Today’s episode has a completely different format than the other episodes of The Little Lighthouse. The entire show is a bit longer today and it’s fully dedicated to one book. The book is called Early ’70s Radio, The American Format Revolution and it’s written by the good friend of our show Kim Simpson from Austin TX. Some of you may remember him as a solo artist and as a band leader of The Mad Dukes. He was a guest on our show a few years ago in Salt Lake City. Today he and I chat about his book about the early ’70s radio in USA, what led to it and how it influenced the world around it and the radio of today. The book is a result of Kim’s several years of research and it’s based on his doctoral dissertation in media studies. Although it’s an informative and detailed academic work, it is also full with trivia and stories about forgotten moments in history of pop music that it feels as if shopping in a fun thrift shop. We also had Kim playing on his guitar five ’70s medleys which parallel the chapters of the book. So, we hope this is will be fun for you all and perhaps you will also consider getting Kim’s book as well. All info about the book can be found on Kim’s blog www.early70sradio.com.
All songs performed by Kim Simpson:
Rubber Duckie;
Brand New Key;
You’re Having My Baby;
School’s Out;
We’re an American Band;
Walk on the Wild Side;
Close to You;
Fire and Rain;
I Am Woman;
(For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People;
Living for the City;
Me and Mrs. Jones;
The Fightin’ Side of Me;
Uneasy Rider;
Behind Closed Doors.
Some really exceptional new records today. First, we have Tommy Womack, a new singer songwriter from Nashville. Then Kevin Gordon. This native of Monroe LA, now living also in Nashville, made a new record Gloryland which is a true masterpiece and it got a lot of very nice attention in the music press these days. Canadian rocker Eamon McGrath also has a new record out Young Canadians. The concept is loosely all things Canadian, but it also mentions a ghost of Bob Stinson. I will go out on the limb and say that with this record McGrath establishes himself as the greatest young songwriter of today and finishes the race for the best record in 2012 already. It’s hard for me to imagine that it’s even possible to make a record as good as this one by the end of the calendar year. And then there’s also Jack White with his new album Blunderbuss. Swedish paisley poppers Plastic Pals are also represented today with their new single.
New names in today’s show is the Portuguese duet called New Kind of Mambo and The Horrors from Cedar Rapids in Iowa. New Kind of Mambo has a new ep on their bandcamp page (free download) and Horrors have a new album called Vent produced by one of the heroes of this show Greg Cartwright. Tough Shits is another new band today with a self titled album. Deer Tick have new ep called Tim and we check it out in today’s show, by exploring connections between John McCauley and Paul Westerberg. Howe Gelb expanded the line up of his Giant Sand and now they are Giant Giant Sand – 12 people total in the new line up. Giant indeed. Freedy Johnston, Jon Dee Graham and Susan Cowsill put the record out as The Hobart Brothers and Lil’ Sis Hobart. We heard them all together for the first time a year ago in Flashlite 123 and now their first official album At Least We Have Each Other is out.
Today’s show is filled with some very interesting come backs. Ed fROMOHIO Crawford, who used to be in fIREHOSE, has a new album out with his new band FOOD, which also includes Eric Vermillion (ex Gumball) on bass. The new record is an ep called Four Pieces Form Candyland. 80s roots rockers Del Fuegos are also back with an ep called Silver Star. Going deeper in the past for the old masters, we have Dr. John returning to his voodoo psychedelic roots with the help of Dan Auerbach. And the Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard is also back with a great new record called Grifter’s Hymnal, sounding incredibly fresh. We also have the new record for the Drive-By Truckers keyboardist Jay Gonzalez called Mess of Happiness, which offers a very sober take on power pop, compared to alcohol drenched Americana of his native band. Today we also represent the latest studio record for the French band Magnetix called Droque Electrique. We had their live recording in our previous show. This time in our segment called Live in Cleveland we have Cleveland’s own New Salem Witch Hunters.