We were delighted to have two sets of guest stars today at the studio. We got a sneak preview of Lynn O’Brien’s latest album Rising. It will be released at a sold out show at Hook and Ladder on Thursday (Dec 6) but you can listen to a few tunes below. My favorite is the title track – which celebrates the movements happening lately to lift up all people. We also had Blair Ransom and Leng Moua from Wild Age. They are playing at the Moon Palace on January 13. They are getting some traction with their latest CD, Sea of Health. I love the flow of it and look forward to their new work in 2019. The theme was covers, which made for some interesting choices. I feel like very guy I knew (round about my age) suggested Slave Raider!

We talked about Wild Age’s latest video venture:

You can download the playlist from Spotify  – or see the list below. The playlists are rarely true to what we end of playing; it’s what we intended to play if we got extra time. Continue reading →

We were delighted to have two guest stars today at the studio: Warren Thomas Fenzi and Joe Dunn from Frogleg. The theme was farming – in celebration of the Minnesota Farming Union, which I attended earlier today:

The show opened with Warren Thomas Fenzi’s upcoming CD Viven. It was great to hear about how the music developed. It’s a three-part composition; the middle track (Teach Me How to Hate) was written on Election Day 2016. Somehow the final segment turns around into a peaceful, dreamy track – now if only life can imitate art. Warren has an EP release on December 4 at the Icehouse.

We also had Joe Dunn from Frogleg, a jam band with a soul backbone. I have seen and enjoyed Frogleg a few times and it was delightful to meet Joe. He told us about their latest video. And it was fun to hear about how the band has come along over the past few years. Frogleg is playing Nov 23 at the Varsity and Dec 31 at the Hook and Ladder.

We’ll take a break for Thanksgiving BUT back the following week with a theme of covers – Minnesota bands covering other music, other bands covering Minnesota music or the best of all Minnesota bands covering other Minnesota bands.

You can listen to show playlist on Spotify or check out the list below. As always, the playlists may or may not track what actually happened, sometimes we run out of time.

Continue reading →

We were delighted to have Doug Collins join us today for an in-studio performance. I was lucky enough to see Doug’s CD release in September at the Turf Club. I loved the music and the energy.

It was even better to have a personal performance at the WMCN studio. He opened with my favorite – Conversation with my Heart. I don’t want to jinx myself but if I were going to get stuck in an elevator, Doug and Heather would be on my shortlist of folks to be stuck with me. Such a fun conversation!

The theme today was Time – next week is farming because I’ll be heading to the show from the MN Farmer’s Union conference. Got a request? Please send it our way!

You can download our playlist on Spotify, which may or may not exactly reflect the music that made the final cut on the show. Or see the playlist typed out, which again mat or may not the exact show… Continue reading →

We had a special guest on the show today – Aine! She gave a review of the new Queen movie. Our theme for the day was the election. And we interspersed our regular playlist with videos I worked on with Women’s March Minnesota of local musicians talking about why they vote.

You can download the playlist from Spotify or check out our notes below. The playlist and notes may not align perfectly with what actually happened.  Continue reading →

Today we aired our Halloween show. I feel like we’re catching on to the mechanics of working at the radio station. So that’s nice. And it’s still super fun.

Listen to the playlist on Spotify.

And the typed playlist – although there may be a few songs out of order Continue reading →

I love doing the radio show. I have been able to meet new people and this week I learned to do something new – we prerecorded the show because I am actually in Winnipeg. For the interested minority, I used Audacity and I just needed to toggle between MIME (when speaking) and Windows WASAPI (when playing music from Spotify) to get it to work.

I prefer to do the show in the studio, it’s just more fun than my dining room table but it’s always awesome to learn something new!

(You can also find the playlist for the show on Spotify.) Or see the playlist spelled out: Continue reading →

Heather and I had out first guest and in-studio performance on Saturday. We were delighted to welcome JOUR. (I had just attended and reviewed her CD release on Thursday.) JOUR was great. She played two songs, we interviewed her and we played out with a song (Black Hole) from her latest CD.

For some reason I just knew that JOUR (formerly known as Jourdan Meyers) would be a great first guest. She is very kind and thoughtful. And I mean as in she thinks about things, she studies things, she’s purposeful and that came through in the interview.

Our other big hurdle – we were the only ones in the studio for a while. We didn’t break anything! And actually it was nice to take a breath and study everything a bit with no one watching. Like the first time you drive alone after getting your license.

Here’s the playlist on Spotify.  And our playlist (below). I think we had time to p lay everything but we maybe didn’t stick to the order. Thanks to the people we know and the one we don’t who put out such awesome Minnesota Music

And including one of our PSAs – because it’s important! –

ACT NOW: Not registered to vote? Do it before Oct 16 OR wait until Election day. Save time on Nov 6th and register NOW! Text P2P to RTVOTE (788-683). It’s that simple! OR go online https://mnvotes.sos.state.mn.us/VoterRegistration/VoterRegistrationMain.aspx … #PowerToThePolls #Getoutthevote

Heather Baker and I are like old hands on the radio now after our second show today – Mostly Minnesota Music on WMCN at Macalester College. Or maybe we still need to iron out some kinks. You can take a listen and let me know:

The theme this week was places – the theme for next week is colors. Post a comment if you have a request for a Minnesota band singing about colors!

You can also listen to the playlist on Spotify, it’s longer than the show itself because we over prepare.

Our notable moment of the show was the dedication of the first song to Red Daughters. We were waiting for them to play at the 331 Club last night. Sadly the keyboardist, Aaron “Hix” Lee was mugged and shot on the way to the show. I don’t know him well at all but I do remember cutting a rug with him at the Turf Club one night. Gotta love a guy who grabs you to dance and then walks on! (There is a GoFundMe set up for him.)

Here’s a probably pretty close to true playlist: Continue reading →

Today Heather Baker and I started our radio show – Mostly Minnesota Music on WMCN at Macalester College. As the name implies, we plan to play music from Minnesota. Each week we will have a theme and play songs related to that theme. We think that will open us up to playing a wide range of genres. Today the theme was first, new or one – a nod to this being our firs show. (You can see the playlist or hear the music on Spotify.)

WMCN doesn’t archive the shows but I can archive them. Hopefully I will be able to get this week’s show next week. And if I am able, I will post it here. In fact, the plan is to post all of the shows here.

As we drove to the studio, we wondered what in the heck we were doing. We were nervous about the mechanics of being DJs and the on air banter and everything. We had our playlist prepared but there’s a three-step process to shift from music to talking. I’m sure I’ll get smoother with that. I’m sure we’ll get smoother at all of it!

But it was super fun and I think you should do something that scares you every now and again. And I had to get Heather back for talking me into the Triathlon!

Next week the them is places – have a request or recommendation – let me know!