The Roadhouse

The Roadhouse http://kexp.org/programming/programming.asp

There’s a place you can go
Wednesday evenings in Seattle
that reveres the old style,
the slow-tuning of an analog radio
archetypal rock songs
at the dusty end of the radio dial.

The Roadhouse is what it is.
Vandy’s slightly mumbled commentary,
in on a downbeat of silence between songs
short sound mixes: one-liners, call outs
and grooves
bringing it all together.
Tune in for summer sell-outs
for music for cars with the windows down
back porch drinking
on a hot Wednesday evening,
a little bit stoned
packing for the beach.
Playing all the songs that make a Wisconsin girl smile:
Graham Parsons, The Band, The Byrds,
New Riders of the Purple Sage.

Old-time mountain music
cajun, folk, country rock
antediluvian recordings
one-of-a-kind segues
low-fi gospel cuts to the Black Keys
a scratchy recording
20th century blues, woah man
some local darlings
The Duchess and The Duke.

Sit close to appreciate
start to finish week to week.
listen for a revelation.
a complete composition
a painting, a story
subjects, background, foreground
a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Labor Day protest songs
Union bargaining
people coming together
too old to work but too young to die
Anniversary Martin Luther King
March On Washington, 1963
songs of the gospel tradition
movement for equality
Nina Simone thundering "Alabama, God Damn,"
Vandy reminds “I Have a Dream”
Lincoln Memorial mesmerizing.
Columbia River Woody Guthrie
federal government, 1941
songs for dams in the
Pacific Northwest
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.

Music in a time and a place
you can visit that place
Wednesdays
Vandy's bringing it back to our time
best history lesson on the radio.
The roots of the music
playing the soundtrack of our lives.