WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour

Michael Johnathon
New – Sunday 10-11pm

The WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour is a live-audience, internationally syndicated radio show, broadcast on over 491 radio stations, XM Satellite Radio, Internet streaming, MP3 and MP4, podcasting and now on PBS-TV stations nationwide.

WoodSongs can be heard on 99.9 Voice FM on Sunday evenings from 10-11pm

Show #647 – Sunday 29th January 2012

Featuring: The Little Willies featuring Norah Jones
THE LITTLE WILLIES are group of friends and like-minded souls—Norah Jones, Richard Julian, Lee Alexander , Jim Campilongo and Dan Rieser that have gathered to make music for fun, playing their favorite country tunes and conjuring that down-home spirit. With their release of their second album, ‘For the Good Times,’ The Little Willies take on songs by such masters as Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Dolly Parton. The results demonstrate the joy they take, and commitment they make, to a project that was first born for purely practical reasons. The Little Willies will be the sole artist on this Special Event Broadcast of WoodSongs.

Show #646 – Sunday 22nd January 2012

Featuring: The McCrary Sisters & Danny Flowers
THE McCRARY SISTERS are the daughters of the late Rev. Samuel McCrary, who was one of the original members of the legendary gospel quartet, The Fairfield Four. Ann, Deborah, Regina, and Alfreda were raised in harmony, singing at home and at their father’s church. The McCrary’s home was filled with music, whether it was the Fairfield Four or frequent guests that included a pantheon of gospel greats, including Shirley Caesar and James Cleveland.
Collectively the sisters have performed or recorded with Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Stevie Wonder, Ray Stevens, and others. The sister’s new CD “Our Journey,” include stunning covers of Dylan’s “Blowing In The Wind” and Julie Miller’s “Broken Pieces” as well as six McCrary Sister originals (including one co-written by Regina and Bob Dylan.
DANNY FLOWERS is the awe-inspiring guitar guru, soulful singer and hit songwriter. His hits included “Tulsa Time” for Don Williams and Eric Clapton; “Back In My Younger Days” for Don Williams; “Gulf Coast Highway” for Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Nanci Griffith (co-written with Griffith and James Hooker); and “Before Believing” from Harris’ Pieces of the Sky. In addition he has been a session musician for Williams, Griffith, Vince Gill, Marshall Chapman, and Dobie Gray. Flowers has also enjoyed a solo recording career including the 2007 album, Tools For The Soul.

Show #645  – Sunday 15th January 2012

Masters of the Guitar featuring Muriel Anderson, Jack Pearson & Vicki Genfan
MURIEL ANDERSON is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost fingerstyle guitarists and harp-guitarists. Muriel is the first woman to have won the National Fingerpicking Guitar Championship.  She is host of the renowned Muriel Anderson’s All Star Guitar Night and founder of the Music for Life Alliance charity. Her music can be heard in Woody Allen’s film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
JACK PEARSON is a former guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and has been playing professionally since the age of 15. Although best known as a blues & jazz guitarist, he’s also a singer, songwriter & producer. Jack has worked live or in the studio with a long list of artists ncluding Vince Gill, Jimmy Buffett, Earl Scruggs, Chris LeDoux, Delbert McClinton, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Chuck Leavell to name a few.
VICKI GENFAN is a virtuoso guitarist, singer and composer. Guitar player magazine crowned her a new “Guitar Superstar” in 2008 Drawing from folk, jazz, pop, soul and world music, Vicki is redefining ‘singer/songwriter culture.’ With a mastery of the acoustic guitar that borders on pure alchemy, audiences are mesmerized by the waves of sound Vicki creates with just two hands and her voice. Using 29 alternate tunings and the percussive technique she calls ‘slap-tap’, you’ll find the addition of her pure, expressive vocals that dig deep and stir the heart to be the perfect accompaniment on many of her songs.

Show #644 – Sunday 8th January 2012

Featuring: Eric Brace & Peter Cooper and The Richter Uzur Duo
ERIC BRACE & PETER COOPER have a created a body of work that reflects their literate sensibilities as songwriters, a love of harmony and wry humor, and their deep respect for the masters they’re lucky enough to play with. When Brace and Cooper play together, it’s something special. The pair’s last album, ‘Master Sessions,’ is a tour de force that made its way onto numerous critics’ Best of 2010 lists.Their most recent project, ‘I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow,’ was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. It’s a tribute to country music’s greatest storytelling songwriter and Kentucky native Tom T. Hall.
THE RICHTER UZUR DUO are each classical musicians of the highest caliber with successful international solo careers and intensive training from two of the world’s most lauded musical institutions: The Moscow Conservatory and The Royal College of Music respectively. Their musical interests and abilities, however, are far from limited to classical music. In their teens and twenties, while developing into classical virtuosi, they cut their teeth in rock bands and delved into folk and world music. The duo’s uniqueness is how they combine classical, rock and folk music and themes into truly original new compositions. The duo’s latest recording is ‘String Theory’ and it was named best new release by Classical Guitar Alive in 2010.

Show #643F – Encore Show Celebration of Appalachia & Mountain Music  – Sunday 1st January 2012

featuring Emmylou Harris, Darrell Scott, John & Patricia Adams, Nikky Finney with Sue Massek, & Madison Glover
About the artists:
People have been singing about the mountains for generations. In recent years, the voices singing them have taken on a special urgency with the advent of mountain top removal. The landscape of Appalachia is changing with the times – and so are the songs. In the spirit of this music WoodSongs will tape two broadcasts in one evening on Monday, March 14 at the historic Lexington Opera House featuring an array of artists singing the music of coal country and Appalachia. Michael Johnathon conceived of the broadcast theme after watching a public television broadcast of “Coal Country,” a film about the Appalachian mountains by the award winning team of Mari-Lynn Evans and Jordan Freeman
EMMYLOU HARRIS began her career singing with the legendary Gram Parson. A member of the Grand Ole Opry, her career has produced huge hits including “Two More Bottles of Wine,” and “To Know Him Is to Love Him” from her Grammy winning album with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, Trio.
DARRELL SCOTT is one of Kentucky’s most powerful songwriters. Scott has collaborated with Steve Earle, Sam Bush, Emmylou Harris, John Cowan, Verlon Thompson, Guy Clark, Tim O’Brien, Kate Rusby, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and many others. Darrell will perform his deeply moving mountain ballad, “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.”
JOHN ADAMS co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington DC. In February 2011, Adams received the Presidential Medal of Freedom — our nation’s highest civilian honor — from President Obama, who referenced Rolling Stone Magazine’s description of Adams when announcing the award: “If the planet has a lawyer, it’s John Adams. In 2010, Adams and his wife Patricia co-authored “A Force for Nature,” a memoir recounting their forty years of battles and victories with NRDC. He has also served on governmental advisory committees, including President Clinton’s Council for Sustainable Development. Patricia Adams is a writer and teacher who has partnered with her husband for many years in environmental activism. They live in the Catskill mountains of NY in a rambling country house that is over 150 years old.
NIKKY FINNY is a writer and poet who will recite the James Still poem “Heritage” during the broadcast. She is the author of several books of poetry, most notably “Rice,” winner of the PEN America Open Book Award, and “The World is Round,” winner of the 2004 Benjamin Franklin Award for Poetry. Sue Massek from the Reel World String Band will play banjo behind Nikky’s recitation.
MADISON GLOVER is a delightful 10 years old singer from Morehead, KY and she will perform an a capella version of the Jean Ritchie mountain song “In The Cool of the Day.” ,

Show #643E – Encore Show – Sunday 25th Dec 2011

Featuring: Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow comes to WoodSongs to help us celebrate our 600th broadcast! He is the founding member of folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary, and co-wrote one of the group’s most famous songs, “Puff, the Magic Dragon”. Yarrow also co-wrote “Torn Between Two Lovers”, a number one hit for Mary McGregor. He is also a political activist and author. WoodSongs is incredibly proud to bring the legendary Peter Yarrow as the featured guest for our 600th broadcast!

Show #643 – Sunday 18th Dec 2011

Featuring: Jake Schepps and Harpeth Rising
JAKE SCHEPPS has made a name for himself as a banjo renaissance man, an artist with not only an adroit touch on his instrument but an intrepid, imaginative vision for contemporary stringband music. Although a student of traditional and progressive bluegrass styles as a player, Schepps has stretched beyond those genres to take his place alongside the Punch Brothers, Matt Flinner and other notables in a field the Colorado-based banjoist likes to call simply “new acoustic music.” His venturesome new album, ‘An Evening in the Village: The Music of Béla Bartók,’ finds common ground between the piquant beauty of the great Hungarian composer’s take on Eastern European folk melodies and the big-sky vibrancy of new American acoustic music.
HARPETH RISING is a group of four young classically trained musicians exploring the Americana genre. With a banjo and fiddle, you might think they’re traditional bluegrass, but think again: cello and hand drums round out the group, creating a truly new sound. A little bit bluegrass, a little bit folk, a little bit classical and whole lot of original, Harpeth Rising is a band to watch. The band just released their second album, with Grammy-award winning producer Bil VornDick, entitled ‘Dead Man’s Hand’.

Show #642 – Sunday 11th Dec 2011

Featuring: Michael Martin Murphey and Horse Crazy Cowgirl Band
MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY’s song “Wildfire” was one of the biggest pop hits of the 70′s. He returns to the WoodSongs stage with a brand new bluegrass CD called ‘Tall Grass & Cool Water.’ It’s his third album in this Grammy nominated series that explores the similarities between Bluegrass and American Cowboy Music. This “singing cowboy poet”, is not only the number one, best-selling singer/ songwriter of American Cowboy Music, he’s one of the world’s most respected singer/ songwriters in the Pop and Country-Western field.
HORSE CRAZY COWGIRL BAND is an award winning western trio featuring beautiful harmony, excellent musicianship, and heart-hugging hilarious stage presence. Performing all over the United States and Canada, this wonderful group brings the audience along the trail of the American Western experience with traditional cowboy music and original compositions about love of place and land. This rural Washington State Trio are winners of the 2010 Western Music Association’s Harmony Trio Award and were nominated for Cowboy/Western Swing Group of the Year and Album of the Year 2008 and 2009. The trio’s latest recording is ‘My Horse Knows The Way.’

Show #640 – Sunday 27th Nov 2011

Featuring: John Gorka & Eliza Gilkyson and Blitz the Ambassador
JOHN GORKA AND ELIZA GILKYSON are considered two of the best contemporary Singer/songwriters touring today. These longtime friends recently teamed up with Lucy Kaplansky to form the super folk group Red Horse. The trio’s self titled debut CD was released last year and it became an instant folk classic and a big hit with fans.
JOHN GORKA is a world-renowned singer-songwriter who was raised in New Jersey and came out of New York City’s Greenwich Village folk scene that produced such songwriters as Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin.  His award-winning songs have been recorded and performed by such notable artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith and Mary Black. John has recorded eleven solo albums, six on Red House Records. His latest is So Dark You See.
ELIZA GILKYSON is a politically minded, poetically gifted singer-songwriter, who has become one of the most respected musicians in roots, folk and Americana circles. The Grammy-nominated artist was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2006, she was recognized with 3 Austin Music Awards and 4 Folk Alliance Music Awards, one of which was for “Song of the Year” for her tune “Man of God.” Her latest solo CD is Roses at the End of Time on Red House Records.
BLITZ THE AMBASSADOR may seem like an unusual booking for WoodSongs at first glance. The Ghanaian-born, New York-based composer, and producer unleashes psychedelic Afrobeat colors and triple-time rhymes with a lightning-fast mind, the political boldness of Chuck D, and the sixth groove sense of Fela Kuti. All set to swirls of brass, distorted guitars, and the crackle and pop of old amplifiers. However, for his WoodSongs performance, Blitz will be performing a more intimate, stripped down set. Check out his video for “Remembering The Future” to see this talented artist in action as Michael welcomes the show’s first hip hop artist and explores the genre’s connection to folk music.

Show #638 – Sunday 13th Nov 2011

Featuring: Ollabelle & Goitse
OLLABELLE is a multi-talented, democratic collective whose participants share vocal and songwriting duties. This New York quintet draws from a deep well of gospel, blues, bluegrass, and country influences to create timelessly resonant music that honors the integrity of its sources while remaining effortlessly contemporary. Emmylou Harris said of the band, “Every time I hear something on the radio I truly love, it’s Ollabelle.” The band has emerged from a five year period of great artistic and personal change – including marriages, births, tours and other projects – to deliver their most assured, deeply felt album to date, “Neon Blue Bird.” The CD was produced by Ollabelle and recorded in Athens, NY and at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock.
GOITSE (pronounced gwi-cha) is a five member Irish Trad band which specializes in their unique rhythmic arrangements of well known tunes and own compositions. Goitse is a Donegal Irish word meaning ‘come here’. The band, now in it’s third year, are all students of Traditional Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and have captured several prominent awards including Colm Phelan becoming the first World Bodhrán Champion. This is the band’s first tour in the states.

Show #637 – Sunday 6th Nov 2011

Featuring: Woody Pines & Colin O’Brien
WOODY PINES transports you to the Mississippi Delta when AM radio was king with his energetic brand of Roots Music, Ragtime, Country Blues, and Viper Jazz.  The band; comprised of Woody on guitar, banjo, harmonica and lead vocals, Zack Pozebanchuk on upright bass, Nathan Taylor on drums, and Darin Gentry on fiddle; epitomizes the Dixieland sound and embraces a simpler time. If Pines’ elegantly-disheveled fedora and vintage resonator guitar don’t set the mood (both are strongly suggestive of the musician’s mix of ragtime, country blues and lightning-speed folk), the backing band does the trick. Crackerjack musicianship goes a long way toward a band’s greatness, but showmanship seals the deal. Pines, on stage, is an old soul and natural performer, storied and steeped in the best of Americana. As honky tonk hero, Billy Joe Shaver puts it, “Woody Pines is the best band I ever heard in my life I swear…. I’m their biggest fan now!”
COLIN O’BRIEN is a prolific nationally touring performer, recording artist and master multi-musician known for his John Hartford Tribute show. Colin plays the daylights out of the banjo, fiddle and guitar, and his feet stay mighty busy as well dancing rhythms on his magic hardwood “Clogginator.” Colin didn’t start out as a folkie. He studied classical guitar at the Cornish College of the Arts, before moving to Milwaukee in 1993 to study guitar at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He’s on the faculty there now teaching Banjo, Guitar and Fiddle, has been since 2000. Colin has published two banjo instructional books and a DVD and most recently he’s released an all instrumental guitar record, “Inside These Guitars.”

Show #636 – Sunday 30th Oct 2011

Featuring: The HillBenders and Al Petteway & Amy White
THE HILLBENDERS are undeniably the hottest young band on the acoustic scene. Claiming the championship title at the 2009 Telluride Bluegrass Band Competition helped put The HillBenders on the map, and their recent victory at the 2010 National Single Microphone Championships prove that they continue to be a force to be reckoned with. These buzz-worthy bluegrass whiz-kids are quickly rising above many of their peers and gaining international recognition for their aggressive combination of contemporary influences with traditional inspiration and instrumentation, as well as their infectiously energetic stage performances. The HillBenders released their debut album Down To My Last Dollar in spring 2010 and are currently working on their follow-up CD.
AL PETTEWAY & AMY WHITE are an award winning duo that performs contemporary Celtic- & Appalachian-Influenced Acoustic Groove. Their music was featured throughout the soundtrack of the 2009 Ken Burns EMMY-winning documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. And in 2010, their album, “Caledon Wood” (which includes the main theme of the National Parks documentary) was names one of the essential albums of the past 20 years in Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Their recent album “High in the Blue Ridge” released early this year.