This was a good one. Fellow folk programmers and musicians Tom Druckenmiller and Rick Weaver shared the stage with me. We played some tunes, talked about our radio shows and our gigs in the flesh. It was great to share our thoughts with the other programmers in the audience, Rob Reagan, Steve Capwell, Pat DeWolfe and Marcie Lightwood.
Great discussions of being curators, introducing new artists to our audiences, putting together sets of music, and more. I did a couple of Bill Staines tunes, finishing up with A Place in the Choir, with moos, coyote howls and a nice a capella chorus at the end. We also got to recreate The Drunken Lads on Don’t Call Me Early in the Morning. Rick played several Irish ballads embellished with some fine guitar work, and Tom offered some beautiful banjo tunes, with each of us adding some backup work, as needed. The music was well done.
As the night moved on, I got the feeling that we all were dropping quite a few obscure names and I feared some of the audience was starting to gloss over, and I tried to get back on the musical track, but we programmers like to talk…. and talk. Well, that’s part of what makes DNO unique.
The reflection period at the end was, as always, revealing. One younger woman said she like to watch our fingers, and many commented on how we could play the tunes without rehearsal. Also, how much we enjoyed our stage communication with each other. We got to reflect on the early days of Lehigh Valley radio with WSAN and WMUH, and how that affected our present programming. We were also lucky to broadcast on WDIY, which gives us a large creative spectrum to work with.
I admit to being proud of these evenings, with strong intellectual and entertainment values. We were pretty funny, too.