area (and beyond) this weekend?

As I have been copying and pasting of late, this a good time to remind you 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.

We have plenty to tell you about this coming weekend. There’s theatre, live music, open mics, drag shows and more.

But we start off by getting a little literary for you.

There are two events this weekend tied to  Stephen Bias’s latest novel, 304 Monsters. Saurday at 5 PM there is a sneak peek reading from the novel at Booktenders in Barboursville.

Starting at Noon on Sunday, The Henlo Press will host Writer’s Block at the Barboursville Community Center.  This will be the official launch of 304 Monsters, and there will also be a chance to meet other Henlo Press authors. There will also be food and vendors on hand, so you can make a full day of it.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday it’s Steve Himes. Saturday Chet Lowther takes the stage at the beloved bookstore/cafe/art gallery.

Friday at 9 PM, Point Pleasant’s Hairy Carey brings their original Rock and Roll to Scoobies, in Dunbar (next to the old bowling alley).

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about. Thursday at 5:30 PM it’s the Helping Hour with Swingstein & Robin.  Jason Jobe takes the stage Thursday at 9 PM. Jobe is an outlaw and traditional country artist born and raised in Salt Rock  Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour. Sunday at 9 PM, Andrew Pauley returns to play at The Glass. You can check below for the graphics for other cool weekend shows at The Empty Glass.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. It’s still a going concern with the ‘rona surging again. And now there are seasonal allergies, the flu, GOP candidates knee-capping each other, folks who drank raw milk speeding to the nearest bathroom, little Scottie Dogs that curse like sailors and other damned good reasons to be careful. 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.

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

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the weekend, roughly in order…

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We take a trip into the past Wednesday as The AIR brings you another very special episode of Beatles Blast.  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 (EST) Beatles Blast brings you an hour of music that captures The Beatles before they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, sixty years ago this month.

It’s an all-Beatles show that starts with the very first recorded compostion by the band, an instrumental titled “Cry For A Shadow,” which is credited to “Lennon-Harrison.” After that we hear the one song from the band’s pre-fame sessions backing German rocker, Tony Sheridan, where John Lennon got to handle the lead vocals. That’s followed by three tunes recorded live in Sweden in the fall of 1963, and then we have the bulk of a recording of a show the Beatles did for a boy’s school in Buckingham, England, in April, 1963.

This recording sat unlistened-to for sixty years, and once it surfaced, it began making the rounds. We have most of the show here, but in the show I announce that it ends halfway through a reprise of one song. Due to time constraints, I decided to just leave that partial song out.

Here’s the playlist (all songs by The Beatles)…

Beatles Blast 106

“Cry For A Shadow”

“Ain’t She Sweet”
“Roll Over Beethoven(live in Sweden)”
“You Really Got A Hold On Me(live in Sweden)”
“She Loves You(live in Sweden)”

Live At Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School, Buckingham (4th April 63)
Introduction
“I Saw Her Standing There”
“Too Much Monkey Bussiness”
“Love Me Do”
“Some Other Guy”
“Misery”
“I Just Don’t Understand”
“A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues”
“Matchbox”
“From Me To You”
“Thank You Girl”
“Memphis, Tennessee”
“Anna (Go To Him)”
“Please Please Me”
“The Hippy Hippy Shake”
“I’m Talking About You”
“Ask Me Why”
“Till There Was You”
“Twist And Shout”

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 (EST) on Curtain Call, Mel Larch brings you two encore episode from just a few months ago.  Curtain Call will return with a new episode next week.

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.

Also on The AIR, Wednesday at 11 PM,  The Comedy Vault brings you the wacky-assed music of Spike Jones.

Tuesday finds another partly-new Radio Free Charleston on The AIR.  Our first hour of  Radio Free Charleston is accompanied by part one of a classic two-part episode of Radio Free Charleston International, that dates back to, 2016 and served as the pilot for Beatles Blast, which can now be heard Wednesdays on The AIR.

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 tons of replays throughout the week.

Our first hour is a collection of cool local, independt and brand-new music. We open with Sierra Ferrell’s take on the Sam Cooke classic, “Cupid,” which can be heard on the new video show, Cake & Tea, from the Mirror Mirror Network.

Next up we have Custard Flux, from Detroit (but brought to us via the Chicago pipeline). “Right Now Here in Time” is the first single from the band’s upcoming album Einsteinium Delirium to be released on Friday, June 7 via the label Friends Of The Fish (a subsidiary of Fruits de Mer Records, UK). You can check out a cool animated video for this tune HERE.

The remainder of our all-new first hour has new music fro Andy Prieboy, The Paranoid Style, The Broken Relics, Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates, Duck City Music and loads more cool tunes to which you may well groove.

Our second and third hours are an early episode of Radio Free Charleston International, that acted as the pilot for Beatles Blast. This is the first of two parts, and you’ll hear the second part next week, because you can never have too much Beatles.

The links in the first hour of the playlist will take you to the pages where you can learn more about each artist and buy their music or find out where to see them.

RFC V5 164

hour one
Sierra Ferrell “Cupid”
Custard Flux “Right Now Here In Time”
Andy Prieboy “Tits and Ass (Ass and Tits)”
The Paranoid Style “The Return of The Molly Maguires”
The Broken Relics “Crosswalk”
63 Eyes “Two Lives”
Hybrid Zero “20 Steps”
Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates “Telecaster”
Hello June “Honey I Promise”
Big Daddy “Graceland”
William Matheny “Down at the Hotel Canfield”
Buni Muni “Smoke”
The Cleverlys “Milkshake’
Duck City Music “What It Do”
The Dollyrots “Valentine’s Day”

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”
Golden Earring “I’ll Be Back”
Thompson Twins “Revolution”
Cheap Trick “Day Tripper”
Heart “I’m Down/Long Tall Sally”
Ben Harper “Strawberry Fields Forever”

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,  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 we offer up a classic episode of The Swing Shift. Next week The Swing Shift returns with the first of three new episodes devoted to Boogie Woogie, the exciting sub-genre of Swing that moves the spirit and heals the soul.

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 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 Thursday and Sunday evenings.