On Air June 2025

On Air · June 2025

1

WKCR 89.9 FM Executive Board Station Manager Casey Lamb stationmanager@wkcr.org Program Director Rachel Smith programming@wkcr.org Director of Operations Teddy Wyche operations@wkcr.org Student Life Director Sara Carson studentlife@wkcr.org Publicity Director Ella Presiado publicity@wkcr.org

Dear Listeners!

Summer is here and so is another great edition of the OnAir Guide. We have some exciting broadcasts including the return of Porch Stomp–New York’s Premier Folk Festival which we'll be broadcasting live to the airwaves!

Read exciting articles on Arvo Part and Jon Fosse, Virginia City and the Red Dog Saloon and much more in this edition of the On-Air Guide.

Tune in for tons of great programming this month and regular shows in abundance!

Stay tuned for an especially exciting month of programming in July as well.

Business Manager Solène Millsap business@wkcr.org

Radio On,

Department Directors Jazz Stephen Park, Emma Lacy, & Hadassah Weinmartin jazz@wkcr.org

Casey Lamb Station Manager

New Music Phi Deng newmusic@wkcr.org Classical Charlie Kusiel King classical@wkcr.org American Ben Rothman american@wkcr.org In All Languages Jayin Sihm ial@wkcr.org Latin Damaris Lindsay latin@wkcr.org News & Arts Macy Hanzlik-Barend & Ian Pumphrey news@wkcr.org Sports Mason Lau sports@wkcr.org

2 On Air · June 2025

Cover illustration by McCartney Garb

Mailing Address

CONTACT US

2920 Broadway General Inquiries: board@wkcr.org New York, NY 10027 Listener Line: 212-854-9920 USA ©Copyright 2025 WKCR FM NYC

This Month On Air Reverence in Repetition Copenhagen Contemporary Weekly Schedule Special Broadcasts & Themed Shows Show Listings for WKCR Listeners A Mind-Bending Boomtown Borrowed Wisdom from Laurie Anderson

Around the Station

. . . page 4 . . . page 6 . . . page 8 . . . page 10 . . . page 11 . . . page 14 . . . page 17 . . . page 19

Memphis Minnie illustration by McCartney Garb

On Air · June 2025

3

CLASSICAL

Reverence in Repetition Jon Fosse and Arvo Pärt

by Charlie Kusiel King

so many ways, that it has so many different AND I SEE MYSELF STANDING…” begins hues of brown even if it’s just brown, and Asle each of the seven volumes of Septology, sees before his eyes like in a vision all these written by Jon Fosse, and what follows is a brown colours as exactly what they are, brown description of a painting depicting St. Andrew’s colours, not as brown colours on a boat but as Cross which differs only slightly throughout its separate colours, just colours…”1 iterations. The sequence This repetition, never of books, published in breaking a train of thought, Norwegian between 2019creates a definite essence 21, takes place over several of musicality in his writing, days in the mind of the and it is the act of the protagonist, an artist repetition itself, rather than named Asle. Reminiscing its content, which makes on memories from Asle’s Septology as powerful as I past and experiencing the found it to be. Indeed, as I mundanity of his presentread Fosse’s magnum opus day life, Fosse–in a single over the spring semester, I sentence–returns to the found it quietly encroaching same phrases, moments on my own daily life, from and details time and time witnessing the slow change again, and captures a very of seasons to building a real version of what it is like routine on campus. to think and live. The prose Fosse, who is known in of Septology, at first strange the literary world primarily to adjust to with its lack of as a playwright, spoke to periods and scarcity of line this idea of musicality in A breaks, invites the reader Silent Language, his lecture into a tonal world that is following his awardance of Image by Charlie Kusiel King the Nobel Prize in Literature mesmerizing, rhythmic, and at times even reverent. in 2023. “If there’s any “…and he thinks that it’s so beautiful seeing metaphor I would use for the act of writing, it The Rowboat floating out there almost totally would have to be listening. And so, it almost motionless in the water,” writes Fosse in the necessarily follows, writing is like music… in second volume. “…The Rowboat is brown and my writing I tried to create something I had beautiful and there are so many brown colours to look at on The Rowboat that it can be totally 1 Fosse, Jon. The Other Name: Septology I-II. 2019. bewildering to look at them but it’s beautiful translated by Damion Searls, Berkeley, CA, Transit to see how the brown Rowboat is brown in Books, 2020, p. 221.

“

4 On Air · June 2025

experienced when playing music.”2 Silence, Fosse later remarks, is the key to expressing the “mysterious place” inside of himself. Reading his work, it becomes plain that his repetition is an achievement of silence in writing.

As I read Septology, I found that the unique style of writing reminded me very closely of the works of Arvo Pärt, a contemporary Estonian composer whose minimalist work quietly emerged following the twelve-tone movement and draws heavily from early chant music. His work Sarah Was Ninety Years Old, which was written and rewritten throughout the 1980s, achieves a similar silence through repetition as Fosse does in Septology. The piece is around 25 minutes long and recounts the story of Sarah, from the Book of Genesis, who gives birth at an elderly age. Sarah Was Ninety Years Old is, in short, a daring composition. For large swathes of the piece, a hauntingly simple motif is played in the percussion, comprised of two tones alternating in a changing pattern of three and one (see the image of Pärt’s score). Sporadically throughout Sarah Was Ninety Years Old, a trio of singers perform in vocalise–with vowel sounds rather than words–then, the end of the piece culminates with an overwhelming entrance played by the organ. “[Sarah Was Ninety Years Old] is probably my simplest and also most abstract work,” notes Pärt. “It was born from the relations between numbers and is only based on four notes. The 48 possible combinations of these four sounds are complemented by different derivations of a simple rhythm, achieved by means of shifts in the scale… At the end of the various combinations one can indeed do nothing other than begin all over again and follow exactly the same path as before: the path of Sarah’s infertility.”3 Pärt, who was recently named as Carnegie Hall’s Debs Composer’s Chair for the 2025-26 2 Fosse, Jon. A Silent Language: The Nobel Lecture.

2023. translated by Damion Searls, Berkeley, CA, Transit Books, 2024, p. 29.

3 “Works: Sarah Was Ninety Years Old.” Arvopart. ee, Arvo Pärt Centre, www.arvopart.ee/en/arvo-part/ work/567/#.

season, has long associated his music closely with his faith, similarly to Fosse. Notably, both of them undertook religious conversions during adulthood. Repetition is an essential feature in their techniques as representing solemnity and devotion, and audiences– regardless of religious affiliation–may find the silence of their works, as Fosse calls it, profoundly moving.

Had either Fosse or Pärt reduced these many instances of repetition in Septology or Sarah Was Ninety Years Old to a single line, the overall size of their respective works would have decreased drastically. However, when a composer, writer, or artist puts complete faith in the one who experiences their work, the possibility for meaningful and impactful art is highest. Fosse and Pärt put their trust in the hands of their audiences to experience the work with honesty, to experience the full extent of the acts of repetition and to know, or to discover along the way, that this is where the deepest, most fundamental qualities of the work lay. Repetition, finally, not of a motif, but as a motif.

Charlie Kusiel King is the Classical Department Director and regular host of The Early Music Show, which airs on Fridays from 9:30am-12:00pm.

On Air · June 2025

5

NEW MUSIC

Copenhagen Contemporary

by Solène Millsap

O

vershadowed by Scandinavia’s sleek pop and austere techno, a contemporary wave of Danish artists are subtly dismantling genre boundaries. This movement, anchored by labels like Copenhagen’s Escho, reflects a fresh moment in Denmark’s experimental scene. Artists such as Smerz, Astrid Sonne, and Fine Glindvad are navigating unstable terrains between irony, sincerity, and experimentation.

It’s no surprise that experimental legends are emerging from Denmark, as Else Marie Pade, often referenced as the “grandmother of electronic music,” called it her home. Pade grew up a musician until she was imprisoned for her resistance against German occupation and her role in an all-female explosive group, aimed at telephone cables. Post-war, she enrolled in music school as a pianist, eventually shifting to composition and, then, radio. There, Pade physically chopped up radio archives: a drinking song from The Tales of Hoffmann and a clip of Stravinsky’s Petrushka mixed in with recordings of church bells and children laughing. Described as electrically romantic, “blissfully dilated and unhurried,” her work was a definitive resistance to the mainstream, abandoning any expectation of a canon, while still appealing to the ear on a human level.

Pade pioneered electronic music, allowing it to be unabashedly sensual, “offering complete abandon” with nothing held back1 Mid-century, when Pade was “mixing,” there was little of an experimental music scene, but today, Copenhagen has become one of the strongest cities for music production and new, 1 Molleson, Kate. Sound Within Sound: Radical Composers of the Twentieth Century. Faber & Faber, 2022.

6 On Air · June 2025

strange, revolutionary sound. Escho, the big label of the scene, is rather elusive, describing itself as “here to document moments of spontaneity, file the transitory and offer new, unusual and vibrant sounds from Denmark and beyond.” Escho is focused primarily on Danish artists, think Astrid Sonne, Smerz, the Dean Blunt-associates Joanne Robertson and Elias Rønnenfelt, or Fine Glindvad, the lead singer of The Crying Nudes. What ties them together is their similar sound, where they depict a similar atmosphere: soft vocals and exploratory, modern blends of classical and computer music..

Astrid Sonne’s compositions balance strict formalism, in reference to her classical violist training, with boundary-pushing electronic sound, allowing small shifts in tone to carry enormous emotional weight. While her early work centered on instrumental minimalism, her most recent record, Great Doubt, marked a shift, introducing vocals and, through such, emotional directness.

Astrid Sonne at the Alice Summer Series in 2020 Photo by Rene Passet

Smerz at by:Larm festival in 2016 Photo by Tom Øverlie

Sonne’s sound carries a palpable reluctance to perform affect, thriving on emotional tension, an intimacy that’s not easily given. She crafts sincerity through what’s left unsaid, through lyrical restraint. This new sincerity is filtered through irony, not to diminish feeling but to complicate and protect it, ultimately revealing it in a form more honest than spectacle.

Smerz, the duo of Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg, are also deeply integrated into Copenhagen’s Escho-driven experimental scene. Their recent album, Big City Life, blends traditional club sound with classical instrumentation and confrontational vocal styles: think WKCR’s Extended Technique meets Transfigured Night. Smerz often employ irony through deadpan delivery, minimal lyricism, and fractured beats, but beneath the surface there’s a sincerity in their confrontation with modern digital identity. What initially registers as cold or aloof reveals itself to be emotionally fraught and precisely composed.

There remains an ongoing exploration of the intersection between computers and art globally, but the Rhythmic Music Conservatory

in Copenhagen seems to center itself on it. The Rhythmic Music Conservatory is where Fine Glinvdad and Astrid Sonne first met, and seems to be the place where many of these musicians find intentional community, sharing ideas and experimenting. It’s the “shared intentionality” from the scene that has developed out of this school that has created such a rich ecosystem of independent artists, with similar ideological sensibilities, and thus, musical ones.

Astrid Sonne will be performing on June 15th at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn.

Solène is the Business Manager and the weekly host of the Tennessee Border Show (Sunday 12-2PM) and Cereal Music (Tuesday 9:30AM-12PM)

On Air · June 2025

7

5:00 am 6:00 am 7:00 am

SUNDAY

MONDAY

WEDNE

TUESDAY

Jazz ‘til Dawn (cont’d)

Daybreak

Field Trip

8:00 am 9:00 am

Amazing Grace

Monday Morningside

Bird F

10:00 am 11:00 am

Cereal Music

The Moonshine Show

12:00 pm 1:00 pm The Tennessee Border Show

Out to Lunch

2:00 pm

Sin Fro

3:00 pm 4:00 pm 5:00 pm

Sunday Profiles

Afternoon New Music

6:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm

Jazz Alte

Raag Aur Taal

9:00 pm 10:00 pm 11:00 pm 12:00 am 1:00 am 2:00 am

News + Arts Programming Live Constructions Back in the USSR The Celtic Show

Urbano Latinx

Honky Tonkin’

Nueva C

Tuesday’s Just as Bad

Som do

Night Train

Transfigur

Coordinated Universal Time

3:00 am 4:00 am

Caribe Latino

Phil Lives

8 On Air · June 2025

Transfigured Night

ESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY Transfigured Night (cont’d)

k Express

Sounds of Asia

5:00 am 6:00 am 7:00 am 8:00 am

Flight

9:00 am

Now's The Time Eastern Standard Time Early Music

10:00 am 11:00 am 12:00 pm

Across 110th Street

Out to Lunch

onteras

2:00 pm

Something Inside of Me

Bach Hour

Canción

o Brasil

red Night

Hobo’s Lullaby

Middle Eastern Influences

Sonidos Colombianos

Saturday Night at the Opera 11:00 pm 12:00 am

The Mambo Machine

Transfigured Night

8:00 pm

10:00 pm

Notes From Underground Offbeat

7:00 pm

9:00 pm

Workaround The African Show

5:00 pm 6:00 pm

Traditions in Swing

ernatives

3:00 pm 4:00 pm

Afternoon Classical

Extended Technique

1:00 pm

El Sonido de la Calle

1:00 am 2:00 am 3:00 am 4:00 am

Jazz ‘til Dawn

On Air · June 2025

9

Special Broadcasts SPECIAL BROADCASTS

Anthony Braxton

Wednesday, June 4, 9:30 AM - 6 PM WKCR celebrates the musical legend Anthony Braxton on his 80th birthday. NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton has been a central figure in the experimental music scene since the late 1960s, working with everyone from Roscoe Mitchell to Wadada Leo Smith to Marilyn Crispell. This 8.5hour birthday broadcast promises an exciting sample of Braxton’s discography, including littleknown works nearly impossible to find anywhere else.

Radio City

WKCR's Record Shop Takeover Saturday, June 14, afternoon

WKCR is partnering with NYC’s eighth annual New York Music Month—a month of free performances, workshops, and events—for their “Radio City” series. The broadcast, live from our event at The Record Shop in Brooklyn, will feature DJ sets from our very own hosts. Listeners can find out more at nymusicmonth.nyc/performances/2025/.

Live from Porch Stomp

Saturday, June 21, 12 noon - 5 PM Porch Stomp is NYC’s live folk festival, located on Governors Island. Partnering with them is a new tradition here at WKCR and we are excited to present a live broadcast from Porch Stomp for the second year in a row. Listeners can find out more at porchstomp.com.

THEMED SHOWS

SUNDAY PROFILES Sundays 2:00-7:00 PM TBD

TBD

TBD

TBD

Yoko Ono

Host: TBD

Host: TBD

Host: Steve Mandel, Jake Cohen

Host: Sid Gribetz

Host: Phi Deng

June 1st, 2:00-7:00PM June 8th, 2:00-7:00PM June 15th, 2:00-7:00PM June 22nd, 2:00-7:00PM June 29th, 2:00-7:00PM

10 On Air · June 2025

Show Listings

JAZZ

Daybreak Express, weekdays 5-8:20am Out to Lunch, weekdays 12-3pm Jazz Alternatives, weekdays 6-9pm The core of our jazz offerings, these three programs span the entire range of recorded jazz: everything from New Orleans jazz, jazz age, swing era, bebop, hard-bop, modal, free, and avant-garde. Hosts rotate daily, offering an exciting variety of approaches, some of which include thematic presentation, artist interviews, or artist profiles.

Birdflight, Tues.-Thurs. 8:20-9:30am Archival programs from the late Phil Schaap, one of the world’s leading jazz historians, who hosted this daily forum for the music of Charlie Parker for about 40 years.

Now's The Time*, Fri. 8:20-9:30am The newest show from WKCR Jazz is dedicated to jazz as a living art form, providing a weekly space to listen to the young and current musicians pushing the genre forward.

Traditions in Swing, Sat. 6-9pm Archival programs from the late Phil Schaap, this awardwinning Saturday night staple presents focused thematic programs on jazz up until about World War II. Schaap presents the music, much of it incredibly rare, from the best sound source, which is often the original 78 issue.

Phil Lives*, Mon. 3-5am Archival broadcasts of longform programs from late NEA Jazz Master Phil Schaap.

CLASSICAL Cereal Music, Mon.-Thurs. 9:30am-12pm An entirely open-ended classical show to start your weekdays. Tune in to hear the most eclectic mix of classical music on the New York airwaves!

The Early Music Show, Fri. 9:30am-12pm Dedicated primarily to European medieval, Renaissance, and baroque music, all from before 1800 (±50 years).

Extended Technique*, Wed. & Thurs. 3-6pm WKCR’s first interdepartmental show (in the New Music and Classical departments) dedicated to contemporary classical music. You’ll hear everything from 12-tone and minimalist compositions to film and video game scores, and all things in between.

Afternoon Classical, Fri. 3-6pm.

Similar to Cereal Music, most of Afternoon Classical has no restrictions on what type of classical music to play.

The last hour of the show, however, is dedicated fully to the music of JS Bach.

Saturday Night at the Opera, Sat. 9pm-12:30am.

One of NYC’s longest running opera shows, Saturday Night at the Opera is a 3.5 hour show that allows operas to be played in their entirety, with room for commentary, descriptions, and some history.

NEW MUSIC Afternoon New Music, Mon. & Tues. 3-6pm Our daytime new music program features a wide variety of music that challenges boundaries and subverts categorizations. Shows include everything from seminal new music compositions to the most challenging of obscure deep cuts and new releases.

Transfigured Night, Tues./Thurs./Sat. 1-5am Our overnight explorations into the world of new music, Transfigured Night rewards our late night listeners with a wide range of sounds and experimental music.

Workaround*, Fri. 9-10pm WKCR presents live DJ sets from Columbia students and local artists.

Live Constructions, Sun. 10-11pm This weekly program features a live in-studio performance or a performance pre-recorded specially for the show.

AMERICAN Honky Tonkin’, Tues. 10-11pm One of WKCR’s longest-running American music programs, Honky Tonkin’ lands in the harder side of Country music. Emphasizing the greatest voices in the genre, Honky Tonkin’ is a country music dance party every Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s Just as Bad, Tues. 11pm - Wed. 1am Tuesday’s Just as bad explores the world of blues prior to World War II. Shows weave their way through the first decades of recorded music history and turn to the postwar years in the final half hour. * Indicates show was created after January 2022

On Air · June 2025 11

LISTINGS FOR LISTENERS Night Train, Wed. 1-5am All aboard! One of our two overnight programs in the American department, Night Train rolls through the postwar R&B and soul tradition, from the genre’s emergence in the 1940’s and 50’s through the funk revolution in the 1970’s. Shows often feature extended live recordings and concerts.

Offbeat, Fri. 1-5am Offbeat is committed to broadcasting undiscovered new hip hop music. Shows typically focus on exposing underplayed or up-and-coming new artists, including experimental instrumental artists not typically played on mainstream hip hop radio.

Across 110th Street, Sat. 12-2pm Kicking off our Saturday afternoon American music run, Across 110th Street airs soul, funk, and dance music from the 1960’s through the 1980’s and 90’s.

Something Inside of Me, Sat. 2-4pm Something Inside of Me is WKCR’s Saturday afternoon blues show, focusing mostly on the electric and post-war styles.

Hobo’s Lullaby, Sat. 4-6pm Rooted in the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, Hobo’s Lullaby airs American folk and traditional music styles from the early 20th century through the present day.

From old staples like Leadbelly, Elizabeth Cotton, and Woody Guthrie to contemporary stalwarts like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and lesser known artists, domestic traditions are alive and well on Hobo’s Lullaby.

Notes from the Underground, Sun. 12:30-2am Notes from the Underground showcases contemporary hip hop and rap music with an emphasis on emerging and experimental artists. The program also hosts local and visiting artists for interviews, freestyles, and guestcuration.

Amazing Grace, Sun. 8-10am Greeting listeners on Sunday morning, Amazing Grace shares with listeners the world of the African-American gospel tradition.

The Moonshine Show, Sun. 10am-12pm On the air for nearly 60 years, The Moonshine Show showcases the American Bluegrass tradition, from the earliest roots in vernacular string-band music, through * indicates show was created after January 2022

12 On Air · June 2025

the genre’s pioneers in the 1940s and 50s and advancements in the 60s and 70s, through the leading innovators and stars of today.

The Tennessee Border Show, Sun. 12-2pm One third of WKCR’s country music programming, along with Honky Tonkin’ and the Bluegrass Moonshine Show, Tennessee Border highlights the singer-songwriter tradition, from Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt to Lucinda Williams.

LATIN Caribe Latino, Mon. 10pm-12am Caribe Latino is a music program that features the diverse, upbeat music from numerous Latin communities in the Caribbean. Popular Latin rhythms such as Salsa, Merengue, Bachata and Latin Jazz take center stage throughout the program.

Urbano Latinx, Tues. 12-1am A weekly Latin show airing contemporary sounds from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the diaspora, Urbano Latinx features mixes of salsa, merengue, Latin punk rock, and more.

Sin Fronteras*, Wed. 12-3pm Falling in the space of Out to Lunch on Wednesday afternoons, Sin Fronteras explores the tremendous Latin Jazz tradition.

Nueva Canción, Wed. 10-11pm Nueva Canción is an exploration of protest music created throughout Latin America during the 60s and 70s and its numerous other manifestations throughout other countries and time periods.

Som do Brasil, Wed. 11pm - Thurs. 1am From samba and bossa nova to MPB, hear the numerous and enchanting sounds and rhythms of Brazil.

Sonidos Colombianos, Fri. 10-11pm Sonidos Colombianos presents music from one of the most culturally diverse countries of Latin America: Colombia! Our bilingual musical tour is guaranteed to include not only cumbia, but also the guitar-based bambuco from the Andean region, the harp llanero music from the Eastern Plains, the marimba-infused currulao from the Pacific Region, and the accordiondriven vallenato of the North Atlantic Coast.

LISTINGS FOR LISTENERS The Mambo Machine, Fri. 11pm - Sat. 2am The Mambo Machine is the longest running salsa show in New York City. The program presently plays a wide spectrum of Afro-Latin rhythms, combining new and old into an exciting, danceable mix.

El Sonido de la Calle*, Sun. 2-4am A companion show to Saturday night’s American Notes from Underground, El Sonido de la Calle highlights the diverse world of contemporary Spanish-language hiphop and dance music.

IN ALL LANGUAGES The Celtic Show, Mon. 12-1am Music from across the island of Ireland throughout the era of recorded music, particularly focusing on traditional folk and vernacular music forms.

Coordinated Universal Time, Mon. 1-3am Coordinated Universal Time brings our listeners the latest cut of music from anywhere in the world, especially highlighting music that does not get attention in America.

Our programming tries to bring the hottest and the most recent tunes to WKCR’s airwaves.

The African Show, Thurs. 10pm-12am The longest running African music radio show in the United States, the African Show brings you a variety of music from the entire continent of Africa.

Middle Eastern Influences, Fri. 12-1am During the hour-long show, Middle Eastern Influences features a wide range of beautiful tracks from regions of the Middle East, North Africa, and even, at times, South Asia.

Sounds of Asia, Sat. 6-8am Rechristened from Sounds of China, Sounds of Asia explores the recorded musical traditions and innovations of Asia and the Pacific islands.

Field Trip, Sun. 6-8am Field Trip focuses on the music and practice of field recordings: music recorded outside of a studio. Tune in and you may catch field recordings that were recorded fifty years ago, others that were experimented with by your favorite Afternoon New Music artist, or even those documented in New York City by WKCR itself.

Raag Aur Taal, Sun. 7-9pm Raag Aur Taal explores the sounds and rich cultural heritage of South Asia. The term “Raag Aur Taal” roughly translates to “melody and rhythm,” indicating the classical nature of this program.

Back in the USSR, Sun. 11pm-12am Back in the USSR features music from across the former Soviet Union and soviet states across Eastern Europe and East and Central Asia, from the mid-20th century through the present.

NEWS & ARTS Monday Morningside*, Mon. 8:30-9:30am Monday Morningside is WKCR’s morning news broadcast to kick off the week, featuring news segments on events around Morningside Heights and upper Manhattan.

If you’re not an early bird, all episodes are available as podcasts on Spotify!

SPECIAL BROADCASTS Sunday Profile, Sun. 2-7pm* A WKCR staple, programmers use five hours to showcase longform profiles of pioneering artists. While the primary focus remains on jazz music, we also feature other styles and traditions from across WKCR’s different programming departments.

Eastern Standard Time, Sat. 8am-12pm One of New York’s most popular Reggae programs, Eastern Standard Time takes listeners through Saturday morning from 8 am to noon with the hypnotic sounds of Reggae and Jamaican dance music.

* indicates show was created after January 2022

On Air · June 2025 13

AMERICAN

A Mind-Bending Boomtown: Virginia City and the Red Dog Saloon

by McCartney Garb

N

estled in a mountainside of billowing down dark caverns lingering with snakes, scrubland is a Nevada boomtown — dynamite, toxic fumes, and worst of all — ghosts.

Virginia City. Situated thirty-five miles Taking road trips through Nevada brings you to outside of the biggest little city in the world, with hundreds of towns just like this one, with main a population of less than 1,000, Virginia City streets that mirror the Tombstone Johnny Cash seems like a mere pit stop now. The town housed sang of. If you’re from the city, there’s also a thousands back ghastly lack of in the 19th familiarity with century when small-town life, the silver dust even if the miles encrusted the of desert terrain hills, pointing at has become dear. a great treasure Virginia City beneath the worn has a fascinating trail1. Like many story to tell, one quaint Nevada that is intimately towns, there’s linked with the a celebrated cowboy fantasy history of onceits city still greatness. proudly touts.

Virginia City is In 1963, a disc enthralled by jockey named Virginia City from Cedar Hill, 1890 Chandler its great desert A. Sourced from the Library of Congress Laughlin III (also victory, coaxed by shimmering known as Travus images of by-gone albumen silver prints. T. Hipp) opened up a music joint with friend Somehow, even in the ghostly shadow of a and folk enthusiast Mark Unobsky2. Together prosperous, animated moment, something they recruited a mix of sounds to the Red seems truly American here as a romanticized Dog Saloon, from traditional folk sources to wild west emerges. But the mine shafts three- psychedelia. Although the folk revival had thousand feet below the ground are emptied, been churning for years already, psychedelic warned about in bright yellow pamphlets music was newly emerging in the 1960s. Some handed out to elementary school students: well-known names had swept into the painfully “Beware of Abandoned Mines!” It would haunt sluggish and drowsy town: Big Brother and the any nine-year-old with nightmares of drifting Holding Company, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service.

1 “History - Virginia City, Nevada - Historic Comstock Mining Town.” Virginia City, May 23, 2022. https://visitvirginiacitynv.com/history/.

14 On Air · June 2025

2 “History.” Red Dog Saloon • Virginia City, Nevada. https://www.reddogvc.rocks/history.

Red Dog Saloon, 2010

Photo by Don Graham

But the group that would start it all was the Charlatans.

The Charlatans were an ensemble of ragtag musicians, not particularly good or experienced at the instruments that they played, at least in the beginning. But when they arrived in the Summer of 1965, they had a plan, an image to implement. Bowler hats, waistcoats, pistols, large belt buckles, leather jackets with fringe, and all sorts of cowboy and Edwardian regalia.

They were a polished mirror for a town grasping at a departed time. The Charlatans show was heavily associated with psychedelic effects, culture, and drugs almost from the very start.

Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters were frequent attendants with acid in tow. Artist Bill Ham made light shows with projectors and oils that integrated with the performance, a fusion that would later become regular at the Fillmore Auditorium and other halls in San Francisco3.

The energy at Virginia City in these years, particularly with the Charlatans, is often touted 3 Montgomery, Scott B. “Radical Trips: Exploring the Political Dimension and Context of the 1960s Psychedelic Poster.” Journal for the Study of Radicalism 13, no. 1 (2019): 121–54. https://doi.org/10.14321/jstudradi.13.1.0121.

as one of the first instances of psychedelic rock through this happenstance synthesis. It even materializes in the posters. A lithograph called “The Seed” was the first to exhibit the signature style of the Haight-Ashbury concert poster, albeit in black-and-white4. The ornate detailing harkens back to circus and theater adverts from the 19th century, perfectly fitting the style of the Charlatans, with their gunslinging cowboy outfits and Edwardian frills. Many of the young runaways fleeing to San Francisco also found themselves making the trek to Virginia City in these years, a bizarre place to find flourishing culture, in the midst of the barren Nevada landscape.

So there were many firsts, including the Charlatans being cited as the progenitors of the San Francisco or acid rock idiom. Yet, there is much beyond their electrification and definitive association with psychedelics.

The group pulled from jug band, country, and blues influences. Like many other folk or country sounding groups at the time they were signed to the Kama Sutra label, releasing only a smattering of singles they had recorded in San Francisco. The psychedelic aspect of their image was certainly influential to the months later happenings in San Francisco that would become so famously identified with the 1960s sound, image, and culture–but it was also an anomaly. That association seems largely incidental, at least compared to their very purposefully crafted Western image.

It’s no secret that the environment of the 1960s was harshly divided and yet infinitely diverse in terms of political, generational, and cultural sentiments. The term hippie was freshly coined only a few months after the Charlatans took the stage in 19655. The music space, particularly country, experienced a curious group of musicians which straddled 4 ““The Seed”.” “The Seed,” The Charlatans; Red Dog Saloon | Denver Art Museum, January 1, 1965. https:// www.denverartmuseum.org/en/object/2009.538.

5 Chaney, Anthony. “Double-Bind Generation.” In Runaway: Gregory Bateson, the Double Bind, and the Rise of Ecological Consciousness, 133–52. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469631745_chaney.9.

On Air · June 2025 15

the line of draft-dodger and working-class Southerner. They physically appeared “hippie”, but played what seemed to be authentic country music, even down to the tunes that expressed traditional Christian values, long associated with some of the earliest country groups such as the Carter Family. Take the Byrds for example, who with their 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo were booed on the Grand Ole Opry stage for their long hair, but had a genuine appreciation and background with country music, even if it wasn’t audible in their previous albums. Many who speak of the Charlatans find their western wear to be more authentic than the later generic image of counterculture6. Yet, they would scarcely be authentic to more traditional country crowds.

Whereas the art from their shows was heavily adopted by San Francisco ballrooms (namely the posters and light shows), the thorough western identity and country-sound seemed less influential on the San Francisco scene.

Counterculture did incorporate images from the West. The Baby Boomers who founded this generational shift had grown up with western films, western toys, and country stars adorned in that same western regalia now passed down7. But despite taking the occasional item or two, “hippie” fashion seemed much more inspired by lace Edwardian collars, billowed bishop sleeves, granny glasses and generic vests. The Charlatans garments were specific to later country rock, pulling from aspects of mainstream American culture and somehow infusing it with counterculture. It was a surreal dynamic that would prove to work, even if it resulted in conservative ire.

Through Americana motifs that appear in their outfits and album art and concert posters like “The Seed”, they started a trend that would proliferate in the Country Rock space to come.

Like much of the counterculture, which

sought to firmly push against the past generations’ tendencies, there’s a paradoxical admiration of history, transforming it into a creative source8. The past becomes informative, but the particular past the Charlatans propose— cowboys—ends up deflecting the potential of a conservative image. This allows aspects of their historical performances to be replicated and praised more heavily by their San Francisco peers, even if “country” seemed entrenched in the Nixon-Silent-Majority-adjacent enemy.

The Charlatans would disband in the late 1960s after personnel changes made the original sound difficult to replicate, but nonetheless their legacy lived on. Lead drummer Dan Hicks would proceed to form the countryesque group Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks as a testament to the Charlatans jug band heritage. They weren’t the only country group in The Red Dog Saloon. The Scragg Family, a California old-time bluegrass band, also passed through and were even the house band for the summer and fall of 1967. The Red Dog Saloon saw many bands traverse the old-west landscape over the subsequent decades. It remains open in Virginia City today, although it has exchanged ownership frequently and even closed its doors during some troubled periods. Virginia City has experienced many alterations, closures, and relocations. Even as the paint on brick facades fades and peels, the desert settlement will be remembered for two things: its boom-town past and the culture it helped kickstart on quaint C street at the Red Dog Saloon.

6 Lau, Andrew. “The Red Dog Saloon and The Amazing Charlatans.” Perfect Sound Forever, December 2005. https://www.furious.com/perfect/reddogsaloon.html.

7 Mather, Olivia Carter. “Taking It Easy in the Sunbelt: The Eagles and Country Rock’s Regionalism.” American Music 31, no. 1 (2013): 26–49. https://doi.org/10.5406/ americanmusic.31.1.0026.

McCartney Garb is a frequent programmer of Hobo’s Lullaby from 4 to 6 PM on Saturdays.

16 On Air · June 2025

8 Rymsza-Pawlowska, Malgorzata J. “Hippies Living History: Form and Context in Tracing Public History’s Past.” The Public Historian 41, no. 4 (2019): 36–55. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26908886.

NEW MUSIC

Borrowed Wisdom from Laurie Anderson

by Eva Arroyo

I

can’t imagine that Laurie Anderson was graceless, even in her youth. Here’s what I know (with shame, off the top of my head) about her life story: She attended Barnard, where she played violin. From there, she actualized as a musician-meets-performanceartist by playing her violin on every street corner in Berlin. She returned to the U.S. and became a fixture in the new music scene in New York, completing an MFA in sculpture at Columbia. She recorded a song where her mouth is close to the microphone and her voice

Laurie Anderson, 2022

comes from her chest (“O Superman”), which Bowie covered. When she meets Lou Reed late in life (she described their relationship as “tangl[ing] our hearts and minds together for 30 years”), he tells her she plays a piece just like him, and she says she has no idea what he means.

The first track of hers I loved was “The Lake” from her ode to her favorite dog, Heart of a Dog. It’s a sentimental piece of music, crafted improbably from samples of airplanes, violins, and synthesizers. In other tracks,

Photo by Tom Mesic

On Air · June 2025 17

she becomes a character, most famously The Voice of Reason: a pseudo-masculine filter that Laurie uses whenever she wants authority. The Voice of Reason is illustrated in the cover for Homeland, where Laurie appears in a Charlie Chaplin mustache and dark eyebrows, looking sympathetic in a crisp white collar. In the song, “The Cultural Ambassador,” she describes explaining her synthesizers to customs agents, performing “impromptu new music concerts for small groups of detectives… tell[ing] them how I used [the voice of reason] for songs that were, you know, about various forms of control, and they would say, ‘Now, why would you want to talk like that?’”

Devastating, delicate-voiced Laurie Anderson, so full of clever bits and warmth.

Obviously, she occupies vast swaths of my mental landscape. Yet, I continually struggle as a young person engaging with Laurie Anderson to translate her wisdom across the decades.

She frequently seems to speak directly to young people both in interviews and on stage. But the Anderson quote I made into a sign for my studio that reads, “Make Something Beautiful Every Day, Just One Thing,” feels corny.

However, Anderson in person is so Not Corny. On stage at the “X=x” show last fall at BAM, she spoke to the audience about what she learned from each of her friends and artistic mentors. The importance of listening, of speaking truthfully. When she mentions James Brown, she cracks a smile: “Sometimes you just gotta get up and do your thing.”

Anderson so frequently aligns herself with important issues: compassion for animals1, care for oppressed nations and peoples, and skepticism on the digital age2. I look to Anderson to learn how to handle our disordered world with grace. When discussing these issues, she’s neither complacent nor upset, but I easily lurch into corniness when my 28-year-old self tries to practice what Anderson preaches. When I quote her, I feel the heft of unearned words, of 1 Especially dogs. On The Birth of Lola: “My dog’s character was pure empathy. I tried to express that.”

2 “If you think technology will solve your problems, you don’t understand technology — and you don’t understand your problems.”

18 On Air · June 2025

pretense; it takes my tongue out of my cheek, flattening her insights. At this time, it is easy to be a young person who cares about things, and difficult to be a young person who cares about things well. I so desperately need models like Laurie Anderson, so how can I translate her into the bumbling, graceless lexicon a 28-yearold can repeat?

Looking at my small pile of quotes collected from Laurie Anderson, I realize that her greatest advice to young people is to resist definition.

In a recent interview, Anderson mentions that with a new project, she always asks herself, “Will this be fun?” It feels almost inappropriate to approach making serious, compassionate work as something “fun.” Perhaps the greatest mistake of my youth is believing that the path toward a meaningful life must be heavy.

When listening to her music (go on, reader, put on Amelia or Landfall or at the very least “One Night of Swords”), I feel physical tension unknit—my body becomes tender and permeable. I recently realized why I was so able to relax: after decades of offering her internal world attention, Anderson is relaxed, and Anderson believes in what she’s doing.

Happiest of birthdays to Laurie Anderson; I am so glad for the wisdom of your years.

Eva Arroyo programs for the New Music department.

Around the Station

What would your ideal music festival lineup be?

Taylor Sierra-Ward Guidry, Programmer: My ideal music festival lineup would include HTRK, Wolf Alice, Los Thuthanaka, Dinosaur Jr., The Marias, The War on Drugs, h. pruz, Oklou, Nia Archives, Flohio, Seefeel, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, Naoki Zushi, Moin, Joshiah Steinbrick, Laurel Halo, L’Rain, American Football, and DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ. Caroline Nieto, Programmer: Mine would be a 90s revival (dead and alive) of Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, The Breeders, Veruca Salt, Bjork, Ivy, Liz Phair, Pavement, Belle and Sebastian, Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth.

Eva Arroyo, Programmer: It’d be a one stage festival two a chill spaces, one indoors and one outside with hammocks. The main stage would be incredible performers: FKA Twigs, Bjork, Charli xcx, Fever Ray, Orbital, The Cure. The indoor space would be ambient and techno: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Aphex Twin in the late hours, and Brian Eno doing a sunrise set. The outdoor space would be a variety of jazz Some classic, some dancey, and some ambient: Ron Carter, Carlos Nino, Shabaka.

Charlie Kusiel King, Classical Head: I'd love for my dream festival to bridge the gaps between early and contemporary classical music with electronic music. For my opening artists, I would pick first the Tallis Scholars, who would boogie it up with some Tallis, Palestrina and Pärt. Next, a DJ set featuring Autechre and St Germain.

The main acts at the festival would have to be Floating Points, first performing Crush and Cascade, then, with the Cleveland Orchestra, Promises. TCO would then close it out with Schoenberg, Boulanger, and Shostakovich.

McCartney Garb, Programmer: I’ve never been to a festival (shamefully, I don’t really go to concerts) but as a fantasy lineup I would love to see Dave Van Ronk, Connie Converse, and the Bob Gibson and Hamilton Camp duo. Gibson and Camp have a wonderful recording on the Vanguard compilation “Folk Duets” that I would kill to see live. I would even pay to just hear Dave Van Ronk tell Greenwich Village stories for a few hours!

On Air · June 2025 19

A poster imagining the ideal festival as a collective of all the Around the Station answers

20 On Air · June 2025

SUPPORT WKCR TOP 5 REASONS TO DONATE TO WKCR 1. You’d be helping a student-run, listener-funded, and volunteer-based radio station continue to bring you the absolute best in what radio has to offer. Music, arts, news, and sports— we’ve got the works!

2. You wouldn’t be a free-rider anymore.

3. WKCR donations are tax-deductible (so make sure you donate before tax season). For more info on that, or anything else business-related, email business@wkcr.org 4. Being “the Original FM,” our equipment is getting a bit old. Thanks to your 2023 donations, we were able to retire Buzz, the hamster that ran the wheel powering us. But our new hamster, Roach, needs to start saving for retirement... can you blame him?

5. Isn’t OnAir cool? Without proper funding, projects like this can’t come to fruition and, if they do, don’t make it very long. Donate to allow the little OnAir minions to stay in the job (we are all OnAir minions).

HOW TO DONATE TO WKCR IN 4 STEPS

BY MAIL Step 1: Locate your nearest checkbook

ONLINE Step 1: head to www.wkcr.org

Step 2: Indicate “WKCR” as payee and fill out as usual

Step 2: Click the yellow “DONATE TO WKCR” banner at the top of the page

Step 3: Mail check to CU Gift Systems, 622 West 113th Street, MC 4524, New York, NY 10025

Step 3: Fill out the form in the giving portal and enter your information...

Step 4: ...and VOILÀ! Just like that, you have become a WKCR supporter!

WKCR also accepts checks to our direct address. Just follow the same steps listed above but mail the check to: 2920 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

Step 4: ...and VOILÀ! Just like that, you have become a WKCR supporter!

Did you know you can make recurring donations to WKCR when you donate online?

Just indicate your frequency preferences on the giving portal when prompted!

On Air · June 2025 21

T h e e d i to r i a l tea m fo r t h i s i s sue wa s Caroline Ni eto, Charlie Kusiel King, CJ Gamble, & Izzy Rosales.

Sp e c i a l t ha n ks to Eva Arroyo, Solène Millsap, & Taylor Sierra-Ward Guidr y.

22 On Air · June 2025

WKCR 89.9 FM

2920 Broadway New York, NY 10027

O n Ai r 's e d i to r i a l b oa rd i s McCar tney Garb, Ella Werstler, Jem Hanan, & Olivia Callanan.