I played lots of great Texas singer/songwriters in this episode, including a new one from Hayes Carll, plus great songs from Turnpike Troubadours and American Aquarium. Cover Me was a Texas classic!
I was subbing on this show for DJ Salty Cracker. I kicked it off with Born to Run on the 50th anniversary of that album's release, then played songs from all the artists at the big Boys From Oklahoma show two days earlier in Waco, including Turnpike Troubadours' Heaven Passing Through, my first Song of the Year candidate. Cover Me was all Texas.
This was my first time on Folkville, a new show, so Nathan Moore, the Folkville lead, joined me. We talked about the club Folkville - an Austin singer/songwriter haven in the 80s that Nathan used to frequent - that serves as an inspiration for the show. I played new Lukas Nelson and War and Treaty, used a Folkville regular - Townes Van Zandt - for Cover Me and wrapped it up with Dock of the Bay. The show is just an hour and we talked a lot so I only played 12 songs.
This was my last Lonesome Stranger show so I played two hours of my favorite songs from the last two years, including songs for both my kids. I started with Can I Be Country Too?, which has been an excellent "mission statement" for what I have tried to accomplish on the radio!
We celebrated the wedding of our son Gary to Jason Sweeten with Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour, their first dance, honored our friend Jeffrey Korman who passed this week, and played lots of Texas and Oklahoma music.
This was my brother Paul's 72nd birthday so I played a lot of songs for him. My daughter Dara was in town so she joined me and played a set including from her LA friends Rett Madison and Lauren Ruth Ward. I added more California songs from the Buffalo Springfield and had a fun Cover Me featuring a great Texas singer and songwriter who I have never played before on the radio!
This was one of my favorite shows. I played all California country music, mainly from the 60s and 70s, but also new Dwight Yoakam as my 10 am energy music. I kicked it off with Commander Cody, traced Gram Parsons' journey from the Byrds to the Flying Burrito Brothers to his solo stuff with Emmylou Harris, played two songs with Jerry Garcia on pedal steel and, of course, lots of Merle Haggard!
This show coincided with the 100th anniversary of the birth of my mom, Phyllis Jaffe, so I started the show with songs for her, then played my 2024 Songs of the Year, Sierra Ferrell's American Dreaming and Kasey Musgraves' The Architect, both of which won big at the Grammys. We went to Alabama for Cover Me and then to Oklahoma. for some Jamie Lin Wilson and Turnpike Troubadours.
We played The Housefire by Turnpike Troubadours for the victims of the LA fires, Indigenous music from Jim Young and Marty Stuart, and songs from bands I saw at Mile0 Fest in Key West the previous week. The second half of the show was dedicated to an interview with John Baumann, a great Austin singer/songwriter and member of the Panhandlers.
The show was mainly my favorite songs from 2024, starting with the new John Baumann cover of Smashing Pumpkins' 1979 and ending with my Top 5. So many good songs came out this year that I had to cut out several favorites to fit within two hours! We started with one of my late friend Gary Stein's favorite songs, Charley Pride's A Shoulder to Cry On.
I kicked it off with the classic Gram Parsons song, The Return of the Grievous Angel, followed by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit's cover of Tom Petty's Room at the Top (from GP to TP), then played new Reckless Kelly, Flatland Cavalry, Sunny Sweeney and American Aquarium. As always some Black Opry - The War and Treaty, Julie Williams and Amythyst Kiah. Cover Me was a classic covered by one of the best voices of our time.
We started with tributes to Kris Kristofferson and JD Souther, had new ones from Reckless Kelly, Morgan Wade, Lainey Wilson and Zach Bryan, had some songs from the great soundtrack to Twisters, plus Jason Isbell's and Mickey Guyton's songs from the Democratic National Convention, new Black Opry and Ishkode (Indigeneous) material, previewed Chris Stapleton's and Sturgill Simpson's upcoming appearances at the Austin City Limits Fest, and had a classic Cover Me.
I kicked off this one with Steve Earle's Satellite Radio, then played my usual combination of new songs with a few classics. I highlighted the first release from Black Opry Records, Jett Holden's Backwood Proclamation, and included Allison Russell's contribution to My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall. Cover Me included two versions of a song by great Texas songwriters, with the listener invited to figure out who wrote it.
I started this one with a tribute to Dickey Betts, then did some 4/20 songs, a few new ones from Zach Bryan, Morgan Wade and Brothers Osborne, some Muscle Shoals rocknrollcountrysoul from Etta James and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, two Beyonce songs from Cowboy Carter, a few Texas songs, and my two candidates for my Song of the Year, Kacey Musgraves' The Architect and Sierra Ferrell's American Dreaming.
My first show back on the air in several months, I reviewed the Grammy winners, played the new one from Sierra Ferrell, American Dreaming, and played songs from Rhiannon Giddens and Adia Victoria from the new My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall. I followed Kacey Musgraves' journey through weed and included a couple of songs about country folks raising contraband.
This is a homegrown roots music show made on my PC without a great mike. I may eventually try to do this show on the radio on a regular basis. I played a lot of great soul music from Macon, Memphis and Muscle Shoals, mixed in some classic country, and played some tunes that blur the boundaries between roots rock, country and soul. I finished up with my Song of the Year, I Remember Everything by Zach Bryan and Kasey Musgraves.
11/30/23 The Lonesome Stranger
Many of my favorite Country and Americana artists, that I have been playing all year, like Allison Russell, Rhiannon Giddens, Tyler Childers, Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell and the War and Treaty were nominated for Grammys so I played them all. I played tributes to two college friends we lost, Gary Stein and Adrian Sanchez, and played a bunch of new stuff.
This may have been my best show yet. I started with Will Hoge and the Black Opry's Can I Be Country Too?, played a lot of new music including Rhiannon Giddens' You're the One and Zach Bryan and Kasey Musgraves' song of the year, I Remember Everything. I paid tribute to the late Ian Tyson and finished up with Luke Combs' cover of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car.
This was the week Jason Isbell released Weathervanes as well as the 10th anniversary of Southeastern so I played songs from both albums. Then Mary Beth, a new apprentice, came on and played a few sets including Blaze Foley's Clay Pigeons, which John Prine covered. For Pride Month I played songs from Brandy Clark, Brothers Osborne and Allison Russell. I played a few songs from the new album of country Stones covers, Stoned Cold Country, had Grammy winners for both song and performance in Cover Me, and played a bunch of Texas country songs. I did a set of songs (Alabama Pines, My Tennessee Mountain Home and What I Like About Texas) that illustrate why a sense of place is so important to me in southern music, and finished with Anniversary Song for my wife Leslie!
I had a co-host, Saint Annie, who is apprenticing with KOOP, for part of the show. She was fantastic and the music she played, Wilco, the Nude Party, Neko Case and others definitely complemented the music I played. I started with Jason Isbell, who is in town this week, had two women singers in Cover Me, played some Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens, and then a lot of Bruce Robison's songs including some of his Next Waltz projects. The show finished with a shout out to the Big Squeeze, Texas Folklife's youth accordion contest, and then some Red Dirt music from Oklahomans Cross Canadian Ragweed, Turnpike Troubadours and Jimmy LaFave.
This was a fun show. I started with some duets from Gram and Emmylou and Johnny and June, then played First Aid Kit's fantastic song Emmylou, which namechecks all of them. Lots of Don Williams, some Merle, some Cojo, and Tex-Mex from both the Tiarras and Selena for Cinco de Mayo. In the second hour I had a great set of Miranda Lambert, some local Austin women, music from Crazy Heart, and ended with the Clint Black classic A Better Man.
On March 30 I did my first show on the Lonesome Stranger. It was delayed 45 minutes due to technical difficulties but I was able to get a few sets in. Then we brought in Shakey Lyman, a musician from Philadelphia that I didn't know beforehand, to play some songs. This was a good experience for me to handle live music. I finished up with Cover Me at about the 1:02 mark.
On March 17 I took over Pearl's General Store for two hours of country and Americana music including the first Cover Me, where I play a great song and then a great cover and ask you the listener to let me know which one you prefer. Since it was St. Patrick's Day I played some Irish music. Also the rodeo was in town and the Luck Reunion at Willie Nelson's ranch was taking place that day so I played some music from both.
