A fund drive show with lots of new music.

A little Bacharach, and a lot of new songs from Dale Ann Bradley, Slaid Cleaves, Steve Lacy, St Paul & the Broken Bones, and Mya Byrne. Also, Rissi Palmer, Nick Drake, Billy Strings, Stevie Wonder, Birds of Chicago and more!

Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative…All the moods.

Some fab new songs from Dom Flemons Josh Ritter, Nickel Creek, and Say She She. Some happy memories and wistful nostalgia as well. And wrapping up the second hour with those excellent sounds of Philadelphia.

A few new tracks from Eric Bibb, Taj Mahal, Margo Price, Wylie and the Wild West. Other fun stuff from Charley Crockett, Plains, Jennifer Warnes, David Bowie, and more. Plus a nod to the 50th anniversary of Roberta Flack’s greatest classic.

Not a lot new this week – just a pile of favorites to help us dry out and get warm from a soggy week! Though it looks like there might be some rivers running through our subconscious as we wend our way through the evening.

The upcoming Django Reinhard Birthday Festival got me listening to a pile of French Jazz and early 20th-century vocal music. So that takes up most of the show tonight. Plenty of swing, but also a little sentiment Français.

The first program of 2023! No resolutions, no theme; just a little holiday detox. A few spillover 2022 favorites from Tami Neilson, Molly Tuttle, Aloe Blacc, and The Brother Brothers, plus a new record from Andrea Pritchett.

A bunch of favorites from the last year.

A Very Betty Solstice. Idiosyncratic and semi-festive. Songs that evoke all kinds of winter traditions and shivery feels. A show probably best consumed by candlelight with some cocoa and gingerbread. Under a snow-covered tall pine tree if possible.

A little fundraising, a lot of Americana: Glen Campbell, Chris Stapleton, Amanda Shires, Bonnie Raitt, Prine, Crockett, Colvin, Kane & Welch, and more. Plus, a little farewell to Peter Cooper.

We start with a set of Christine McVie-centric tracks, and go on with the mood she so kindly creates for us. Some Richard Thompson, some John Martyn, Lissie, Tarnation, Tom Waits (HB!), Mahalia, Petunia, Sturgill, Eliza, a few Patti/ys, The Dransfields, and more. You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.

No theme, nothing very new. Just two hours of comforting music to help us prepare for the holiday onslaught.

A Night of Kitchen Madness with minimal talking and maximum bakeability. Long sets of music to brine your turkey to. Or to help with subverting the colonialist narrative about Pilgrims and Indians. Whatever you got going. Enjoy.

Two hours of both fun and melancholy, happy-sad, caught between Scylla and Charybdis. Finally floating out to sea on a raft of pensive serenity.

Hard to not say anything about the mid-term election, but the show was recorded before Election Day and broadcast after …Schroedinger’s radio program, maybe. Anyway, the music is all good – with new tracks from Slaid Cleaves and Courtney Marie Andrews, lots of fave songs of 2022, plenty of vintage sounds.

Two hours of mostly 80’s and 90’s BritPop, sprinkled with a little Irish, Scottish and Aussie flavoring. Nothing obscure – just a little walk down memory lane.

Don’t Worry – Be Happy. Lots of songs about Happiness and the Opposite of Happiness. But also new tracks from Billy Strings, Miko Marks, ZZ Ward & Aloe Blacc, Bonnie Raitt. Miscellaneous cheeriness from Amalia Rodrigues, Nick Lowe, Al Green, Mel Tormé, Tom Waits, Sunny Sweeney and The Housemartins. Phew!

A Few Small Repairs: A bunch of new music in the first hour; leaning toward the Southern, sweet and a little bit Gothic, a little bit Churchy. The second hour breaks everything (especially your heart) and puts it all back together again.

Hoping it doesn’t feel like an exhausted, random, dark and uncaring, sociopathic, evil villain of a mix…probably not – but I *am* tired. So we’ll just see what happens.

A random and slightly temperamental fund drive show – is there any rhyme or reason? Unlikely!

We kick off kpfa’s fall fund drive with new music from The War & Treaty, Marcus Mumford, Rhett Miller, Day Wave, Lake Street Dive, and Ondara. Other shiny objects from Amos Lee, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Kate Bush, OCMS, David Gray, Valerie June and other favorites. It all sparkles – until it doesn’t.

New music from Beth Orton, Mya Byrne, Bret McKenzie, and Amethyst Kiah. Then a lot of looking, touching, warnings, injunctions, advice, pleas, admonitions, imperatives & requests.

A lazy, hot-weather, dog-days kind of show, just ambling around from Linda Ronstadt to Willie Nelson, Valerie June, Sunny Sweeney, Guy Clark, OCMS, Frank Sinatra, Leonard Cohen, Tim Buckley, Linda Thompson, Brad Mehldau, Tom Waits, 10,000 Maniacs, and more.

A lil’ sneak peek at an forthcoming L Cohen tribute collection from Blue Note, a reminder that Saturday is International Honey Bee Day, and because they’re not just for Hallowe’en, the second hour is Wolves vs. Vampires. (Spoiler alert: wolves win)

Two hours of great music cobbled together with naught but love and respect – all for your enjoyment. And mine, of course.

The post-fund drive stew. New tracks from Andrew Bird, Plains, Loudon Wainwright III, She & Him, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Covers, tributes, a little bit of jazz, and more. Lots of songs about houses. Go figure.

Fundraising for KPFA + a whole stack of great music…what could go wrong? As it happens, not much. This show goes all over the place: a little country, a little soul, a bunch of fierce women, and a knock-out Cher cover! It’s easy (like walking)

A little fund drive show with some new music from Chad Price, Bonnie Raitt, Kelsey Waldron, Shemekia Copeland, and The Deslondes. Antique music from Charles Lloyd & The Beach Boys, The Waterboys, John Prine, Patty Griffin, Mable John, Tom Waits and more! We are sailing in a Strange Boat.

You are getting sleeeeeepy. Midsummer Night Dreams: reveries, yearning, heartbreak, memories, and sand…don’t dream it’s over.

Trying to balance anger and hope. We’ll see how it goes.

Trying to get in the Summer mood with Darrell Scott, Dar Williams, Scott Miller, new Patty Griffin, a little preview of the Black Opry Review at the Freight (6/30/22), and low-key sprinkled with LGBTQ+ artists for Pride month. Yum!

A bit of Bloomsday celebrating, on the eve of the best literary holiday ever; music associated with Ulysses, James Joyce and Dublin. A few Sunny songs not really about the weather… And a handful of miscellaneous tunes that suit my mood this week.

New songs from Wynonna & Waxahatchee, Tedeschi Trucks, S.G Goodman, Edgar Winter, Steep Canyon Rangers…plus treasures from Kelly Joe Phelps, Amy Winehouse, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ray Charles, Nina Simone Jimmy LaFave, Tony Rice, Mavis Staples, and more.

A new track from Amanda Shires, but mostly old friends to provide a little rest in these weary times.

New sounds for the waning days of the fund drive! New (and new-old) music from Amythyst Kiah, Joy Oladukun, Mavis & Levon, Eli Paperboy Reed, Nicki Bluhm, Bret McKenzie and more. A neo-trad-70’s-mashup set from a handful of young Irish vocalists, and a sideways goodbye to Vangelis.

Fundraise We Must – but our pleas for cash are nonetheless accompanied by some fine music from The Felice Brothers, Sturgill Simpson and Willie Nelson, Jesse deNatale, Jesse Malin, Stevie Wonder, Sam & Dave, Allison Moorer, Duffy, and Molly Tuttle, among many others. Come for the tunes, stay for the sparkling cyanide.

The subtext is outrage, but the music is fairly chill. A few new tracks from Phoebe Bridgers, Bonnie Raitt and Caroline Spence…but special yumminess from Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Libba Cotten and Lil Naz X!

This show starts out a little bit dark and gothic, but with the help of Willie Nelson, Jim Lauderdale, Madeline Edwards, and Patty Griffin finds its way to the light. Then kind of settles down into a misty blue. I guess it all evens out in the end.

Try as I might, I could not find a thread to stitch together all the various tracks on this show. So, let’s just call it the “Love is Like a Bottle of Gin” show.

Sometimes I make myself cry with my own mixes…If you need a little catharsis, tune in for so many flavors of crazy.

An orderly chaotic mess of songs that have been swirling around in my brain this week. A nod to John Prine on the second anniversary of his death, a Rabbit Song, Magnetic Fields, a pile of covers, Midnight Sun and Moonbeams.

A restless mix that starts electric and winds down into unchained heartbreak, melancholy, self-deception, hope & a tiny touch of torment. Be careful.

New tunes from Adia Victoria, Father John Misty, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and the Neville Brothers. Plenty of older songs as well from the Stones, Rickie Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, the Hank Dogs, etc. And for some reason – possibly mythic – horses and hair.

Some new releases to get excited about: Mavis Staples and Levon Helm (Recorded in 2011, coming soon!), unreleased Son House material from 1964! Waxahatchee! (Not sure which I like more, the song or saying the name Waxahatchee…). Belle and Sebastian?

Dreamy, girly, strong and kickass, nerdy, nostalgic. broken-hearted and stout-hearted…This show has it all!

New music from Bonnie Raitt, Amanda Anne Platt, Charlie Crockett, and the Cowboy Junkies. Classics from Stevie, Al, Mavis, Gladys, Patty, Sarah, Shawn and Leonard. All in the service of KPFA’s WinterFund Drive!

Week Two of the KPFA “winter” fund drive. We’re all over the map, but trying to build a garden amidst the news…

Second Day of the Winter Fund Drive. A roller coaster ride from the simple to the tough and back round again. Taking it easy or doing it the hard way – we’ll see what happens.

New music from The Whitmore Sisters, Courtney Barnett, The Head & The Heart, The Band of Heathens, and more. Lists, Dreams, Cigarettes, and flowers that bloom in the spring. I’ll take you there…

We start somewhere around 1983 and wander semi-aimlessly around this sweet old world. A few new tracks: Eliza Gilkyson, Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert, The Lumineers; but plenty of old friends. And we bid faretheewell to the great Norma Waterson.

Groundhog Day! Imbolc! St Brigid’s Day! Candlemas! Inklings of Spring and suchlike. New releases and comfortable old friends.

Quasi-random mix of songs with a bit of gospel, some down-to-earth, fire-scorched, and a little archery!

Quite a lot of “new old” music tonight: reissues, newly-discovered gems, covers…and a few new-released tracks as well.

A heap of older songs, a couple covers…Favorite old standbys: Emmylou, Gillian, Leonard, Patty, Elvis, Joni, Nina, Ella….what’s not to like?

A questionable show in which we ask the Big Questions.

Last program of the year! We’ve made it through December.

Some vaguely, some explicitly Christmassy music. A little melancholy, a little inspiration, a little fun. For those who wish they had a river to skate away on…

In which we say goodbye to Michael Nesmith with a few tunes, poke around at some music that saved our ragged souls in 2021, and end our KPFA Winter Fund Drive with No Hard Feelings.

Day two of the KPFA Winter fund drive, so lots of wintery, chilly, darkish songs. Plus a whole hour of (mostly) classic soul.

A wintery mix of old and not-so-old, a little Sondheim, some pop standards, some L Cohen to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of Songs of Love & Hate…the Sea, the Moon, the Stars, some Fire…

A bunch of non-quite-Thanksgiving songs, fruit pies, a tiny tribute to Dave Frishberg, and a moody, lonely, idiosyncratic mix of whatever.

A show heavy on the Philly Sound of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff on the 50th anniversary of Philadelphia International Records. Other things, old and new…the last 15 minutes are the slow jams of your dreams!

A comforting mix of old and new; new songs from Janis Ian and Billy Bragg, a magic song about trees…spies, trains, mirrors, stars, wine, and of course, jazz on the autobahn!

A program scattered with random hits from the 1970’s along with new music from Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Valerie June & Mavis Staples, Ana Egge, Rokia Koné, and Tori Amos. Recovered gems from Leo Nocentelli, Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell. Rounding out the program with Bessie Smith and Ray Charles.

New music from Jim Lauderdale, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tom Morello (& Chris Stapleton), Shovels and Rope, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, and Jack White. Not a bad haul. We also hear from Billy Strings, Sierra Farrell, The Felice Brothers, Yola, The Meters, and more!

Inevitably, a lot of music from The Chieftains to honor the passing of the great Paddy Moloney. Some of their performances with Del McCoury, The Rolling Stones, Lisa Hannigan, Marianne Faithfull, etc. Plus, I’m still loving the new albums from Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell.

Some geezer tunes, a few waltzes, things cannibalized from last week’s missing program…basically, all of your days will be blessed. Oh, and go Giants!

The Show That Never Was

Fund-driving along the night highway…hopefully bringing in some bucks for KFPA. All over the map tonight, from Harlan to Dreamland…and the dreamiest 8 minutes and 23 seconds: 11:49-11:58pm courtesy of Arvo Pärt.

Being nice, helping, empathy, helpless, hopeless, and feeling all the feelings. Big Questions from Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello/Allan Toussaint, plus Brett Dennon’s Paul Newman Daytona Rolex.

It’s Fall! It’s the KPFA Fall Fund Drive! There’s music about music on the radio (I know…real original!) But also Aaron Lee Tasjan, Abbey Lincoln, Jason Isbell, Childish Gambino, Mahalia Jackson, Marlene Deitrich, among other friends!

A little optimism, a little melancholy, some Cuban, some French…just reviewing the situation.

From Lonely to Happy, From Boulder to Birmingham to Highway 17…Hopefully not too emo! Plus a sneak peek at the upcoming Berkeley Old Time Music Convention!

A farewell to Nanci Griffith and to Kieran Halpin, and a bunch of Irish music.

B2 Weds Night Mix August 11, 2021 Loading…