For any of you still relying on the XML feed, I'm on the cusp of sorting that out, barring any additional restricted access to this server. Any scrap of free time I somehow had was perfectly timed with lack of access to the site, complicating matters extensively. I'll try to set some time in the next week to straighten life up here along with preparing for a possible move.

Amongst the regular show I have each Monday, this April I covered for three other shows.

Shake a Tail Feather [fill-in] - Fueled by moxie & caffeine [111.0 Mb]

Way back during the 2008 fund drive, I sat in with Jason on Shake a Tail Feather and we hosted something called Soul 101, a pseudo-history of soul/R&B which was heavily improvised and left a lot of songs I had selected on the cutting room floor. Jason's been doing a massive series of historical episodes this year, timed with Motown's 50th anniversary along with 60 years of the R&B charts.

This time around, I took some of the songs I had prepared, fleshed out certain sections and took on what I later dubbed Soul 102, with the first half hour of the show featuring precursory music, mostly before 1949. From there, things became a bit looser and not as heavily focused, but themes arose on their own. Originally, I had more funk planned towards the end, but I was running way over what I had anticipated. Not that it would have mattered much, since I found out a few hours before hand that I was filling in for the show after Shake a Tail Feather.

Here's what the first two hours of my Friday night at the radio station held. Jason and I may be co-hosting a show in the near future, so watch out.

Lee Dorsey: Yes We Can (Funky as I Can Be!, 2007) Great American Music
Cab Calloway: The Man from Harlem (Dance Crazy: from the Charleston to the Jive, 1932) Past Perfect
Billy Holliday with Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra: Miss Brown to You (Complete on Columbia v.1, 1935) Columbia/Decca
Wynonie Harris: Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well? (Rockin' the Blues, 1944) Proper Box
Fairfield Four: Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around (Standing in the Safety Zone, 1947) Dot
Jackson Gospel Singers: Heaven Bound Train (Heaven Bound Train: Southern Gospel, 1949) P-Vine
Mildred Cummings: Rock Me to Sleep (The Chronological Little Miss Cornshucks, 1951) Classics R&B
B. B. King: Whole Lot of Love (RPM 416 7", 1954) Kent
Ray Charles: What'd I Say, Parts 1 & 2 (Atlantic Soul: 1959-1975, 1959) Atlantic
The Sweet Inspirations: (Gotta Find) A Brand New Love, Pt. I (Atlantic Soul: 1959-1975, 1959) Atlantic
Etta James: A Sunday Kind of Love (At Last!, 1961) Chess
Doris Troy: Just One Look (Atlantic Soul: 1959-1975, 1963) Atlantic
Eddie & Ernie: That's the Way It Is (Time Waits For No One 7", 1964) Tomorrow/Eastern
Sam Cooke: A Change is Gonna Come (Ain't That Good News, 1964) ABKCO
Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) (I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, 1967) Atlantic
G. L. Crockett: It's a Man Down There (It's a Man Down There, 1965) Four Brothers
Rose Batiste: Hit & Run (I Miss My Baby 7", 1966) Revilot
Classics IV: Spooky (Classics IV, 1967) Imperial
Dee Dee Warwick: Foolish Fool (Foolish Fool, 1969) Mercury
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell: You're All I Need to Get By (You're All I Need, 1968) Tamla/Motown
Irene Scott: Everyday Worries (Everyday Worries 7", 196?) Midas
Bob Azzam & His Orchestra: Rain, Rain, Go Away (New Sounds, 1968) Columbia
Harvey Averne Dozen: You're No Good (Viva Soul, 1968) Atlantic
The Spinners: It's a Shame (2nd Time Around, 1970) V.I.P.
The Emotions: As Long as I've Got You [demo] (Songs of Innocence and Experience, 1972) Stax
Fontella Bass: Hold On This Time (Free, 1972) Paula/Fuel
John Ellison: You've Got to Have Rhythm (You've Got To Have Rhythm 7", 197?) Phil L.A. of Soul
Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band: Express Yourself [alternate version] (Puckey Puckey: Jams and Outtakes 1970-1971, 1970) Rhino Handmade
Cablidos: Barrio Bueno (Crossfire, early 1970's) Schema Italy
Junior Parker: Taxman (Love Ain't Nothin' But a Business Goin' On, 1971) Groove Merchant
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves: The Satisfier (Roll With You, 2008) Q-Division
Duffy: Warwick Avenue (Rockferry, 2008) Mercury
Menahan Street Band: The Traitor (Make the Road by Walking, 2008) Daptone
The Budos Band: His Girl (The Budos Band II, 2007) Daptone

I Like the Scribbles [fill-in] - BEAR LOVES YOU THIS MUCH [88.0 Mb]

One day, I'll figure out what on earth I played here; I need to relisten to this show again and take notes. Astute listeners who listen to the last two minutes of the Shake a Tail Feather fill-in should recognize the opening minutes on this episode. Chris' I Like the Scribbles has held a firm grasp of the Friday/Saturday midnight slot on CITR for five years and I apparently was the first fill-in ever in the show's history. Chris claimed that I was chosen since I was the only person he knew at the station that listened to his show, though I've found other DJ's who stand up to that claim and actively like the Scribbles too.

Nevertheless, yeah, Chris had originally emailed Jason to warn him that he was on the island so he couldn't make the show, but once Jason told Chris I was filling in, the job fell on my lap.

Fun facts: 1) I had maybe five hours to prepare this show, and 2) I had to work at 8am the next day as part of the quasi-regular weekend shift. Fortunately, Chris' format is quite heavily layered, so I had a chance to play with audio art, allowing me to collage tracks together. I had a short playlist of bizarre tracks, which I split into spoken word, instrumental and utterly strange music. The instrumental tracks were burnt onto disc (first time I've ever done that for air) to allow me to cut from the CD players, the iPod and the laptop, when not interfacing a cassette on Russian history left in the studio and then whatever YouTube footage I could stream from the computer in the booth.

Honestly, I could've probably kept going if I didn't have work the next day. That was the last week when the show had no other shows following it; a new show that sounds promisingly gothic now airs at 2am.

Playlist available one day; a chart of what played when may be provided upon time to map out the ninety minute show.

Folk Oasis [fill-in] - Spice must flow, spice must flow [110.0 Mb]

Val went down to New Orleans for a few weeks, so I was offered the last of her timeslots, though I later found out she was on a plane back to Seattle during my airtime. Nothing distinctively thematic here – aside from a brief gospel fling in the first hour – though I'm impressed on how well this flows together.

Despite my promise to see my friend's band Red Cedar play that night, on the bike ride home, I wasn't feeling too super and by the time I got home, I realized my cold had finally taken hold. I missed work the next day (and the annual departmental boozefest) and had my own little trip to Seattle, mired with a chest infection that somehow didn't inflame my sinuses for once.

I'm supposed to be invited to co-host with Val one fine day, which seems to be a common invitation I receive but never fully capitalize on.

R.E.M.: Pretty Persuasion (Reckoning, 1984) I.R.S.
Bruce Peninsula: Steamroller (A Mountain is a Mouth, 2009) Bruce Trail/Outside Music
Woods: Gypsy Hand (Songs of Shame, 2009) Woodsist/Shrimper
Boxer the Horse: Jackson Leftfield (The Late Show, 2008) Back Alley/Zunior
The Constantines: Do What You Can Do (Too Slow for Love, 2009) Arts & Crafts
Silver Summit: In-between Place (Silver Summit, 2008) Language of Sound
Roy Harper: North Country (Valentine, 1974) Chrysalis/Science Friction
Holly Springs Sacred Harp Convention: Restoration, 312b (Awake, My Soul OST, 2008) Awake
The Traveling Inner Lights: Let's Have a Family Prayer (The Art of Field Recording Volume 2 - Religious, 2009) Dust-to-Digital
Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch: Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby (O Brother, Where Art Thou? OST, 2000) Mercury
Tom Brosseau: Here Comes the Water Now (Grand Forks, 2007) Loveless
Breathe Owl Breathe: Toboggan (Ghost Glacier EP, 2008) self-released/eMusic
The Rural Alberta Advantage: Don't Haunt this Place (Hometowns, 2008) self-released/eMusic
Calexico: The Road Back (Tool Box, 2007) Our Soil, Our Strength
Lee Hazelwood & Suzi Jane Hokom: For a Day Like Today (Cowboy in Sweden, 1970) LHI
Beggin' Your Pardon Miss Joan: Sasquatch (Undetermined Other, 2008) Dead Pilot
Storsveit Nix Noltes: Kopanitsa (Royal Family-Divorce, 2009) Fat Cat
Hedningarna: Bierdna / The Bear (Nordic Roots: A Northside Collection, 1998) Northside
The Postmarks: One Note Samba (By the Numbers, 2008) Unfiltered
Amelia: Enemigo (A Long, Lovely List of Repairs, 2008) Adrenaline
Claudine Longet: Mucho Tiempo Mas / Long Long Time (Cuddle Up With Claudine Longet, 2003) Vampi Soul
DM Stith: Pity Dance (Heavy Ghost, 2008) Asthmatic Kitty
PJ Harvey: Broken Harp (White Chalk, 2007) Island
Fred Eaglesmith: Worked Up Field (Tinderbox, 2008) Lonesome Day
Bibio: Thatched (Vignetting the Compost, 2009) Mush
The Free Design: The Windows of the World (You Could Be Born Again, 1968/2004) Project 3 Total Sound/Light in the Attic
Eels: I Like Birds (Daisies of the Galaxy, 2000) Dreamworks
Red Cedar: I Can Feel It Coming Down (MySpace, 2009) self-released
Mama!milk: Kujaku (Fragrance of Notes, 2008) Wind Bell Japan