RFC favorite, Mark Beckner debuts a new song Tuesday on The AIR to open a special new episode of Radio Free Charleston. You may point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and  listen to this happy little embedded radio player…

Tune into this week’s Radio Free Charleston at 10 AM and 10 PM Tuesday for a special show that opens with a new tune byThe Mark Beckner Group, and winds up with a re-presentation of a one-hour “Go Van Gogh Family Tree,” featuring the history of Mark’s old group from long ago.

Mark’s new album, Mark Beckner Group-10 Stories will be released soon, and we’ll tell you all about it when the time comes. In the meantime we are proud to have been chosen to premiere the lead single, “Odessa.” This is Mark’s first studio release in 16 years, and it was recorded at Bud Carroll’s Trackside Studio in Ona, and mastered in Nashville by Dutch Noss.

While “Odessa” opens the show, the third hour of the show features Mark’s old bands, Go Van Gogh, The Tunesmiths and Hitchcock Circus, and ends with a solo demo track by Mark. I put this together back in the Voices of Appalachia days of RFC Volume 3, and it’s nice to pull it out of the mothballs for folks who haven’t heard it yet. It provides plenty of proof why Mark has been one of my favorite songwriters for longer than either of us would care to admit.

Of course, between the open track and closing hour we have a pretty impressive, eclectic mix of locally-produced music and cool stuff from all over the world.

Check out the playlist…

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hour one
Mark Beckner Group “Odessa”
Andy Partridge-Robyn Hitchcock “Flight Attendants, Please Prepare For Love”
Eddie Jobson “Listen To Reason”
John Lancaster “Something To Fade Into”
Kevin Scarbrough “O For Operative”
Mike McGear “The Man Who Found God On The Moon”
The Rutles “Let’s Be Natural”
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies “Cold Hard Cash”
Mediogres “Zombie Activist”
Tautologic “Loud Shoes”
T C &I “Greatness”
The BrotherSisters “Wave Of Love”
Ann Magnuson “Cynical Girl”

hour two
John Williams “Lost In Space”
Feast of Stephen “Coal Tattoo”
Andy Prieboy “Who Do You Think We’re Coming For”
The Aquabats “Cowboy Android Theme”
Rel-X “Believe The Lie”
Ringo Starr “Thank God For Music”
Bon Air “I’m Doing Fine”
Apocalyptica featuring Lacey “Broken Pieces”
Epica “Canvas of Life”
Kate Bush “Pull Out The Pin”
Lana Lane “Hold You Head Up”
Kim Wilde with Mike Batt and the RPO “Because The Night”
Nightwish “Amaranth”

hour three
Go Van Gogh “Shut Up, I Love You”
True Rumor “River Beyond”
Meadow Blasters “Da Da Da, I Love You”
Meadow Blasters “She Doesn’t Want My Love”
Go Van Gogh “Planet Freedom”
Go Van Gogh “I Don’t Like Trains”
The Tunesmiths “Ballet Dancer”
Tunesmiths “For Your Love”
Hitchcock Circus “Telescope”
Hitchcock Circus “Song For A Friend”
Stephen Beckner “Those Eyes”
Stephen Beckner “Scream”
The Nanker Phelge “Johnny’s Got A Problem”
The Nanker Phelge “That’s What She Said”
The Nanker Phelge “The Nanker Stomp”
Mark Beckner “Habitual Preoccupation with Self”

Radio Free Charleston can be heard Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM, with replays Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM and 7 PM, Saturday at 11 AM and Midnight, Sunday at 1 PM and the next Monday at 8 PM, exclusively on The AIR.

At 2 PM we bring you a classic episode of Psychedelic Shack. Nigel and the Haversham gang are back making new music shows, but we’re banking them and plan to have all new shows starting next week.

At 3 PM your PopCulteer returns to host a new hour of The Swing Shift as we continue to bring you the best Swing Music of the last century. This week we bring you a mixtape collection that leads off with Jack’s Cats, our favorite new Swing Ensemble from California. The rest of the show is pretty darned interesting, and you can see what’s in it here, since I don’t do any back announcing in an effort to conserve my voice.

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Jack’s Cats “My Friend”
The Gentlemen’s Anti-Temperance League “Millenial Blues”
The Sazerac Swingers “The Night Before The Storm”
Swing Ninjas “Nancy”
Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra “The Trashman Cometh”
The Sassy Swingers “Va Et Vient”
Megan and her Goody Goodies “Buddy Bolden’s Blues”
Louis Prima “O Solo Mio”
Dominique Magloire “Fine And Mellow”
Bryan Ferry “Alphaville”
Dany Brillant “C’est l’amour qui rend heureux”

Whenever I do a mixtape show like this, where I only break in to talk once, you may notice that I try to load it up with foreign-language tunes that have titles I don’t know if I can pronounce properly.

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 7 AM and 6 PM, Thursday at 2 PM and Saturday at 5 PM, only on The AIR. You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursday and Sunday evenings.