Live radio on WTTU 88.5 FM in Cookeville, TN, frequent podcasts, occasional music/shows/book reviews, activism, & more! Since 2007.
Saturday, April 1, 2023
The Fool (TOTR 450)
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Beautiful Noise (TOTR 449)
Shea Diamond by zanetookapicture on Instagram
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-A mixture of celebration & determined action after the #LoveRising concert at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Monday, March 20, 2023
-You can listen to the audio archive here:
Stream episode Beautiful Noise - TOTR 449 by Teacher On The Radio podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Jake Wesley Rogers - Under the Sun
Adeem the Artist - For Judas
Sheryl Crow - Hard To Make A Stand
Autumn Nicholas - On A Sunday
Brittany Howard - Stay High
Joy Oladokun - Changes
Mya Byrne - It Don’t Fade
Fancy Hagood - Don't Blink
Interview with Billy from the Tennessee Equality Project
Jason Isbell & The Rainbow Coalition Band - Keep On Smilin (live fan recording)
Amanda Shires - Take It Like A Man
Hozier & Mavis Staples - Nina Cried Power
Shea Diamond - I Am Her
Alicia Keys & Brandi Carlile - A Beautiful Noise
Allison Russell & Brandi Carlile - You're Not Alone
The Highwomen - Crowded Table
Yola - Stand For Myself
Hayley Williams - Inordinary
Wrabel - The Village
Maren Morris - Better Than We Found It
Sister Sledge - We Are Family
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
#LoveRising Setlist - Nashville - 3.20.2023
Monday night
20 March 2023
Bridgestone Arena
745pm-1135pm
Benefit concert for Tennessee Equality Project & other lgbtqia+ organizations!
**notes and corrections and additions accepted
-pictures are from @zanetookapicture on Instagram. Please go follow them!
Jake Wesley Rogers
"Pluto"
Adeem the Artist
"For Judas"
Sheryl Crow
"Everyday is a Winding Road"
"Hard To Make A Stand"
Julien Baker
"Man" (Neko Case cover)
Autumn Nicholas
"On A Sunday"
Brittany Howard
"Stay High"
Joy Oladukun
"Somehow"
Mya Byrne
Fancy Hagood
"Don't Blink"
Izzy Heltai - ?
Jason Isbell
"Cover Me Up" (Amanda on fiddle)
"Keep On Smilin" (Wet Willie cover) with the oRainbow Coalition band
Amanda Shires
"Take It Like A Man"
Hozier & Allison Russell
"Nina Cried Power"
Hozier
"Take Me To Church"
Shea Diamond
"I Am Her"
Allison Russell, Shea Diamond, & Ruby Amanfu
"Beautiful Noise"
Allison Russell & company
"You're Not Alone"
The Highwomen
"Crowded Table"
Yola
"Stand For Myself"
Hayley Williams
"Inordinary"
"Did I Shave My Legs For This?"
(Deana Carter cover)
Wrabel
"The Village"
Maren Morris
"Better Than We Found It"
"The Middle"
Finale-
Yola & everyone
Everyone
"We Are Family"
Playlist is based on this great show, close to this but not precise! Some of the added songs fit the spirit, to be sure!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Cj7NByIBdHF6kqZ5bIJJ5?si=c9077ee55a7c4077
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
A Man, the Spirit, and the Sea: A Conversation with The Waterboys’ Mike Scott
Monday, March 6, 2023
Americana Sunrise - A Short Story
Americana Sunrise
Henry Woods sat in a mood on the tour bus. He refused to go by Hank for obvious reasons, but folks did call him Woody sometimes, especially his friends. He remembers being back in his bedroom, back in the hollers of East Tennessee as a teen, learning to sing “This Land Is Your Land,” discovering all those extra verses about private property and stuff, wanting to write one like that one day, to be just as scandalous.
But his albums always displayed his full name Henry Walker Woods, because just like the vests and the boots and the faded sunsets or the blurry and stone-washed rural apocalypse vibe, next to an abandoned filling station, he always knew that he was selling a version of that rural misfit, a concept of the authentic, the brand and the vibe as much as his songs. He had yet to write one as cutting as his nickname’s namesake, but he did try. He did try to remember when he was punk rock once, but that was back at the end of the last century, back before these gritty concepts met a mellower palette and an acoustic guitar made him a star.
Ever since Americana Sunrise dropped in 2010, everything changed. People were hopeful back then. Okay, at least more hopeful than today. People wanted to hear songs about working class people getting sober and about the struggles to maintain analog humanity in a digital age. If those newly sober, newly hopeful songwriters also tackled human rights and toxic masculinity in subtle yet biting ways, all the better. The best American folk music always had that left-of-center side, and if it originated in the rural south, that was a whole thing that could sell records.
He didn’t want to do another show in Alabama, but here we were in Birmingham. He didn’t want to do another podcast, but the label kept calling, asking him to talk to Billy Jay Hester from Stone Water magazine, again. “We need you to say something,” Susan Sharp shouted over the cell. Woody snapped. “I don’t want to say anything. You know that my songs say enough.”
“But you are still on Twitter,” Susan bit back.
He turned it all around in his head. He thought. He mulled.
He continued to talk to himself. I am sick of writing songs about police brutality that don’t offend the cops who come to my shows. I am sick of writing antiwar songs, if they are only ever from the perspective of the veteran with PTSD or the widow with a flag on the casket. I am sick of writing male feminist songs, ever since Stacy left me, he thought. I might have the best snarky activist stickers on my guitar case, but I am lonely and mad, and even after going back to 90 meetings in 90 days, online of course, because we are on the road, and I still want to throw back several shots of Jack.
As the streaming-service sensation who said it was okay to let people listen for free as long as they bought the all-cotton, fair-trade t-shirt for 50 bucks, Woody was sick to his heart of the dance and the duty of being the liberal American voice of Americana music. The benefit concerts were not working. The fiery Twitter game with cutting clapbacks was definitely not really working, except as emotional outlet, and might be making things worse.
Susan leveled with him. “You are already allowing Lavender Jones to open up shows in Oklahoma and Texas. Did you see what the Governors of Oklahoma and Texas are saying about people like Lavender? Did you see what Lavender said about leaving the country? They said they would never cancel this upcoming tour, but they don't want to raise their kid with queer parents in a place that passes laws like these. Can’t you just say something?”
Woody bit back, “I am not freaking Rage Against The Machine. My career arc is more like Bono or the Boss. I am not the boycott guy. Did you see what I tweeted back at that furious fan about Florida? I said it simple. I am not going to cancel shows because one stupid politician wants to cancel us. Just like I was a misfit in East Tennessee and needed Michael Stipe to feel human, the weirdo kids in Oklahoma and Texas and Florida need us.”
“But people are speaking up,” Susan insisted. “Other bands and artists, but their megaphone is not as big as yours.”
“Yes, yes, but some folks have a different way about it. I did see what that one band did, what are they called Hobo Wine? That is a great name, but no, we are not dressing up in dresses to protest the drag law. I am a heterosexual misfit from rural Tennessee whose look isn’t that different from these assholes who always cover my songs, like that bro-country singer from the poorly named band Jackson Whole. These people disgust me but I take the royalties. I already feel like a hypocrite. Anything I say or do now will seem so flipping extra, so performative.”
“Maybe you could retweet Lavender? Or I can call their people, maybe you could help them privately? I am not sure how, but we have to do something. What if the Proud Boys and their ilk come to the shows? Letting Lavender open is great as one kind of solidarity, but the community is hurting, and our entire operation is based in the place where some of the worst laws and worst politicians are. Maybe we are not Oklahoma or Texas or Mississippi or Florida, but in some people’s eyes, Tennessee is worse than them all.”
Woody got out his notebook and poured more seltzer water over ice.
“I know a song is not the answer, Susan, but it is the best we can do. Contact Lavender’s people about us doing a song together. That I can do. They and me can come up with the storyline that works.”
There was silence on the other end of the line. Susan was crying.
“Even when I am mad and up your ass sometimes, you always make me grateful to work for you.”
Saturday, March 4, 2023
The Deal (TOTR 448)
Stream episode The Deal - TOTR 448 by Teacher On The Radio podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Saturday, February 18, 2023
Emergency Hearts - For Jen Angel RIP (TOTR 447)
-as always, the views on this show belong to the host & curator & not to the WTTU student management or Tennessee Tech
-aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Saturday, February 18, 2023
-We begin with a reading of Jen’s obituary by Mark Zaborney from The Blade.
https://soundcloud.com/teacherontheradio/emergency-hearts-for-jen-angel-rip-totr-447
Leonard Bernstein & New York Philharmonic - from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite
Sweet Honey In The Rock - We Are The Ones
Porterdavis - Come On In My Kitchen
The Decemberists - Don’t Carry It All
The Avett Brothers - True Sadness
Conversation with guest Chris Crass
Evan Greer - I Want Something
Evan Greer - Punk Rock Angel From Montgomery
Pagan Holiday - Hallelujah
Fugazi - Blueprint
Screeching Weasel - A New Tomorrow
NOFX - Johnny Appleseed
Fifteen - Lookin’ for Trouble
Boom Boom Racoon - States and Nations
Ramshackle Glory - Of Ballots & Barricades
Moon Bandits - Emergency Hearts
The Window Smashing Job Creators - Utopian Spiel
Kimya Dawson - Utopian Futures
Grace Petrie - If There’s A Fire In Your Heart
Casey Neill - Sisters of the Road
Poison Girls - All The Way
Nina Simone - Here Comes The Sun
Thanks to Kristi, Jeff, & Lee for help with the playlist
Learn more about author/activist Chris Crass: http://www.chriscrass.org
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Banging Breakdown (TOTR 446)
Special guest Nathan Salsburg.
The Association for Cultural Equity
Music | Nathan Salsburg (bandcamp.com)
Originally aired on Saturday, February 11, 2023 on WTTU
Listen to the LIVE audio archive here:
Stream episode Banging Breakdown - TOTR 446 by Teacher On The Radio podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Nathan Salsburg & Bonnie Prince Billy - Unlearning Chant
Hobart Smith - Banging Breakdown
Memphis Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson II, & Big Bill Broonzy - I Could Hear My Name A Ringin'
Lead Belly - Alabama Bound
From Alan Lomax’s Negro Prison And Blues Songs
Little Red, Tangle Eye, & Hard Hair - Early in the Mornin'
Alex - Prison Blues
Bama - Levee Camp Holler
R.C. Crenshaw - I'm Going Home on the Mornin' Train
Son House - Downhearted Blues
Mississippi Fred McDowell - Woke Up This Morning With My Mind On Jesus
Mississippi Fred McDowell - Lord Have Mercy
Johnny Lee Moore - Levee Camp Holler
Jesus Is Real to Me
Bessie Jones - Hambone
Bessie Jones & Georgia Sea Island Singers - Before This Time Another Year
Bessie Jones - Get in Union
Bessie Jones - This Train is a Clean Train
Rev. Gary Davis - I Belong To The Band-Hallelujah!
Union Choir of the Church of God and Saints of Christ - None But the Righteous
Othar Turner & The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band - When I Lay My Burden Down
Henry Morrison & Saint Simon's Island Singers - I'm Gonna Sail Like a Ship on the Ocean
James Shorty & Viola James - This Little Light of Mine
James Shorty & Viola James - Jesus on the Main Line
Saturday, February 4, 2023
People Got To Be Free (TOTR 445)
[photo - Andrew Smith the Teacher On The Radio, his mom Barb Smith, and today's guest interviewee Tom Savage, from the October 2022 NAACP banquet]
Listen to the audio archive here:
https://soundcloud.com/teacherontheradio/people-got-to-be-free-totr-445
Keb' Mo' - People Got to Be Free
Interview with Tom Savage, Cookeville NAACP
Stevie Wonder - Love's In Need Of Love Today
Fantastic Negrito- Highest Bidder
Sunny War - No Reason
Prince - Sign 'O' the Times
Tracy Chapman - Behind the Wall
Boogie Down Productions - Who Protects Us From You?
Tré Burt - Under the Devil's Knee
Sam Cooke - Chain Gang
Cynthia Erivo - Stand Up
Moby & Gregory Porter & Amythyst Kiah - Natural Blues
Ondara - Mr. Landlord
Miko Marks & The Resurrectors - Lay Your Burdens Down
The 1865 - Buckshot
Bad Brains - Stay Close to Me
Dropkick Murphys - We Shall Overcome
Pete Seeger - John Brown's Body
Our Native Daughters- Black Myself
Resistance Revival Chorus & Rhiannon Giddens - All You Fascists Bound To Lose
Sweet Honey In The Rock- Ella's Song
The Staple Singers - Everyday People
Saturday, January 28, 2023
Let's Go (TOTR 444)
https://soundcloud.com/teacherontheradio/lets-go-totr-444
The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
The Byrds - Eight Miles High
David Crosby - Tamalpais High (At About 3)
David Crosby - Laughing
The Feelies - Let's Go
Guadalcanal Diary - Litany (Life Goes On)
Pylon - Crazy
Drivin N Cryin - With The People
Drivin N Cryin - Let's Go Dancing
Arrogance - Sunday Feeling
R.E.M. - Harborcoat
Let's Active - Waters Part
Camper Van Beethoven - One of These Days
Game Theory - If and When It Falls Apart
Miracle Legion - All for the Best
Dreams So Real - Bearing Witness
The Bongos - The Bulrushes
Blue Rodeo - Rebel
The Grapes Of Wrath - I Am Here
Dumptruck - 50 Miles
The dB's - White Train
Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream of Trains
The Cleaners From Venus - Please Don't Step on My Rainbow
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions - Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?
The Reivers- Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
the Windbreakers - Do Not Be Afraid
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Been To The Mountain (TOTR 443)
Stream Been To The Mountain - TOTR 443 by Teacher On The Radio | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
The Robots Are Coming (poem)
Listen to a reading of this poem:
https://youtu.be/3orCGfc8--A
The robots are coming
Saturday, January 14, 2023
One Day (TOTR 442)
Originally aired on Saturday, January 14, 2023 on WTTU
Listen to the audio archive here:
https://soundcloud.com/teacherontheradio/totr-442
Steve Earle - Last Words
Ke Kula ʻo Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu Public Charter School Students - Ua Ao Hawai’i
The Rose Ensemble - Hawai'i Aloha
Eddie Suzuki - High Tide
Denny Guy - Say You'll Be With Me
Hapa - Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai
Halau Ku Mana Public Charter School Students & Natural Vibrations - Better World
Trevor Hall - O Haleakala
Hapa - One Day
Merrell Fankhauser - Garden In The Rain
Carolina Chocolate Drops - Mahalla
Fleet Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains
Cast of Rent - Seasons of Love
Cast of Almost Famous - Everybody's Coming Together
Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air
Black Pumas - Eleanor Rigby
The Beatles - Love You To
Junior Parker - Tomorrow Never Knows
The HU - Mother Nature
Tengger Cavalry - Hymn of the Wolf
Zergananda - The Path to Valhalla
Brewer & Shipley - Witchi-Tai-To
Ali Lizzi & Michael Shlofmitz - We Are One in Harmony
20 Great Concerts from 2022!
Teacher On The Radio presents- a month by month selection of some great festivals & shows, seen & heard in 2022
January
Jason Isbell at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville
Just needed the “Driver 8” encore; both Jason & my wife Jeannie came down with Covid right after this
February
Adeem the Artist & My Politic at The Basement in Nashville
Heard “Going to Hell” months before it would be released & the december drop of White Trash Revelry would shock the country/Americana world.
March
Langhorne Slim at the Walker Theatre in Chattanooga, TN
Strawberry Mansion was my favorite album of 2021, & this intimate show had so much love & passion & pure fire energy for a solo-acoustic set. Langhorne is really celebrating his sobriety & huge appetite for life & these songs are hardcore healing medicine.
April
High Water Fest in Charleston South Carolina (Shovels & Rope, Jack White, MMJ, Delta Spirit)
We loved this two-day curated festival, very similar to Moon River in structure, one of many waterfront festies we would attend this year. The walk from parking to entrance took us through abandoned military housing. Both headliners were fantastic, but our hands-down hardcore highlight of the weekend was a steamy stunning purely pummeling powerful hour with Delta Spirit on Saturday afternoon.
May
Jazzfest in NOLA (Hurray for the Riff Raff, Shovels & Rope, Stevie Nicks)
Yes this was hot, overcrowded, & absolutely crazy, so grateful that I had a friend to drop me off & pick me up, I mean really really really fun, but one day is definitely enough!
Beaufort Music Festival, Beaufort, NC (Susto, The Collection)
We rented an old-school, beachfront motel, about 20 minutes from the festival & absolutely loved it. We have been following The Collection for a decade now, & they are about to get signed to a major label. This show was a duo, due some illness in the band & absolutely delightful. Tonight is our first Susto, & we are so here for it. Although they didn’t release any new material, we really discovered Susto for the first time this year
June
Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga, TN
One of our many required Jason sets this year, a surprisingly good Cage The Elephant, my first Jenny Lewis in many many moons was amazing, but Moon Taxi was just wow wow wow as always, especially their second-set all Rage Against The Machine tribute.
July
Dead & Company at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA
Despite some fierce downpour rain that killed the first set, it was still amazing. Incredible. My older brother treated me, his first Dead show of any kind. Shakedown was amazing. Got to meet the Dead Tarot deck people, a political radical/black power dead t-shirt guy, saw a street musician I first met in Venice 35 years ago, & enjoyed an amazing grilled PBJ. Looking at the prices on the tickets I have not bought for next summer, that may have been my last Dead show ever.
Goddamn Gallows at The Earl in Atlanta
In the summer of 2020, when I left my church job, my sweet spot for spiritual catharsis was gospel songs with cuss words. That’s when I discovered “Y’all Motherfuckers Need Jesus” by the Goddamn Gallows, who were thrilling to see in a tiny ATL punk venue.
Honeybrook & a bunch of poets at the Backdoor Playhouse, Cookeville
This year I reconnected with a great local band that plays mildly psych poppy warm classic indie rock in the tradition of Wilco or The Band, Honeybrook, fronted by a colleague & a former student. Myself & an array of poets opened the show.
August
Wilco in Newport, KY
Ever since my friend Kurt died, I have tried to see Wilco at least once a year, as a kind of memorial tribute. The first time was with a common friend, who once took the three of us to see the Boss at Bridgestone. The new Cruel Country album has all the summer shades of the Sky Blue Sky Wilco that I fell in love with back in 2007. This solo trip to Kentucky on the eve of my semester/academic year was the healing balm I needed.
Roger Waters in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena
I have always loved Pink Floyd’s more famous records The Wall & Dark Side of the Moon & have also followed the ferocity of Roger Waters’ leftwing antiwar activism. I frankly am surprised that a show of this level of societal critique made it to a place like Nashville in these times & that it looks like the RNC pleading to have their convention in Nashville in 2024 was rejected. We had cheap nosebleed seats & were given brilliant upgrades by the Bridgestone staff. A sonically & morally stunning night.
September
Holy Locust & Doom Scroll at Brickyard in Knoxville
I listen to lots of folk punk but forget to prioritize seeing these bands live. I am so glad I made it a priority to check out Holy Locust whose entirely unplugged set on the floor of the venue (forget the stage for some anarchist folkies) was sublime & transcendent in every possible way. They were also playing Muddy Roots here in Cookeville, but I have delayed having my first Muddy Roots for another year.
Moon River Festival in Chattanooga (cut to one day)
Drew Holcomb’s curated festival is a regular stop for us. We loved & needed The National’s headline set, but are pretty bummed that day two got cut for rainy weather, which kept us from having our only scheduled Band of Horses set of the year.
American Aquarium, Sarah Shook, & Adeem at the Exit/In Americanafest
I almost didn’t say “go” on this mid-week show, but I am so glad I did. My first-ever journey to Nashville Americanafest. I have been following Adeem’s rising fierce folk star since the top of the year, & it was great to have only my second American Aquarium & my first Sarah Shook show. So much fire.
October
Shoalsfest in Florence, AL (Nathaniel Rateliff, Jason Isbell, John Moreland, Drivin N Cryin)
If I don’t see Jason as often as I can, I get bad cravings; he just speaks to my soul like that.. So I just make it a point to go. This was our first Shoalsfest on a chilly early October weekend on another riverfront. A simple, single-stage fest with great music was all we needed. Drivin N Cryin so incredibly blew my mind & reminded me to go on a deep dig of 80s southern & rural jangle rock in the days following, perfect sounds for autumn & my 55th birthday.
Black Angels at Saturn in Birmingham, AL
Made a last minute decision for this Sunday solo jaunt to Birmingham. Independent & underground psychedelic rock are their own thing, & Austin’s Black Angels bear a million torches for this genre. For a pure brain melting total soul scorching rock-as-religion experience, this show had it all.
My Morning Jacket - Louisville 10-29-22
We were not able to get tickets for the Louisville homecoming shows over the summer due to date conflicts, so when those shows were canceled & rescheduled as a Halloween throw-down, we were all in. Such a great way to spend our holiday weekend.
William Elliott Whitmore & Adeem the Artist in Newport, KY (above picture is Adeem's guitar from this gig)
My passion for great artists that are new to me runs really deep. I decided I had to sneak up to Kentucky to see Adeem, & I got the added benefit of seeing a fierce sizzling one-man-band in William Elliot Whitmore. The whole experience was exhilarating & mesmerizing as I explored more of Newport (coffee, record stores, etc), even staying in an AirBnb a block from the venue & a loft above a magical gift & potion store.
Ryan Adams in Indianapolis, IN
I had mixed feelings about Ryan Adams before his crash-&-burn after being called out in the NYT for his relationship history. I also have mixed feelings about rock culture cancellations & cancellations in general. All that said, the Ryan resurrection this year was something to see, releasing album after album after album of solid songs. Then this tour where he would play these marathon two or three-hour solo sets, sometimes reaching 30 songs or more. Ours was filled with him fighting with himself & his audience, an incredible array of radically vulnerable disclosures, wearing his mental health struggles up front. Right before the show started, I got some incredibly troubling personal news, & this show was all therapy for me even as Ryan treated his audience like his therapist.