Hoo Hoo Hoo... Hoosiers?!

Back when I attended Indiana University for grad school, football season tickets were $30. If you wanted to buy any basketball tickets, you also had to buy the football season ticket package just to get them. I didn't buy either because the baseball tickets were free and we had Kyle Schwarber. 

But this year, the football team has been doing really well. Like, really good. And their rise from worst football program in college history to unexpected dominance just happens to coincide with reports of teachers being removed from IU classrooms for teaching about historical racism, with IU faculty being beaten and dragged off Dunn Meadow for protecting students and their right to free speech against armed national guards, with the moving and minimizing of the Archives of Traditional Music, and the elimination, merger, or suspension of approximately 250 undergraduate degrees in 2025-26 (including my own Folklore & Ethnomusicology program). 

It's extremely difficult to cheer for the horrific MAGA takeover of a once great educational institution, but IU does throw the ball really well and Fernando Mendoza seems like a good guy. I'll root for their football team in the Championship game tonight, but I'm much more interested in rooting for the incredible faculty and staff still at IU and still fighting for education and academic integrity every day. It's an uphill battle and I appreciate all of you! 

Now it's time to turn off my country music Ode to the Hoosiers LP (recorded at the Starday Sound Studio in Nashville just after the basketball team won the national championship in 1981) and turn on the game. Hoo Hoo Hoo... Hoosiers?!

Country Music in Español on Back to the Country 1/14/26

Howdy Friends, I’ll be back on the WORT FM tomorrow morning from 9-noon (CST) hosting Back to the Country and the theme this week is Country Music in Español. The NFL Super Bowl is just around the corner and back in October, half-time performer (and most streamed artist of 2025) Bad Bunny went on SNL and told everyone that we had just a few months to learn Spanish. Well, in case you haven’t been keeping up with your lessons, this show is for you!

We’ll start with traditional country music songs mostly sung in English but with some Spanish words here and there. Then we’ll move on to country songs with full verses sung in both English and Spanish. From there, we’ll hear songs fully sung in Spanish, but we’ll begin with translations of songs that were first hits in English so that you grab onto the narrative quickly.

Along the way we’ll pay tribute to three of my favorite Spanish-singing country superstars who we lost in 2025: Johnny Rodriguez, Flaco Jiménez, and just last month, Raul Malo of the Mavericks (The Mavericks in Español 2xLP is so, so good!). I’ll also play some of my favorite records by Rudy Tutti Grayzell, Freddy Fender, Linda Ronstadt, Big Sandy, Tish Hinojosa, the Austin Lounge Lizards, Gerardo Meza and the Mezcal Brothers, Southern Culture on the Skids, and Cris Plata to name a few. We’ll dip into some of the absolute gems from UCLA’s massive Frontera Collection. And I’ll for sure play for you my 1963 Johnny Cash Cantado en Español EP, released only in Spain with him singing two songs in Spanish. It’ll be lots of fun and, with any luck, when it’s all over, tú puedes hablar y entender Español! ¡Escucha wortfm.org o 89.9FM en Wisconsin!

Jewish Country Music on Back to the Country 12/10/25

Howdy Friends. Hanukkah begins this weekend and its got me thinking about all of the great Jewish country music out there in the world. Sure, there's the well-known Jewish country stars like Kinky Friedman, Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel), Shel Silverstein, and Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson & Friends). There's lots of great folk-country Jewish artists like Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and Leonard Cohen as well as bluegrass legends like Bela Fleck, Noam Pikelny, and David Grisman (to name just a few). And I can't leave out former bandmates Bobbie Malone and Dave Aaronoff (with a great new Hens release), or local star Jerry Wicentowski (Bluegrass Hoppers). Infamous tailor to the stars, Nudie Cohn, even made a country record and heck, it was Steve Goodman who wrote the perfect country music song!

I know it's just barely scratching the surface, but I've tracked down my favorite three hours worth of Jewish country music from my own collection and I've also found some rare gems to play from the Mayrent Collection of Yiddish Recordings. It's the largest collection of Yiddish language recordings (over 9,000+ 78s), with some incredible country-related records within, and it lives right next door to my office in Mills Music Library! I just might even have a special guest on during the middle of the show...

Hope you can tune in to Back to the Country tomorrow morning (12/10) from 9am to noon (cst) via 89.9FM in southern Wisconsin or streaming via wortfm.org and here's to a joyful festival of lights!

RCA Victor Chairs and a new Back to the Country show 11/12

For many years I've been wanting to find one of these rad 1940s/50s RCA Victor dealer chairs, but they always seem to be either WAY out of my price range or a million miles away. Never in my wildest dreams would I expect to find not just one, but TWO of them less than two miles from our home in the local antique mall (shout out to Atomic Antiques). Even more astonishing, because there was only one arm rest, they were sold for mere pennies on the dollar. I owe a gazillion thanks to my friend Dave Lass for texting me a heads up and then meeting me the next morning before they opened to make sure nobody else found them before us. Thank you, thank you, Dave!!

The next step is to find a way to use the one existing armrest as a template to make the others. I'm thinking wood. Does anybody have any suggestions or experience making RCA Victor chair armrests?

Well, the next step is actually to host Back to the Country on WORT FM tomorrow morning (11/12) from 9am-noon cst (streaming via wortfm.org). I'll be spinning some amazing recent acquisition 45s all morning, several of which were produced by RCA Victor around the same time as these chairs!

A Halloween Hayride Tomorrow (10/29) on WORT

Happy Early Halloween, y'all! Tomorrow is a bonus 5th Wednesday of the month which means I'll again be hosting Back to the Country on WORT FM from 9am-noon (cst). I've got a big ol' stack of my favorite spooky country classics at the ready for a swingin' Halloween Hayride! Salty Holmes, Eddie Noack, Jesse Welles, Hank Levine, and whatever else three hours will allow! Streaming worldwide via wortfm.org and via the WORT app.

Photo: Throwback to a couple decades ago when Nate Gibson & the Gashouse Gang and Reverend Horton Heat rocked a Halloween Hootenanny at the Middle East in Boston. With thanks to Emily Gabrian for the snap!

Congrats to the Milwaukee Brewers: Fear the Beer Project Goals and Outcomes 2025

Well, the Milwaukee Brewers season ended this weekend in the same way it started--a devastating series sweep at the hands of a non-salary capped large-market juggernaut. But in between those harsh bookends, the Brewers had a remarkable and magical year. They had the best overall record in baseball, set a franchise record for most wins, set a franchise record 14-game winning streak (Yay, free George Webb hamburgers for Milwaukee!), and brought a lot of joy to a lot of people in some pretty dark times. They beat the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS and they also inspired me to write an entire album of original songs about them.

Because Fear the Beer was intended to be a soundtrack to this year's Brewers' playoff run and because this weekend marks almost exactly two months from when I wrote my first Brewers song (8/15), I thought I'd take a quick moment to reflect on the project's goals and share some of the outcomes.

It took roughly four weeks to write eleven songs, practice them, and to record guitars and upright bass for all twelve tunes while also keeping up with my full-time job. It was a joy making music with friends (many thanks again to Randall Finley, Andrew Harrison, Dmitry Karev, and Art Stevenson!) and also to record backing vocals with my family (thanks again Adam, Ethan, Lilly, and Whitney!). And none of this would have been possible without my super-talented nephew Ethan Gibson encouraging me and putting in so much time recording my vocals, playing guitar, editing tracks, as well as mixing and mastering the entire thing. It was a real joy working with Ethan on this project!

It then took a week to design the artwork (many thanks to Rachel and Mike Lee for the assists!), getting my vision to match the printer's layout (many thanks to Travis "Daddy-O" Quam!), press the CDs (many thanks to Sooper Dooper!), register copyrights, get the album uploaded to Bandcamp, and to set up streaming and digital distribution. I also partnered with Wisconsin Humane Society during this week and pledged to donate all (if there were any) of the profits to them in memory of Hank the Dog.

During that week I also began seeking out press and I'm so grateful to Richelle Wilson and Rob Ferrett at Wisconsin Public Radio, Ashley Rodriguez at The Cap Times, Christopher Hawbaker at Channel 3 News, Jared Blohm at Milwaukee Record, Bob Koch at Isthmus, and Andy Moore of WORT's 8 O'Clock Buzz for taking an interest in the story and spreading the word. Thank you, all! As of yesterday (10/17) WPR's video of me singing "Fear the Beer" has 40,000+ views (on Facebook and Instagram). Chris's news segments aired on multiple days, The Cap Times gave it a full page, and in just two weeks, the album accrued 4,000+ streams via Bandcamp, Spotify, and YouTube. The album has also been in regular rotation on WI radio stations including WORT [many thanks to Art, Bobbie and Bill C. Malone, and Brian Oh Brien!], WXPR [thanks, Betty Jo!], and WVMO [thanks, Eric!]. 

Nearly all physical and digital sales were done via Bandcamp, which has worked out amazingly, and I also listed them on eBay and Discogs for discoverability. The CD was also sold in Rushmor Records in Milwaukee and both B-Side Records and MadCity Music in Madison bought copies, too. My friend Bobby Batyko even took CDs to several local jams and sold a bunch for me (many thanks again, Bob!). The initial print is now very near sold out!

When I started writing this country music love letter to the Brewers, I really had no idea if anyone would care or take an interest. I didn't do it to make money, but to my surprise, after two weeks I had recouped all of my expenses. In the following week and during the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, we sold another $400+ in CDs and digital copies--all going directly to the Wisconsin Humane Society to help animals in need and their WI families. Please adopt, don't shop!

These past two months I really tried to focus on the positive things around me. I wrote a bunch of original music. I got to do a music project with my nephew and several friends. I went to some amazing baseball games (including two of the incredible Brewers-Cubs NLDS victories!!). And we raised several hundred dollars for the WI Humane Society in the process. A sincere THANK YOU to everyone who purchased the album and supported the overall mission!! It's easily the most fun I've had watching baseball in the last couple decades and it's been a healthy distraction from the daily onslaught of horrors brought about by this federal administration. 

Now that the Brewers 2025 Playoffs run is over, you may be wondering, "what's next for Fear the Beer?" Well, I don't really know that answer, but there is actually a group of music marketing majors at Emerson College currently discussing that very question. I'll be sure to keep y'all in the loop! In the meantime, many thanks again to the Milwaukee Brewers for an absolutely magical season and for the flurry of creative inspiration! Go Brewers!

NLDS Game 5 Brewers v Cubs is Saturday Night

Oh man, last night's NLDS Game 4 was a stinger. But the good news--that just means more baseball for the rest of us! The big NLDS-deciding Game 5 of the Milwaukee Brewers v Chicago Cubs series is tomorrow night and if ever the Brewers needed a rallying cry in catchy song form, now is that time!

Fortunately, I've already written one--Fear the Beer! Actually, it's an entire album about the Brewers, it can still serve as your soundtrack to this year's exciting playoff run, and CDs and digital downloads are available via Bandcamp: https://nategibson.bandcamp.com/album/fear-the-beer-a-musical-salute-to-the-milwaukee-brewers

Even more exciting, as of this Tuesday evening, the recording and manufacturing expenses for the Fear the Beer project have been covered (in less than two weeks!) and all sales from this week forward will be donated to the Wisconsin Humane Society in memory of the Brewers unofficial mascot, Hank the Ballpark Pup. Go Hank! Go Animals! And Go Brewers!!