ReDial

Here comes our first week for TerraSonic at KGNU. I'm excited about being the newcomer at a place I've been involved with for 16 years. Broadcasting from the production room instead of the airstudio will be odd too. But then we'll hear the zaghareed at the intro, and those Yemen Cutta dhols, and everything will be OK.

Not to get too geeked or touchy-feely on the programming perspective, but if this AM-only broadcast experiment works (and why shouldn't it?), it's going to open up a whole new world for KGNU and its listeners.

Music. How about some of that? A few weeks ago, Jose called me at 1190, offering to send me a CD of the great Venezuelan singer Simon Diaz' music remixed by what I'm guessing are Venezuela-based DJs and producers. Jose had just returned from a trip home, where he had picked up the disc.

We should all thank Jose for his generosity as we'll be hearing a lot of this CD in the weeks to come. I was apprehensive about what this would sound like, but the disc is full of really nice touches applied to music that is lonely, delicate and haunting.

Simon Diaz is approaching 80 and a musical institution in Latin America. But he went relatively undiscovered in the States until the BBC's Charlie Gillett included a track on one of his World compilations. World Village released a lovely record by Simon in 2005. Unless you did some crate-digging in Caracas, that's about all that was available by him. And now, this remix record, the origins of which I know very little about. But when press "go" on this remixed Venezuelan cowboy record, suddenly I forget to care.

Simon Diaz - "Tonada del Cabastrero" (from Mis Canciones)
Simon Diaz - "Mi Querencia" (Simon Diaz vs. Garnica) (from Simon Diaz Remixed)

ONE MORE RADIO THING: KGNU's AM webstream won't be up and running for at least a couple of weeks. For now, it means it can be heard only in real time on 1390AM, as the podcast will likely not be available either. We're working on getting that going soon though. Until then, if you want file from me directly, just ask.

See you Saturday: 1200-1300 MT, 1390AM, KGNU.