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Radio Djerdan presents: 

 

Fraser & DeBolt

"Fraser & DeBolt were a Canadian folk duo, active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its members were Allan Fraser and Daisy DeBolt (1945 – October 4, 2011).

Allan Fraser and Daisy DeBolt met at a workshop at the 1968 Mariposa Folk Festival. Their first words to each other were "I like your voice." As DeBolt puts it, Fraser "knocked on the door and that was it, he never left."[citation needed] Not long after, their budding musical romance found them hitchhiking every day from Toronto to Hamilton, Ontario to work on material. By the summer of 1969, Fraser & DeBolt was officially formed as a duo.

 

In 1970 they travelled to the United States on a coffee house circuit tour. During the second week of February, while in upper New York State, they received a message from Ravi Shankar's manager, Jay K. Hoffman. Hoffman signed them to a management contract, and arranged for Fraser & DeBolt to audition for a recording contract. On April 5, 1970, they opened for Tom Paxton at Fillmore East in New York City. The showcase led to two offers, and the duo were signed to Columbia Records.

Work began in Toronto on their debut album. They were accompanied by the violinist Ian Guenther with production by Craig Allen, who was also the art director for the album cover. On its release in January, 1971, one critic, John Gabree of the magazine High Fidelity, writing in the album's liner notes, states that it had "moments when the only possible responses are to laugh aloud or to cry, and there are very few aesthetic experiences that genuinely produce those effects." Reviews appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Free Press and other publications.

 

Recording commenced in late 1971 for the follow-up album, With Pleasure, which featured musicians from the Canadian band, Simon Caine. The duo continued to tour and perform across Canada and the United States and, in 1974, they represented North America at the International Song Festival held at Sopot, Poland. Fraser & DeBolt broke up not long after, except for a few reunion appearances.

In November 1994, their story was told in an episode of Adrienne Clarkson Presents on CBC-TV. As recently as January, 2004, their first album was still on the playlists at the radio station WFMU in Jersey City, New Jersey. The Canadian music trade paper, The Record, explained the duo's significance when it wrote, "Fraser & DeBolt were the greatest Canadian band never to have made it."

 

DeBolt died on October 4, 2011, from cancer, at the age of 66.

In November 1994, their story was told in an episode of Adrienne Clarkson Presents on CBC-TV. As recently as January, 2004, their first album was still on the playlists at the radio station WFMU in Jersey City, New Jersey. The Canadian music trade paper, The Record, explained the duo's significance when it wrote, "Fraser & DeBolt were the greatest Canadian band never to have made it."

DeBolt died on October 4, 2011, from cancer, at the age of 66."

 

Discography:

 

"Fraser & DeBolt With Ian Guenther"

 

Released: 1971, Label: Columbia C 30381

 

"All This Paradise"

"Gypsy Solitaire"

"Them Dance Hall Girls"

"David's Tune"

"Waltz of the Tennis Players"

"Armstrong Tourest Rest Home"

"Fraser and Debolt Theme"

"Old Man on the Corner"

"Warmth"

"Stoney Day"

"Pure Spring Water"

"Don't Let Me Down"

In reviewing this release, Mark Allan, of Allmusic, commented that "One of the many sad secrets of the popular music business is the way this little gem languished in obscurity. It should have been heard by millions, but disappeared at the height of psychedelia. Two years later, The Band found an audience with haunting tales of bygone rustic North American life with their seminal, self-titled second album. Widespread acclaim eluded the earlier outing by this unheralded Canadian trio. The songs, most written independently by Daisy DeBolt or Allan Fraser, are poetic."[2]

After hearing an acetate, John Gabree, in a review published in High Fidelity in 1971 (and reproduced as the album's liner notes), described Fraser & DeBolt With Ian Guenther as "one of the best pop albums I have ever heard."[3]

The recording has never been legally released or reissued on compact disc.

 

 

****

"Fraser & DeBolt With Pleasure"

 

Released: 1973, Label: Columbia KC 32130

 

 

"Broad Daylight Woman" (3:12)

"Columbus Hits the Shoreline Rag" (3:40)

"I Want to Dance with You" (3:01)

"Cleo's Couch" (2:57)

"Big Time Charlie" (4:25)

"Sister Nell & Dirty Reuben" (1:58)

"Two Rainbows" (4:09)

"This Storm Shall Surely Pass" (5:45)

"Why-Kiki" (3:39)

"Waiting for the Harvest in Garf's Front Yard (Pure Spring Water #2)" (4:23)

 

 

******

 

The following double album is of out-takes and board tapes of some incredible performances of Fraser & DeBolt. Nicely fixed up and also released on vinyl in limited quantities.

 

"Fraser & DeBolt - This Song Was Borne"

 

Released: 2015, Label: Roaratorio roar039

"Armstrong Tourest Rest Home" (5:30)

"Daisy Sky" (5:58)

"The Snowdrift Song" (2:50)

"Hey, What's In It For Me?" (3:28)

"I Threw It All Away" (2:19)

"Dandelion Wine" (3:37)

"All Through The Stone House" (5:02)

"Preserve Me In Alcohol" (5:05)

"Calypso Joe" (3:09)

"Doors Will Appear (...And Swing Open)" (4:45)

"Geneva" (2:53)

"Abide With Me" (3:09)

"Amsterdam" (4:34)

"This Song Was Borne" (2:53)

"Peace In Hand Hold" (5:13)

"Prairie Love" (3:29)

"We Shall Be Delivered" (4:50)

"Josephine" (2:58)

"Whitecaps (Just Beyond The Bay)" (5:42)

"Sincerely I Remain, Still Your Friend" (4:22)

 

Next:

"Other Lives - Sicily Sessions" (PIAS Recordings, 2020)

 

 

“After the 2016 election, Kim and I decided it was time to take a break from the USA. After a long trip through Europe we ended up in a small town on the island of Sicily called Castellammare del Golfo. There we found such peace and a way of life that inspired putting down the computer and getting back to a more basic form of songwriting. The result was the sketches of what would become For Their Love. We hope you enjoy these early musings.” - Kim & Jesse

Order For Their Love:

https://otherlives.lnk.to/ForTheirLove

"Ryan Adams - Wednesdays" (Pax Am, 2020)

 

 

"Wednesdays is the seventeenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Ryan Adams. Originally slated for release in 2019, it was delayed following abuse allegations against Adams. It was eventually surprise-released on December 11, 2020 through Adams's label PAX AM.

In January 2019, Adams announced his plans to release three albums that calendar year. The first, Big Colors, was due to be released April 19 and feature 15 tracks. The second, Wednesdays, was to feature 17 tracks and did not yet have a confirmed release date. Adams did not disclose the name of the third album. The release of all three albums was put on hold after The New York Times published an article in February 2019 in which several women, including Adams's ex-wife Mandy Moore, Phoebe Bridgers, and an underage fan, accused him of abuse and sexual misconduct. Adams has denied the allegations. After a five-month silence, he returned in July 2019, posting a soundboard recording of a song titled "I'm Sorry and I Love You". On December 11, 2020, Adams eventually surprise-released Wednesdays, which features "I'm Sorry and I Love You".

Track listing

1. "I'm Sorry and I Love You" 3:34

2. "Who Is Going to Love Me Now, If Not You" 3:31

3. "When You Cross Over" 4:19

4. "Walk in the Dark" 4:11

5. "Poison & Pain" 3:09

6. "Wednesdays" 5:25

7. "Birmingham" 3:11

8. "So, Anyways" 3:46

9. "Mamma" 4:23

10. "Lost in Time" 3:54

11. "Dreaming You Backwards"

 Next on Radio Djerdan

"Kacy & Clayton And Marlon Williams - Plastic Bouquet" (New West Records, 2020)

 

 "Every December, Christchurch, NZ enjoys the start of summer as Saskatoon, SK begins to freeze over. For as far apart as these places may seem, you would never know it from the sound of Plastic Bouquet, the debut collaborative album between Saskatoon duo Kacy & Clayton and Christchurch singer and songwriter Marlon Williams. While on tour across Europe in 2017, Kacy & Clayton quite literally stopped Marlon in his tracks. As if playing by divine design through the radio, the pair's 'Springtime of the Year' immediately enchanted him. Soon thereafter, Marlon hopped a flight to Saskatoon and they wrote and recorded the bulk of what would become Plastic Bouquet. They unlocked undeniable chemistry. With Plastic Bouquet, these three musicians find common ground in dusty country spun through a kaleidoscope of psychedelic soul and dreamy fifties delivery. Track Listing: SIDE A 1. Isn t It 2. Plastic Bouquet 3. Light of Love 4. Your Mind s Walking Out 5. Arahura SIDE B 1. I m Unfamiliar 2. I Wonder Why 3. Old Fashioned Man 4. I m Gonna Break It 5. Last Burning Ember 6. Devil s Daughter"

Radio Djerdan: Haiku Anthology

 

 

 

Next:

Radio Djerdan: Western Swing - All Night, All Day

 

 

 

Next:

"How Many Roads: Black America Sings Bob Dylan" (Various) [Ace, 2010]

"Not for nothing is Bob Dylan considered to be one of the greatest songwriters of his, or any other, generation. His compositions have provided a prime source of repertoire for hundreds, even thousands, of recording artists for 50 years, and his catalogue continues to be regularly revised and revisited in all genres of music.

Spanning more than two decades of Dylan compositions, “How Many Roads” offers 20 first-rate examples of how well his songs have lent themselves to being remade/remodelled by high profile names in black American music. Few of his peers have had their catalogues visited as regularly by black singers and musicians. Only John Lennon and Paul McCartney (the subjects of the next volume in this short “Black America Sings…” series) come close in terms of breadth of catalogue and number of covers.

Black America was very quick to wake up to the potential of Dylan compositions and savvy singers started covering them almost as soon as he released them. Early fans included the Staple Singers, who cut no less than three songs from his breakthrough album “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” and can be heard here on a stellar version of ‘Masters Of War’. Sam Cooke was inspired to write his masterpiece ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ after hearing Dylan sing ‘Blowing In The Wind’ on TV and wondering why no black songwriter had come up with anything that spoke so eloquently of the need for racial equality as the song’s opening line, “How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man?” That song is heard here in a compelling 1968 rendition by front-tier Memphis soulman O.V. Wright, one of more than 30 black American artists who recorded it within five years of Dylan’s version.

This set includes some of Dylan’s favourite recordings of his songs and the CD comes to you with his blessing and approval. My own favourite tracks include the Persuasions’ glorious a cappella remodelling of ‘The Man In Me’ from Dylan’s “New Morning” album, Con-Funk-Shun’s surprisingly effective funk-up of ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ and gospel queen Marion Williams’ heart-wrenching deep soul version of ‘I Pity The Poor Immigrant’ from “John Wesley Harding”.

There are many other great tracks that finite CD running time didn’t allow us to include here, so keep your fingers crossed for a second volume. Until then, there’s plenty of superbly soulful singing to be savoured, on some of the finest songs that will ever be written by anyone, anytime." By Tony Rounce

01 Preview Blowing In The Wind - O.V. Wright

02 Preview Girl From The North Country - Howard Tate

03 Preview I Pity The Poor Immigrant - Marion Williams

04 Preview Maggie's Farm - Solomon Burke

05 Preview Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - Brook Benton

06 Preview From A Buick 6 - Gary US Bonds

07 Preview The Man In Me - The Persuasions

08 Preview Like A Rolling Stone - Major Harris

09 Preview With God On Our Side - The Neville Brothers

10 Preview Mr Tambourine Man - Con-Funk-Shun

11 Preview Masters Of War - The Staple Singers

12 Preview I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Bill Brandon

13 Preview Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine - Patti LaBelle

14 Preview Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Booker T Jones

15 Preview All Along The Watchtower - Bobby Womack

16 Preview Just Like A Woman - Nina Simone

17 Preview I Shall Be Released - Freddie Scott

18 Preview Lay Lady Lay - The Isley Brothers

19 Preview Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You - Esther Phillips

20 Preview Emotionally Yours - The O'Jays

 

Next:

"Vernon Oxford ‎– A Tribute To Hank Williams" (Meteor Records,1978)

"Vernon Oxford was a hard honky tonk singer with unlucky timing, coming up during an era when traditional country simply wasn't counting for much on the charts. However, he was able to find a different route to success, touring the U.K. extensively to capitalize on his surprising popularity there. Oxford was born in Rogers, AR, in 1941 and grew up mostly in Wichita, KS. He discovered country music through his father, an old-time-style fiddler, and learned to play both fiddle and guitar as a youth. His first professional gig came in 1960 at a Utah club, and he spent the next several years playing clubs and dances around Kansas. In 1964, he moved to Nashville to try his luck in the business but found the going rough because of his more old-fashioned style. Fortunately, he also found an ally in the legendary songwriter Harlan Howard, who helped him get a contract with RCA Victor in 1965 and supplied some of his material. Oxford released seven singles over the next two years as well as an album, Woman, Let Me Sing You a Song. While traditional country fans applauded his work, he never managed to hit the charts, and RCA dropped him. He recorded briefly for the smaller Stop label but caught a break when British audiences discovered him as a fine traditional-style artist who'd slipped through the cracks of American popular taste. RCA issued a retrospective of his work in Britain in 1974, re-signed Oxford, and sent him on a tour. Oxford scored his first chart single in America with "Shadows of My Mind" and had his biggest hit with "Redneck (The Redneck National Anthem)"; a few more singles charted in America, and Oxford also scored some British hits with the likes of "I've Got to Get Peter off Your Mind" and "Field of Flowers." He toured actively through 1977, then took a few years off and re-emerged in 1981 as a born-again Christian dedicated to gospel music. He continued to record and tour Britain." ~ allmusic

A1 Kaw-Liga

A2 Your Cheating Heart

A3 Hey Good Looking

A4 When God Comes And Gathers His Jewels

A5 Baby We're Really In Love

A6 Wedding Bells

A7 Cold Cold Heart

A8 I Saw The Light

B1 Setting The Woods On Fire

B2 I Can't Help It

B3 You Win Again

B4 Jambalaya

B5 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

B6 Mansion On The Hill

B7 The Funeral

 

 Next:

  

"F. J. McMahon – Spirit of the Golden Juice" (Accent Records, 1969)

"First released way back in 1969 in limited circles around the California coast, the charming but mysterious Spirit of the Golden Juice was the solitary studio album by F. J. McMahon, and has slowly become a treasured cult favourite as the decades have gone by."

******

"Once heard, 1969’s Spirit of the Golden Juice is not forgotten. F. J. McMahon’s sole album is imbued with the heavy air of desolation. Its nine country tinged songs are also melodic and as good as those by Tim Hardin and Fred Neil, with whom McMahon is most often compared. Unlike them, McMahon had not steered a path through the folk circuit to achieve recognition. Instead, Spirit of the Golden Juice was pressed in the low hundreds by the small California label Accent and had no distribution. McMahon’s label mates were guitar instrumentalist Buddy Merrill, a past his sell-by-date Dick Dale and psych bands The Human Zoo and The Silk Winged Alliance.

Three decades after it was barely released, Spirit of the Golden Juice began attracting attention on the collector’s circuit, In 1998, it was bootlegged. A first CD reissue followed in 2009. Another bootleg vinyl edition appeared in 2012. Now, with McMahon’s blessing, an official vinyl reissue has arrived. Original 1969 pressings fetch at least £1000. Playing live after it was issued didn't help its profile: the album made no immediate ripples.

None of this afterlife is untypical for a rare record – if there’s a demand, it’s filled. The unusual aspect of Spirit of the Golden Juice is that it’s so damn good. In a reverb-accented baritone, McMahon mournfully delivers a series of song-stories during which he declares he’s “lost a good part of his life” and “sitting in a one-man room”. Each hinges on an unvarying rhythm, strummed acoustic guitar and wandering, overdubbed finger-picked lead lines. Sparse and unvarnished, it’s a missive from a dark place. Although orchestrated, the only roughly contemporary album with a similarly oppressive atmosphere is Val Stöecklein’s intense 1968 set Grey Life.

McMahon had a need to express. In 1968, he returned from Vietnam. He had also served in The Philippines and Thailand. On Spirit of the Golden Juice, McMahon sympathises with an imprisoned draft avoidee on “Five Year Kansas Blues”. “Black Night Women” tells the story of a service buddy’s girlfriend and how she killed herself upon learning he was not going to marry her and that he had a wife back home. “Early Blue” describes his own retreat into himself after returning to the States.

He was in Vietnam from 1967, serving in the air force as a military policeman. A year on, he was invalided out with hepatitis. Before shipping out, he was based in San Rafael and took in nearby San Francisco’s psychedelic ballroom scene. He had voluntarily joined the air force in 1964 – while he was playing in surf bands – to ensure he had a choice about how he served. There were no choices with the draft. (pictured left: promotional poster for a 1969 F. J. McMahon live performance)

While Vietnam inspired songwriters from Donovan to Phil Ochs, from Pete Seeger to Kenny Rogers, McMahon was, at this point, the only singer-songwriter recording who had served in Vietnam (let’s forget about Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler). His unique album was born from post-traumatic stress disorder.

This new edition has been the subject of top-notch mastering. No previous reissues (legal or otherwise) have sounded this punchy, this dynamic. Unfortunately, the accompanying booklet’s liner notes fall short. To quote: “Spirit of The Golden Juice is an album well-chronicled and well-loved since its rediscovery. It’s been interpreted by better interpreters than me, and written about by better writers.” Such piffle should not have been allowed through. Thankfully, it is the music which matters here. The hard-hitting, unforgettable Spirit of the Golden Juice needs to be heard."

https://theartsdesk.com/new-music/reissue-cds-weekly-fj-mcmahon

 Radio Djerdan: Haiku Anthology

 

 

Next:

Henry Wagons' Tower of Song (ABC Double J, 7/12/20)

 

"Get red carpet ready for we announce the victors of the local and international Tower of Song of the Year 2020! Who will take home the illustrious song writing crown in this crazy year?

We also welcome into the listening room, champions of both song and story, Jordie Lane and Lollies. Plus, let’s cover ourselves in blankets of the finest covers that have come out this year!"

Tracks

https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/programs/tower-of-song/tower-of-song-of-the-year-2020/12941066

 

Next:

 

"Jim White Presents Music From Searching For A Wrong Eyed Jesus" (LUAKA BOP, 1997/2005)

 

 "Searching for the Wrong-eyed Jesus is a thought-provoking road trip through the american south - a world of churches prison, coalmines, truckstops, juke joints, swamps and mountains. Along the way the viewer encounters various musicians, including the handsome family, Johnny Dowd, 16 horsepower and David Johansen, old time banjo player lee sexton, rockabilly and mountain gospel churches and novelist harry crews telling grisly stories down a dirt track. The film is a collage of stories and testimonies, almost invariably of sudden death, sin, redemption, heaven or hell, with no middle ground. And all the while, a strange southern jesus looms in the background."

----

"Jim White's debut album is a cinematic collection of Appalachia-inspired country-folk rendered with a gothic sensibility and junkyard atmospherics (the inclusion of Tom Waits collaborator Ralph Carney on several tracks lends the record a distinctly Waits-ish veneer). Drawing on his bizarre life experiences and troubled Pentecostal upbringing, White's narratives are surreal and crazed, shot through with disturbing spiritual imagery and backwoods dementia; a strangely beautiful record, Wrong-Eyed Jesus! is a fine introduction to a uniquely twisted talent."

Soundtrack Credits

Still waters

Written and Performed by Jim White

My Sister's Tiny Hands

Written and Performed by The Handsome Family

First there was

Performed by Johnny Dowd and Maggie Brown

Crossbones Style

Written and Performed by Cat Power

The Last Kind Word Blues

Written by Geeshie Wiley and Performed by David Johansen & Larry Saltzman

The Wound That Never Heals

Written and Performed by Jim White

Wayfaring Stranger

Traditional, Performed by David Eugene Edwards (16 Horsepower)

Small Town

Written and Performed by Mayor

Black Soul Choir

Written and Performed by 16 Horsepower

Little Maggie

Traditional, Performed by Lee Sexton

Coo Coo Bird

Traditional, Performed by Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley

Amazing Grace

Traditional, Performed by Melissa Swingle

Christmas Day

Written and Performed by Jim White

 

 

Next:

Radio Djerdan - Encyclopedia of Country Music

A -

ALLEN, RED

"Harley Allen (February 12, 1930 – April 3, 1993), better known as Red Allen, was an American bluegrass singer and guitarist known for his powerful tenor voice.

Allen, born in Pigeon Roost Hollow, near Hazard, Kentucky, grew up in the music-rich hills of eastern Kentucky, and following a stint in the Marines, settled in Dayton, Ohio in 1949, where he began performing professionally. In 1952, Allen discovered a young teenage mandolin virtuoso named Frank Wakefield, who had moved to Dayton from Harriman, Tennessee. Soon Wakefield became a member of Allen's first band, the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys. The band also included the legendary Ohio 5-string banjo player Noah Crase. They worked the local bars along Dayton's Fifth Street as well as the rough blue collar taverns which made up the Ohio and Michigan bluegrass circuit at the time. Allen first came to broader public attention in 1956, when he joined the Osborne Brothers to fill out one of the most influential vocal trios in the history of country music. Allen made his first recordings with the Osborne Brothers on July 1, 1956 when they recorded four songs, including "Ruby," "Ho Honey Ho" and "Once More." "Once More" has been called a "landmark in three-part vocal harmony."[1] The Osbornes and Red Allen were now featured cast members on the World's Original Jamboree radio show over WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia. Red And the Osborne's Revolutionized Bluegrass To Beautiful Harmony. Later the Beatles did the same thing for rock and roll. In 1958, Allen left the group and returned to Dayton.

Frank Wakefield, meanwhile, had also returned to Dayton, having himself garnered national exposure with the release of some hot-selling singles recorded in Detroit the year before – including the seminal mandolin instrumental "New Camptown Races," and also touring with Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys. Allen and Wakefield then formed their second partnership, resulting in some single recordings made with local banjo player Red Spurlock and released under the professional name The Red Heads on the BMC label. The records were poorly marketed, and Wakefield left Ohio in late 1959 to explore better career opportunities in the bluegrass-rich DC–Baltimore area. In 1960 Allen followed suit, and the two reunited as Red Allen, and The Kentuckians. The Washington, D.C. area had a thriving bluegrass scene including such artists as Buzz Busby and the Bayou Boys, The Country Gentlemen, Don Reno and Red Smiley and the Tennessee Cutups, The Stoneman Family and Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper. Allen and Wakefield were soon performing regularly at area night spots and also secured a regular Sunday afternoon broadcast over station WDON in Wheaton, Maryland. On July 4, 1961, the band was among a small handful invited to perform at Bill Clifton's first-ever one day Bluegrass Festival held at Luray, Virginia. In November 1961, Allen and Wakefield recorded six sides in Nashville that included banjo legend Don Reno, fiddle master Chubby Wise and bassist John Palmer on the Starday label including the popular "Trouble 'Round My Door" and "Beautiful Blue Eyes." By 1963 Allen, Wakefield and their band had performed at both Carnegie Hall and at the trendy Gerde's Folk City club in New York City. In addition to Wakefield, at various times the touring version of The Kentuckians included Tom Morgan on bass, Pete Kuykendall, Bill Keith or Ralph Robinson on banjo and Scott Stoneman or Billy Baker on fiddle.

In 1964 Allen, Wakefield and their band made a much-admired album for Folkways, entitled simply Bluegrass, produced by young David Grisman, an admirer of Allen and mandolin student of Wakefield's. The recording showed a larger public that Allen was a true disciple of the "high lonesome sound" associated with Bill Monroe. At his best, Allen drenched his material in emotion, each song propelled by his surging rhythm-guitar playing. As he later said, "Bluegrass is sad music. It's always been sad and the people that's never lived it, it'll take them a long time to know what it is."

After Frank Wakefield's departure from the band in 1965 to join the Greenbriar Boys, Allen replaced him with Wakefield protégé David Grisman and later recorded for County Records and King Records with noted banjo player J.D. Crowe. The collaboration with Crowe, entitled Bluegrass Holiday, featured some of Allen's strongest vocal performances. Allen's prominence on the record resulted in a sound quite distinct from the material made by Crowe and his Kentucky Mountain Boys. Grisman, who would go on to pioneer a contemporary style of acoustic music called DAWG music, later said that by hiring him for the Kentuckians, Allen gave the younger man "a college education in bluegrass music."

Allen's sons Ronnie, Greg, Neal and Harley performed and recorded as the Allen Brothers, both with and without their father, throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Allen died on April 3, 1993 in Dayton, Ohio. He is buried at Highland Memorial Cemetery in Miamisburg, Ohio.

Allen was inducted into the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America hall of fame in 1995. In 2005, Red Allen was inducted into the IBMA Bluegrass Hall of Fame."

Later on:

"The John Lennon Letters" (Audiobook, 2012)

By: John Lennon, Hunter Davies

Narrated by: Christopher Eccleston, Allan Corduner, Hunter Davies, Yoko Ono

Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins

"John Lennon was a writer as well as a musician. It was entirely natural for him to put pen to paper whenever he had an idea, a thought, a reaction, or a desire to communicate. He lived - and died - in an age before emails and texts. Pen and ink was what he turned to. John wrote letters and postcards all of his life, to his friends, family, strangers, newspapers, organisations, lawyers, and the laundry - most of which were funny, informative, campaigning, wise, mad, poetic, anguished, and sometimes heart-breaking. For the first time, John's widow, Yoko Ono, has given permission to publish a collection of his letters. The editor of this book is the Beatles' official biographer, Hunter Davies, who knew John well.

John's letters are, in a way, something of a mystery - where are they all? Over the years, many have come up at auction and were then sold to dealers and collectors. Or they have been kept by the recipients, locked up safely. It has been a wonderful piece of detective work tracing many of these 250 letters, postcards, and notes, which are arranged in chronological order, so that a narrative builds up, reflecting John's life.

The John Lennon Letters is fundamentally a book to study, as it provides a unique insight into the mind of one of the great figures of our times. John's letters are read here by Christopher Eccleston, an English actor who has had a hugely successful career in film, TV, and on the stage. His regular appearance on the TV series Cracker in 1993 brought him recognition; he went on to star alongside such actresses as Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett. He won the 2011 International Emmy Award for his performance in Jimmy McGovern's Accused. He played John Lennon in a 2010 TV movie and has twice been nominated in the Best Actor categories of the BAFTA TV Awards.

Hunter's editorial materials are read by Allan Corduner, who trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has appeared on stage in Passion at the Donmar Warehouse, Serious Money in the West End, Titanic on Broadway, and on screen in Yentl and Topsy-Turvy, amongst many other roles. He is a highly experienced voice actor and memorably narrated the voice of Death when reading The Book Thief. He has read Elspeth Coopers' Wild Hunt novels for Orion. This book also includes a foreword read by Yoko Ono."

 

Next: Radio Djerdan presents

"John Lennon vs. the USA: The Inside Story of the Most Bitterly Contested and Influential Deportation Case in United States History" (Audiobook, 2016)

Author: Leon Wildes

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 7.75 hours

"At a time when the hottest issue in US immigration law is the proposed action by President Obama to protect from deportation as many as five million illegals in the United States, the John Lennon case takes on special relevance, notwithstanding the passage of forty years since he was placed in deportation proceedings. This is John and Yoko’s incredible story, as told by the lawyer who fought in the front lines.

In 1972 President Richard M. Nixon learned that John Lennon was visiting the United States. Nixon was told that Lennon’s continued presence here could be catastrophic to his plan for reelection. Lennon, who had just made an appearance before an audience of fifteen thousand young fans at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, was rumored to be planning to join Jerry Rubin to lead a series of rock music rallies to “Dump Nixon” in anticipation of the 1972 Republican National Convention. The special significance of the 1972 convention was the fact that this would be the first national election in which the voting age was reduced from twenty-one to eighteen, adding five to ten million new prospective voters. Nixon was not popular with this young group. Lennon was.

Indeed, Senator Strom Thurmond had just written a Dear John letter to Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, suggesting that deporting Lennon quickly would be an “appropriate countermeasure.” John Mitchell was the head of CREEP, the Committee to Reelect the President, whose day job was as attorney general, in charge of deporting illegal aliens. Following the Watergate-style advice of his legal counsel, John Dean, Nixon decided to “use the available political machinery to screw our political enemies” and proceeded in earnest to deport Lennon and his artist wife, Yoko Ono.

Lennon and Ono consulted Leon Wildes, an expert in the field of immigration law, about the reason for their visit: their efforts to locate and secure custody of Kyoko, Yoko’s American eight-year-old child by a prior marriage. American courts had granted Lennon and Ono custody, and Ono’s prior husband violated the order to produce the child in court as ordered. Notwithstanding the Lennons’ humanitarian requests, extensions of stay as visitors were denied, the Lennons were placed in strict deportation proceedings, and the US commissioner of immigration instructed the Immigrant and Naturalization Service (INS) not to adjudicate the “outstanding artists” applications filed for Lennon and Ono by Wildes until after the Lennons were deported.

Wildes kept the Lennons here for five years, despite the efforts of the government to deport them. During all that time, the Nixon administration invariably claimed that the Lennons were being treated like all other aliens and that it had no authority to make exceptions to their strict enforcement and removal of deportable aliens. Wildes invoked the power of the federal courts to discover the existence of the “non-priority program,” a hidden program authorizing the INS to defer the removal of illegals who might sustain serious hardship if removed. Wildes’ success in securing copies of thousands of applications granted such non-priority status ultimately resulted in the grant of that humanitarian remedy to Lennon. Lennon was eventually also granted lawful permanent residence status, overcoming the effects of his old British marijuana conviction.

Although Wildes did not even know who John Lennon and Yoko Ono were when he was originally retained, he developed a close relationship with them both during the five-year period he represented them and thereafter."

 

 Next on Radio Djerdan:

Djerdan's Doo-Wop Anthology vol.1

 

 Length: 1 hour minutes

Next:

"Johnny Shines & Snooky Pryor" (Blind Pig, 1991)

 

  

"In 1991, Johnny recorded Back To The Country with Snooky Pryor, Johnny's first new recording in ten years. In the early 1950's, Johnny and Snooky recorded sides for the J.O.B. label that helped lay the ground work for Chicago's electrified, small band blues. Reunited four decades later in the Texas hill country, they took the opposite tack with a set of acoustic, country blues that returned them to their roots in the Mississippi delta. Robert Johnson, the proud, tormented genius of Delta blues, is the spirit hovering over Back To The Country. PIn the forty years since Johnny and Snooky first recorded together, blues has undergone unlikely transformations, growing first into white popular music, then disappearing almost entirely, before being revived several times. Back To The Country remains as close as you're likely to get to the source the Delta, one more time.

Review

By no means are Shines and Pryor dotards looking back with teary eyes. The blues' emotional dualities-sadness leavened with humor, warmth caught up in despair, pride alongside disquiet-are keenly reflected by fifteen country blues the two recorded earlier this decade. Granted their facility isn't what it once was, yet Shines the singer and Pryor the harp player/vocalist, J.O.B. labelmates forty years ago in Chicago, still employ tonal modulations, phrasing, and space with special knowledge-and no one has interpreted Robert Johnson songs as knowingly as Mr. Shines (four examples here). That's John Nicholas and Kent Du Shane ably filling in for poststroke. Shines on guitar." - © Frank John Hadley 1993 --From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD