A Country Music EVENT on WORT 89.9 FM!

Tomorrow morning is the 2nd Wednesday of the month which means I’ll be back on WORT hosting Back to the Country from 9-noon CST. This week I’ll be taking an in-depth look into one of my very favorite record labels—EVENT RECORDS from Westbrook, ME. Operating from 1956-1961, Event captured some of the best bluegrass ever made by The Lilly Bros w/ Don Stover and Charlie Bailey, made some of the earliest (and best) recordings of Dick Curless and 15-year old guitar phenom Lenny Breau, and brilliantly documented a vibrant New England country music scene in the late ‘50s that included artists like Roy Aldridge, Hal Lone Pine, Betty Cody, Slim Coxx, Curtis Johnson, Harold Carter, Smokey Val, Clyde and Willie Joy, Gene Hooper, Jimmy Copeland, and many more.

Bear Family Records has released deep dives into the early music career of Event co-founder Al Hawkes (see: Allerton & Alton—Black, White & Bluegrass) and the extensive Event Records rockabilly catalog (see: That’ll Flat Git It Vol. 20), but Wednesday’s show will focus on the rich country music contributions of Event Records with many released and unreleased gems from the Event vaults.

Al was a dear friend of mine, a pioneer bluegrass musician, an electronics wizard, and a passionate country music collector and archivist. I’m mighty honored to present a show that focuses on his recorded country music and bluegrass legacy and hope y’all can tune in to hear more of my very favorite records! Tune in via 89.9FM in Southern WI or streaming live via wortfm.org

I'm Bringing Boston in the 90s50s to WORT in 2020s

Tomorrow morning I'll be back on the radio hosting Back to the Country on WORT 89.9 FM from 9:00-noon CST (and streaming at wortfm.org). What's the theme this week, you ask?

Well, for several months now my co-host Bill C. Malone has asked me to do a show where I play my very favorite records. "Well," I thought, "that's what I do every single month." But I think Bill was hoping to hear a more personal perspective on why I love the records that I love, so tomorrow I'll tell the story of how I came to love country music--specifically, by living in Boston, MA in the 90s50s.

For three hours I'll play my favorite Boston 90s50s records by the Racketeers, the Raging Teens, Lenny & the Piss Poor Boys, the Spurs, King Memphis, the Country Bumpkins, Jonathan Richman, and many more; Unreleased demos by the Two Timin' Three, the Bombastics, the Coachmen, Blood Sweat & Gears, and more; I'll regale you with tales of punk, ska, surf, garage, rockabilly, and honky-tonk bands intertwining; and I'll even share some of my embarrassing 1997 interview snippets with Link Wray, Los Straitjackets, and the Racketeers.

These were the tunes and bands that shaped my love for American roots music, that kept me dancing throughout my teens and beyond, and that inspired me to take up music making myself. To quote Peter Guralnick in Lost Highway, discovering the 90s50s in Boston was like "finding the bluebird of happiness on my back door" (though he found his "bluebird of happiness" by discovering Sleepy LaBeef outside of Boston in the 1970s) and I'm excited to share my path of musical discovery with you!

And for anyone in the Madison, WI area, I hope you'll come out to the Memorial Union Terrace on Thursday evening (7-9:00pm) for a free, outdoor show where and the Honky-Tonk Hodags can play some of these songs for you in person!

Nate Gibson & the Honky-Tonk Hodags 8/12 7pm @Memorial Union Terrace

Internationally-renowned honky-tonk musician and country music scholar Nate Gibson will be performing at the Memorial Union Terrace on Thursday August 12th from 7-9:00pm.

Gibson’s book, The Starday Story: The House That Country Music Built, won the 2012 Belmont Book Award for Best Book on Country Music and his recordings have been released on Bear Family Records (Germany), Swelltune Records, Goofin’ Records (Finland), and Cow Island Music. Gibson’s latest release, Nate Gibson & the Stars of Starday, features him duetting with 14 country music stars since the 1950s and ‘60s—accompanied by Country Music Hall of Famer Marty Stuart and members of his Fabulous Superlatives band—and was selected by Country Music People magazine as one of the “Top 10 Country Music Albums of 2019.”

Gibson is also a folklorist, ethnomusicologist, and archivist at UW–Madison and co-hosts WORT’s Back to the Country Wednesday morning radio program. He will be joined on stage by the Honky-Tonk Hodags, Wisconsin’s most beloved and fearsome purveyors of rockin’ roots and country music.

Poster by Nate Gibson
Hodag Illustration by Fred Chao

Event sponsored by WUD Music 

More details at: https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/nate-gibson-and-the-honky-tonk-hodags/

Back to the Country 7/14 - Country Music Jingles

Howdy Friends, tomorrow is the 2nd Wednesday of the month which means I'll be back on WORT 89.9fm hosting Back to the Country. This week's theme is the Country Music Jingle--exploring 100+ years of country music and corporate sponsorship. I'll be playing 3 hours of rarely heard jingles by Hank Williams Sr., Johnny Cash, the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, George Jones, Johnny Horton, Merle Haggard, Bill Monroe, and whole bunch more including some Starday jingle demos never before broadcast and some rare Rex Trailer jingles, too!

For legal reasons I can't play any of the cigarette jingles I've uncovered, but I'm mighty grateful to the WORT legal team for allowing me to play all the other country music jingles about bread, beer, soda, bicycles, cars, hot dogs, guitars, soap, cereal, washing machines, jeans, paint, pesticide, and just about everything else under the sun.

Neither myself nor WORT are endorsing any of the products advertised during the show, but I believe these jingles have historic and educational value, not to mention the enormous earworm potentical, and I sure hope y'all dig 'em as much as I do. Tune in this Wednesday morning (tomorrow) from 9am-noon CST via 89.9fm, the WORT app, or streaming at www.wortfm.org

Back to the Country: This week's theme is Starday Custom Pressings

Howdy Friends. Tomorrow is the 2nd Wednesday of the month which means, I'm back on the air, baby! I'll be hosting Back to the Country again from 9am-noon CST and this time around I'll be playing and discussing my very favorite Starday Custom Pressings!

From 1954-1966, Starday Records ran a country-oriented vanity pressing service that released some really raucous rockabilly, boppin' country, drivin' bluegrass, wild western swing, and some of the earliest recordings of Willie Nelson, Link Wray, J.J. Cale, Lonnie Irving, The Lewis Family, and many more. I know I say it all the time, but these are REALLY my favorite records. Check it out in Southern Wisconsin via WORT 89.9 FM or streaming via wortfm.org

Photo of Willie Nelson and I discussing his Starday custom release at Summerfest 2019 in Milwaukee, credit Kevin Smith

A Mosrite Special on Back to the Country 4-14-21

Howdy Friends, I'll be hosting Back to the Country tomorrow morning from 9-noon (CST) and this week's show is going to be a Mosrite Special!

Many folks today associate Mosrite guitars with the Ramones, Nirvana, Screeching Weasel, MC5, Davie Allen, and of course the Ventures, but Mosrite acitually got its start in the country music world. Tomorrow's show will explore the country music roots of Mosrite and will feature tunes by Joe and Rose Lee Maphis, the Buckaroos, Barbara Mandrell, and Buck Trent to name just a few.

I'll be spinning the very best of the Mosrite Records label as well as many of my favorite Mosrite pickers. Special treats include an unreleased guitar instrumental I recorded on my Joe Maphis model Mosrite with Tony Savarino, some super rare recordings by Mosrite luthier Semie Moseley, as well as a discussion about all things Mosrite with Mosrite expert and guitar archeologist Deke Dickerson!

I've been playing Mosrite guitars, collecting Mosrite Records, and researching the record label for nearly two decades and I can't wait to share some of this great music with you. You can tune in to tomorrow from 9am-noon (CST) via 89.9 FM in southern Wisconsin, stream it live at wortfm.org, or listen on the go via the brand new WORT app.

Bonus Edition of Back to the Country tomorrow (3/31/21)

Tomorrow morning from 9am-noon (CST) I'll be hosting a brand new episode of Back to the Country and talking about one of my very favorite things in the world--record collecting! I'll regale you with tales of how I first got into the hobby, how the practice has become a major part of my professional work at the University of Wisconsin, and all the while I'll be sharing with you my favorite 7", 10", 12", and even 16" record discoveries from 2021.

We're only three months into the new year but it's already been an outstanding trimester for records. I'm excited to share with y'all the cream of my recent acquisitions crop, both personally and for the Wisconsin Music Archives and Mills Music Library.

Tune in to 89.9FM in southern Wisconsin, stream it live at wortfm.org, or listen via the new WORT app.