Nonesuch--Music in the Folk Tradition on WVBR-FM

That's how I usually start off my radio show, as I slowly fade down our theme music--Paul Winter Consort's Icarus.

If you'd like to get an idea of the eclectic mix of music I play, check out a couple of playlists below that include my rough transcription of the shows.

You may hear host Kenn Marash, Susan Weitz, Beth Wolf--or me, depending on which Sunday you tune in.

Like a sample of what my shows are like?
You can hear a recent half-hour "Folk Focus" segment on Tom Waits (who won the Grammy in the contemporary folk category for Mule Variations, on Anti Epitaph Records. (The version for 56k modems is here; the others will be here soon!) Or you hear the one I did on singer-songwriter Bill Morrissey.

Stranger in a Strange Land (3/28/99)
Well good morning! And welcome to Nonesuch, where every Sunday from 10:00 to 2:30 we play folk music and music in the folk tradition here at WVBR--93.5 FM--Ithaca. My name is Tracey Craig and I'll be your host for the next couple of hours. We've got lots of good music to listen to today--including some great new CDs that have just come in from Beausoleil, Artie Traum, Lucy Kaplansky, Dave Olney, and the pick of the bunch--Cliff Eberhardt's latest, called Borders.

Well, I promised you some new music, and new music you shall have! Let's start off with Julian Dawson's latest, Spark, on Gadfly, in which he sings a duet with Lucinda Williams and follow that up with something from Artie Traum's latest:

Julian Dawson with Lucinda Williams/How Can I Sleep Without You??Spark/Gadfly; Artie Traum/Swing Shift/Meetings with Remarkable Friends/Narada [other remarkable friends include The Band, Sam Bush and Bela Fleck, David Grisman, John Sebastian, and Jay Ungar and Molly Mason]; Lucy Kaplansky/10-Year Night/10-Year Night/Red House; Tish Hinajosa/God's Own Open Road/Dreaming From the Labyrinth; [ID]; Dave Olney/Little Bit of Poison/Through a Glass Darkly/Philo; Chuck Weiss/Just Don't Care/Extremely Cool/produced by Tom Waits/ Rykodisc

Just a reminder--this portion of Nonesuch has been brought to you by ABC CAFE...for the best variety in vegetarian dining and live music six nights a week. That's the ABC Cafe--the place to be--just about anytime.

11 NEWS
...And I'm Tracey Craig. You're listening to Nonesuch on WVBR--93.5 FM Ithaca
This hour of Nonesuch is brought to you by the Greenstar Cooperative Market, Ithaca's community-owned natural foods grocery......
We've been listening to some brand-new music--I've found if I don't play it right off the bat, sometimes I forget about it because I get so caught up in wanting to play things for you that fit into a particular musical theme. But there's a new one just out on Rhino records from Beausoleil--the album is called Cajunization, and we're going to hear something that fits right into today's emphasis on immigrants and ancestors...La Terre de Ma Grandpere--the Land of My Grandfathers

Passover starts this week--and that's a tune usually sung at the conclusion of the Passover Seder meal-- it comes from a really wonderful CD Andy Statman and David Grisman put out a couple of years ago called Songs of Our Fathers. We heard Chassidic Medley, with Adir Hu and Moshe Emes. Before that, My Grandfather's Lands, from Beausoleil's latest, Cajunization, on Rhino. If you celebrate Passover, you know that the Sedar plate has several special items on it, including horseradish--so here's a little Serba with Horseradish from the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra.

Serba with Horseradish/Shirim Klezmer Orchestra/...of angels and horseradish/Northeastern Records; The Well/title cut/Klezmatics with Chava Alberstein on Xenophile; Next Year, Jerusalem/Simple Gifts/Other Places, Other Times/Purple Finch
[ID] How about a preview of our Folk Focus, coming up at 11:30? We'll be listening to Cliff Eberhardt's music-- Cliff has a brand new album out on the Red House label. Let's listen to a little something from it.

Everybody Knows How I Feel
[ID] Well I was playing all that Passover music earlier--a listener called in and said I should play something for Easter, which is also coming up this week. So here it is--Steve Goodman

Steve Goodman/Easter Tapes/Easter Parade/Red Pajamas
11:30
FOLK FOCUS: Cliff Eberhardt
It's just about 11:30 and that means it's time for our Folk Focus today on Cliff Eberhardt. Christie Lavin once called him the bad boy of folk music. But Cliff Eberhardt says that doesn't make much sense--it's kind of like being "the Genghis Khan of knitting." Eberhardt, who lives by himself in Northhampton, Massachusetts--an area that's become sort of a haven for folk musicians these days--says, quote, " I don't crash my car... I haven't broken anybody's heart in a long time...How much of a bad boy can I be?"

But he HAS just put out his fifth album--two in the past 12 months--and each one seems stronger than the last. You may remember his last release--12 songs of Good and Evil--it's got a really great song called The Devil in Me, which gets a fair amount of play here on Nonesuch. The new CD is Eberhardt's second release for Red House, it's called Borders, and the songs on it are about borders, frontiers, and the lines that demarcate the spaces--physical and personal--that divide us all.

Why is the Road So Long; Fix Your Blues
That's Fix Your Blues and Why is the Road so Long, the frst couple of cuts on Cliff Eberhardt's latest CD, Borders, on Red House. Lucy Kaplansky joined in on the harmonies on the last one; Liz Queler sat in on the one before that, with Carol Sharer, violin, Ray Mason, bass; Seth Farber, piano, and Doug Plavin, drums. Cliff recorded the CD partly in the studio and partly in friend's homes--Seth Farber and Liz Queler's bedroom in New York City, Carol Sharer's living room in New Jersey..."There's nothing like hanging out with your friends, eating their food and making a CD at the same time," Cliff says, in his thank-yous on the liner notes.

Eberhardt has become an important figure in the folk scene since he first debuted in 1990 on Shanachie with a CD called The Long Road. He's paid his dues, though, starting out playing with his brother Geoff back when he was 15, playing the eastern club circuit. Cliff cut his teeth listening to James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bonnie Raitt and Mississippi John Hurt but he admits he was also influenced by the lyrics of the great songwriters like Cole Porter, The Gershwins and Rodgers and Hart.

Eberhardt entered the New York City Club Scene in the late 1970s, working with other singer-songwriters like John Gorka, Suzanne Vega, Lucy Kaplansky, Christine Lavin, and Shawn Colvin...he got his first big break after doing an advertising jingle for Chevrolet--if you remember, the Heartbeat of America--well, that was Cliff Eberhardt. Right after that, in 1990, he got a chance to record his first album on Windham Hill--here's my favorite cut from that first CD

That was Voodoo Morning, from Cliff Eberhardt's third CD titled Mona Lisa Cafe, for Shanachie. Before that, we heard My Father's Shoes--which Richie Havens has also recorded--and that's from Cliff's first album The Long Road. Cliff Eberhardt has had his songs recorded by a lot of other contemporary singers, too, including Shawn Colvin and Buffie St. Marie, Dar Williams and others.He's played the Winter's Night Tour with Patty Larkin and Cheryl Wheeler--and he's back on the road now in support of his new album, Borders.

We're listening to Cliff Eberhardt on today's edition of Folk Focus, and up next is something from his new CD, which is called Borders. All of the songs talk about the lines that divide us, one way or another---let's hear some more from it. Cliff Eberhardt...

That's Long Goodbye and Lines, both from Borders, Cliff Eberhardt's latest CD. Just a reminder--this hour of Nonesuch has been brought to you by Greenstar...

No matter how much of this guy I listen to, it seems, I always want a little more--we've got time for just one more from the new CD--Borders, on Red House. Here's Cliff Eberhardt and "Anna Lee," taking us up to newstime...

Anna Lee
12 NEWS ...And this is Tracey Craig for Nonesuch on 93.5 WVBR-FM--Ithaca. [weather update] Hmm--is that seasonal or unseasonal? I hardly know anymore. I do know it's just about Passover...and here's something from Martin Simpson that seems appropriate for the season.

Go Down Moses/Martin Simpson/A Closer Walk with Thee/Gourd Music

Kristallnacht/Bob Franke/Heart of the Flower/Daring Records

June Tabor/ Di Nakht nor aleyn iz mit mir (the night alone is with me), a song that expresses the isolation and despair of European Jews--written by two immigrants from Eastern Europe/title cut/Green Linnet

Oi Day/Oi Day/Vartinna/Green Linnet (Finnish --a song about being a stranger in a strange land and longing to go back home)

But the American Dream isn't always what it was supposed to be. David Massengill...

David Massengill/Great American Dream/The Return/Plump Records; Crossing the Border/Anne Weiss/title cut/Lika Pika Music; Land of Heroes/Jorma Kaukonen/title cut/American Heritage Records
[ID]; Promised Land/title cut/Joel Mabus
1 NEWS ...And I'm Tracey Craig for WVBR FM--93.5 on your dial--in Ithaca, New York. Today we've got a couple of themes threaded through the show, and one of them is what it's like to be a stranger in a strange land--an emigrant far from home, trying to make a go of it. There's a very interesting new CD from Tom Russell--The Man from God Knows Where--it's a history of the common man, told by the common man or, as Russell puts, an American Primitive Man/In an American Primitive Land.

Of course, it's about the women too, and Russell's gotten wonderful help in telling the stories from folks like Iris DeMent and Dave Van Ronk. Through the 26 songs, we learn about the experience of Irish, Norwegian, and Scandinavian immigrants as well as the outcasts from other shores who made their way to America.

"My ancestors," says Russell, "trekked across this wild landscape carrying four potato spades from Ireland, searching for a place where the crop would not rot in the ground; the pilgrimage toward a land where love would abide."
The whole piece fits together in such a beautiful way it's almost a shame to break it up. But it runs over an hour long, so we'll sample a few cuts from it. Tom Russell... The Man From God Knows Where--An Immigrant Song Cycle

Wayfaring Stranger with Iris DeMent; Patrick Russell Tom Russell with DeMent; Mary Clare Malloy/Dolores Keane; Anna Olsen/ Kari Bremmes; Acres of Corn/Iris Dement; [All from Tom Russell/Immigrant Song Cycle/Man From God Knows Where/Hightone Records]
There are easily a dozen or so different Farewells to different cities in Ireland I could play you, but let's hear a rather different Celtic tune in which an immigrant bids Farewell to Coigach--it was written by a cowboy out in Montana, one Murdo MacLean, a man from the Coigach area in the western Highlands of Scotland. Maclean was one of many Gaelic speaking Highlanders to came to the American West to work as Cattlemen, shepherds and cowboys.

Farewell to Coigach/David Wilkie/Cowboy Ceilidh/Red House; From Ireland/Courage, Love, and Grace/Pete Morton/Flying Fish; Oysterband/Rambling Irishman/Holy Bandits/Rykodisc; Come Back for Me/Hart Rouge/Nouvelle France/Red House
The songs of many different immigrants there, in that last set--from France to Canada, that was Come Back for Me, from Hart Rouge; the CD's called Nouvelle France and it's on Red House....the Oysterband's Rambling Irishman..... etc.

But we haven't talked much about those coming from over the border from the south in search of a better life. Let's start off with Woody Guthrie's classic, Deportee, as done here by Peter Paul and Mary together with Tom Paxton:

No Place Feels Like Home/Smithline and Manion

2 NEWS
...And you're listening to Nonesuch with Tracey Craig on 93.5, WVBR-FM in Ithaca.
Let's take a look at the weather forecast...
Yup, it's spring all right--or are we just pushing spring?

Lou and Peter Berryman/Pushing Spring/Double Yodel

April May/Lou and Peter Berryman/What, Again?
[ID]

April Wood/Woods Tea Company/Side By Each/Wizmak Records

Mummer's Dance/Loreena McKennitt/The Book of Secrets

Bashie's Bounce/Songs of Our Fathers/Andy Statman/David Grisman Acoustic Disc

Arlo Guthrie--Let My People Go

And with that we're back to another of the show's themes today--Arlo Guthrie, together with a Southern Baptist church choir, doing Let My People Go. Before that, Basho's Bounce, a melody written in the style of a Sephardic dance melody by Andy Statman for his wife. That's on a wonderful CD called Songs of Our Fathers, which Andy made a couple of years back with David Grisman. That's on Acoustic Disc...Before that some springtime tunes, including Mummer's Dance, from Loreena McKennitt, The Book of Secrets, on Warner Brothers, and April Wood, from the Woods Tea Company. The CD's called Side by Each and it's on Wizmak.

My name is Tracey Craig and I want to thank you for tuning in. I enjoyed playing the music for you today--hope you enjoyed listening! If you're getting together with friends and family to celebrate Easter or Passover this week, maybe all these stories and songs about immigrants and their sons and daughters will inspire you to ask a few questions at the table...give you some insight into what it might have been like to be in your grandmother's or grandfather's shoes...maybe you can find out more about where you came from.

But meanwhile, enjoy the food, whether it's an Easter ham or carrot tzimmes... take pleasure in the company, if you have it...and consider, if you will, this warning from the House Band, about just how appropriate that old story about the Pharoah might be.

February-Born
...I guess you might call today The Birthday Show, because I'll be playing a bunch of tunes that address the topic--February seems to be THE birthday month. You've got George and Abe, of course, those presidents born in the in the month of February...and a whole host of rebels, writers, and visionaries. James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Charles Lindberg, Jules Verne, Carole King, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Susan B. Anthony, Copernicus, Stan Kenton, Ansel Adams, George Frederick Handel, Ralph Nader, W.E.B. DuBois, Sinclair Lewis, Buffalo Bill Cody...and me! Yeah, tomorrow's MY birthday--maybe I'll tell you which one a little later in the show!

And as you might expect with a birthday show, there's lots of presents--except these gifts are for you!! I've got a pair of tickets to the Kitchen Theatre to give away, and CDs--as well as tickets--for the upcoming Bela Fleck concert in Geneva on February 12. So keep listening! We'll spotlight some other artists--local and national--playing in Ithaca or nearby in the very near future, too, including Susan McKeown, Lucy Kaplansky, and Lui Collins.

And then, for our Folk Focus today, we'll be listening to a brand-new-CD from Brooks Williams--a phenomenal guitarist who's probably one of the most important singer-songwriters of today. His voice might remind you of James Taylor, but his guitar is more like Leo Kottke and Bruce Cockburn, mixed together with a bunch of Delta blues artists. That's Brooks Williams, the subject of our Folk Focus from 11:30-12 on today's show.

Well, let's start off this birthday special with some tunes in honor of the presidents born this month: Here's Norman Blake doing Lincoln's Funeral Train

Norman Blake: Lincoln
Cordelia's Dad: Booth Shot Lincoln
Steve Goodman: It's a sin
Austin Lounge Lizards: Ballad of Ronald Reagan

[ID]
Couldn't find one for the fourth president born this month--Grover Cleveland, on the 26--Know who else was born this month? An amazing variety of musicians, frm Mendelsohn and Handel and Chopin to Stan Kenton, Eubie Blake and Jimmy Dorsey...Fats Domino...Smokey Robinson, Kurt Cobain, Johnny Winter, Johnny Cash, Ernest Tubb, Ralph Stanley, Don Everly...Melissa Manchester, Nancy Wilson, Leontyne Price and Roberta Flack...and everyone you'll hear in this next set, too. See how many artists whose birthday falls in February you can identify.

[ID]
(Carole King--9th/Buffy St. Marie 20th/Carpenter 21st/G. Harrison 25th)
Just want to remind you this next portion of Nonesuch is brought to you by the ABC CAFE--for the best variety in vegetarian dining, and music six nights a week...the ABC, the place to be!)

Well, I'm sticking with the birthday theme here, but let's move along to some of the writers born in the month of February. In this next set, we'll her some tunes in honor of Aquarian writers. We've got Charles Dickens on born on today's date in 1812, Laura Ingalls Wilder, also born today in 1867--John Steinbeck, James Michener, Tony Morrison, Carson McCullers, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...Anais Nin..Sholom Alechim...Langston Hughes, Alice Walker...and dozens and dozens of others. Let's start off with My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors....

Moxy Fruvous: My baby loves...; Chapin: Dueling Banjos; Seeger: Around the World; Dave Mallet: Main Street
Main Street--that should be easy--that was for Sinclair Lewis, born today in 1885--Dave Mallett--and if you missed him last night at Cornell, he'll be back on March 12 at the Night Eagle in Oxford. Before that Mike Seeger and Around the World--that one was for Jules Verne, born on my birthday February 8, 1828; Dueling Banjos with Tom Chapin--that was for James Dickey, who wrote Deliverance, born on the 2nd, and we started off the Moxy Fruvous...

Got a couple of messages for you, and then we'll hear about about a February birthday girl who was pretty famous--but nobody's really quite sure why! First these--

MESSAGES
You're listening to Nonesuch and my name is Tracey Craig. We're doing a birthday show today, and playing some songs for all those folks who have birthday's in February. Here's somebody born on February 6...

Steve Goodman: Zsa Zsa; Mustard's Retreat: Monkey with Typewriter
[ID] For Charles Darwin, born on the 12th, and Zsa Zsa born on the 6th (her sister Eva Gabor was born on the 11th, though it's not clear what year!) Let's take us on up to news time with one for Buffalo Bill Cody--Andrew McKuen, Wild West Theme

11 NEWS
....And I'm Tracey Craig. You're listening to Nonesuch on WVBR FM Ithaca--93.5 on your dial. Today's a special birthday show, and we're celebrating the birthdays of a lot of pretty well known people--and reflecting on what birthdays mean to us. I'm looking at one, coming up tomorrow--41, though I find it hard to believe I've come that far. Turning 40 was kind of a crisis--so maybe this one marks an acceptance of being in the midst of crisis!!

Holly Casner: Birthday; O'Conner:Midlife Crisis; Saffire: Middle-Aged Boogie
[ID] Two of the artists in this next band celebrate their birthdays in February--We'll listen to something from Beausoleil, and Michael Ducet has his on the 14th--how romantic!--and Al Tharpe on the 8th.

Beausoleil: Grandfather's Land
Well, it's no fun celebrating birthdays without some presents--and it's time I promised you I had a bunch of stuff to give away--tickets to Bela Fleck, and to the Kitchen Theatre--and right now I've got Bela Fleck's new CD, Communication, which won him a Grammy award this year [Contest details]

Folk Focus: BROOKS WILLIAMS
It's just about 11:30--and that means it's time for today's Folk Focus. Our featured artist is Brooks Williams--an extraordinary guitarist who just happens to write songs and sing, too. He's probaly one of the most important singer/songwriters out there--but it's his guitar work that really dazzles me. As I said earlier, his voice might remind you a little of James Taylor--but his guitar will make you think of Kottke and Delta-style blues artists. Lets start off today's folk focus with a piece Brooks wrote about a bar in Albany: Rotterdam Bar, with Brooks Williams.

Rotterdam Bar/Knife Edge
That was Rotterdam Bar, from Brooks Williams Green Linnet recording titled Knife Edge, which came out in 1995. There are a lot of good bluesy cuts on it. Brooks has another six or seven CDs out on Green Linnet, and then about two years ago he made a recording with Jim Henry for Signature Sounds, caled Some Changes--and his latest, which just came out a couple of weeks ago, is on Signature. Before we put that on, let's listen to another early one from Green Linnett-Here's Inland Sailor.

Inland Sailor
We're listening to the music of Brooks Williams today, an artist who says he taught himself to play listening to rock record--he had no idea they were overdubbing two or three different guitar parts--so he tried to play everything on one guitar. He says he started playing when he was 10--the first two songs he learned were Blackbird, by the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze--and he says he "...still hears those sounds as if they're one."

Let's listen to some more from Hundred Year Shadow--here's a cover of a Ted Hawkins tune Brooks says is one of his favorites.

Good and Bad

Monkey (which he wrote after listening to Johnny Cash's Unchained. He got his inspiration from Hindu iconography--in which a man's mind is shown as a monkey jumping from tree to tree following whatever catches his attention.)

We've been listening to the music of Brooks Williams today who has a brand new recording out on the Signature Sounds label--Hundred Year Shadow. We\ve got Time for just a little more--here's an instrumental he wrote called Songs My Brother Taught Me. Brooks Williams.

Songs
12 NEWS ...And I'm Tracey Craig. You'e listening to Nonesuch, on WVBR--93.5 FM. If you're over on south hill, you'll find we comine in better at 103.5... Let's take a look at the weather...

And let's take a look at this whole aging thing, on our show today, which is devoted to the subject of birthdays. Here's a Dar Williams tune, Aging Well--which she sings with Joan Baez.

David Wilcox: Top of the Roller Coaster; Loudon Wainright: Birthday Present; Tom Paxton: Modern Maturity; Peter, Paul and Mary: Old Enough
[ID] February is a month that includes the birthdays of a lot of foks who broke barriers--or were the first to things others thought couldn't--or shouldn't--be done. I'm talking about folks like Elizabeth Blackwell, who was the first woman doctor, Charles Lindbergh, who was the first to fly across the Atlantic solo--his birthday is the 4th; and feminists like Susan B. Anthony (15) and Betty Friedan (4) who shares her birthday with Rosa Parks, who made history by sitting down. Here's a set of tunes for these one-of-a kinds...

Ball and Sultan: Wing and a Prayer:; Si Kahn: Woman to Woman; Sweet Honey: Freedom Now
[ID] Some of the folks born in February set themselves to the task of informing others about what's happening in the world--Ralph Nader (27th) is one, and this next one's for him

Danze: Big Cars

Beausoleil: News Reel:
That was Beausoleil, doing News Reel--in honor of the three big newscasters born in February: Tom Brokaw on the 6th, Ted Koppel on the 8th, and Roger Mudd on the 9th. by the way, Michael Doucet and Al Thorpe, both of Beaousoleil, also celebrate February birthdays. And we started with a tune for Ralph Nader--Big Cars, by Jake Danze. By the way, did you hear Ralph Nader is lending his support to the campain against Cornell's plan to use the waters of Cayuga Lake for cooling.............

Anyway--you might be interested to know that at least a couple of Aquarians
were also very famous astronomers---Copernicus and Galileo. Here's O'Connell; and time for Astronomer's Dream, taking us up to news time

1 NEWS
[use Lizards station ID for 93.5]
Thought I'd surprise you there--got a chance to meet the Austin Lounge Lizards recently when I was working on a project out in Seattle, and got them to tape that ID along with a bunch of other artists you hear on the show. I just want to remind you how important it is to get out and support live music--local as well as national acts. I think it's time for a round-up of what's happening around here in the next few weeks:

9 Patti Witten/ABC Cafe; 10 Richie Stearns/Rongovian Embassy; 12 Bela Fleck/Smith Opera House/Geneva; Aztec Two-Step/Night Eagle/Oxford; Burns Sisters/Clinton/KAC Coffeehouse; 13 Jody Kessler/Big Red Barn; 19 Lucy Kaplansky/Night Eagle/Oxford; 26 Michael Jerling/Night Eagle (catch if missed BFG); Lui Collins/Happy Endings/Syracuse; 28 Susan McKeown/Happy Endings/Syracuse; 3/5 Tamarisk/Haunt; 3/6 Tamarisk/Moosewood; Ferron 3/5 Common Ground; Dave Mallet 3/12 Night Eagle/Oxford (catch if missed last night Cornell)
All four of the artists in this next set are are playing soon in the area:

Aztec Two-Step: Dance; Kaplansky: Border
[ID] Everybody you've heard in the past 20 minutes or so will be here soon--go out and support life music! Well, it's back to the birthday theme, I think. Here's John McCutcheon and with The Older I Get

We're celebrating bithdays today of all kinds of famous people born in February. In addition to the impressive list of writers born in February I mentioned earlier, February is also the birth month of Erma Bombeck( 21)

Housewife's Lament: Ann Hills

Diary: Patty Larkin

Pierre Ben Susan: Pint
That's Pierre Bensusan, one of four extraordinary guitarists born this month:
Segovia was born the 21st, John Williams the 8th, John Fahey the 28th, and Bensusan, the 23rd.
Before that we heard Patty Larkin, Dear Diary--in honor of Samuel Pepys, born on February 23, 1633, and for Erma Bombeck, Anne Hills' Housewife's Lament.

This next set is for an odd pair--Boris Yeltsin, born on the 1st, and Bertold Brecht, on the 10th

Kukuruza: Enough

Van Ronk. Alabama Song
That was one of my favorite Dave Van Ronk tunes...It's Alabama Song, and it comes from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera--which is based on a play by Betrtold Brecht, whose birthday comes on February 10. By the way, the Cornell Theatre Arts group is featuring a play about Brecht which you might want to check out this coming weekend.
Before that we heard something called "Enough" from the Russian bluegrass group Kukuruza for Boris Yeltsin's birthday--he was born on the first.

Taking us up to news time is a tune that should serve to honor two February birthday boys:
James Dean, who shares my birthday on the 8th, and Bob Marley, born on the 6th. Rebel Music/Marley

2 NEWS
[Tim O'Brien ID]
...And you're listening to Tracey Craig--and a show that's celebrating everyone born in the moth of February. I've played lots of tunes for musicians and writers, but haven't done much for the movie directors born in February and there's a lot of them: Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah, Luis Bunuel, Franco Zefirelli, Milos Forman...and the actors....my goodness! Cybil Shephard and Sidney Poitier, Clark Gable and Nick Nolte, Jack Lemmon and Gypsy Rose Lee, Burt Renolds, Hal Holbrook, Jackie Gleason, Tony Randall, Elizabeth Taylor, Joanne Woodward, Zero Mostel...and Peter Fonda. This one's for him...

So many other birthdays! And so much music to play for you--never got to playing the baseball tunes for Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth, borth on the 5th and 6th--other February sports folks include Michael Jordan, Mark Spitz, Roger Stauback, Julius Erving, John McEnroe...
or the guys who make their living by being funny: Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Matt Groening, Gahan Wilson, David Brenner, Robert Klein, Tommy Smothers and Arsenio Hall all admit to February birthdays...
or the artists--Ansel Adams, Winslow Homer, Grant Wood, and Auguste Renoir...
and then there are the ones like Jimmy Hoffa and Patty Hearst that don't fit any category except "famous people."

Know what? It looks it's time for the last present--I've got a pair of tickets to the Bela Fleck concert [details of ticket giveaway]

We've got our winner! I want to thank you for listening to this special edition of Nonesuch today. My name is Tracey Craig, and I've enjoyed celebrating a month of birthdays with you. Probably more fun than tomorrow will be--that's my birthday, and every year, it seems to be harder to get enthusiastic about adding another candle to the cake--not sure I can imagine a cake with 41 candles--no 42--you need one to grow on, too, right?--anyway--best wishes to everybody celebrating birthdays this month. Here's John McCutcheon, with Cut the Cake.........