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Playlist: Music Station Picks for October '10

Compiled By: PRX Curators

 Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/denniswong/">Dennis Wong</a>
Image by: Dennis Wong 
Curated Playlist

October picks for music stations curated by PRX Music Format Curator David Srebnik of Virtuoso Voices.

Suggestions from David:

"Are you on Twitter? PRX is on Twitter — I've found it to be an invaluable programming resource, providing information and updates on new program that are available on PRX. It's like getting an instant update from PRX without having to go to the PRX site.

"One PRX Twitter feed features curated daily picks from the PRX Editors

Another PRX Twitter feed contains a link to each new PRX piece.

The third PRX feed tells you which programs have been bought in real time."

Find out what David listens for in music programming

Crescent City Blues

From Richard Ziglar | Part of the Still Singing the Blues series | 55:00

It’s easy to screw up a radio show on New Orleans.

You just can’t simply play a funky beat, reference red beans and rice, mention voodoo or let a long time local run on and on. There are one thousand New Orleans music stories, and each one needs time and care and focus.

In "Crescent City Blues," producer Richard Ziglar side-steps the New Orleans’ early Jazz, Zydeco, Brass Band and Funeral Procession legacies. Instead, he takes us down some side streets into the time and the somewhat secret places where the Blues had its say – as did the female impersonators and the “smells of spilled liquor and spittoons.”

All forms of New Orleans' Blues are sounded out on the program, but in the end, "Crescent City Blues" is all about New Orleans, and this is one of the good New Orleans radio journeys.

Authentic and respectful... Katrina and BP are in this story, as are many of the New Orleans legends and legendary characters, real and imagined. Big pay off at the end when New Orleans' most famous mother-in-law shows up.

Crescent City Blues is actually the second of a two-part series, called “Still Singing the Blues,” about older musicians in New Orleans and South Louisiana. Find Part 1 ("Still Singing the Blues") here.

For Jazz, eclectic music and jazz/blues leaning AAA stations. "Crescent City Blues" will also play well on news/music stations with an interest in radio documentaries.

Young_at_heart_small_small Crescent City Blues  takes listeners to the hidden world of New Orleans corner joints—bars far from the French Quarter, in neighborhoods like Central City, Treme, and Pigeontown. These clubs, patronized almost entirely by locals, nurture a resilient blues and rhythm-and-blues scene that is often overshadowed by the Crescent City’s legacy as a jazz town. They are an essential part of New Orleans’ cultural history, but they are struggling—because of the recession, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and potentially the BP oil spill.

This hour-long music-rich documentary features four talented musicians: Tommy Singleton, a vocalist who until recently drove an oyster truck for a living; John T. Lewis, a former appliance repairman who now plays R&B guitar full-time; Ernie Vincent, a bandleader and guitarist who learned to play at the neighborhood fish fries of his childhood; and Deacon John Moore, a bandleader and guitarist who played on hundreds of R&B recordings in the 1950s and ’60s. Also interviewed are bar owners Betty Fox (Mother-in-Law Lounge) and Guitar Joe Daniels (Guitar Joe’s House of Blues), along with other veterans of the city’s music scene.

The program takes readers back into history. They’ll visit bars like the Dew Drop Inn, with its female impersonators and all-night jam sessions, the Green Room, with its smells of spilled liquor and spittoons; and the Sportsman’s Lounge, where an underaged Deacon John witnessed police raids and back-room gambling.

Crescent City Blues is the second of a two-part series, called “Still Singing the Blues,” about older musicians in New Orleans and South Louisiana. Part 1, also called Still Singing the Blues, was released in June. The two hours can be broadcast separately and independently. Accompanying this series is a web site, http://stillsingingtheblues.org, which features additional audio clips, photographs, a blog, and links for readers who want to obtain CDs, find music venues, and learn more about non-profit organizations that promote Louisiana's music and support its musicians. The producers will add audio and photos to the site throughout the coming year.

Producers Richard Ziglar and Barry Yeoman have been interviewing older Southern blues and R&B musicians for the almost two years. Their first blues documentary, Truckin' My Blues Away, was commissioned and distributed by AARP's Prime Time Radio and broadcast on 340 stations.

The current, independently-produced “Still Singing the Blues” series is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative and funded, in part, by a generous grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Project director Richard Ziglar is an audio documentarian whose credits include Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions; AARP’s Prime Time Radio; American Public Media’s “The Story”; and the North Carolina Arts Council. Reporter Barry Yeoman, a former Louisianan, is a freelance journalist who writes for O, The Oprah Magazine; AARP The Magazine; Audubon Magazine; OnEarth; and Good Housekeeping. His radio program Picking Up the Pieces, about the parents of injured veterans, won the 2009 Gracie Allen award for outstanding mid-length documentary. Ziglar and Yeoman can be reached at info@stillsingingtheblues.org.

11 (more) from John Lennon: An Appreciation (59:00 / 54:00)

From Paul Ingles | 59:02

Last month, Ringo turned 70; this month John Lennon would have celebrated his 70th birthday (October 9).

What’s next?

In his ongoing series of Beatles documentaries, Paul Ingles offers 11 reasons (and songs) to remember and perhaps garner new respect for John Lennon.

There are two documentaries. Hour 1 stands on its own, but you can add hour 2 if you have the time. (Part 2 is my favorite of the two.)

After rattling a little jewelry and demystifying the jelly bean, Part 1 explains what it means to be dead (“She Said She Said”) and how they got the right sound at the beginning and the end of "Strawberry Fields." (It all makes sense now.)

Part 2 answers the Lucy O’Donnell - "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" – LSD question, and reminds us that the Beatles, and John Lennon, invested themselves into every note – whether they imported recording technology to alter sound and speed, or by raising background vocals to a new high – as they did in “Dear Prudence.”

As always, Paul Ingles has assembled an amazing array of fans, super fans, musicians and historians. Each take us deep into the songs and back in time.

John_lennon_small This program is an addendum to the program "11 from John Lennon: An Appreciation" (also here at PRX) This companion hour - for stations who'd like to devote 2 hours to Lennon's memory - features more Lennon classics like  ""I'll Cry Instead," "You Got To Hide Your Love Away," "Ticket To Ride," "I'm Only Sleeping," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Rain," "Dear Prudence," "Happiness is a Warm Gun," "Julia," "I Want You" and more - complete with insider commentary and rare interviews.

Hour One of the set is here: http://www.prx.org/pieces/53332-11-from-john-lennon-an-appreciation-hour-1-59