Not-So Bumpy Ride

Ronny & I hosted the rockabilly/roots show The Bumpy Ride this Saturday. It's available in the archives for the next few days.


Artist Track Album/CD
Graham Parker/Back To School Days Howlin' Wind 
Billy "the Kid" Emerson/Red Hot Blue Flames
Jo-Ann Campbell Mama (Can I Go Out Tonight?)/That Real Gone Gal
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James "Sugarboy" Crawford She Gotta Wobble/30 New Orleans Classics 
Brinsley Schwarz/Country Girl  
Old Crow Medicine Show/Caroline/Tennessee Pusher 
The Pitter Pats/Bury Me Dead 
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The Pogues/If I Should Fall From Grace With God  
Amos Garrett, Doug Sahm and the Gene Taylor Band/Drunk Return Of The Formerly Brothers 
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Johnny Fuller/Haunted House/The Specialty Story 
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Ben Vaughn/7 Days Without Love/Rambler 65
Andre Williams/That's All I Need That's All I Need 
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Big Connie/Mumbles Blues 
Billy Love/Juiced 
Benny Joy/I Never Want To See You Again Love Zone 
Big Joe Turner/I Need A Girl 
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Elvis Perkins In Dearland/Hey Elvis Perkins In Dearland
Betty Wright/Shoorah! Shoorah!/Very Best Of 
Chick Willis/Stoop Down Baby 
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Ernie K-Doe/A Certain Girl/Burn K-Doe Burn 
Bo Diddley/Cadillac 
Chuck Willis/Hang Up My Rock 'n' Roll Shoes/I Remember Chuck Willis
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Lavern Baker/Hey Memphis  
Dave Alvin/Haley's Comet/Blue Blvd 
David Lindley/Bye Bye Love/El Rayo-X
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The Falcons/Take This Love I Got  
Ramsay Midwood/Loopers/Larry Buys A Lighter 
Doug Sahm/Goodbye San Francisco, Hello Amsterdam/Get A Life
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Nick Lowe/7 Nights To Rock/Basher
Faron Young/Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young/Hillbilly Music, Thank God
Iguanas/If You Should Ever Fall On Hard Times If You Should Ever...
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Piano Red/Sober/The Doctor Is In
Fats Domino/If I Get Rich 
Joe Ely/I'll Be Your Fool/Honky Tonk Masquerade 
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Sonny Knight/But Officer  
Jack Scott/Goodbye Baby 

It's Good to Be Free

WMNF volunteer Julia Jones spearheaded this Sunday's Juneteenth/Father's Day effort, adding flair to already-scheduled programs (Scott Elliott told the Sunday Simcha's Kevin Frye: "Today I get to be Jewish and you can be black."), and inviting the community into the radio station for film, food and shout outs to dads near and far on live air. 


In case you're a little rusty on American history, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in most rebel states. But Texas didn't recognize that law until the war ended over two years later, according to the Smithsonian:

On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, Texas, bringing news to the town that the Civil War had ended and that all slaves were free.

Ronny Elliott & Baye Kouyate 

Ronny Elliott played a new song, Message to Texas. 

You may work me 'til you break my body/But you can't touch my soul

You can't give me freedom/I'm already free

I told him that as far as I knew, he's the only hillbilly songwriter with a song celebrating Juneteenth. Then he said hello to his dad, even though they've never met and he's only spoken to the man once by phone. 

I caught up with Robert Cunningham in the music library, wearing his dad's hat. Host of the Sunday Evening Jazz Clinic since 2003, Robert said "I lost him on June 23rd, eight years ago."


I saw a few minutes of two different documentaries, Blacks and Jews and The Night James Brown Saved Boston, as I took breaks from reporting - an interview with writer Adrienne Maree Brown on the upcoming Allied Media Conference in Detroit. Listen to the WMNF Drive-Times News this week for more info. 

Coincidentally (or not), Adrienne's Twitter account carries this quote by Camus: 

The only way to deal w/an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

In case you missed anything, all WMNF music shows are archived online for one week. 

Good Music & Good Vibes

Father's Day coincides with Juneteenth this Sunday and 88.5 WMNF is celebrating them both with a very special day of African American and dad-centric programming.

Schedule of Programs & Activities (some last minute changes may occur):

6am – 8am: Gospel Classic Hour  with Pastor Pat Hauser

8am – 9am: Thee Righteous Temple Of Hip Hop with Tempest Rodney and A Morning Prayer by Kwabena Dinizulu

9am – 10am: Critical Times with Mabili Ogun

10am – Noon: Sunday Forum with Otis Anthony

Noon – 2pm: Sunday Simcha with Kevin Frye & Scott Elliott

2pm – 4pm: The Energy Bar with Scallywag & Mike Bagley

4pm – 6pm:  Caribbean Cruise with Jaje7 & Guest Host Baye Kouyate & performances by Ricky Collins, Baye Kouyate and (probably)  Venus Jones  and  (hopefully) Quiana Frazier       
       
6pm – 9pm: Sunday Evening Jazz Clinic with Robert Cunningham

9pm – 11pm: Two Worlds with Alvon Griffin & Special Guest James Nottage, Chief Curatorial Officer of the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis and Curator of the exhibit Indivisible ~ "Red/Black: Related Through History,”  a new Eiteljorg Museum exhibit.

You are also invited to WMNF's open house & poutluck from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 1210 East Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd in Tampa.

For more information call 813-238-8001 or log visit WMNF.org

Writing Resources: Publishing in the 21st Century

As a writer who continues to look for new avenues of writing income & outlets for my work, I found this program, Publishing in the 21st Century, educational and inspiring. It was from the L.A. Times Festival of Books in April and aired on C-SPAN over the weekend. 


Publisher Johnny Temple spoke about success in writing not being the next Danielle Steel franchise (my words, not his), but being able to sell seven or eight thousand copies. 


The days of "making it" as any kind of artist seem to be as much of a joke as the American Dream - and I say that as both an artsy type and a former loan processor for a big, irresponsible American bank. 


Writers shouldn't stop producing just because the carrot appears to be a little less golden. Can't eat gold anyway.


Topics addressed in the panel include self-publishing, e-books, submitting, and more. 

WHO needs Health Care?

WHO don't?! 

WHO, also known as the World Health Organization, together with the World Bank, released a 300+ page study on disability this week.  (Click here for the easy version.)

The foreword was written by Professor Stephen Hawking, the 69-year-old British physicist who was diagnosed with ALS when he was 21.  

"Disability need not be an obstacle to success...Governments throughout the world can no longer overlook the hundreds of millions of people with disabilities who are denied access to health, rehabilitation, support, education and employment, and never get the chance to shine."

For the past couple of decades Stephen has not been able to speak or walk, but human ingenuity has given him a voice (albeit with an American accent, according to his website) and wings. 


Friday I interviewed WHO's Alana Officer, the coordinator for the disability and rehabilitation team and executive editor of the report (and Kiwi Do-Gooder). She told me one of the key findings of the report is the barriers people with disabilities face. 

There are 1 billion people on the planet with disabilities that leave them on the fringes of society and life. 

Education, jobs, health care and prevention are limited to the disabled, Alana said, and thus far, "No country is doing it all, or has got it all right." 

And while communicable diseases used to be a big cause, preventable diseases like diabetes and heart disease are  now largely increasingly responsible. (Do you want fries with that cigarette?) 

The good news is that the report shows progress in the right direction around the world. 

Alana listed the U.S.'s Americans with Disabilities Act (which grants civil rights & physical access to public buildings to those with disabilities) as one of the most progressive pieces of legislation in the world. She also noted that the U.S. is ahead of the world's curve in the area of information and communication. 

But if we've got our own American Stephen Hawking out there in those 50 shining states, what are the chances that instead of his creating and discovering, that he sits silenced in an old wheel chair, stuck at home or a Medicaid nursing facility, unable to live the life he desires? Where's the freedom for him? 

In the next couple of weeks I'll be reporting for the WMNF News on folks in Tampa Bay with disabilities and how they get by. I'll keep you posted.  

#FF Florida Flowers

Which ones can you name? 

Night Blooming Cereus opening at dusk

Full bloom near midnight