In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed country music star Trisha Yearwood for my "House Call" column on growing up in a small town in Georgia and her burning passion to sing professionally (go here). I also interviewed comedian Paula Poundstone for my "Playlist" column on Rickie Lee Jones's Chuck E's in Love, Paula's funny inability to figure out the lyric (did anyone know what Jones was singing?) and why Paula cried herself to sleep on Greyhound buses when she started out doing standup comedy (go here).
SiriusXM. Last week, I was on my favorite satellite radio show, FeedBack, on Volume SiriusXM 106 (106) hosted by music pros Nik Carter and Lori Majewski. We talked about my most recent "Anatomy of a Song" column for the WSJ on Donovan's Sunshine Superman. Except for a few Donovan-Dylan slips on my part, it came off well. If you're driving today or tomorrow, you can tune in to SiriusXM from 9:15 to 10 a.m. (EST) and listen to the rebroadcast. Or you can listen immediately by going here.
Jerry Coker. Following my post last week on the arranger, composer, reed and woodwind player, and educator Jerry Coker, I received the following email from Jack Greenberg...
Bob Porter. I recently posted (here and here) on Bob Porter—radio host, author of Soul Jazz, and producer for Prestige and other labels since the early 1960s. Last week, Bob sent along a link to a video interview he did recently with Michael Fitzgerald, host of the Jazz Forum...
Kenny Dorham. Following up on my post on trumpeter Kenny Dorham, here are four favorite audio clips to illustrate the warm, fierce tone of his horn and approach...
Here's Kenny's Windmill from his Whistle Stop album in 1961...
Here's Dorham with Joe Henderson on Dorham's Blue Bossa in 1963...
Here's Dorham with Sonny Rollins on Sonny's Kids Know in 1957...
And here's Dorham with Sonny Rollins and pianist Elmo Hope on the title track of Sonny's album Movin' Out in 1954...
Musicians' humor. Bill Page, a multi-instrumentalist with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra in the 1960s and a prolific recording studio musician, took to his skis in this clip to add some levity to the bandleader's normally square TV show...
What the heck. Here are the Stylistics singing their 1972 hit Betcha By Golly Wow...
Oddball album cover of the week.
This one was part of the "Hear How To" series that illustrated through recordings a wide range of work and downtime activities. Not sure who this one was for though. Parents who couldn't read? Or those unsure how to spin the birds and the bees? Best of all are the photos of the parents talking to their kids. Hard to tell which one is the parent. Or are they the grandparents because the parents couldn't bring themselves to do it. By the way, aren't these "kids" a little old for such a talk?