Friday, November 30, 2012
Quick Reviews - Seeing Red
I had a three hour drive today and that means I have three quick album mini-reviews. 1) Toby Keith "Hope On the Rocks" -- when Toby stays away from his bombastic jingoism, he can be really clever and good. This album is really clever and good. Really a strong effort from Toby. 2) Lady Antebellum "On This Winter's Night" -- if elevator music gets your blood pumping, then this one's for you. Somehow Lady A makes Christmas uninspiring. 3) Taylor Swift "Red" -- this is what you'd expect from Taylor; good production and strong writing. In 16 songs Taylor gets dumped and/or breaks up 15 times, with the final song having her on the rebound (after, assumingly, getting dumped and/or breaking up). (Hey, Taylor, maybe -- ummmmm -- the problem is *you*???) The album is heavy pop production that is marketed as country but makes Adele sound like Tammy Wynette. Some of the stuff is unpoppish enough to be considered kinda country (if you squint your ears enough); it's not a bad album, just not a country album. How does something like this get marketed as country? Oh, yeah, her label is Big Machine, run by the country music antichrist, Scott Borchetta.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
EDIT: NOT THE End of An Era
UPDATES: See updates below....
For about eight years I have been hosting the Goodtime Country Radio Show on HomeGrownRadioNJ.com, and for three or four years before that the show was on over-the-air WNTI out of Hackettstown, N.J. It is with a lot of sadness that I must report the Goodtime Country Radio Show will be leaving the air after the show on October 31.
HomeGrownRadioNJ is growing and reaching out, and part of that growth is moving from the quaint studio in Marksboro, N.J. (a mere nine miles from my house on local roads) to Boonton, N.J. Boonton is about 35 miles away and requires a drive on I-80 to get there -- a not pleasant prospect during the morning rush hour. Given the distance, the added costs in gas and the strain it will put on my real job to be out an extra hour each day I do a show, the time has come to wish HGRNJ the best, and to part ways. Good luck to founder Todd Mills and the rest of the gang as they enter a new chapter.
UPDATE: The outpouring of support for the show has been overwhelming. I have proposed to HGRNJ to keep it on the air as a twice-a-month show, probably on a different day. Stay tuned.
UPDATE #2: We will be moving with HGRNJ to the new studio, with a few changes. First, we're moving to Thursday afternoon, 1:00-4:00 p.m. ET. Second, we'll be scheduled for the 1st, 3rd and 4th Thursdays only; Jeff Saltzman will be "Sittin' In" with his show on the 2nd and 5th (when there is one) Thursdays, and filling in when required. Thanks for your support!
Meanwhile, the Goodtime Country Radio Show inspired me to start Goodtime Country Radio, a Live365 station broadcasting over the internet. GCR has been little more than a jukebox of my favorite songs broadcasting to the world, but now I'm putting some serious effort into making it a more real station. Over the past week I've added a scheduler, scheduled themed shows and more. If you like the music mix I had on the Goodtime Country Radio Show, then you'll probably enjoy Goodtime Country Radio.
So far on Goodtime Country Radio I've added shows that showcase recent Americana artists, Red Dirt artists, a show devoted exclusively to members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, gospel songs for Sunday and a classic country show for Saturday night. Still to come will be a weekly hour of train songs, sets of tunes from the Highwaymen (Willie, Waylon, Cash and Kris) every few hours, and live tracks every few hours. Of course, almost every hour leads off with a Johnny Cash song. Somewhere down the road I may do a live show just like I did for HGRNJ a couple of times a week on GCR.
I hope you tune in to the improved Goodtime Country Radio. You can use the link in the player at the above right. And you can check out the last ten songs that have played on the station by clicking on the tab in the menu bar at the top of the page. As always, your input is welcomed!
For about eight years I have been hosting the Goodtime Country Radio Show on HomeGrownRadioNJ.com, and for three or four years before that the show was on over-the-air WNTI out of Hackettstown, N.J. It is with a lot of sadness that I must report the Goodtime Country Radio Show will be leaving the air after the show on October 31.
HomeGrownRadioNJ is growing and reaching out, and part of that growth is moving from the quaint studio in Marksboro, N.J. (a mere nine miles from my house on local roads) to Boonton, N.J. Boonton is about 35 miles away and requires a drive on I-80 to get there -- a not pleasant prospect during the morning rush hour. Given the distance, the added costs in gas and the strain it will put on my real job to be out an extra hour each day I do a show, the time has come to wish HGRNJ the best, and to part ways. Good luck to founder Todd Mills and the rest of the gang as they enter a new chapter.
UPDATE: The outpouring of support for the show has been overwhelming. I have proposed to HGRNJ to keep it on the air as a twice-a-month show, probably on a different day. Stay tuned.
UPDATE #2: We will be moving with HGRNJ to the new studio, with a few changes. First, we're moving to Thursday afternoon, 1:00-4:00 p.m. ET. Second, we'll be scheduled for the 1st, 3rd and 4th Thursdays only; Jeff Saltzman will be "Sittin' In" with his show on the 2nd and 5th (when there is one) Thursdays, and filling in when required. Thanks for your support!
Meanwhile, the Goodtime Country Radio Show inspired me to start Goodtime Country Radio, a Live365 station broadcasting over the internet. GCR has been little more than a jukebox of my favorite songs broadcasting to the world, but now I'm putting some serious effort into making it a more real station. Over the past week I've added a scheduler, scheduled themed shows and more. If you like the music mix I had on the Goodtime Country Radio Show, then you'll probably enjoy Goodtime Country Radio.
So far on Goodtime Country Radio I've added shows that showcase recent Americana artists, Red Dirt artists, a show devoted exclusively to members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, gospel songs for Sunday and a classic country show for Saturday night. Still to come will be a weekly hour of train songs, sets of tunes from the Highwaymen (Willie, Waylon, Cash and Kris) every few hours, and live tracks every few hours. Of course, almost every hour leads off with a Johnny Cash song. Somewhere down the road I may do a live show just like I did for HGRNJ a couple of times a week on GCR.
I hope you tune in to the improved Goodtime Country Radio. You can use the link in the player at the above right. And you can check out the last ten songs that have played on the station by clicking on the tab in the menu bar at the top of the page. As always, your input is welcomed!
Friday, September 28, 2012
New Old Home For the Blog
We're transiting from a Wordpress blog to Blogger.com. We had an old Blogger account from 2009 already set up, so we're dusting that off. New content will be on the way soon!
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