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Backbeat Radio Broadcast on radio stations across Canada and the U.S.A. See below for a list. |
Here is a summary of the previous ten Backbeat shows that can be streamed on-demand for free. Streaming service is provided by Mixcloud, clicking on the link will take you to their site.
This week we've got drinkin' songs, redemption songs, blues songs, boogie songs and country chestnuts. We'll hear a Canadian group trying to sound British, who later pivoted to sound very American and a song from Brad Strang who doesn't sound like anybody else.
Backbeat chugs along this week with music by Wynonie Harris, The Boswell Sisters, Barbara Lynn and a rockabilly icon who somehow got the nickname Sleepy. See the picture to figure out why. Big Fancy gives us some classic country they don't make any more. We celebrate session players like Mickey Baker, Al Casey and Floyd Cramer. We'll also hear unusual music from a Jamaican artist who re-located to Chicago in the 1950s.
We've got a lot of talented "almost made it" artists this week. Some just didn't have the luck, others sounded too much like somebody else, like Hank Snow or Elvis, but all were good and worth listening to before they're completely forgotten. Those, plus our usual line-up of blues, country, gospel and exotica make for a show that's also worth listening to.
It's Backbeat's first spooky Hallowe'en show this week with songs of the supernatural and unknown to celebrate the scary season. We've got scary (or not-so-scary) movie music, Ken Tizzard tells us a ghost story, there's black cats, monsters, a troubling story about Johnny Horton and the weirdest record Chuck Berry ever made.
This week we'll hear a future pop star doing some session work as a guitarist while some session players get their time in the spotlight. There's great jazz, great blues, country gospel, and a pop teen idol who would rather just sing R&B. Brandon Isaac gives us our oldest-sounding record though it was made last year and we'll also hear of a wonderful elixir that could cure just about anything, or at least make you feel better about it for a while.
Some great favourites this week starting off with a rollicking side from Tiny Bradshaw, songs about space and atom bombs and an early number by the King Cole Trio. We'll hear guitar gods like Roy Buchanan and Lonnie Johnson plus the lesser-known Bernie Wiggins and Eddie Bush and the unique blues stylings of Harry Manx who plays, among other things, a 20-string instrument called the mohan veena
Why would you listen to this show? To hear a rare record by a great New Orleans musician, Cousin Joe (pictured), who didn't like recording, so there's not a lot of his early records around. Or you could hear a gospel group that had a big influence on James Brown, how about some Canadian rockabilly, or a rock & roll record by a guy who later became a 1970s soft-rock star.
For this week's show we've got music from all over North America plus Jamaica and South Africa, we get some hillbilly boogie played on a Croatian folk instrument called the Tamburitza, we'll hear more Blue Moon Marquee from their New Orleans Session album along with Eddy Arnold, Fats Waller, Ray Charles, Buddy Holly and a whole lot more.
Highlights this week include a soul icon singing a country song, a country guitarist and a pop singer that a lot of people thought were black (pictures weren't too common back then), a far-out jazz band play some do-wop, a crazy do-wop version of Unchained Melody and finally a jazz guitar genius playing rock & roll. How could you not listen to a show like that?
This week's show has Wynonie Harris trying to explain his bad behaviour to a judge, Amos Milburn giving up booze (for a while) Big Fancy gives us some modern honky-tonk, we'll hear a gospel record featuring bluesy harp playing, an openly gay 1950s singing duo and B.B. King's first big hit plus a lot more.