Another Archival Show This Saturday (May 1st)

GET UP EARLY IF YOU WANT TO HEAR RHONDA!

I’ve put together a little collage of Hillbilly at Harvard history, which (if all goes as I planned) should air this coming Saturday, May 1, 2021. That’s right, May Day—International Layabouts of the World Unite!

• First up (as the young DJs say), a youthful, inexperienced version of me, with colleague Mike Eisenstadt host a few minutes of Saturday Morning Jamboree on February 10, 1962. Yes, 1962! It was recorded by Lawton Bourn of Laconia, NH, then living in Wellesley, who sent me the recording (and some others) in 2006. Mr Bourn passed away in January, 2020, but I am glad to finally be able to share a little of his thoughtfulness. There are other tapes of interest to WHRB listeners (and members) that I hope to make available in the future. The 12 minutes of SMJ on this program is only a small portion.

Rhonda Vincent and The Rage at WHRB 12Jan02 (photo by Gerry Katz, Copyright © 2002 GKatz)

• Next is a live performance in Sumptuous Studio B from Rhonda Vincent and The Rage, who were in town for a Boston Bluegrass Union show at the (then-named) National Heritage Museum in Lexington. The show that very night, on January 12, 2002, was already sold out. Ol’ Sinc was in Las Vegas (“Visiting my money,” he liked to say), but John Lincoln Wright volunteered to MC. It’s fun listening to Lincoln and Rhonda talking about Rhonda’s foray into commercial country music, before returning to bluegrass on Rounder.

The Rage at the time featured Audie Blaylock on guitar, Hunter Berry on fiddle, Kenny Ingram in banjo, and Edgar Loudermilk on bass—Rhonda of course on mandolin, a band of young (except for Kenny) superstars, who don’t miss a beat despite the early hour and a night of interrupted sleep because of a CO alarm

I’m not sure who recorded this live session, but I’m indebted to David Elliott, who edited it with the idea that some day it would air again. He was right, as usual.

• Following Rhonda, we move to October 16, 2010, and most of a full Hillbilly show, abbreviated that day by Harvard Football at 11:30. I have edited out most of the Country Calendar announcements (but not all, so don’t go rushing out to one), the weather forecast, and some agency commercials (which were fun, actually, but we can’t bill for them now). I’m joined in the second hour by Larry Flint, who brings in some of his records, along with many of his piquant quips.

I recorded this show off the air, using an FM receiver and a roof antenna, directly to my computer. I think the sound is OK, though mono (to avoid stereo hiss) and compressed. Let me know how it sounds to you, and whether you’d like to hear more Archival shows. It doesn’t look as though The Powers That Be at Harvard are going to let me back into the WHRB studios this summer. Maybe by September? Stay tuned! /CL