Monday, February 06, 2006

Musings from Mr. Solid

By John Lee

I’m a big fan of radio. When I was growing up in Alaska we didn’t have TV and radio was our main source of entertainment. I still prefer using my ears.

In Western Washington we are blessed with great public and community radio stations, many with blues shows. Here are some:

All Blues on KPLU 88.5 fm (6 pm-12 am) on Saturday and Sunday (www.kplu.org).

Fridays on KBCS 91.3fm there are two blues shows: The Nightshift with Dave Samson, (7-9 pm) and from 9-11 pm, Night-Train (www.kbcs.fm).

KEXP 90.3 fm has Preaching The Blues on Sundays (9 am-12 pm). Also, The Roadhouse with Greg Vandy (6-9pm) on Wednesdays is a great roots music show, and Fridays (6-9pm) is a good time with the rockabilly show Shake The Shack (www.kexp.org).

Thursdays KSER 90.7 fm out of Everett has three blues shows: Clancy’s Bar and Grill (8-10 pm), Blues Odyssey (10 pm-12 am) with 2005 “BB” award winner Leslie Fleury, and Pacific Blues (12-2 am) (www.kser.org).

KSVR 91.7 in Mt. Vernon has a blues show Thursdays (8-10pm) with Mojo Mike (www.ksvr.org).

Check it out. Half the fun of radio is to be surprised at what tunes they play.

Next time in this space I’ll be reviewing the recent re-release of the great R&B/Soul singer James Carr’s Goldwax sides. This cat could really chirp!

February Blues Birthdays

Sam Meyers - February 19, 1936
Johnny Winter - February 23, 1944
Magic Sam (Sam Maghett) - February 2, 1937 (died 1969)
Johnny "Guitar" Watson - February 3, 1935 (died 1996)

Electric bassist John "Mr. Solid" Lee was born in Alaska and has been active in the Seattle blues scene for about 30 years. He currently plays with the Crossroads Band. Photo by Mike Coyote.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Mr Lee. Good place to remind readers that the only place you're going to find regular blues programming is on public radio, which relies on the PUBLIC to support them. Please throw a few bucks their way and let them know it's because of their blues programming, if you want to keep blues on the airwaves.

Leslie