Bill paid tribute to “Blood,” the harrowing memoir by Allison Moorer, whose father shot her mother and then himself when she was 13 and her sister, Shelby Lynne, was 17. The story is tragic, but has helped the sisters produce heartfelt, compelling music for more than 25 years.
Bill marked the first anniversary of John Prine’s death with duets with Amanda Shires and Miranda Lambert, paid tribute to Harlan County, Kentucky, and tried to honor author Larry McMurtry, who died March 25, before the CD started skipping on its own during James McMurtry’s “Levelland,” his dad’s favorite tune.
Bob rang in Opening Day with Walt Whitman, Trampled by Turtles, Carly Simon, Jacqueline Schwab, and Chuck Berry. Speaking of Chuck, Happy 63rd birthday to Johnny B. Goode and Happy 66th to Angus Young. The highlight had to be the 100th Birthday Celebration for Martha Spitzmueller, the last surviving grandchild of Henry Holtgrewe, the Cincinnati Strongman of the late 19th/early 20th centuries. (Check out the Strongman’s big mural on Vine Street sometime). And there were heavy doses of blue snakes with Ronnie Baker Brooks, Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray, and banjos with Dave Rawlings, PPL, Gillian Welch, and the Chris Robinson Brotherhood.
Bill paid tribute to Sara (left) and Tegan’s “High School” memoir, introduced listeners to Shepherdstown, West Virginia’s Olivia Ellen Lloyd, and played Anniversary Music, a salute to albums from 1971 and 1996.
The St. Paddy’s Grammy Day show focused its unfocused gaze on the wearin’ o’ the Green — really just 3 songs with “Green” in the title — and lots of Grammy-winning cuts from the genres and artists we love: Bobby Rush, Sarag Jarosz, Billy Strings, John Prine, Toots & the Maytals, Brittany Howard, and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. With all of that there was still time for Habibi, Apple and Three Oranges, and Mata Hari, birthday wishes for John Sebastian and Paul Kantner, and a nod to the passing of Sally Grossman (the woman in red on the cover of Bringing It All Back Home). And the show was still only two hours long!
Bill celebrates Women’s History Month with an all-female episode that culminates with The Chicks singing a lullaby from a mother to her son to celebrate what would have been my mother Erma’s 99th birthday.
Bob mourned the retirement of Brian Hennemann (and presumably The Bottle Rockets) as well as the passing of Bunny Wailer, one of the true giants of reggae and the sole surviving original Wailer. Even with those tributes, there was plenty of airtime left over to acknowledge the 46th anniversary of the formation of Buffalo Springfield with lots of tracks from Stills, Young, Furay and Messina, and for birthday tributes to Doc Watson, Junior Parker, and Jance Garfat. (You can look up that last one. Hint: he was never on the cover of the Rolling Stone).
Bill returned to the show for the first time in a month with a preview of The Newbees’ “A Band & A Van” video series and accompanying album, a project that Jeff and Misty Perholtz took on during the pandemic. And to salute Black History Month, he featured the music of Our Native Daughters, the group that includes Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell.
Courting sacrilege, Bob turned Ash Wednesday into Ashgrove Wednesday, playing cuts from Ry Cooder, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Dave Alvin in honor of the club’s roots and blues heritage, and cuts from Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, the Byrds and others to acknowledge the club’s legendary role in the birth of “country rocki.” Oh, and Ernie called in to talk about his visits to the club, too.
Here in Cincinnati, we take our polar vortexes seriously, and last week there was some serious vortex stuff going on. Which is why you were treated to an encore broadcast of a past show. No one wanted to be out in that mess. Even though Bill couldn’t be live on the air last week, he put his playlist on Spotify for you to listen at your leisure. Get a fire going, grab your hot toddy, and enjoy.
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