Blogs

WXDU presents its 2nd annual top-100 new year's day countdown!!  Join us all day (well, 10am-10pm) as we bring you the top 100 new albums/reissues (and top 20 compilations) from the WXDU airwaves of 2009.  The coundown is once again proudly sponsored by Bull City Records! There will be gift certificate giveaways and loads of fun.  Rest off that hangover with a day of 2009's best music, WXDU style!

Listen: AZUCAR y CANDELA Wed 6-8 pm. On Facebook:  "Santa Salsera"

Featured review:  MIGUEL ZENON, "Esta Plena"

Electrifying, reverential and profound, "Esta Plena" is a never-before-seen melding of plena and Latin jazz, as coequal partners. Though Puerto Rican saxophonist Miguel Zenon had experimented with his native island's folk rhythms on the earlier Jíbaro, this is a much deeper foray into ancestral territory.  <<READ MORE>>

My guest on Mondo Mundo this week:  Raleigh musician Frake Hunsel who will share his collection of classic Surinamese vinyl and CDs in the musical styles of Kaseko, Kawina, Aleke, Motjo poku, KasKawi, Groot Bazuin and more!

Special:  Music of Suriname
MONDO MUNDO Dec. 19, Saturday, 2-4 pm
WXDU 88.7 FM www.wxdu.org
Host:  Santa Salsera with guest Frake Hunsel  

This is a rare opportunity to hear and learn more about Surinamese artists such as: <<<READ MORE>>>

Sacred Steel Guitarist DaShawn Hickman will be playing live this Tues Dec 8th in the 7:00 hour during The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown.

DaShawn lives in Mt. Airy, NC, where he learned to play the pedal steel guitar from his mother who was the minister of the local House of God church. For years he has played his steel for church services, but recently he's been playing outside of the church, first with his cousins in The Allen Boys and now has formed a new group "DaShawn Hickman and Steel Moven".

Tune in Tues evening to hear this exciting music played live in the studio and for a conversation with DaShawn about his music and his new group.

Local writers and documentarians Richard Ziglar and Barry Yeoman visit The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown on Tues Dec 1st in the 7pm hour to discuss their new audio and photo documentary "Still Singing the Blues" on blues musicians from New Orleans and South Louisiana.  They'll be discussing their travels and interviews with both well known and not-so-well-known blues artists in Louisiana - we'll also be playing plenty of music from Louisiana.  You can read more about their documentary-to-be here:  http://stillsingingtheblues.blogspot.com

Tune in Tues from 6:30-8pm to hear Katherine Whalen's new band "Lucky" play live on The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown.

This group from Chapel Hill, lead by Squirrel Nut Zipper founder and singer, Katherine Whalen, features banjo and tenor guitar, steel guitar, upright bass and drums. The music ranges between country-rock, blues, surf, tight harmony singing and modern pop sounds.

Catch them playing Friday at the Cat's Cradle during Jon Shain's post-turkey-day-jam.

No band interviews on "I Liked You Better Before You Sold Out" on Sunday, Nov. 22, rather, we'll be sharing an hour of classical music with Savannah on the Feast of St. Cecilia.  St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music, and highly revered in both religious and secular arenas, for not only her patronage, but her story of martyrdom.  WXDU decided to devote some time to this familiar personage in music and we'll be interspering the Mass of St. Cecilia by Charles Gounod with more information on her life and devotions.  Tune in from 6-7 pm!

To read more, visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Cecilia

Tonight's mystery show theme is a simple one: WTF? The song, artist or album title will have the F-bomb. In the mix we'll have gentle indie rock, haunting pitch-shifted noise/drone, abstract hip hop, wonky, expansive ambient and many more. tune in. 10-11PM on WXDU 88.7FM in Durham or wxdu.org online

AZUCAR y CANDELA (W 6-8p) Featured Album, 11/11/09:  CALLE REAL, "Me Lo Gané"

BEST timba album from Sweden this year--and yes, there has been more than one! The land of ice and snow is quite the "home away from home" for this hot Havana dance rhythm. With only one Cuban in the band (conguero Rickard Valdes, son of Bebo and brother of Chucho) CALLE REAL is made up of mostly Swedes--although singer Thomas Eby just might fool you into thinking otherwise, with his mastery of Cuban accent and colloquialisms. READ MORE>>>

AZUCAR y CANDELA every Wednesday 6-8 pm. Join Santa Salsera on Facebook for album reviews and more!

11/4/09 Featured Album:  ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ, Timba Talmud

Called "Latin klezmer," Roberto Rodriguez Sextet's 4th dazzling album (executive produced for Tzadik by John Zorn) barrels straight out of the Cuban rhythm canon.  Percussionist Rodriguez, a Cuban Jew, displays all the cardinal virtues of "not having to choose" among his musical heritages...READ MORE>>>