BLOG ARCHIVE

March 23, 2009

WPRB's IMPROVED ONLINE LISTENING: WPRB has just improved and relaunched it's online signal. To listen, go to www.wprb.com/listen.php or choose any of the following streams:

If you had bookmarked WPRB.com in the past, you will need to instead bookmark one of the above. For more information than I understand, see the following from the WPRB Technical and IT Departments:

As you may already know, our Windows Media and Real Player streams were discontinued last week. In order to accommodate the listeners of those streams, we had to make changes to our MP3 stream, and, in the process, the original stream was replaced with a low bitrate version. This resulted in the problems that you encountered recently when trying to access these streams via wprb.com. For this, I, on behalf of all of us in the tech and IT departments of WPRB, apologize.

March 5, 2009

I am delighted that XM-15: The Village will once again be airing two hours of Music You Can't Hear On The Radio on satellite radio as part of their "Village Liberation" program which they describe as follows:

"FRIDAY and MONDAY: Village Liberation with John Weingart, WPRB: Join us to celebrate the best folk DJs in the US and Canada as only Satellite Radio can do. Travel across the land with your favorite folk DJ from the comfort of your coffee table. Today, we hang with John Weingart of WPRB, Princeton, NJ."

Airtime: Friday, March 6, at 12 noon Eastern (9 am Pacific)
Encore: Monday, March 12, at midnight Eastern (9 pm Pacific)

In other news, Pete Labriola and I will be taking turns hosting the show for the rest of this month. I will be on the air this Sunday, March 8th, and also March 22nd. Pete will impose his musical taste on March 15th and 29th.

February 1, 2009

For this Sunday's annual competition with the Super Bowl (MYCHOTR - 17; SUPER BOWL - 18), we will listen to music from and about Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and maybe The Big Bopper acknowledging their fatal plane crash on February 2nd 50 years ago, as well as new albums by Beaucoup Blue, Ron Orlando, Dry Branch Fire Squad, and others, older albums, and other music that comes to mind before and during the show.

Bob Weir
Bob Weir performing with The Dead in the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball.
The halftime show between their two sets was a dance by Joe and Jill Biden.

January 24, 2009

The excitement I know about in advance for this Sunday, January 25, is that WPRB is broadcasting a Princeton University basketball game that starts at 4:40 so it is likely that the show will start a few minutes early or a few minutes late. Then February 1st is the night before the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper. This will be a good opportunity to listen to some of their music and some songs about them including the surprise hit as I was graduating from college in 1970, American Pie.

Also, I have been invited to again submit two hours of one of my shows for rebroadcast on satellite radio on XM-15 (The Village). I'm not sure whether I will submit this weekend's show or one in a future week. You'll be able to tell when you hear no weather reports or references to immediately current events and I try to avoid saying other than "Good Evening" since the XM airing will most likely be during the daytime about a month after the program is on PRB.

This will be the third show I have done that I knew was probably going to be re-aired on XM and it is to be an interesting calculation choosing what to include. I always want my show to be some combination of wonderful, funny, moving, surprising, and maybe occasionally informative, but I want this one to be representative in a way that might entice whoever is listening for the first time to maybe seek it out again. So I want to plan it carefully but part of what I most enjoy about the show is making lots of moment-to-moment changes as I do it though I do like coming in with a somewhat pre-planned framework. So, how to obsess with over planning or, as Bob Seger says, what to leave in and what to leave out. Bob Seger, by the way, is, I think, once again less famous than his brother Pete.

As always, I hope you can listen and enjoy what you hear.

January 9, 2009

Coming up on Music You Can't Hear On The Radio this month is our annual Martin Luther King birthday show on Sunday January 18th which coincides with the eve of the inauguration of a new President. As in years past, we'll listen to the entire "We Shall Overcome" speech from 1963. This year we'll also hear a much more recent speech on race as well as some related music from both eras.

The only excitement I know about in advance for January 25 is that WPRB is broadcasting a Princeton University basketball game that starts at 4:40 so it is likely that the show will start a little early or a little late. Then February 1st is the night before the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper. This will be a good opportunity to listen to some of their music and some songs about them including the surprise hit as I was graduating from college in 1970, American Pie.

The show this Sunday, January 11th, will include a song or two from my first favorite new album of 2009: Cafe Loco by Coco & Lafe, a Boston and Vermont based duo. We'll also hear some songs from Headlong Retreat, the new aggregation that includes members of the late band Left Field. The band is performing "A Musical Meditation on the Pilgrimage" at the Touchstone Theater, down the block from Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem, PA, on January 16th and 17th.

As always, I hope you can listen and enjoy what you hear.

December 27, 2008

Please join me on the radio this Sunday between 7:00 and 10:00 PM at WPRB.com or, if you are within 35 miles of Princeton, New Jersey, at 103.3 FM for three hours of songs and tunes, new and old, chosen with the aim of enlivening and elevating the evening.

If you are looking for gift ideas, you might consider a great CD, tickets to an upcoming concert, or even a Music You Can't Hear On The Radio t-shirt. Check out the list of Recommended Music, the ever-expanding concert calendar, or the T-Shirt pages.

Also, in case you missed this remarkably perceptive column that appeared in the Star-Ledger on the day of the New Hampshire primary last January, here it is:

'West Wing' Writers Are Looking Like Prophets
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
By John Weingart

The television show "The West Wing" was criticized by some for painting an unrealistically positive portrait of life within the White House. A smart, talented, well-informed president surrounded by a similarly qualified staff grapple with complex issues and do a pretty good job of arriving at policies and strategies in the best interests of the country.

Others thought the show captured government at its best even if it romanticized how often those admirable moments occur. But the final year of "The West Wing," centered around the campaign to succeed President Jed Bartlett (Martin Sheen), did seem just an entertaining fairy tale, valuable perhaps for showing how far modern politics has strayed from some ideal but not a useful frame of reference for anything likely to happen.

Yet if the latest polls in New Hampshire showing Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama in the lead are confirmed today and those choices are endorsed by voters in the primaries and caucuses to follow, "The West Wing" writers are going to seem like modern-day Nostradamuses.

The television campaign began during the program's penultimate year in 2005 and concluded with its final episode in May 2006. On the show, a tall, lanky, charismatic, Hispanic congressman with no national experience unexpectedly overcomes much better-known and more experienced opponents to win the Democratic nomination.

The Republicans select a significantly older senator who is considered a maverick with wide national appeal though he is distrusted by many within his party's base.

The candidates, Matt Santos and Arnold Vinick, are played by Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda. The physical resemblance between Smits and Obama is stronger than that of Alda and McCain, but the political profiles of both characters are strikingly similar to those of the apparent front-runners in New Hampshire. Once nominated, the two candidates agree to run a civil, issue-oriented campaign and then, amazingly enough, that is what they do. They even confer during the fall when they fear their advisers may be tamping down their best instincts.

How does the campaign end? Well, it is very close. By all accounts, the writers had a change of heart and altered the planned outcome after the sudden death of John Spencer, the actor playing the part of Matt Santos' running mate, Leo McGarry. In the end, viewers experience Santos winning by a narrow margin, but the real surprise comes when the president-elect then asks his opponent to serve as secretary of state. After some hesitation, he agrees.

Of course, that was all just a television fantasy. With the screen writers still out on strike, who could even imagine such a plot in real life?

John Weingart is associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. This essay also appeared on NJVoices.com.

November 30, 2008

This Sunday after Thanksgiving, we will once again listen to Alice's Restaurant which may be the most unlikely hit song of all time. This saga that began right after a Thanksgiving dinner in 1965(?) remains funny, clever and fun to listen to all these decades later. We'll hear a mid-1990s version Arlo recorded which includes reflections on the death of Richard Nixon. The show is on from 7:00 to 10:00 pm at www.WPRB.com or, if you are within 35 miles of Princeton, New Jersey, at 103.3 FM. The three hours each week are devoted to songs and tunes, new and old, chosen with the aim of enlivening and elevating the evening.

Please note the ever-expanding concert calendar on this site. There are many, many interesting shows coming up at venues within an hour of the WPRB radio listening area.

November 16, 2008

I hope you can join me this Sunday to listen to some songs and tunes, new and old, chosen with the aim of enlivening and elevating the evening. The show is on from 7:00 to 10:00 pm at www.WPRB.com or, if you are within 35 miles of Princeton, New Jersey, at 103.3 FM. Either this week or next, we will indulge in the annual treat of listening to Alice's Restaurant. We'll hear a version that comes from a concert Arlo Guthrie gave shortly after the death of President Nixon and we'll also listen to an encore from a 2005 concert in Australia in which Arlo spends about 10 minutes explaining why he is not going to sing that song.

November 9, 2008

Post-Election Radio Show This Sunday: I’m excited about the music I’ve been collecting for this Sunday’s show. This includes the song that led off the program this week 16 years ago - “Hallelujah, The Great Storm Is Over” – although I’m pretty sure how I’m going to start this time and it’s not with that. I hope you can tune in to listen with me at WPRB.com or, if you are within 35 miles of Princeton, NJ, at 103.3 FM from 7:00-10:00 pm.

September 6, 2008

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to WPRB during my show last night. If you missed it, you can still donate online at any time at pledge.wprb.com or, through this Wednesday, by calling in to (609) 258-1033.

I will be away this coming Sunday and the show will be hosted for the first two hours by Andrea Lee who co-hosts the world music show that now precedes me and, for the final hour, by Thomas who presides over The Worried Waltz that follows me. I look forward to being back on the air on September 19th.

ABSENTEE VOTING - In response to the countless listeners who have already asked for information about ensuring that they, their college-age children, their friends' children and their childrens' friends who may be away from home on November 4th still get to vote, please be advised that now is the time to request an absentee ballot. State-by-state deadlines and contact information is available at www.absenteeguide.com Additional information particularly about voting in New Jersey can be found at ruvoting.rutgers.edu/registering.html.

September 21, 2008

It feels great to be back on the radio after taking the summer off. During or after the show, please don't hesitate to send me comments, reactions and suggestions using our Contact Us page.

August 2008

I am starting to look forward to returning to the radio on Sunday, September 14th. That night, I expect to air the world radio premiere of songs and tunes from Beppe Gambetta's new album, Rendez-Vous, in which the great Italian musician performs duets with wonderful artists he has met from around the world. Throughout the fall, we'll also hear from many of the other wonderful new albums to be released or released in recent months mixed in with many older ones.

For some reason, songs about conflicts between environmental protection, development and farming have been on my mind of late and will probably pop up from time to time. Finally, songs about electoral politics are also likely to make increasingly frequent appearances building to an entire pre-Election-eve show on Sunday November 2nd. And in case that's not enough to look forward to, WPRB's 2nd annual listener membership drive will also descend upon us.

July 8, 2008

The best though bittersweet musical news of the summer so far is that John Herald's song Moneyland is the title track on the new Del McCoury album. The song is a powerful bit of social commentary but is also very personal reflecting the real and unwelcome poverty in which John lived. He recorded the song for the album he completed just before taking his life three years ago. Had he been able to keep going, John would have appreciated the irony of a song about money finally bringing him some income and perhaps some of the recognition that had eluded him. The Del McCoury version sounded great when he sang it on Prairie Home Companion last week. John's version is on Just Another Bluegrass Boy available from JohnHerald.com.

My only other musical recommendation at the moment is to go far out of your way to see the reunited Leftover Salmon who are playing in a number of festivals around the country this summer. The show I saw in June, like the one I saw a year ago in June, was a joyous delight.

Summer 2008

I have forsaken the radio for the summer, a practice I began in 1991. It was harder to stop this year than last. I had tremendous fun this season thinking about, constructing, and reconstructing parts of shows in advance and then using them as jumping off points for variations small and large that would arise each Sunday evening. And it seemed to me that I heard from more people who were listening which is a major plus. I hope you enjoy the various substitute hosts who will be spending some of their summer Sunday evenings in the modern, windowless, basement that is the WPRB studio: Dr Cosmo (June 22), Garrett Broad (June 29, July 27), Kevin Connell (July 6), Bob Schremser (August 10) and Pete Labriola (July 13, 20, and August 3, 17, 24 and 31).

Please check out the Concert Calendar section of this webpage for information about some of the great concerts in the WPRB radio area this summer. Also, I have added some of my favorite new CDs to the Recommended Records section. I'll be back on the air on Sunday, September 7. I hope you have a wonderful summer.

April 2008 - Two Great Shows At the Prallsville Mill

Saturday April 12 at 8 pm: HARVEY REID and JOYCE ANDERSEN Quite simply, there is no better musician and performer in folk music today than Harvey Reid, and no better place to hear him than at the Prallsville Mill. This great singer, songwriter, humorist and master player of the guitar, autoharp, six-string banjo, and other instruments has a mystical connection with the Mill. He travels the world but his concerts here - this will be his 7th - are always particularly magical for him and for the audience. For the first time, Harvey will be joined by Joyce Andersen, a fine singer and guitarist who is also now his wife. Her voice and their fine harmonies should make this evening even more memorable.

Friday April 25 at 8 pm: JIMMY TINGLE FOR PRESIDENT! "Jimmy Tingle for President" may seem a surprising listing for a folk music concert series, but Jimmy Tingle is too good to miss. He is a wonderfully funny, smart, compassionate performer and social commentator about politics and modern life in general. His previous one-man shows have been held over for weeks in Boston, Los Angeles and elsewhere. His frequent television appearances have included David Frost's show on the BBC, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, and two years as a regular commentator on 60 Minutes II. He also recently played a TV talk show host in the film Head of State with Chris Rock. This new one-man show, presented at the Prallsville Mill in two acts, will draw from his 25 years of comedic insight, outrage and commentary to focus on politics and life in 2008.

The Prallsville Mill is a wonderful place to become a fan of musicians and comedians you may never have heard of before. Performers particularly love appearing in this beautiful historic building and quickly captivate both old friends and new listeners.

TICKETS are $25 each and can be purchased online HERE or by sending a check payable to Mill Folk Concerts to Mill Folk Concerts, 79 Rittenhouse Road, Stockton, NJ 08559.

RESERVED SEATS: If you are among the first 30 people to buy tickets to both concerts, seats in the front center section are set aside and held as long as you arrive by 7:50 pm.

This series of folk music concerts at the Prallsville Mill has been produced since 1985 by Music You Can’t Hear On The Radio as a benefit for the non-profit Delaware River Mill Society which works to restore, maintain and make publicly available the Prallsville Mill.

Saturday December 29, 2007

I'm very much looking forward to being on the radio tomorrow night. In recent years, or maybe it's decades, I've usually been away or otherwise busy on this Sunday in the midst of the holidays and someone else has done the show. So, I'm happy that this year it will be me. I've been thinking of playing Mike Agranoff's "Ballad Of The Sandman." It's a great story that takes place in this season - on New Year's Eve in fact - and at a radio station. When Mike was writing it, he talked with a few folk music DJs including me and ended up incorporating some of our thoughts, experiences and fantasies about radio. I'm proud to have contributed a small piece of the puzzle. I'm leaning toward playing it near the beginning of the show, probably between 7:00 and 8:00 pm, and then seeing what flows from there. I hope you can hear at least part of the program.

December 2007

I hope you will check out the "Best of 2007" list by clicking on "Recommended Records." The list, of course, does not reflect the "best" in any objective sense and for that matter doesn't actually refer to "records." But it is a group of albums I heard for the first time this year and particularly enjoyed and recommend.

All three of this year's concerts at the Prallsville Mill were, I thought, quite spectacular. Beppe Gambetta and Geoff Muldaur each gave great shows continuing the Mill's record of creating magical musical evenings. In some ways, they are similar: Singer-songwriters with an acoustic guitar, passion and deep, infectious knowledge, curiousity and inventiveness about the music they love, and great stories to go with wonderful songs and tunes. Their music, of course, is very different but both are performers who delight new listening audiences as well as serious musicians and their old fans.

Perhaps the nicest folk music surprise of the year, however, was the reemergence of Ginny Reilly & David Maloney as a duo once again well worth going out of your way to hear. Their show had a vibrancy and warmth that captivated and enveloped the folks hearing them for the first time as well as the longtime fans like me. Their fine voices and magnificent harmonies remain stunning as does their choice of material. More than half the concert was new songs, some from mostly little-known songwriters as well as several fine new songs of their own. Now, when people ask me what new music I'm excited about, I find myself recommending Reilly & Maloney. Unfortunately, they are still giving very few shows away from their home turfs in California and Seattle, but with a little luck maybe word will start to spread to the people running festivals and other venues around the country.

My radio show goes on year after year, but 2007's been a little different. First, I had the honor of having two hours of my show rebroadcast on XM Satellite Radio on XM-15-The Village. I was very excited about this opportunity to reach a larger audience and fully enjoyed the process of thinking about what I would play for those hours to try to cast my show in its best light and to honor and help promote musicians I most admire. But then it aired on XM, repeated three times during one week, and that was that. I received very few comments and began to wonder if XM's audience, or at least XM-15's audience, is no bigger than WPRB's.

Then, there was WPRB's first membership drive which showed that a lot of people care enough about the station, and my show in particular, to contribute financially. That was neat and and breathed new life into the station as a whole.

I used to hope I could keep doing a radio show forever, but now I do worry about how much of an audience remains for what people like me do - people like me being people who believe we have musical knowledge, taste and a sense of juxtaposition and sequencing that should be imposed upon others. I've begun to notice that some of the people I run into who comment on my show will say, meaning it as a complement, "That's a great show. I used to listen all the time." But then I will get a note or a call from one person who raves about a particular set of songs I played on a recent Sunday, and I am restored.

So, if you listen to my show, I thank you and hope you will continue to be interested and entertained by it. And, anytime you want to let me know you are, or were, listening, please have no doubt that I will be happy to hear it.

September 2007

I have mixed feelings about the end of summer but am happy to be returning to the radio this Sunday, September 9th, after 11 weeks away from Music You Can't Hear On The Radio. Some of the new recordings I've been enjoying this summer and will therefore be playing on the show in the weeks ahead come from the worlds of bluegrass (Russ Barenberg, Peter Wernick, Charlie Sizemore), folk (Bill Morrissey, Christine Lavin, Michael Black, Bob Franke, Suzanne Vega, Tom Russell), blues (Marie Knight, Danny Kalb, Steve Katz & Stephan Grossman), rock (Great American Taxi, The Subdudes, Steve Forbert), jazz (Chick Corea & Bela Fleck), rockabilly (Starline Rhythm Boys, Honky Tonk Confidential, The Derailers), and Nova Scotia (Gypsophilia, Rose Cousins, Cori Brewster and David Myles).

We'll be hearing a few live guests this fall starting with SPOOK HANDY on September 16th.

In other radio news, WPRB will be holding its first-ever listener fundraiser starting on Sunday, October 7th. Details to follow but if you ever listen to the Music You Can't Hear On The Radio, I hope you will be able to call in that night to support the show and the station. The entire week will provide an opportunity to show support for this unusually diverse aural resource that is the nation's oldest college FM station.

Finally, the big news about the concerts at the Prallsville Mill this fall with BEPPE GAMBETTA (October 13th), REILLY & MALONEY (November 3rd) and GEOFF MULDAUR (November 17th) continues to be that you can now PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE at www.veryseldom.com. Buying soon is recommended since chances are that at least one or two of these shows will be sold out in advance.

June 2007

I am taking an 11-week summer break from the radio to remember how to listen to recorded music like a normal person. Some great guest hosts with a variety of musical tastes will jockey the discs each week. I plan to be back on the radio on September 9th, the Sunday after Labor Day, once again excited to spend three hours each week in the windowless basement of a college dormitory.

In related news, I believe the two three-hour shows I recorded in the spring for satellite radio will air on XM-15-The Village sometime this summer. As soon as I learn the dates, I will quietly publicize them perhaps on banners dragged by planes up and down the Jersey Shore or through an announcement here. Let me know if you would like to be added to the e-mailing list to receive occasional announcements of news about the show and about the concerts at the Prallsville Mill in Stockton, NJ.

I hope you have a great summer.

April 2007

XM and ME - XM Satellite Radio is going to broadcast two weeks worth of Music You Can't Hear On The Radio on XM-15-The Village. I am very excited about this though I don't know quite what to make of it. I have XM in my car but I know very few other people who listen to satellite radio at all. And then those that do are divided between Sirious and XM listeners and then by the literally hundreds of stations on each. The good part of what seems to be so few people dispersing among so many stations is that satellite does feel in some ways like FM felt in the late 50s-early 60s with lone listener-wanderers finding the occasional great program and feeling they were the only listener or certainly the only listener they knew. This is an observation that I think I appropriated from a great new book about radio by Marc Fisher called Something In The Air. I recommend it highly.

The process will be that I will record two of my shows and they will be played on XM-15 at another time. So this means I need to have my PRB shows for those two weeks be suspended in time - no weather reports, no ads, no mention of The Worried Waltz or other programs on PRB, no musical references aimed at birthdays or other very current events, and no concert announcements. The final restriction and the only one I'm worrying about is that I will have to remember not to say "Good Evening" or to mention "Sunday." But, I am really looking forward to it.

So if you know anyone who subscribes to XM, please let them know about this.

March 2007

Nominate Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize: To learn about a campaign to persuade the American Friends Service Committee to nominate Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize, go to: http://www.petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=3774

January 2007

Nice comments about Music You Can't Hear On The Radio came in from two musicians in recent weeks. First, Christine Lavin wrote that, "John Weingart is one of the best, most respected, most dedicated folk music djs working today." Then, New Jersey singer-songwriter Dave Kleiner wrote, "I was thinking about how actively engaged in your show I am when I listen, trying to predict what song you will play next, or who the artist is that is covering that Phil Ochs song. There is an unspoken dialogue between you and your audience, which makes listening an enriching and entertaining activity."

Fall 2006

I hope you can listen to Music You Can't Hear On The Radio this Sunday from 7:00-10:00 pm and also recommend it to any of your friends who happen to own a computer (www.WPRB.com) or live in central New Jersey, Bucks County or Philadelphia and have access to an FM radio (103.3).

We have an unusually large number of really good new albums to draw from on Music You Can't Hear On The Radio this fall including CDs from BEPPE GAMBETTA, DAVID GRISMAN, OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW, OLABELLE, CHRIS SMITHER, BOB DYLAN, JOHN GORKA THE DUHKS, SHERRY AUSTIN, PAT WICTOR, LAURIE LEWIS, SAM BUSH, TODD SNIDER, CATIE CURTIS, GUY CLARK, HAMEL ON TRIAL, STEVE GOODMAN (!) and others that don't immediately come to mind. And there are still all those ancient and more recent records with lots of great music that would, I think, be fun to hear on the radio. Also, in an evolving Endangered Record Project, I am trying this year to pull out some great songs originally released on LP that I don't believe have been reissued on CD.

September 2006

Thanks to Garrett Broad, Pete Labriola and Bob Schremser for hosting the show this summer while I took a break from the radio. This month, I will be on the air Sunday, September 10th and 24th. On the 17th, I will be attending a wedding and Pete Labriola will return to host the show. I will be mixing in some new music I've heard this summer with other older songs and tunes that are old favorites, unjustifiably neglected or otherwise interesting. I may begin to grapple with this idea I mentioned in my August entry to semi-systematically pull out great songs from LPs that have not yet been reissued on CD. My plan is to do it alphabetically, starting with songs from artists whose name start with "A." I'm still not sure if this will make for good radio, but I will probably try it, if not in September, then soon thereafter.

If you are reading this, you must have seen the new format and added information on this website. Thanks to Don Arrowsmith for all his creativity and work in making this possible. I would welcome your reaction to anything posted here and suggestions for ways to make the site more useful.

August 2006

I welcome your advice and suggestions on whether Music You Can’t Hear On The Radio should change in any way when I come back on the air on September 10th. I give this some passing thought each summer and then usually keep everything pretty much the same. But this summer it does seem that the ways in which people learn about and listen to music are changing pretty rapidly. As folks move into their iPods, add satellite radio to their cars and maybe houses, and download music of interest, just who is it who is listening to the radio both in general and to WPRB on Sunday nights in particular? And why are they (you) listening and what do you want to hear?

I wonder about myself too. What do I want to hear? I continue to receive and listen to up to about 20 new CDs each week, but very few of them grab my attention and gain my affection the way many of my older CDs and LPs did and still do.

One thought I’ve had for the coming year on the radio is to revisit my record collection and pull out LPs with great songs that, to my knowledge, have not made it onto CD. I might do it alphabetically, focusing the first show on performers whose names begin with “A” and then move through “B,” “C,” etc. so that by the spring I would be playing songs from the soundtrack of the movie “You Are What You Eat” as well as recordings of folksinger Bob Zentz. This could fill the entire show (except for taking some time to highlight musicians coming to the area in the near future) for 26 weeks, or maybe I should try it for just an hour a week or just an occasional show or ….

So, send me an email. If you like Music You Can’t Hear On The Radio, let me know why that is and what are you hoping to hear in the fall?

Summer 2006

I think it was in 1990 that I first took the summer off from the radio. I had already been doing the show for 15 years and my wife and I decided that we would like to have summer weekends that were not always truncated by my passion for spending Sunday nights in a windowless dormitory basement. Over the years, I found the summers off also led to enjoy listening to music somewhat differently than I do the rest of the year, feeling less compelled to always be moving to the next new CD in the hope of finding the perfect song for next Sunday’s show. So, I have done it again and will return to the airwaves the Sunday after Labor Day, September 10th.

Fortunately, we have three great guest hosts who will each host the show for four weeks this summer: Pete Labriola (June 18, July 9, August 20 and September 3); Garrett Broad (June 25, July 16 and 23 and August 13); and Bob Schremser (July 2, July 30, and August 6 and 27). Pete, of the Pennington Players and countless other cultural and otherwise worthwhile endeavors, and Bob, who has his own good show on WTSR in Trenton and also is part of The Yingling Brothers, a fine old-timey string band, have hosted the show frequently in the past. Garrett made his first appearance on WPRB this spring when he was one of the Rutgers University students who came to the studio to talk about the NJ Folk Festival.

Spending some focused time thinking about what I might want to play on my final show of the season on June 11th led me to sit amongst piles of records and CDs that have accumulated on the floor in the room I am lucky enough to have just for this purpose. They earned their place on the floor in one of two ways. Either they were new ones I had recently heard for the first time that I wanted to listen to with you, or they were older – anywhere from early in 2006 to early in the 1920s – and for one reason or another they had jumped off the CD shelves or out of the LP cabinets sometime since I had last put them all away – and that, I think, was last year when I took a break for the summer.

As I started separating out what I would take with me to the studio that Sunday – 2 bags holding a total of 80 CDs and an L.L. Bean bag that holds probably 50 LPs - from what I would add to the piles to be refiled, a large stack started to emerge of albums that I am intrigued by and want to listen to more this summer. When I was done, there were 27 of them. I think I’ve played all of them on the radio, but in some cases only one or two songs. These are the albums I would put in my iPod this summer if I had one and that I decided constitute my initial thoughts for the initial list of best albums of 2006. So, you will find them listed under that heading on this website.

I thank you so very much for listening to me on the radio and hope you will return again in September. I wish you a great summer and encourage you to check out the music that Pete, Bob, and Garrett will unearth each Sunday until then.

- John Weingart