When your show has “Banjos” in its name, you better believe birthdays don’t get bigger than that of the late, beyond-great Earl Scruggs. Bob played several sets featuring the Jesus of the banjo in honor of the man who revolutionized picking and turned the banjo from a tagalong rhythm instrument to the lead. Along with Jimi Hendrix and Dick Dale, Earl Scruggs is one of the few to bring a truly transformative style to their instrument. And it helped take one’s mind off the attempted coup.
Bill played his Top 20 albums of 2020, with American Aquarium’s combustible “Lamentations” sitting at No. 1. After the countdown, he paid tribute to guitar masters Leslie West or Mountain and bluegrass legend Tony Rice, noted the unexpectedly wonderful Bee Gees documentary on HBO, and said goodbye one final time to his Piqua pal Jimmy Elliott.
Bob waxed (and whined) at length about the history of one of his favorite Christmas songs, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” as he does almost every year. This year, however, the convoluted lyrical evolution of the song was particularly relevant given that most of us had to content ourselves with the melancholy little holidays that the song invokes. But it was not all gloom. There was the usual helping of Detroit Junior, Lil Ed, and Canned Heat to provide a bluesy flavor, along with Ronnie Fauss, John Prine and others to make you miss down home. And happy 80th Birthday to Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna fame.
Bill talks about becoming a movie star after appearing in ‘It Was the Music,’ the Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams documentary, then features Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine, who performed their annual Christmas concert from their Nowhere Else Farm this year because of the pandemic.
Bob braved a veritable vortex of virus to do his “Best of 2020” in studio. Unlike past years, he did not rank the 26 discs he played (or just mentioned–sorry, Loudon Wainwright III and Wood Brothers), but breaking some news in this post he declares brand new gazilllionaire Bob Dylan’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways” his favorite release of 2020–a close call,It’s not all old warhorses, though, despite the presence of Neil Young, Dave Alvin, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Chris Smither on the list. Tune in to hear Bettye Lavette, Lucinda Williams, Tyler Childers, the Allman-Betts Band, Shemekia Copeland, Mapache, and more. Great music for an awful year.
Bill featured music from a holiday weekend spent watching documentaries on Bobby Keys – the Texas-born saxophonist who played with the Rolling Stones, Delaney & Bonnie and Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen – Taylor Swift, and “Austin City Limits.”
There’s so much for us to be thankful for even as we live through the Covid-19 pandemic, and Bob reminds us of a few of them on the annual Thanksgiving show. Like pie. We’re very thankful for pie as we are for all the musicians and the music they’ve shared with us. Most of all, we’re thankful for you, our listeners. Your support for what we do here each week is absolutely appreciated and never far from our thoughts. Happy Thanksgiving!
Bill started the show early to highlight Chris Hillman, who released his autobiography, “Time Between: My Life as a Byrd, Burrito Brother and Beyond,” this week. A pioneer of country rock and Americana, Hillman is scheduled to play Memorial Hall on May 12.
Even though there was not a winner on the day after the presidential election, the show starts with Jimi Hendrix and finishes with Nils Lofgren playing “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Six days before the election, WAIF’s Senovia Byndon (“I Hear U) offered tips for voters, then Bill paid tribute to Texas musical icons Billy Joe Shaver and Jerry Jeff Walker, who passed away this week.
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