The PopCulteer
December 8, 2023

Today in our weekly columnish post, we will continue to update you on our AIR Marathons, plus we have a wee bit of STUFF TO DO, while your humble blogger is on his way back from an undisclosed location (unless I decided to disclose it already, in which case, nevermind.

The AIR Marathon: Sydney’s Big Electric Cat and More!

All this week on The AIR, we have brought you marathons of our music specialty programs. This is  a great way to give new readers and listeners a chance to sample our shows, and also give our staff a week off from having to produce anything new.

The marathons will begin at 7 AM and run for 24 hours. If you miss anything, don’t worry. We’ve found ways to keep these shows in rotation.

Friday is the normal day for new episodes of our New Wave Music showcase, Sydney’s Big Electric Cat to debut at 3 PM, so today we play 24 hours of some of the best music of our lifetime.

Sydney Fileen (not her real name) brings you classic New Wave music from the golden age of roughly 1976 to 1986. As I’ve explained before, our friends at Haversham Recording Institute use psuedonyms in part as a tribute to their roots in the UK pirate radio scene (from wence Sydney was first heard as “Kelly Brown”), but also because they are all highly-paid and highly sought-after voice talents in the UK, and don’t want people to know that they’re doing these shows for free.

Following her days as a pirate radio Deejay, Sydney then began her career in legit radio and television announcing, and the rest would be history, if she were using her real name to present Big Electric Cat.

Friday you’ll hear classic episodes from the second and third year of Sydney’s show.

Saturday we will let Haversam’s Nigel Pye commandeer The AIR for 24 hours of mind-expanding music from Psychedelic Shack. Sunday it’s a departure as we bring you the best of The Comedy Vault from 7 AM until midnight.

And after that, The AIR will revert to its normal Schedule.

STUFF TO DO

Since this is being written a week in advance, we don’t have the full details for what’s happening this weekend, but here are a few highlights from folks who were kind enough to give us some advance notice. As I have been doing 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 (especially this week), 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 Minor Swing takes the stage. Saturday Sean Richardson, Eric Robbins and Ryan Errickson perform at the beloved bookstore/cafe/art gallery.

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about.  Thursday at 5:30 PM, Swingstein and Robin return with Swing for a good cause. Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour. The Appalachian Melting Pot, Ashley Best & the Set ‘Em Up Band are making their debut at The Empty Glass, Friday October 7th at 10 M.  With Ashley Best,writing & performing Country/Blues/Rock…a bit of Cow Punk if you will. Sunday at 10 PM The Carpenter Ants host the post-Mountain Stage Jam, after the second of two loaded 40th Anniversary editions of Mountain stage. We have graphics below for the rest of the weekend shows at The Glass.

Speaking Mountain Stage, it’s been a big couple of weeks for West Viginia’s musical calling-card to the world…

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, expelled habitually-lying members of Congress, drunken elves, birds with attitude 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…

And that is it for this week’s PopCulteer. Check PopCult for fresh content every day, even when your humble blogger is not physically in town. Come back for our regular features, too.

 

All this week on The AIR, we bring you marathons of our music specialty programs. This is  a great way to give new readers and listeners a chance to sample our shows, and also give our staff a week off from having to produce anything new.

The marathons will begin at 7 AM and run for 24 hours. If you miss anything, don’t worry. We’ve found ways to keep these shows in rotation.

Beatles Blast is hosted by your PopCulteer, and presents an hour of Beatles and Beatle-related music each week.  Today’s marathon cherry-picks 24 of the best episodes of the show, and will thrill and delight any die-hard Beatlemaniac with its mix of group, solo, rare and previously unknown music by the Fab Four, along with a bevy of interesting and incredible covers of the band’s greatest musical triumphs.

Some episodes also bring you rare interviews and documentary-style presentations that will enlighten you about some of the more obscure corners of The Beatles’ history.

Each week Beatles Blast is heard Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the week.

Check PopCult every day this week to see what show we’ll feature as our daily marathon while your humble blogger crawls off to recover from The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide.

All this week on The AIR, we bring you marathons of our music specialty programs. This is  a great way to give new readers and listeners a chance to sample our shows, and also give our staff a week off from having to produce anything new.

The marathons will begin at 7 AM and run for 24 hours. If you miss anything, don’t worry. We’ve found ways to keep these shows in rotation.

Wednesday’s marathon features my wife, Mel Larch, and her program devoted to the world of Musical Theatre, Curtain Call.

At 3 PM each Wednesday we offer up two hours of Curtain Call. Mel Larch brings you an hour of the best of musical theater, followed by a replay of a previous episode. Mel has over 130 episodes in the can, so you can expect a top-flight slab of Musical Theatre, carefully curated by Mel and showing off her expertise. You might hear classics of the stage, brand-new experimental works, or songs from the top shows currently running on Broadway or The West End.

The batch of Curtain Call editions in this marathon include anniversary celebrations of major shows, loads of salutes to new musicals, spotlights on overlooked shows and career-retrospectives of some of the greats of the stage.

Mel’s other show, MIRRORBALL, her celebration of all things Classic Disco, was featured as a marathon last Saturday, but will return with a bonus ten-hour marathon next Monday.

Check PopCult every day this week to see what show we’ll feature as our daily marathon while your humble blogger crawls off to recover from The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide.

All this week on The AIR, we bring you marathons of our music specialty programs. This is  a great way to give new readers and listeners a chance to sample our shows, and also give our staff a week off from having to produce anything new.

The marathons will begin at 7 AM and run for 24 hours. If you miss anything, don’t worry. We’ve found ways to keep these shows in rotation.

Today we showcase our flagship show, hosted by yours truly, Radio Free Charleston. To be specific, we’re running eight recent episodes of Radio Free Charleston Volume Five.

In case you’re wondering, haven’t heard, or just want to read it again, RFC Volume One was broadcast on WVNS Radio starting in 1989. RFC Volume Two is the video version of the show, which shines the spotlight on local music. RFC Volume Two is still an ongoing concern, although I produce it much less frequently than I did from 2006 to 20016, when I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis.

In 2014 I began RFC Volume Three as a weekly two-hour local showcase for Voices of Appalachia Radio.  When VOA mutated into The AIR a couple of years later, I re-christened it RFC Volume Four, and cut the running time to one hour per week. That was also when I began doing RFC International, which was where I played whatever non-local music I wanted for two hours a week.

In January 2020 I basically combined Radio Free Charleston and RFC International into one three-hour show, which oddly enough makes it almost exactly like the show I did for broadcast radio back three decades ago. Sometimes we recycle old episodes of RFC Volume Four and RFC International to fill out the three-hour show, and sometimes we just rip loose and do three full hours of coolness.

The end result of combining RFC and RFC International was creating a show that is not only more fun for me to do, but also has garnered way more listeners than any other online version of the program. So if you haven’t tried it yet, give it a listen all day Tuesday on The AIR.

Check PopCult every day this week to see what show we’ll feature as our daily marathon while your humble blogger crawls off to recover from The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide.

This week’s art is a hilariously tiny pastel crayon study that I cranked out a few weeks ago, and may turn into a more detailed painting at some point.

Essentially, I was trying different ways to do a city scene where it looked like it had just rained. This one came out best. These were done with pastel crayon on the back of large index cards.

While I’m employing some of the lessons I’ve learned from imitating Hopper here, I also tried to capture some of the elements of light and reflection that he didn’t focus on too much.

Basically, I wanted to try to do a street scene right after it rained. This was not based on any photo reference, but it was at least subliminally inspired by sights I saw walking around Chicago last summer after the tornados passed through.

I may run a small study based on a photo from that experience next week.

To see this one bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, all this week on The AIR, we bring you marathons of our music specialty programs. This is  a great way to give new readers and listeners a chance to sample our shows, and also give our staff a week off from having to produce anything new.

The marathons will begin at 7 AM and run for 24 hours. If you miss anything, don’t worry. We’ve found ways to keep these shows in rotation.

Today we showcase Herman Linte, and his progressive rock program, Prognosis.  Herman is a prominent UK voice talent and producer who has graciously agreed to provide us with a regularly-scheduled two-hour blast of the best progressie rock of the last fifty-plus years.

Of course, he does this under an assumed name so that he doesn’t violate any of his exclusivity contracts. Herman and his colleagues at Haversham Recording Institute have been doing shows for The AIR since 2016, and we are pleased to have them on board, especially since they do them for free.

Check PopCult every day this week to see what show we’ll feature as our daily marathon while your humble blogger crawls off to recover from The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide.

On this day in 1947, Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire premiered on Broadway, starring Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Marlon Brando. In honor of this, above you see the acclaimed movie, boiled down to its essence.

Below you can see the even more acclaimed musical adaptaion of Streetcar…

Episode 56 of Radio Free Charleston, “DEVOBAMA Shirt” hails from November, 2008. This episode features searing hot rock from Dog Soldier, a really cool music video from The Button Flies, encore animation from Frank Panucci, and a trailer for the film “The Bride & The Grooms,” which was written and directed by Charleston native, Butch Maier.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been so long since we put this show together. Time flies, y’know. Check PopCult each week as we continue our chronological presentation of  Radio Free Charleston‘s past. You can read the original production notes HERE.

Speaking of chronological, here’s a bonus “half” episode that we did the following week, featuring music from the CYAC production of Scarpelli and Kehde’s MARY.  You  still have two chances to see this year’s production!

The PopCulteer
December 1, 2023

It took the entire month of November, but we have finally arrived at The Master List of every single thing I recommended in The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide.

I made changes to The Gift Guide again this year. Two years ago I started combining every day’s recommendations into a single post. This forced me to be more concise in my descriptions, which was a good thing. Instead of writing 4,000 words every day about three gift ideas, I managed to cover five gift ideas a day in about 1,500 words. This year, due to outside committments, I decided to cut back further. My original plan was to just have three gift ideas a day, in a single post, and wrap it all up the day before Thanksgiving. Then I’d do retro picks and retailer spotlights on the weekends.

This was working great, but after wrapping up my magazine deadlines in the middle of the month, I decided to keep going past Thanksgiving, and just have one Gift Guide post every day of the month. By the last week I was back up to including five gifts at a time, just to try to get everything in.

Because of the nature of how I did the gift guide this year, the links will take you to the post that includes the items listed, but you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact item you’re looking for. I’ll leave out the Flashback Picks and group all the retailers at the bottom of the list. I’m also not going to bother listing the Turkey Day gag gifts.

With that said, let’s dive into the Master List…

TOYS

The HESS Holiday Truck: 2023 Police Truck & Cruiser

The Member’s Mark Elite Adventure Corps 4-Action Figure Pack

AUTO WORLD RALLYE 4+4 SLOT RACE SET HO SCALE

Barbie Fashionistas

Menards Rocket Launching Tower Model Railroad Structure

Merchant’s Row VII — Kit  Walthers Cornerstone

Drive ‘n Dine  Woodland Scenics

Bachmann Trains – Santa Fe Flyer Ready To Run Electric Train Set

UNION PACIFIC ROCKET BOOSTER TRAIN

The Great Garloo Action Figure

Ukrainian Defenders

Tura Satana Action Figure

BOARD GAMES

Monopoly Scrabble

Disney Space Mountain, All Systems Go

Adventure X: Jurassic World

BOOKS

GI Joe: The Military Years 1964-1968: The Unauthorized Action Figure and Accessories Checklist

The Charlton Companion

The Pacific Comics Companion

DIRECT CONVERSATIONS: Talks with Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators

Kahiki Scrapbook, The: Relics of Ohio’s Lost Tiki Palace

Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling

Ernie in Kovacsland: Writings, Drawings, and Photographs from Television’s Original Genius

Dressing Barbie

KEITH EMERSON (SIGNATURE EDITION)

Jack & Jill: Fury Hill-by Frank Conniff

Lunch Box Memories-by Jason Young

The Starchildren Saga (Tales from the HoloDrome;The StarHaven Tales: Beyond the HoloDrome)
by Thomas Wheeler

Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans by Kenneth Womack

The Beatles Please Please Me to With The Beatles (Beatles Album Series) by Bruce Spizer

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present (Paperback) by Paul McCartney

Polynesian Pulp: The Tiki Art Of Robert Jiménez

GI Joe: Action Soldier: Celebrating 60 Years of America’s Movable Fighting Man! 

Berserker!: An Autobiography by Adrian Edmondson

COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS

The Complete Hate

Superman For All Seasons

MIGHTY MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 1 

THE COMPLETE DON NEWTON CHARLTON PHANTOM

Murky World by Richard Corben

The Collected Works of Mike Vosburg

Boy Maximortal by Rick Veitch

MUSIC

Klaus Nomi-Nomi

The Pretenders-RELENTLESS

Various Artists-Produced By Tony Visconti  

Who’s Next / Life House

The Beatles “Now and Then”

The Beatles-Red Album (1962-1965) & Blue Album (1966-1970)

Ringo Starr-Rewind Forward

Pink Floyd-The Dark Side Of The Moon 50th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set

Theatre of the Absurd presents C’est La Vie-Madness

John Wetton: An Extraordinary Life

Dear Boy-Brian Diller

Artifacts- Hello June

Seed-Todd Burge

Gravel (Remix)-63 Eyes

That Grand Old Feeling-William Matheny

DRINKWARE

Munktiki Import – Whittle Exotica Mug

Tiki Farm RONGO-RONGO TIKI MUG

Trader Vic’s NOTU MUG (BLACK AND RED)

VIDEO

The Barbie Movie

Making Mr. Right

Guest House Paradiso

Fantastic Planet

FM

Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons The Complete Series

The Vincent Price Collection

RETAILERS-BRICK AND MORTAR

Kin Ship Goods

Nitro Antique Mall: The Kanawha Valley’s Pop Culture Emporium

Appalachian Books. A Moveable Feast Bookstore

Plot Twist Books

Taylor Books

Eclectic Goods Market

The Purple Moon

Budget Tapes & Records

Sulllivan’s Records

Orbit’s Records

Cheap Thrills

RETAILERS-ONLINE

Dammit Tees

House of Tabu/ Tabu Recordings

Rabin’s Relics

Nightmare1984: The Art of Adam Weaver

The Zerostreet Threadless Shop

HepCatz Design by Brenda Pinnell

Glen Brogan

MItch O’Connell

Cotswold Collectibles

Archie McPhee

American Science & Surplus

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe

Sierra Ferrell’s Store

Rockin’ Pins

Retro-A-Go-Go

And that is the end of that. Thank you for reading The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide. I hope you found it helpful and/or entertaining. I have to say, I think it turned out pretty good, considering that I was so frazzled that the first batch of graphics I posted in the blog had the year “2024” instead of “2023.”

That is today’s PopCulteer.  Check PopCult for fresh content every day, including several reliable regular features…and have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or whatever floats your boat.

Next week, The AIR will run a different marathon each day shining the spotlight on one of regular programs. This will kick off Saturday with MIRRORBALL until Midnight,  and then Sunday will see 24 hours of The Swing Shift.  Starting Monday I’ll have a post every day to let you know what you can expect on our sister internet radio station.

 

 

Somehow your humble blogger has managed to survive The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide in one piece, and rather than let the eleventh month slip by without one more rundown of local events, how about I regale you with tales of tons of cool shenanigans to get into around the Mountain State and a few points beyond. As I have been doing 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.

Before we get into that, I have a brief Kickstarter plug:

There are only four days left in this very cool campaign, but the folks behind it have had a bit of bad luck this month. I’ll let them explain…

Right before Thanksgiving, Rich Fowlks (designer extraordinaire) and I co-launched a Madmaniverse campaign with fun retro Ginchy-O-Rama stickers that pair the Madmaniverse with dad jokes! There’s also a NEW issue of Madmania (covering Madman Atomic Comics), as well as metal postcards designed by Rich!

Then, over the week, we both got sick and I got sidelined by my dissertation. Needless to say, we haven’t been able to get the word out as much as we like, and the window to keep funding these is closing.

Can you do us a SOLID favor and spread the word on social and amongst all yer pals!?

If anybody else is a nerd as old as I am, you may remember the Marvel Comics stickers from the 1970s that repurposed classic comic book art with goofy new word balloons.  This project does the same thing, only with art from Mike Allred’s Madman comics.

You can support the campaign HERE, and the rewards are fun and not too expensive. They’ve already met their goal, almost three times over, but the guys behind this project have been waylaid and haven’t been able to promote it as heavily as they would’ve liked, so I’m helping out a bit here. It’s a cool project and you get 12 stickers and can add on new issues of Madmania Digest.

I have a couple of big local things to plug before we get into the bulk of our list this week.

First, Thursday night at Black Sheep Burritos and Brews in Charleston, it’s Derick Fest ’23…

Friday and Saturday it’s the 19th River Arts Show at Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 520, Kanawha Blvd.  in Charleston.

This cool collection of art, arts and artists happens Friday Dec. 1st – 6.30-9.30PM and Saturday Dec. 2nd – 10AM – 4PM. Admission: $3, Ticket includes raffle ticket for artists work.

They promise “A welcoming, warm atmosphere akin to a Moroccan Bazaar or Christmas Market.” as over 20 Artists in many mediums, ceramic, visual, sculpture, stained glass, wreaths, textiles, jewelry have their wares for sale. You will also find 4 Psychic Readers:  Tarot, astrology, cards, and music drifting from a stage, on both days.

Friday Night will include a reception with finger foods and there will be a light lunch available on Saturday.

Featured Artists in 2023 include:  Sarah Golden (Buckhannon) – stream of consciousness; Annette Meyer – hand embroidered ornaments; Lesia Angel – hand-built ceramic, glass jewelry; Bob Fisher and Judy Fisher – whimsical; Christopher Higgins – natural wreaths; Hepcatz Design – meow time; Al Peery – West Virginia photographer; Jessica Osbourne – altered images; Meish Claus – whimsical images; Knorrsgaard Jams – artisanal fruit alchemy; Carolyn Gilbert Sayles – feeling of joy; The Two Tinkers – unique, creative, passionate; and many others.  A special Friday night addition is a friend of RFC, artist and musician, Andrea Anderson.

The music line-up:
Friday
7.30 -Doug Stalnaker & John Longwell – old time
Saturday:
10.30 – Concordia – recorder
11.30 – Mike Foster – blues
12.30 – Spencer Elliot – finger style guitar
1.30 – Paula Bickham – piano
2.30 – Christopher Vincent – himself

It’s a great way to get out and support the local scene–art, music and creativity in general, and it’s all fun, too.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday Mike Pushkin & Alasha Al-Qudwah take the stage. Saturday a sterling talent, yet to be determined performs at the beloved bookstore/cafe/art gallery.

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about.  Thursday at 5:30 PM, Swingstein and Robin return with Swing for a good cause. Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour.  Friday at 10 PM Kindred Valley is an indie folk band out of Huntington, West Virginia focused on intentional lyrics and good music, takes the stage.  Sunday at 7 PM Chris Murray holds down the fort, and then at 10 PM The Carpenter Ants host the post-Mountain Stage Jam, after the first of two loaded 40th Anniversary editions of Mountain stage. We have graphics below for the rest of the weekend shows at The Glass.

Speaking Mountain Stage, it’s a big couple of weeks for West Viginia’s musical calling-card to the world…

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, hellbound ghosts of former secretaries of state hoping to get in one last act of evil before the afterlife, zombie bell-ringers, dyslexic people dressed as Satan Claus 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…

THURSDAY

ALL WEEKEND
Continue reading

Today The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide comes to an end. Friday will see The Master List offered in The PopCulteer, but today is our final batch of gift suggestions.

And it’s sort of a vague one.

Today I’m going to suggest that you give the gift of local music. The thing is, if you’re one of my many readers who does not live in West Virginia, then you’ll have to go out and find it in your own area. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.

And I have to state upfront that this is in no way a comprehensive list of local releases. In fact, I’m limiting myself to five recent releases that I know can be bought in a physical format. If you are, or know, a local musical artist or group, please use the comments below to bring them to my readers…and my…attention.

I have been cranking out around a thousand words every day all month long on this Gift Guide, and my brain is crying out for a much-needed rest, so if I have featured your music on Radio Free Charleston but don’t mention it below, do not take it as a snub. It’s a combination of fatigue, old age and a lack of ominpotence.

Don’t let that dissuade you from seeking out new music by local and independent artists whose music can brighten the lives of the people on your holiday shopping list. The comments are open for you to remind me how cool your music is.

Before we get into the five artists I’ve chosen to spotlight, I want to mention that several local record shops have dedicated local music sections to help you find the perfect local musical gift for the folks on your list.

Locally, that means you can go to Budget Tapes & Records or Sullivan’s Records in Charleston, Orbit’s in Barboursville, Cheap Thrills in Princeton or any of the other cool record shops in our state. They will be glad to assist you, and might even be able to let you sample some of the music.

You can also sample local music on Radio Free Charleston, heard every Tuesday (with replays all week) on our sister internet radio station, The AIR. Each week I post the playlist for our new show in this blog, and when possible, that playlist will have live links to the artist’s websites.

Below you’ll see five recent releases by local artists that can be bought in a physical form. If your gift-getter prefers digital downloads, then that opens up a whole world of music via Bandcamp and other websites that you’ll find in those playlists. Please note, I’m keeping these as short as possible because I’m about to fall asleep. It’s been a long month.

Dear Boy
Brian Diller
Available on on CD and Vinyl

Just a couple of months ago, my old friend, Brian, released a new collection of songs spanning his 45 years making music.  Dear Boy is available on CD and Vinyl, and I played just about every track from it on Radio Free Charleston. Back in the 80s, Brian was the king of Charleston rock, and this collection from his archives shows off his impressive talent.

You’ll get vintage tracks by Brian Diller & The Ride, recorded in the Charleston area, songs he composed while living in Nashville, and more great tunes from across his career.

You can also by these songs, and several more at Brian’s Bandcamp Page.

Artifacts
Hello June
Available in different formats and packages from the Hello June online store

One of the most anticipated WV music releases of the year, Artifacts comes five years after the debut album by Hello June, and showcases the songwriting and voice of Sar Rudy, who is rightfully one of the most acclaimed artists to come out of the Mountain State in some time.

With an sound that’s hard to describe, Hello June manages to rock too hard to be pure Americana. The lyrics are intimate, articulate and intelligent, and Rudy’s voice is an exquiste instrument.

And that’s a sentence I never expected to write in this blog.

Artifacts is bound to wind up on a lot of “best of the year” lists.

Seed
Todd Burge
Available on CD from his Bandcamp page

Todd Burge is one of the most prolific singer/songwriters in the state, and Seed is his fifteenth solo album.

Just released less than a month ago, Seed is, well…how about I let Todd describe it?

These songs seemed to be “handed to me” like little gifts from various sources. A few were challenges from The Song Colony*, an open group of writers who meet each month in Marietta Ohio at The Stage Door. At the end of each session, we spontaneously pick one word to use as a jumping off point for a song. We call it the “Quick and Dirty”. The assignment is to spend one hour or less on a song, and the goal is to write whatever comes to mind, without the pressure of feeling it should be precious, or a “masterpiece”. We are simply working the songwriting muscle, and as a result, happy accidents occasionally occur. Hundreds of songs have come out of this group using this method.

Other songs from Seed are playful challenges from friends. Pig came from my late friend Mark Scohy saying to me, “there aren’t enough songs about bacon”. Weed and Keep Your Clover Bloomin’ came to me while I was doing yard work, and a couple others came from words I saw in a book called 300 Drawing Prompts.

Seed is another reliably terrific collection of Todd’s songs, delivered with his pleasing voice and trademark wit.

Gravel (Remix)
63 Eyes
Available on CD from their Bandcamp page

Speaking of Todd Burge, when I first met him back in 1989, he was in the legendary Morgantown band, 63 Eyes.

This is a remixed version of an album that almost never was. Here’s the story…

Gravel was originally planned for vinyl release back in ’88, but for various reasons, it only made it to a limited run cassette. In 2023, the album was completely remixed by Mark Poole at Zone 8 Recording.

Unlike Todd’s singer/songwriter work, Gravel shows a heavy punk influence and the end result is sort of a precursor to the Grunge that was bubbling up in the Northwest around the same time.

Folks might call it “alternative,” but it rocks and sounds great regardless of labels.  Recommended for fans of Nirvana, Wall of Voodoo, and XTC.

That Grand Old Feeling
William Matheny
Available in multiple formats and packages from William Matheny’s online store

William Matheny is a West Virginia-based singer-songwriter whose brand of Americana music is firmly steeped in the Appalachian storytelling tradition. This latest release was written and recorded before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That Grand, Old Feeling is Matheny’s most expansive work yet, taking narrative inspiration from the eclectic characters who inhabit dive motels and roadside haunts and sonic cues from the work of classic American rock’n’roll artists like Jason Molina’s Magnolia Electric Co. and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers.

Matheny’s 2017 album Strange Constellations was a critical darling, drawing praise from outlets including NPR Music, PopMatters, and American Songwriter. That Grand Old Feeling tops it and shows an exponential growth in one of our most striking songwriters.

Please keep in mind that dozens, if not hundreds, of other West Virginia musicians released great new music this year, and if you want to tell the world about it, please use the comments below. Also, you can always give the gift of live music by giving someone the experience of going out to a performance by a local artists.

You can hear all the musicians listed here in regular rotation on Radio Free Charleston, and if you tell me about a great new band in the comments, I’ll probably play their music too.