Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Finally: Radio Free Parkersburg!

Shot and edited in a record less-than-24-hours, the latest episode of Radio Free Charleston is now online…ten days later.

That doesn’t make it any less cool, though.  This show is a departure in many ways.  First, it’s a road trip show.  Melanie Larch and I drove to Parkersburg and taped at John Radcliff’s house.  John was hosting a Songpull event, where songwriters gather and perform tunes that they’ve penned within 30 days of that event.  Visit the Songpull.com website to see and hear the results of these songwriting exercises held all around the country.  Later this week the Parkersburg Songpull tunes should be online. We’ll post an update when they are. 

Aside from the brand-spankin’ new Songpull tunes, we managed to finagle some older songs out of the participants, and that’s what you get to hear on the new RFC.   We have great songs from brothers Don and Daron Baker.   DonBaker is from Belpre Ohio.  His brother Daron is from Columbus, and performs with the band Rustic Bucket.  Each Baker boy gives us a terrific song.  We’ll have more from them on future episodes of RFC, and special apologies to Daron, whose name we mis-spell throughout the show. Them’s the hazards of editing a show in 24 hours.

John Radcliff sets a record by being the first musical act to appear on three consecutive episodes of RFC!  This wasn’t the original plan, but it worked out pretty great. 

Originally, John was going to have two songs on episode 16 of RFC.  When the song “Tears Fallin'” became available, we bumped one of those songs to the next show.  While episode 17 was coming together, John hatched the idea of holding a Songpull event, and asked if I’d tape it.  I agreed and asked if I could combine it with an RFC taping, and that’s where episode 18 came from.  

It was happenstance, but we got three great songs from Radcliff out of the deal, and we have a ton more in the can to use on future shows.  Rad’s pretty prolific.

Josh Buskirk was on hand with his 12 String Gee-tar, and graced us with a couple of tunes from his latest CD (which can be purchased at Taylor Books or at his website).  This time we get “The Adventures Of May K,” which we previewed here in PopCult last week.  We’re saving his other song for a special upcoming “theme” episode of RFC.   I’d planned to catch Josh at Taylor’s last Friday night (the performance that he plugs in this show) before I was waylaid by food poisoning.  He’ll be back in town in a few weeks, and we’ll let everyone know about it. 

The Animation and mind-hurting weirdness took the show off, for the most part, but they’ll be back in full force next time.  We are already hard at work on episode 19, and you can expect to see it in about two weeks. 

17 Comments

  1. Charles Rich

    As Neil Diamond once said,
    Holly Holy Love!
    Those Parkersburg cats sure can write a tune!
    Thanks RFC!
    CR

  2. Mountain Woman Phd.

    This is a great show at a time when we really need something to cheer us up. I am really impressed with John Radcliff’s songwriting (and his house), and his friends on this show are equally outstanding. Don Baker’s moving song reminded me of Lee Hazelwood’s recent work. And that’s a high compliment coming from me.

    Daron’s song was another unpolished gem. Young Josh Buskirk is just amazing. Does he sing, or is he just an instrumentalist. I hope you recorded more from this talented group of songwriters. And please let us know when the Songpull website is up and running.

    While you might be frustrated over this show being delayed, I think it does more good this week, when we really, really need it.

    On another matter, Rudy, is the facial hair here to stay? It’s interesting how you never quite look the same from show to show.

  3. John Radcliff

    Hey Mountain Woman Phd., thanks for all the kind words!!! I think Rudy is a closet Hockey fan, and he’s just growing his playoff beard! Josh can sing, he just plays so well! This is just the first of hopefully many songpulls at the house. We’re going to have to start paying Rudy, though if he comes up and does the video for us again.

  4. Longtime Listener

    Classy show. Reminds me of the days when you’d bring a band on your old radio show and have them play live. Nice to see the show tap into the P-burg scene. There are some great musicians up there.

  5. Mexican Romeo

    I agree. This one’s a pretty classy show. I don’t want to see you get rid of the animation and weird stuff completely, but it’s nice to get a pure music program once in a while. Great songs.

  6. Elvis Capone

    You should put out a edition of this show on Super 8mm film.

  7. Anonymous

    Good show. I miss the cartoons though. So when are you gonna start closed-captioning for the hearing impaired?

  8. Da Watcher

    I thought this was the most boring edition of Radio Free. I really miss the old films and animation and weird music and shit. The music was okay, and I guess you have to mix it up a bit, but I hope to god you don’t throw out the really cool stuff in favor of the music. It’s not all about the music.

    I wanna see what happens to Timmy and the Devil and see CGI cars and stuff.

  9. Longtime Listener

    Come on! This wasn’t boring. Sure, it didn’t have all the short-attention-span stuff that RFC usually has, but one of the great things about this show is that it changes every week. Rudy said the animation would be back. Have a little faith.

  10. Elvis Capone

    You should include another film about cultivating transoms under the stairs.

    Maybe that was another blog. Which one is this again?

  11. Matt Salazar

    Dude, this show was anything but boring. The music was great, Rudy looked like he was really having fun, and it was nice to see the show broaden its scope beyond the capitol city. I like that RFC is so unpredictable. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a show with no music and all crazy crap one of these days.

    I say we’re lucky that there’s something this cool coming out of West Virginia.

  12. Fred Martin

    Don’t let the haters drag you down! Radio Free is a godsend to us in the weekend workforce! This latest show kicked butt! They don’t all have to be knock-down-drag-out funny. The music was great.

  13. River Phil

    Boring? No way! I hope Rudy comes back to Parkersburg and tapes more of our great musicians.

    This is my favorite show so far, and I been watching since day won.

  14. Da Watcher

    Chill out people. I was just sayin’ that I liked the show the way it was. Not all of us out here are just diggin’ the mucis. Maybe he’ll do a show with nothing but cartoons, and see how you guys like it.

  15. Third Mind

    Hey, Da Watcher! If you really wanna know what’s happening with Timmy and Satan … this is where it happens

    http://pentagramflowerbox.blogspot.com/

  16. The Midnight Rambler

    Wow, a mini-controversy almost broke out on a gazzblog. Look at it this way: How much are you paying to watch the show? Personally, I can’t figure out the business model. There’s no advertising. No fee to watch the show. I don’t see where they’re making any money with this. And it’s a damned shame, because it’s a good show. I wonder how long they’ll be able to make it. I say savor it and enjoy it while you can. Nothing this good has ever lasted here in Chucktown.

  17. Elvis Capone

    >>Personally, I can’t figure out the business model.

    It’s simple:

    1. Steal underwear

    2. ???

    3. PROFIT!!!!!

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