The Scottish Thrift Shop

[johnfoyle]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/06_june/06/scot_music.shtml

BBC Radio Scotland announces new music formats for summer

(extract)

The Radio Thrift Shop



From 12 August until 2 September, on Fridays from 8.05 to 10.00pm.

Laura Cantrell presents the cult American country programme, specially produced for listeners in Scotland. The Radio Thrift Shop will give Radio Scotland listeners an exclusive taste of New York's country music world, and introduce a whole new world of radio, featuring music on disc and in session.

Cantrell is a brilliant country singer and rising star on both sides of the Atlantic. She is also one of country music's most acclaimed cult broadcasters.

For three hours every week on WFMU (broadcasting to New York City), she is the proprietor of The Radio Thrift Shop, a country music show like no other - a brilliant mix of the best and most exciting new country and the best and most obscure old records. It is cult listening for music fans in New York.

According to the New York Times: "She has the sort of east Tennessee accent that seems to keep your coffee warm. Her decidedly uncatchy signature line - 'Well, there you have it folks' - has become a lazy weekend mantra for her fans. And over the last six years, her noon-to-3pm show, The Radio Thrift Shop on WFMU, the famously eclectic New Jersey radio station, has made her one of the city's best-known DJs among music lovers with a country-and-western bent."

Cantrell already has very strong links with Scotland, having launched her recording career on the Glasgow label Spit & Polish; having made frequent visits, she has built up a sizeable Scottish fanbase.

She also has a high media profile. A concert on her last tour was filmed and broadcast on BBC FOUR, and she's been profiled in depth on several occasions in the quality press.

Big fans include Elvis Costello (who invited her to tour with him in America) and John Peel (for whom she recorded several sessions).

Her profile will be raised higher by a new album, Humming By The Flowered Vine, due out on 20 June. It's her first album following a significant new record deal.

Guests will include some of the dynamic artists in New York, whether in residence or passing through.

In addition, Laura has access to an incredible stock of archive recordings, including transcripts of radio appearances dating back over 50 years and featuring the most important figures in country music.

Excerpts of these, many never heard before in the UK, will weave seamlessly into the programmes.

[johnfoyle]

This starts tonight ; each show will be available on the 'net for a week after initial airing.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/view/show.shtml?thrift

For playlists/ 'play again' link.

[Doonhamer]

I've been a Radio Scotland listener for quite some years now. I've always enjoyed it's wonderfully eclectic programming choices. I must say, Laura's programme slides right into place.

I really enjoyed her first show. I'm very much looking forward to the remaining 3, and I intend to listen online to WFMU when her run here is over.

Thanks for the great music Laura. See you in Edinburgh in September.

[johnfoyle]

Kinda related -

http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article?article_id=2054

Paste , Issue 17


Laura Cantrell

Chasing Ghosts on the Airwaves

It turns out that Laura Cantrell isn’t the only member of her family to move to New York from Tennessee for a radio career. “I was sort of shocked, thinking that my … experience was unique to my family,” laughs singer/songwriter Cantrell when asked about her great-great aunt Ethel Park Richardson—a folksong collector and radio-show pioneer whose life eerily parallels her own.

Both hail from Tennessee, both became enamored with Appalachian folkways, and both ended up in New York City with radio shows devoted to preservation of this music. So Cantrell offered a tribute to Richardson with an obscure rendition of folk ballad “Poor Ellen Smith” on her third album (and first studio effort), Humming by the Flowered Vine.

“Ethel was very determined to collect the mountain sayings and songs out of her own interest in preserving the culture,” Cantrell continues, admitting she didn’t know that the song collector—whose life she’d read about for years—actually shared a branch on her family tree. “She was a schoolteacher who never really intended a commercial purpose to her collection, but found creative ways to use her knowledge that ultimately led her to New York and a very-long-running radio career. That parallel of an avocation that leads to a profession was very interesting to me.”

Cantrell, a student of Appalachian folk music, has done just that, with her previous two releases winning over everyone—from late, legendary British DJ John Peel to the Grand Ole Opry faithful—with their aching honesty and homespun charm.

It’s only fitting that Cantrell’s own “Radio Thrift Shop” (on WFMU FM) is actually a distant echo of the tradition that Richardson began 70 years earlier with the NBC radio drama Heart-throbs of the Hills. “But I cannot profess to be an expert in the way that she was,” Cantrell says modestly. “I do feel like there is a tradition of collectors/musicians/broadcast folk who have an impulse to share what they’ve learned. I can say pretty sincerely I fall into that category.”

[Paulw]

Another round of applause for Laura - that was fascinating. Especially Johnny Cash - I was waiting for him to extol the virtues of propane, a la Hank Hill.

[johnfoyle]

Just listening to the Sept.2 show - and the guest duo - Last Town Chorus ( Megan Hickey - lap steel guitar ,Pete Galub - guitar ) - are doing a pretty neat version of David Bowie's Modern Love (about 35 mins. in) - well worth a listen!

http://www.thelasttownchorus.com/

has another version of it , as well as Culture Club's Do You Really Wanna Hurt Me - excellent!