WFDU-FM’s
TRADITIONS Playlist for May 25, 2014
HOST: Ron Olesko

Memorial Day weekend – I hope that our audience remembers the holiday means more than the start of summer and an excuse to barbecue. I did my best to remind them of those who have served and sacrificed for their country. Throughout the show I shared songs that discussed veterans and the sacrifices of war and I also did my best to remind the audience that the pursuit of peace is the ultimate way to honor our veterans and war dead. True peace may seen impossible when we look at history books of the United States. Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it seems every generation has been touched by some sort of war or military conflict. Regardless of history, peace is worth fighting for.

Ed McCurdy

The words of the late Ed McCurdy run through my head during holidays like this, and I was honored to be able to share a relatively rare recording of Ed singing his classic song “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream,” a song he wrote in the early 1950’s, although it was several decades later when he first recorded it. The version I shared was from a cassette tape that Ed and his son Dana produced in 1987. Ed reads his moving poem “When Soldiers Die on Battlefields” and then leads into the song, joined by a chorus of children and a string ensemble. Powerful.

“Poor Man’s Diamonds” – John Flynn

This edition of Traditions aired two days after six students were gunned down by a reportedly mentally ill man in Santa Barbara, California. I just received John Flynn‘s new CD “Poor Man’s Diamonds,” which contains a song that John wrote in 2012, shortly after the shooting rampage in Newton, Connecticut that took 28 lives including 20 young children at Sandy Hook Elementary school. I shared this song, “You Can’t Tell,” along with Christine Lavin‘s “More Than 1,000,000 Americans,” a plea for sanity and stricter gun control as it describes over 1 million lives that have been lost to gun violence in the country since the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. I realize it is a difficult issue that many struggle with, and I hope songs like these will get people to think about the issue. Too many lives needlessly lost while we play political football with an interpretation of the constitution.

New and Noteworthy – Emily Smith Echoes (Whitefall), John Flynn Poor Man’s Diamonds (self), Runa Current Affairs (self), Sean Tyrell Walker of the Snow (self), Dave Rowe All of the Dreams (self).

SCHEDULE CHANGE – Beginning June 1, WFDU-FM’s TRADITIONS will be heard from 2 to 5pm.  WFDU-FM’s longest running show will continue to offer 3 hours of folk music, live performances, news starting one hour earlier. 

(Tune in to TRADITIONS every Sunday from 2pm to 5pm Eastern Time over WFDU-FM 89.1 in the NYC/Northern New Jersey area, or on the web at www.wfdu.fm. On-demand streams of shows, including this one, are archived for two weeks HERE. A Sing Out! Radio Partner.)

ARTIST    Tune / Song
ALBUM    LABEL – Website
3pm
Theme: HARVEY REID “Dirty Dish Rag”
Solo Guitar Sketchbook    Woodpecker Records – www.woodpecker.com
TOM CALLINAN “Thank a Vet”
Call to Colors    Crackerbarrel Entertainments – www.crackerbarrel-ents.com

RUNA “The False Knight Upon the Road”
Current Affairs    self – www.runamusic.com
AOIFE CLANCY “Summertime is Coming”
Soldiers & Dreams    self – www.aoifeclancy.com
STEELEYE SPAN “The Summer Lady”
Wintersmith    Park Records – www.steeleyespan.org
DONAL CLANCY “The Broom of the Cowdenknows”
Songs of a Roving Blade    self – www.donalclancy.com

TRUE NORTH “Northbound 35”
Elsebound    self- www.truenorthbluegrass.com
T SISTERS “But Not For You”
Kindred Lines    Spruce and Maple Music – www.spruceandmaplemusic.com
THE DUHKS “Lazy John”
Beyond the Blue    Compass – www.compassrecords.com, www.duhks.com

DAVE ROWE “I Have Decided”
All of the Dreams    self – www.daverowemusic.com
JOE CROOKSTON “Fall Down As the Rain”
Georgia I’m Here    self – www.joecrookston.com

4pm
ARLO GUTHRIE “When A Soldier Makes it Home”
More Together Again Rising Son – www.risingsonrecords.com

PADDY MILLS “Settle Up”
Race to the Bottom    self – www.paddymills.com
ANTJE DUVEKOT “Sweet Spot”
For the Love of the Music: The Club 47 Folk Revival    Kingswood Records – www.loveofthemusic.com
CATIE CURTIS “Maybe Tomorrow”
Flying Dream    Catie Curtis Records – www.catiecurtis.com

EMILY SMITH  “The Final Trawl”
Echoes    Whitefall Records – www.whitefallrecords.com, www.emilysmith.org
MATT & SHANNON HEATON   “Cruel Salt Sea”
Tell You in Earnest    self – www.mattandshannonheaton.com
BRIDGET FITZGERALD “Siul a Run”
Two Sides of a Coyne    Suspicious Motives Records – www.suspiciousmotives.com

RED MOLLY “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”
The Red Album    self – www.redmolly.com
BIG BRASS BED  “Forever Young”
Big Tent    Blue Flute Music – www.blueflutemusic.com, www.bigbrassbed.com

SEAN TYRRELL “I Can’t Help but Wonder Where I’m Bound”
Walker of the Snow    self – www.seantyrrell.com

5pm
ERIK BALKEY “Born in The U.S.A.”
Everything is Great    Hudson Harding – www.erikbalkey.com

JOHN FLYNN “You Can’t Tell”
Poor Man’s Diamonds    self – www.johnflynn.net
CHRISTINE LAVIN “More Than 1,000,000 Americans”
Happydance Of The Xenophobe    Yellow Tail Records – www.yellowtailrecords.com, www.christinelavin.com

JOEL MABUS “Touch a Name on the Wall”
Retold    Fossil Records – www.joelmabus.com
DAVE POTTS “The Garden We’re Growing”
Live at Sundilla    Looking Up Records – www.davepotts.com
AMY SPEACE “The Weight of the World”
Into the New: Alternates, Leftovers and Orphans    Wildflower – www.wildflowerrecords.com, www.amyspeace.com

JEN CHAPIN “Over There”
Songs of America    Split Rock Records – www.songsofamerica.org
JOAN BAEZ “Day After Tomorrow”
Day After Tomorrow    Razor and Tie – www.razorandtie.com, www.joanbaez.com
DISAPPEAR FEAR “I Ain’t Marching Anymore”
Get Your Phil    self – www.disappearfear.com
ED McCURDY “When Soldiers Die on Battlefield / Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”
Thoughts After Sixty    self – out of print

RONSTADT GENERATIONS “The Star-Spangled Banner”
America, Our Home    self – www.ronstadtgenerations.com
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Ron Olesko
WFDU-FM
1000 River Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
www.wfdu.fm

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