I am planning this week's edition of Catskills Folk, my radio program on WIOX, as a repeat of my previous program. On October 12 I encountered unexpected problems playing the music I had prepared for you featuring the performers at Roxbury Arts Group's Fiddlers! event, which had just taken place. Mysteriously all the mp3 files - which I had tested at home prior to the program - would not play on the air.
I've looked into it and I believe this refusal to play was the result of an incompatibility between Microsoft on my Dell laptop and the Apple computers at the radio station. It has to do with the Properties of the musical file and whether or not the file is set to be opened with iTunes or with Microsoft's 'Groove Music." For this week I'll save the files I wanted to play for you, but this time in both formats. And I will go to the station to test them.
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The theme for October 12's program was to share with you samples of performances by the the three ensembles who were on stage that Sunday afternoon at Fiddlers!. There were three groups: An urban Cajun band "The Empty Bottle Ramblers"; two performers of old-time music from "The Onlies"; and a threesome that brings together musicians whose roots run deep in Cajun and Creole traditions.
Even with the corrected music tracks , there are two recordings that I was unable to download in the first place. They are excellent recordings, one of the "Onlies" and another featuring two of the Cajun/Creole threesome. And because I won't be able to play them on the air on Tuesday, October 26, I am including the links to these recordings here.
The Onlies
Paul Brown, on his radio program "Across the Blue Ridge" on WFDD, presented all four "Onlies": Leo Shannon, Vivian Leva, Sami Braman, and Riley Calcagno, with selections from their May 17 performance at the Muddy Creek Music Hall. The recording quality is excellent, and the program includes an interview with the artists. The link for this recording is below.
The Onlies' segment begins at about 34 minutes 50 seconds from the end.
Jourdan Thibodeaux and Cedric Watson
Jourdan and Cedric were featured in the summer of 2021 in a recording called "The Acadian Session; Shelter in Place." Jourdan sings and plays the fiddle, and Cedric, a true multi-instrumentalist, plays the fiddle, the accordion, and a number of other instruments - and he sings.
The recording is about 30 minutes long, and comes with a log - a kind of measuring stick with the beginning of each tune marked on it. If it were a long-playing vinyl record, I'd say that the marking tells you where to "drop the needle." I think you'll enjoy all of it, including their exploration of their cultural roots at the end.
While these recordings are a treat, I hope you will listen on Tuesday night at 7 pm to Catskills Folk for more music by these three outstanding groups of musicians.
See you on the radio! ---- Ginny Scheer
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