Summer is rolling along and so it’s time for the July edition of Acoustic Blend!
Our theme this month is simple joy, inspired by some of the simple things in life that bring joy — like stories, friendship, the outdoors, and (for me) bluegrass music. There are other genres sprinkled throughout the hour, but fiddles, banjos and mandolin are well represented to say the least. I couldn’t resist!
We’ll lead off the hour with a fresh track from Jamestown Revival, off their new EP full of songs inspired by the tales of Louis L’Amour (more specifically, inspired by The Collected Short Stories of Louis L’Amour, Volume 1: Frontier Stories). From there Judah and the Lion will take over with the banjos and we will be off and running, with appearances by Hank Williams, John Denver, and The Stanley Brothers.
Along the way I’ll share some of my favorite things that bring joy, paired with matching tunes. Fixing things (or just piddling in the garage) is a pasttime of mine, and the above tune from Andrew Duhon has been my refrain of late as I work on mending stuff.
We’ll wind down with some gospel tunes similar to this one from The Lower Lights, of course leading into a reading from Mary Oliver (a favorite of mine). Here are the last few lines of her poem Storage (full version here):
Things!
Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful
fire! More room in your heart for love,
for the trees! For the birds who own
nothing– the reason they can fly.
Acoustic Blend airs this Saturday, July 10 at 8pm EDT on WBAA AM 920 in Lafayette / West Lafayette, and streaming live on wbaa.org. You can view the playlist at barrettmyers.com and below, once the show airs. ‘Til next month!