Category Archives: KXCI

Pura Salsa on the Chicano Connection (02/19/20)

Chicano Connection Radio Show, KXCI, Music, ,

Salsa!

Listen to part one of last night’s show here.

Listen to part two of last night’s show here.

I was very tired yesterday when I got home from work at 5, so I took a nap, thinking I could just sleep for half an hour and wake up in plenty of time to work on my radio show from 5:30 to 7pm. As luck would have it, however, I overslept and woke up at 5:50 rather than 5:30. I thought to myself, oh oh, what am I gonna do? I don’t have a lot of time to prepare this show. I hate having to rush, but the clock was ticking away. I decided, to heck with it, I’m just going to play nothing but songs that last 5 minutes or longer. Where could I find a whole show’s worth of songs that were that long? And then the lightbulb went on! Last week I had played an all-English language dance music show, so this week I decided I would play an all Spanish language dance show and feature nothing but salsa! Those songs are all usually 4 to 6 minutes long and they’re quite danceable too. So lo and behold, that’s exactly what I did. I went through my small collection of salsa and musica tropical and came up with a good handful of tunes, all of which were at least 4 minutes long. I gave folks a heads up on Facebook that I would be having another dance party, but that this time the featured music would be a mix of salsa and Latin jazz, and one friend in particular got very excited and told me she had just put her dancing shoes on and was ready to boogie the night away. I dubbed the title of the show, “Salsa A to Z”. I almost made it all the way through the alphabet, but had to skip one or two artists because I had run out of time. That same friend who was ready to bop the night away later told me she thought it was a perfect show. Wow, sometimes you never know how things are going to turn out. I have to admit that initially I wasn’t all that excited about doing an all salsa show, as I was bummed that I had to rush things, and I usually like to mix things up, but I’m glad at least one person liked it.

It’s Time for a Dance Party on the Chicano Connection (02/12/20)

Chicano Connection Radio Show, KXCI, Music,

Listen to part one of last night’s show here.

Playlist for Part One:

Rufus with Chaka Khan/Dance Wit Me–Aretha Franklin/What a Fool Believes–Grace Jones/I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For you)–The Weather Girls/It’s Raining Men–The Pointer Sisters/I’m so Excited–Wham/Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)–Madonna/Like a Prayer-Natalie Cole/This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)–Lipps, Inc./Funky Town–Cher/Take Me Home–Alicia Bridges/I Love the Nightlife–Deniece Williams/Let’s Hear It For the Boy (partial)

Listen to part two of last night’s show here.

Playlist for Part Two:

Deniece Williams/Let’s Hear It For the Boy(partial)–Aretha Franklin/Who’s Zoomin’ Who?–Whitney Houston/How Will I Know?–Gladys Knight/Love Overboard–Chaka Khan/I Feel For You–Darlene Love/He’s Sure the Man I Love–The Staple Singers/I’ll Take You There–Madonna/Holiday–Natalie Cole/Pink Cadillac–Etta James/Jump Into My Fire–Grace Jones/Pull Up to the Bumper Baby–Labelle/Lady Marmalade–Aretha Franklin/Deeper Love

I didn’t know what the heck I was going to feature on the program yesterday. I’ve been so focused on getting my website updated that I haven’t had much time to pay attention to birthdays or holidays etc. When I finally sat down to start preparing it, it occurred to me that I needed a good workout, as I haven’t been exercising regularly lately, and I thought about doing an oldies show, but for some reason, I decided on featuring 70’s and 80’s dance music. I started by looking at Aretha Franklin’s music from the 80s. I wanted to hear songs that had a strong dance beat, so I decided on stuff like “What a Fool Believes”, “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” and “Deeper Love.”, all three of which I played last night. I actually had six of her songs in mind, but once I got started pulling other material, I ended up playing just three of them.

Because I wanted the show to be a dance show, I decided to open it with an invitation, and played “Dance Wit Me” by Rufus and Chaka Khan. I then played Aretha’s version of “What A Fool Believes” and Grace Jones song, “I’m Not Perfect, But I’m Perfect for you”. From there, I did my usual introduction and let folks know that the evening was going to be nothing but dance music by women, and proceeded with “It’s Raining Men” by the Weather Girls. I also played Madonna’s song “Like A Prayer” , Lipps, Inc. tune “Funky Town”,and other stuff. One of my boo boos included playing the song “Wake Me Up, Before You Go Go”, by Wham. I miscued the darned song, thinking I was going to play the Deneice Williams’ tune, “Let’s Hear It for the Boy”. I ended up joking about George Michael sneaking in and being one of the girls… oh well. I played the song by Williams later in the program.

The show proceeded without too many other boo boos, but one other big one occurred when, to my horror, Cher’s song, “Take Me Home”, started, rather than “I Love the Nightlife” by Alicia Bridges. Another miscue. Damn, that was the very first time I’ve ever played Cher. I think she’s tacky, stuck up and rude, and I don’t like her. I’ve never played her and never will again. I cut that song short, as a result, and segued into the Alicia Bridges song.

Other than those two miscues, everything else turned out fine. I included stuff by Whitney Houston, The Staple Singers, Labelle, Gladys Knight and others. I had a blast and danced my ass off for two whole hours. I’m now very sore, but I needed a good workout. I hope folks enjoyed the music!

I have no idea what I’ll be playing next week. That’s what makes this all so much fun!

Post-Election Blues on the Chicano Connection (11/09/16)

Chicano Connection Radio Show, KXCI, Music

It’s so shocking to know that Donald Trump is going to be our next President. I am filled with dread. I’m also heartbroken, sad and angry, yet determined to fight for our right to freely exist. Our insurance, our marriage, our rights–they’re all likely to disappear in the coming months. This is a huge deal, and a scary proposition.

I had to put a radio show together the day after the election. Here is the show.

Listen to  part one here.

Listen to part two here.

Bud and Travis and other Folkies on the Chicano Connection (11/20/13)

Chicano Connection Radio Show, KXCI, Music

Listen to part one of my 11/20/13 radio show here.

Listen to part two of my 11/20/13 radio show here.

An album by Bud and Travis (titled “Naturally: Folk Songs for the Present”) that I bought up in Phoenix the other day piqued my curiosity, so I started searching the web, including Ebay and Amazon to find more of their material.  I also checked Youtube  to see if there were any videos posted  of them performing together. It turns out that their careers are well documented at budandtravis.com.  Youtube contains a number of very interesting live performances, and many of their recordings and other related material are available both on Amazon and Ebay.

I decided to  gather up all of the recordings in my own library at home–lps, a cassette, and some cds– and it didn’t take long to figure out that there was only one lp the the duo recorded together called “Spotlight on Bud and Travis”  that I didn’t have. I had forgotten that I also have some solo recordings of both singers. I even have duplicate copies of at least three of their albums! There were some double cds of a few of these albums available on Amazon, and I purchased two of them, including one that contains the “Spotlight on Bud and Travis”  recording. With the acquisition of these cds, I’ll have acquired a significant portion of their catalog. Of course, I don’t have everything, particularly their solo material, but all in good time!  I love these guys. Their voices blend so well together, and their guitar work is superb. Here’s a link to their discography: http://budandtravis.com/discography.html

Travis Edmunson grew up in Nogales, and was an Arizonan through and through. He sang lots of songs in Spanish, and with his singing partner Bud Dashiell, recorded an entire album in Spanish called The Bud and Travis Latin Album, as well as a number of other songs in Spanish scattered throughout  the various recordings that they made together.  One of their best recordings is of the traditional son jarocho, La Bamba. I also like El Abandonado. Here’s a live version of La Bamba that they performed on the Ozzie and Harriet Show:

Post Radio show notes:

I just had to play a song by these guys on my next radio show. The song I chose was Malaguena Salerosa. It was in my opening set, and was  sandwiched in between Lola Beltran’s “Del Cielo Cayo’ Una Rosa, and Martha Gomez’s lovely version of “Cielito Lindo”.  It was a great little set, and I even got a  phone call from a listener who let me know he enjoyed it very much. That was nice!

Here’s Del Cielo Cayo’ Una Rosa, by Lola Beltran:

Here’s Malaguena Salerosa, by Bud and Travis:

Here’s Cielito Lindo by Marta Gomez:

The rest of the show also turned out well, which was a pleasant surprise, because I changed my plans midstream, and had to “wing it”, which meant picking and choosing what to play during the show itself (I usually have every song planned out beforehand!). I was originally going to play a bunch of songs that were about betrayal, anger, hurt and loss , since I had recently been through an unpleasant experience, but then I thought, why subject everyone else to these unhappy feelings? I want my show to be an uplifting experience, not a drag. I ended up playing two songs by the Grateful Dead and two by Bob Dylan, as well as some rancheras and salsa. Towards the end, I included two songs that expressed disappointment, but they didn’t dominate the mood. Overall it was an upbeat show, one that I thought turned out well, especially since it was one of those “spontaneous creations”.