The Final Final (TOTR 533)

 

-As we continue our All Saints season series, we celebrate the lives of poets Diamond Dave Whitaker (11-12-1937 to 3-2-2026) and Coleman Barks (4-23-1937 to 2-23-2026)
-Content warning for discussion of religion, politics, and drug use
-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Wednesday, October 21, 2026
-Stream The Final Final - TOTR 533 by Teacher On The Radio | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university
Bob Dylan - Fixin to Die
-Interview/commentary by Diamond Dave Whitaker, from 2012, courtesy of Cinema Timshel

-photos of Diamond Dave courtesy of Barbara Bennett and Gabreila Remy/48hills
-photo of Coleman Barks from his visit to Cookeville with Teacher On The Radio from 2-14-2019, taken at Persis restaurant

Bob Dylan - She Belongs To Me
Solomon Burke - Maggie’s Farm
-Interview/commentary by Diamond Dave Whitaker, part two
John Sebastian - Daydream 
-performance by Diamond Dave Whitaker and his son Ubidube
Coleman Barks - Some Kiss
Coleman Barks - The Freshness
-poetry performance by Coleman Barks, accompanied by Eugene Friesen, at Tennessee Tech in Henderson Hall, recorded on 2-14-2019
Coleman Barks & Tuatara - Luke and the Duct Tape
-Coleman Barks in conversation with Bill Moyers, 1999
Coleman Barks & Tuatara - The Final Final
Coleman Barks & Coldplay - Kaleidoscope

Death Don’t Have No Mercy (TOTR 532)

 -This week, we celebrate remember the life of the Grateful Dead’s Bobby Weir (October 16, 1947-January 10, 1946)

-This week, we talk about all things Grateful Dead in an interview with Cookeville Deadhead Alvin Knox

-thanks to the Dead taping community, we will hear excerpts from the only original Grateful Dead shows in the Jerry era that Teacher On The Radio attended, in 1987 & 1988 respectively

-content warning for discussion of drug use & incarceration 

-shout to the Wharf Rats & the entire yellow balloon movement of clean & sober music fans; if you or someone you love is struggling with substance use disorder, help is available 

-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Wednesday, October 14, 2026

-Stream Death Don't Have No Mercy - TOTR 532 by Teacher On The Radio | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university

Grateful Dead - Cassidy (Shoreline Amphitheatre, 6-16-1990)

-Voices of Bobby Weir, Mickey Hart, Jerry Garcia, & Dennis McNally from the Long Strange Trip documentary

Grateful Dead - Sugar Magnolia (Winterland, 12-31-1978)

- Interview with Deadhead Alvin Knox - excerpt

Grateful Dead - Fire On The Mountain (Winterland, 12-31-1978)

- Interview with Deadhead Alvin Knox - excerpt

Grateful Dead - Wharf Rat (Alpine Valley, 6-27-1987)

- Interview with Deadhead Alvin Knox - excerpt

Grateful Dead - Turn On Your Lovelight (Joe Louis Arena, 4-11-1988)

Grateful Dead - Happy Birthday Drummers (Joe Louis Arena, 4-11-1988)

(An inside joke or tongue-in-cheek prank was it was neither Bill Kreutzman’s nor Mickey Hart’s actual birthday)

Grateful Dead - Brokedown Palace (Joe Louis Arena, 4-11-1988)

Grateful Dead - Touch of Grey (Joe Louis Arena, 4-11-1988)

Grateful Dead - Death Don’t Have No Mercy (Hampton Coliseum, 10-9-1989)

Cookeville Poet (and Deadhead and retired MTSU English professor) Alvin Knox is moving away. Grateful Dead singer & guitarist Bobby Weir is dead. This week is Bobby’s birthday, & I think it’s high time for a Grateful Dead episode of Teacher On The Radio.

When some of Alvin’s incredible Dead collection (including live cassettes and photographs) started showing up at University Vintage and Moody’s Thrift Store last spring, I got a hankering to talk to him about the Grateful Dead. 

It turns out that part of Alvin’s Dead story is incredibly near and dear to my heart, beyond the bond that heads & fans always share. He once edited a by-mail fanzine for incarcerated Deadheads. As a recovering addict/alcoholic & a prison abolitionist, I find this completely fascinating & an important -- but perhaps not-talked-about-enough -- aspect of the Grateful Dead community. We go there. We also end up talking about one of my other favorite Dead topics, the Spinners. 

To honor Alvin on the occasion of his departure, & to honor Bobby Weir on his birthday & for the first All Saints/Halloween season since Weir’s passing, I have been working on a special Dead themed Teacher On The Radio to include some of this interview with Alvin & some Dead music. I hope you all might want to check out the unedited interview as well as the radio show. (There are some minor technical glitches at the end of the unedited interview tape, which will be excerpted for the radio program. 

Song Of The Future (TOTR 531)

 

-This week, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of U2 & the incoming new U2 music.

Our guest is Steve Harmon, friend & colleague, pastor & professor & author.

His new book is U2's Theological Imagination. A Guide for Pilgrims on the Way.
-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Listen to the audio archive -

Stream Song Of The Future - TOTR 531 by Teacher On The Radio | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university

U2 - Stories for Boys

Bono - Surrender memoir, excerpt

U2 - Cedarwood Road

U2 - The Tears of Things

U2 - Song of The Future
U2 - Resurrection Song

U2 - COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times)

Interview with Steve Harmon

U2 - Silencio (live from Mt. Temple school on 9-25-2026)

Interview with Steve Harmon

U2 - Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way (live from Mohegan Sun on 7-3-2018)

Bono & The Edge - Running to Stand Still (live from Cain’s Ballroom on 10-21-2025)

Bono & The Edge - Sunday Bloody Sunday (live from Cain’s Ballroom on 10-21-2025)

Bono & The Edge - One (live from Cain’s Ballroom on 10-21-2025)

Bono & The Edge - Pride (in the Name of Love) (live from Cain’s Ballroom on 10-21-2025)

Bono & The Edge - Yahweh (live from Cain’s Ballroom on 10-21-2025)

U2 - Bad (live from East Rutherford, NJ on 4-15-1985) 

Think I'll Start Over (TOTR 530)

 

-this episode reviews the Teacher’s attendance at Americanafest in Nashville last week!

-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Stream Think I'll Start Over - TOTR 530 by Teacher On The Radio | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university

Ruthie Foster - Six Mile Water
Chris Pierce - Madonna of the San Joaquin
Brandi Carlile - Returning To Myself
Ken Pomeroy - This Old Guitar
The Sentimental Gentlemen - Leavin’ The Ozarks
Sparrow Smith & The Resonant Rogues - Wineberry Time
Sabine McCalla - Louisiana Hound Dog
Hollow Hand - Heavy Metal T-Shirt
Thomas Dollbaum - Big Boi
Lily Seabird - Lightspheres On The Way
Angela Autumn - Millionaire Money
Drayton Farley - Chewing On Fire
Roger Harvey & John R. Miller - Blue Mountain
John R. Miller - Think I’ll Start Over
Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs - Let Me Back In My Dream

Boy Golden & Cat Clyde - Moontan
Brown Horse - Total Dive
River Shook - Beater Car
Ramsey Thornton - Home Base
Emily Scott Robinson & John Paul White - Cast Iron Heart
Sierra Ferrell - Pair of Dice
Buddy Miller & Emmylou Harris et. al. - The Inner Sanctum of God
Rhiannon Giddens - Walk With Me  

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (TOTR 529)

 

-today we celebrate 19 years on the air (that's 19 years with lots of sabbaticals & most summers off) & we are thinking about Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash through the filter of Elvis, because that is the entire mood I am in upon this pre-recording!
-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Wednesday, September 16, 2026
-listen to the audio archive:
Stream You Ain't Goin' Nowhere -TOTR 529 by Teacher On The Radio | Listen online for free on SoundCloud 
-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university

Gillian Welch - Elvis Presley Blues
Dire Straits - Calling Elvis
The String Cheese Incident - Johnny Cash
Chuck Berry - Memphis, Tennessee
Elvis Presley - That’s All Right
Elvis Presley - Mystery Train
Elvis Presley - If I Can Dream 
Johnny Cash - Hey Porter 
Scott Moreau & the Died Drunk Boys - I Walk The Line
Bob Dylan - Song To Woody
Pete Seeger - Wimoweh
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash - Big River
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash - Wanted Man
Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash - If I Were A Carpenter
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash - Girl from the North Country
Bob Dylan - Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
Bob Dylan - Mississippi 
The Byrds - You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
Joan Baez - Diamonds And Rust
Richard Thomspon - From Galway to Graceland
Bruce Springsteen - Johnny Bye Bye
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Tupelo (live)
U2 - Unchained Melody 

Hurry Up Sunrise (TOTR 528)

 

-for today’s show, we get into some Jug Band music, as we anticipate the “story of American music” concert on 9-10-2026 at the Backdoor Playhouse, starting at 7:30pm & featuring the Jake Leg Stompers & Eggplant Faerie Players. The event is free, & the Playhouse is at the back of the Jere Whitson Building, just off the Tennessee Tech quad. We also hear from the founder of the Jake Leg Stompers, Bill Steber.
-as timing would have it, just as last week’s show remembered Dolly Parton on the occasion of her passing, much of today’s show turns to remember the life of Kentucky poet, farmer, novelist, essayist, & activist Wendell Berry, including an excerpt of Berry speaking & poems by your host that poured out this week
-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Wednesday, September 9, 2026
-episode audio archive posted after the live show
-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university

The Lovin Spoonful - Jug Band Music
Jake Leg Stompers - Tear it Down, Bed Slats and All
Jake Leg Stompers (with Luther Dickinson) - Goin’ Down South
Bill Steber being interviewed in April 2026 (excerpt)
Jake Leg Stompers (with Luther Dickinson) - Hurry Up Sunrise
Charles Wesley Godwin - I Caught The Sunrise
Wendell Berry - A Warning To My Readers
Brian Andres & the Mark Lalama Trio - The Mad Farmer Liberation Front (by Wendell Berry)
Tyler Childers - Follow You To Virgie
Tyler Childers - Lady May
Nicholas Jamerson - Goodbye Brother
Willi Carlisle - The Mason Jar at the Center of the Universe
Brandon Flowers - Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?
Emily Scott Robinson - Better With Time
Nicholas Jamerson & the Morning Jays - Linda James
The Wooks - Helechawa
Sophie Wellington - Shacks and Chalets
-Wendell Berry, response to a question, Festival of Faiths - Sacred Earth Sacred Self, 2014 in Louisville, Kentucky
Creekbed Carter Hogan - Peasants Revolt
Billy Strings & Don Julin - I’ve Just Seen The Rock of Ages
Colin Cutler & friends - Temple of the Holy Ghost
Adrienne Young, Will Kimbrough, & Ketch Secor - Satan, yer Kingdom Must Come Down
James McMurtry - Decent Man
Jake Leg Stompers with Rev. John Wilkins - That’s No Way To Get Along 
Foggy Memory Boys - Put it on My Gravestone
The Local Honeys - My Old Kentucky Home
Jake Leg Stompers with Jimbo Mathis & Rev. John Wilkins - I Shall Not Be Moved

Union Song (TOTR 527)

 

-in this episode, we celebrate Labor Day & shout out our solidarity with workers everywhere, especially university workers, whether students or staff or faculty! Special shoutout to the United Campus Workers/Communications Workers of America, American Association of University Professors/American Federation of Teachers, & Tennessee Tech’s new chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America - @ydsatntech  

-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Wednesday, September 2, 2026

-Listen to the audio archive here:
Stream episode Union Song - TOTR 527 by Teacher On The Radio podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university

Dolly Parton - 9 to 5

Pete Seeger - What Did You Learn In School Today

Dave Van Ronk - Samson and Delilah

Lead Belly - Bourgeois Blues

Fred Holstein - Banks of Marble

Utah Phillips & Rosalie Sorrels - Wobbly Doxology

Utah Phillips - The Preacher and The Slave

Pete Seeger - I Don’t Want Your Millions Mister

IWW Rebel Voices - Power In The Union 

Blue Highway - Union Man

Woody Guthrie - Farmer-Labor Train

Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith - Chemical Workers Song

Hazel Dickens - They’ll Never Keep Us Down 

Louise Mosrie - Battle of Blair Mountain

Barbara Dane - I Hate The Capitalist System

Phil Ochs - Automation Song

Joan Baez - Joe Hill - Live at Woodstock

Phil Ochs - Joe Hill

Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad

Tom Morello - Union Song - recorded live in Madison, Wisconsin

Mimi and Richard Farina - House Un-American Blues Activity Dream

Mimi Farina - Quiet Joys of Brotherhood

Billy Strings - Mill Town Flood

Willi Carlisle - Work Is Work

Hurray For The Riff Raff - People Talkin’

Dolly Parton & Miley Cyrus - Rainbowland 

Ticket To Ride (TOTR 526)

 

-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Wednesday, August 26, 2026
-listen to the audio archive here:
Stream Ticket To Ride - TOTR 526 by Teacher On The Radio | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

-in this episode, we dive immediately into the Teacher’s theme for the fall 2026 “American Mixtape” class, featuring the 1960s & 1970s, including the darker side of the counterculture, with a specific focus on how the 60s influenced the 1980s & 90s.
-photo by Vernon Merritt iii of the Barker Ranch, a temporary residence of the Manson family
-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university

Aretha Franklin - Jumpin Jack Flash (1986 recording of the 1968 Rolling Stones song)
U2 - Helter Skelter (1988 release of the 1968 Beatles song, recorded live on the Joshua Tree tour in Fall 1987)
Sonic Youth & Lydia Lunch - Death Valley ‘69 (a 1985 meditation on the brutal Manson Family murders of 1969)
Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun (1985)
Husker Du - Ticket To Ride (1985 version of a 1965 Beatles song)
R.E.M. - There She Goes Again (1983 version of a 1967 song by the Velvet Underground & Nico)
Bongwater - Just May Be The One (1988 version of a 1967 song by The Monkees)
The Cure - Purple Haze (1993 version of the a 1967 song by Jimi Hendrix)
Echo & the Bunnymen - People Are Strange (1987 version of a 1967 song by The Doors)
Sisters of Mercy - Gimme Shelter (1992 version of a 1967 song by The Rolling Stones)
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Dear Prudence (1983 version of a 1968 song by The Beatles)
The Cult - Brother Wolf; Sister Moon (1985)
Rain Parade - What’s She Done To Your Mind (1983)
The Gun Club - Eskimo Blue Day (1990 version of a 1969 song by Jefferson Airplane)
Jason & the Scorchers - Absolutely Sweet Marie (1983 version of a 1966 song by Bob Dylan)
Camper Van Beethoven - We Saw Jerry’s Daughter (1986)
Indigo Girls - Uncle John’s Band (1991 version of the Grateful Dead song that was released in 1970 on Workingman’s Dead)
10,000 Maniacs - Peace Train (1987 version of the 1971 Yusuf/Cat Stevens song)
Doctor & The Medics - Spirit In The Sky (1986 version of the 1969 song by Norman Greenbaum)
The Soup Dragons & Junior Reid - I’m Free (1990 version of the 1965 song by The Rolling Stones)
U2 - All Along The Watchtower (1988 release of a 1987 version of the 1967 Bob Dylan song)
U2 - Paint It Black (1991 version of 1966 song by The Rolling Stones)
The Lemonheads - Mrs. Robinson (the 1993 version of the 1968 song by Simon & Garfunkel from the soundtrack to the Mike Nichols’ film The Graduate)
The Dream Academy - Life In A Northern Town (1985)

Claire Vaye Watkins books (referenced early in the show)
Battleborn - short stories 2012
Gold Fame Citrus - novel 2015
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness - novel 2021
Yellow Pine - novel 2026

Claire Vaye Watkins was born in Bishop, California in 1984. She is the daughter of Martha Watkins, described by Claire as "this incredible dynamo, a great bullshitter," and Paul Watkins, a former member of the Manson Family and a close collaborator of Charles Manson. Claire Watkins was raised in the Mojave Desert, first in Tecopa, California and then across the state line in Pahrump, Nevada. Photo by Dustin Snipes. 

Dolly Parton (1946-2026) - RIP - Pop-up episode

 

For Dolly & all who grieve her!
Aired on WTTU on Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 from 5-6pm central time.

Guest poetry reading by P.A. Jones of Alabama.

Jolene
Joshua
Just Because I'm A Woman                                                                                                        9 to 5 - with Kelly Clarkson

Even Cowgirls Get The Blues - with Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt

Peace Train - with Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Long As I Can See The Light - with John Fogerty
Softly and Tenderly - with Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt

Rainbowland - with Miley Cyrus
Freebird - with Lynyrd Skynyrd

𝗗𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗗𝗜𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗢𝗗𝗔𝗬

Dolly Parton died today.

That sentence feels
too small for the occasion.

Too plain.

Like saying
the mountains lost a tree
when the whole damn ridge
has changed shape.

She had been here so long
I had placed her among
the permanent things.

Front porches.

Sunday dinner.

Old women snapping beans
with a radio playing
beside the kitchen sink.

Those Tennessee mountains
rising blue through the morning fog.

Some voices become part
of the country itself.

They settle into the wood.

Get carried through screen doors
and open truck windows.

Follow us down two-lane roads
past little churches,
abandoned filling stations,
and houses where somebody
is still trying to make
one paycheck stretch
all the way to Friday.

Dolly knew those houses.
She came from a cabin
full of children,
hand-me-down clothes,
old hymns,
hard winters,
and the kind of love
that learns how to multiply
when there is never enough
of anything else.

She carried that cabin
everywhere she went.

Carried the smoke from the chimney.

Carried her mother’s singing.

Carried the hills
and the worn-out hands
of people who worked
their whole lives
without seeing their names
written anywhere.

Then she walked beneath
the brightest lights in America
covered in rhinestones
and refused to apologize
for a single inch of herself.

Lord, she was something.

Hair piled halfway to heaven.

A laugh big enough
to fill a room.

A voice that could sound
like Saturday night
and Sunday morning
in the same breath.

People saw the wigs,
the dresses,
the impossible shine.

Dolly saw them looking.

Then she smiled
and went about the business
of owning the whole damn room.

She wrote songs
for women standing
on aching feet
while some fool behind a desk
counted their minutes.

Songs for people
lying awake beside somebody
they were already losing.

Songs for those who loved enough
to let go.

Songs for jealous hearts,
lonely beds,
empty pockets,
and anybody who ever stared
toward the mountains
wondering whether there was
another life beyond them.

She knew a song
could sit beside a person
when words from everybody else
had quit working.

She also knew
a child with a book
might discover a road
leading somewhere
nobody in their family
had ever gone.

So she mailed them books.

Millions of them.

Sent them into trailers,
farmhouses,
apartments,
cabins,
and little bedrooms
where a child opened a cover
and found the world
waiting inside.

She made more money
than the girl in that cabin
could have imagined.

Then she spent a lifetime
reaching back toward children
who were still there.

That may be the truest thing
any of us can do
with whatever light
finds its way to us.

Reach back.

Keep the door open.

Remember the road.

Dolly died today.

Tonight her voice
will come through speakers
in kitchens and trucks
and roadside bars
from Tennessee
clear down through Alabama.

Somebody will turn it up.

Somebody will cry.

Some woman working late
will sing along.

Some little girl
will stand before a mirror,
hold a hairbrush like a microphone,
and believe the room
is already hers.

And somewhere
a child will open
a book with Dolly’s name inside
and begin sounding out
the first sentence
of a life she helped make larger.

That is how a person stays.

In the songs we keep singing.

In the doors we leave open.

In the hands reaching backward
from whatever mountain
we have managed to climb.

The rhinestones will keep shining.

The books will keep arriving.

And the rest of us
will have to decide
what we are going to do
with all the light
she left behind.

- Paul A. Jones 

Cookeville’s Annual Backstage Series Begins a New Season with the Bold Love Potions of a Classic Play (local theater review)

 

This time last year, I had the privilege of attending one of the sold-out performances of Agatha Christie’s “Mousetrap” at the Cookeville Performing Arts Center. There’s something soothing about seeing a spooky show that foretells Fall when we are still trapped in the steamy dog days of late summer. This summer’s opening act to another season of the local Backstage Series is called “All Because of Agatha,” but it’s not about (or by) Agatha Christie. This stellar show does, however, bring the needed autumnal and occult ambiance to the sweltering conclusion of summer. 

Prepare to be surprised by the spicy chemistry of the characters and their campy interactions, all set against the surreal backdrop of a haunted house in Salem, Massachusetts. Portraying the real estate agent Mr. Van Buren, Brent Fleshman hides nothing from the young couple prepared to purchase the otherwise wonderfully furnished home, known for its annual hauntings by the martyred witch Agatha Forbes. (As an added thing, some of the attractive set pieces are available for purchase at the end of the run.) 

Caleb Grinder and Stella Land seem innocent enough as the leading couple, the O’Haras, but as the drama proceeds, their relationship gets more than tested by everyone’s anxiety about the upcoming annual haunting. Can Joan O’Hara’s interest in the supernatural sustain her and her marriage to Duff O’Hara through the ensuing craziness? 

For three brief acts, audiences will be awed by the laugh-out-loud chaos of the characters’ chemistry, all colliding joyfully in seemingly random romance, with everyone connected by their anticipation of ghost Agatha’s approach. While the O’Haras might have imagined settling peacefully into their new digs, Jonathan Troy’s script had other ideas, with those ideas involving nonstop comedic interruptions. While Reona Lee as Mrs. Boggs fails to get the couple invested in the Society of Psychic Phenomena, the O’Haras do seek a personal chef and housekeeper in Anna Stites as Ethel Hinkston, who brings so much sparkle and energy to an already energetic cast. 

By the second act, it’s become one big party complete with nibbles, as everyone awaits Agatha, everyone including Matt Kirby as Dr. Randolph and Paije Beaudry as Madame La Solda, the doctor’s mother and an over-the-top supernatural medium. Not to leave any angle untapped, Mrs. O’Hara’s aunt Thelma shows up to add yet more silliness and to impress the understated charm of Dr. Randolph, which Bre Brown does beautifully in that bold role. On party night, Travis Jay Wiggins is there as journalist Flip Cannon, to document the entirely delicious debacle for the local paper and to make eyes for Anna.  

In theater and film, when an actor becomes so strongly identified with a particular character they portray, that is sometimes called typecasting. For big stars like Jon Hamm, that means Don Draper from “Mad Men” has followed him around in every role since. While typecasting might have a negative implication in the film industry, I propose that every instance of it surely began with one director or producer doing an amazing job in casting a particular show. For Cookeville’s “All Because of Agatha,” director Jordyn Strilecky could not have done better than in casting local activist and store owner Montana Chambers as Agatha Forbes. What was already a great production becomes truly transcendent once Agatha enters the chat. Some naturally gifted performers were born for certain roles, and that is certainly the case here. 

Community theater productions carry the added benefit of bringing people together across generations for in-person inspiration in this increasingly online world. It’s always a thrill to see newcomers to the local stage mix it up seasoned veterans with decades in the scene. Cookeville’s new version of the older play “All Because of Agatha” is all laughs and love potions, a magical mystery romp and haunted hee-haw, a fantastic feel-good escape from the August heat.

-Andrew Smith (aka Teacher On The Radio) has been Cookeville’s theater critic for 20 years.
-photo of lead performer Montana Chambers courtesy of the Cookeville Performing Arts Center’s Facebook feed
-All Because of Agatha by Jonathan Troy runs on August 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, and 22 at 7pm, and August 15 and 16 at 2pm. The performances are all held in the heart of Cookeville at 10 East Broad Street. Tickets are available in advance and at the door, if a show is not sold out. You can call the box office at 931-528-1313. 

Packing Up My Sorrows & finding Euphoria with Detroit’s Don’t Look Now Jug Band

 

I got all tied up in the world

Sometimes the world got tangled up in me

but there was always this old music

the rocking of the song

sing loud & strong & you just can’t go wrong

-Maurice Greenia, Old Lost Jug Band Song, for Tim Knoll, from the Poetic Express

I was recently falling down a Mimi & Richard Farina rabbit hole online & I just could not get the gorgeous song “Pack Up Your Sorrows” out of my head. Where did I learn that song, though, not from them. I learned that song in the late 1980s from a local Jug Band in my feral bicycle-riding, cheap-apartment & group house & pre-Wayne State gap years in Woodbridge & the Corridor in the heart of Detroit.

You know, I love all the “I got to old-time & folk through punk rock” narratives, & I sometimes like to pretend I am part of it, because I kinda traced it with my mind, watching crusty travelers bust out banjos & fiddles & such back in the late 1990s & early 2000s. But if I am honest, I never entirely left folk music & never wanted to.

Even if my earliest roots were more Joan Baez & John Denver than my later passions for Utah Phillips & Ani diFranco or even later getting older, the folk was always in me, with later discoveries of songs hunted by Harry Smith & Alan Lomax, not to mention church camp campfires, molded later into drunk stoner campfires, everyone busting out their acoustic guitars somewhere along the way. Roots music (which includes folk but also gospel & blues) is my river & my ocean, with rock & pop & everything else coming from there ultimately, from some much deeper source.

There’s this one folk music junk drawer that I am only recently reminding myself of, with an old wheezy & warbly cassette tape, one profound folk music moment for me was simultaneously surrounded on all sides by punk & psychedelic, by garage & metal, by world beat & ska, as my Detroit neighborhood spawned such a diverse & creative cauldron. 

But the Cass Corridor I moved to in the late 1980s was a portal, a visionary village, gritty bohemian enclave inside a larger decaying & not-yet-gentrified city. There upon arrival at 20-years-old, I had a particular taproot between the Food Co-op where I worked stocking produce & shelves & ringing at the register, at Cass & Willis (formerly & later Cobb’s Corner), & at the Unitarian Church, a few blocks north.

The Unitarian Church had a sprawling attic loft that doubled as a caretakers’ collective where the building & custodial staff successfully bartered their labor for reduced rent, taking good care of some basic chores around the building. That was a whiff of heaven, a wild & weedy scene, from all I remember & it forever got its hippy aura & aroma in me. Like any boho outpost on our continent, they had the old-time music thing that loves to crop up in weird ways. The Don’t Look Now Jug Band were the Unitarian Church & Food Co-Op “house band,” that we would also find at our delicious neighborhood street fair the Dally In The Alley. 

When I wrote about the Jug Band in a rambling free-form psychotropic essay-review of the 1988 Dally, I saw their purely acoustic unplugged performances as a kind of statement about the primitivist aesthetic I was simultaneously learning from the neighborhood’s anarchist environmentalist crowd & our protests against the trash incinerator being built in our community. One of the only old Jug Band flyers I could find was one I made from a benefit for our civil disobedience defendants, the Evergreen 19, an all night affair hosted by the Community Concert Series, our neighborhood's convergence of all ages, all genres, & all flavors of local freaks. 

Putting on the weary old cassette, I am reminded that they introduced me to really important parts of the American songbook. I first heard all of these truly iconic American songs, some whose lineage I would only discover much later, performed live around the neighborhood & on that cassette by the Jug Band: 

“Mole In The Ground” by Bascom Lamar Lunsford

“Pack Up Your Sorrows” by Mimi & Richard Farina 

“Euphoria” by the Holy Modal Rounders

“Plastic Jesus” by Ed Rush and George Cromarty 

The Don’t Look Now Jug Band always had a large lineup & it rotated significantly over the years. 

In my earliest encounters with the Jug Band, I always considered the late Tim Knoll the ringleader & curator, but in some of these pictures I dug up, no Tim. Eden Winter, Maryann Angelini, & James Knoll were hardcore regulars. Surrealist pamphleteer & folk artist Maurice Greenia would join. My friends such as Mary Richards & Karin Friedemann would play fiddle. Then I see one with Ralph Koziarski on clarinet. There is another jug band lineage with early member Bill Carney who is still active today in the NYC jug band scene. Cobbling this together, I welcome any & all additions & corrections! 

I am also seeking more photos & old flyers & a copy of their CD that came out in the early 2000s that I am not sure I ever heard! Or tips or reminders or recordings of other adjacent Corridor folk music!

There’s not a lot extant regarding the unique Detroit contributions of Don’t Look Now Jug Band on the internet, & I realize the larger American jug band tradition is something much more vast we could talk about, with deep southern roots in places like Memphis. I was able to find a few old YouTubes of the Don’t Look Now Jug Band that surely brought me back, & I have ripped a sampling of songs from that old wheezy cassette!

By their own description in the 1988 Dally program, they were an:

"all-acoustic band playing any music fit for a juggy mood: traditional American folklore, blues, country, bluegrass, R&B, cajun, zydeco, & pop songs, & even yes indeed originals. The 15 member (size varied from show to show) provides a rich acoustic big band sound led by a vigorous rhythm section made of the traditional jug band 'instruments' such as washboard, washtub-bass, & jug, backed by bones & triangle..."

Listen:
Mole In The Ground in Don't Look Now Jug Band - Live In The Attic

Watch:

Getting Floral with Florence: May First at the Art-Rock Pop-up Goddess Commune

 -State Farm Arena, Atlanta, 5.1.2026

A Florence + the Machine show is a pop-up goddess commune in a basketball arena, a feminist flash-mob for the jumbotron. This feels like a different reality from the televised tyranny of throwback male chauvinism, & it’s an alternate reality with fashion, flair, & flowers. 

Florence is as floral as this first of May, & as for Florence, so for the fandom. It seems almost everyone is festooned in flowy skirts & scarves & decorative crowns. Florence has done her research & has lived the gender & religious references in her songs. She is fully channeling 14th century visionary mystic Julian of Norwich to confront the patriarchy with bloody facts. The facts are this: fiercely ferocious poetic vulnerability & healing honesty & loving intimacy will always redeem more deeply than the bad trad daddies, their bad authoritarian theology, & their terrifying Handmaid's Tale reenactment society.  

Female mysticism is such a fierce flame, especially in these outta sorts hypermasculine times. Whether these feral femmes are witchy witchy woo woo or old school Christian mystics matters not to the fallen Church of white nationalism, which is not seeking Christ but cosplaying Caesar. They don’t care if you are nice or a nun or a heretical heathen, they just want to legislate your lady parts. Just look how they did Bishop Budde. 

I think it also should be noted, other than an announcement on the big screens about the band’s support for Doctors Without Borders, the so-called “politics” of tonight were poetically implied, not overtly preached. (We are seeing Springsteen in this same room the next day, where from what I have heard, lots of political preaching will transpire). 

For the entire set, we are hers, this dervish twirling ginger Stevie Nicks, this high priestess of the poetic moan, this mezzo-soprano matron of the art rock high mass. Whether we are asked to jump & wave our arms or to put away our phones, we are more than overjoyed to synchronize & alchemize. The crowd are dancing like the choreographed collective of ensemble dancers, because we are all one bigger collective, one ever expansive ensemble. It’s amazing to me how fandoms fill the gaps when our traditional gathering places feel bereft of the very heft that initiated their existence in the first place & what a fandom this Florence framily is, one that defies & includes every genre in a deep catalog of relentless reverie. 

Confession: When 2025’s Everybody Scream didn’t instantly sweep me away like 2022’s Dance Fever did, I sort of set my Florence listening aside to make room for other deep digs in the vast array that’s always competing for the queue on my Bose headphone itinerary. But what I was ignoring was further exploration of deeply transformational & timeless story scriptures of sizzling revelation. Now, finally, opening up to this experience in person, songs like “Sympathy Magic” or “Perfume and Milk” or “The Old Religion” or the raw takedown of the music industry’s mediocre men in “One of The Greats,” these tracks left track marks in my body-mind-spirit. 

Mayday has always meant a lot to me. I am attracted to the history of the labor movement & the homage to the Chicago Haymarket martyrs of the late 19th century. I also love the bawdy springtime celebrations of the celtic holy day Beltane. It was tripping on booze & shrooms at the latter, that my addiction to numerous substances finally bottomed out in 2009, interestingly just two months before Florence’s debut album dropped that summer. 

Through lots of surrender & willingness & working with  others, I have not had a reason to drink ever since. So now, every May first, I not only acknowledge those larger traditions, I remember how I almost lost all connections to everything through daily self-abuse. So on this Mayday some 17 years after, it was these lines from “Never Let Me Go” on 2011’s Ceremonials that utterly broke me into a bawling dancing puddle of weeping gratitude. 

And the arms of the ocean are carrying me

And all this devotion was rushing out of me

And the crashes are heaven for a sinner like me

But the arms of the ocean delivered me

I know I am not the only person who cries at a Florence concert, & I know that the depth of connections we feel in such a bold communal experience are different for each of us. I know that my deeper gentler understanding of my own masculinity benefits from these brave expressions of femininity that I saw at this show all around me. It’s a multitude of gardens that we need, not a monoculture of conformity, so even as folks were communally vibey in their similarly sheer fabrics & flowery accessories, it is truly a garden where anything & everything that is loving & peaceful & good can grow. 

-Andrew/Sunfrog, Teacher On The Radio

-photos are from a previous show, from the artist’s official social media

Spinning Wheel (TOTR 525)

-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Saturday, April 4, 2026
-Listen to the audio archive:

Stream episode Spinning Wheel - TOTR 525 by Teacher On The Radio podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
-in this episode, we revisit my 2015 oral history of Cookeville Christian counterculture, Banjo & Bread, with a new interview with the subjects, Calvin & Nelia Kimbrough, as they discuss life at Tennessee Tech & in Cookeville in the 1960s. We also tap a little of the Holy Week/Easter spirit, as well as a nod to the book Southernmost by Silas House & film adaptation of Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, as they, along with the Kimbroughs, were part of the American Mixtape class this past week

-photos courtesy of Calvin & Nelia Kimbrough
-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university

Peter, Paul and Mary - Early in the Morning
My Morning Jacket - Easy Morning Rebel
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme, Pt 1 - Acknowledgment 
Katie Herzig - I Hurt Too
Menomena - Oh Pretty Boy, You’re Such a Big Boy
Blood, Sweat & Tears - Spinning Wheel 
-Interview with Calvin & Nelia Kimbrough
Bob Dylan - Blowin’ in the Wind
Pete Seeger - What Did You Learn In School Today?
Peter, Paul and Mary - Michael Row the Boat Ashore
Nina Simone - Turn, Turn, Turn
Sam Cooke - If I Had A Hammer
Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Christ Climbed Down
Joan Baez - Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
-Interview with Calvin & Nelia Kimbrough
Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes
Peter, Paul and Mary - If I Had A Hammer
Indigo Girls - Letter To Eve
Jesus Christ Superstar Soundtrack - Superstar
Richie Havens - Here Comes The Sun
Edwin Hawkins Singers - Oh Happy Day

Crowns Captures The Spirit of the Black Church, & We Are All Inspired Thanks To It

I will never forget the first time I visited an African American church. It was in Detroit, Michigan, and I was all of 17 years old. This moving time swept me off my feet and changed me forever from deep inside my being. 

For a mainline Protestant with a pale complexion like me, I had been raised to expect a somewhat reserved worship experience, a quiet and heady Sunday morning for a group that sometimes gets dubbed “the frozen chosen.” From that first time outside that comfort zone in the mid-1980s to my experiences in Black churches ever since, I am frequently moved and mesmerized by the musicality and physicality of the worship time, rooted in a deep and courageous message of hope, community, and resilience. Thanks to depictions and descriptions of this sacred space in popular culture, we can all encounter this specific power and reverence, regardless of our own social locations. 

Everything so reliable, reverent, and revolutionary about the Black church experience, especially in the American south, shines in an exquisite theatrical rendering with “Crowns: A Gospel Musical,” currently being produced by the Cookeville Theatre Company at the Wesley Chapel Theatre on the south side of 9th street, just east of the Tech campus and just south of the Collegeside Church.  

Written by Regina Taylor and directed by Michael Ruff from the Cumberland County Playhouse, our current offering features a fierce local cast as part of the Cookeville Theatre Company’s annual efforts to support and feature the creative talent in our local African-American community. As Black History Month in February gives way to Women’s History Month in March, this rousing celebration emphasizes the role of strong women in the Black community, and in the Black church, particularly.  

Whether it’s Regina Pullin’s incomparable interpretation of Mother Shaw or Raniece really bringing it as Velma, the voice, vernacular, and vision of strong Black women truly transforms the historic Wesley space into a genuinely sanctified locale. The strong singing on a songlist of mostly iconic classics had a way of getting into my soul, and I found myself fighting back the tears at many intervals throughout the show.

 

The storyline blends humor with serious topics, and everything spirals around the statements made by stunning fashion, especially the crowns, the gorgeous hats that adorn the heads of Black women in their Sunday best. Saneisa Savage as Yolanda highlights the contrasts between young and old, north and south, urban and rural, and this gives way to a special unity that brings everyone together through shared experiences. 

Many of the significant moments in family and community, from baptisms to funerals, from tragedy to triumph, all center in the shared stories of empowerment and expression by these amazing matrons of the Black community, from grandmother to aunt, from mother to daughter. Superb set design and costume design perfectly accentuate the spirit of the show. 

The backing music by Lucy Knowles on piano and David Klein on percussion really anchored the energy of the production, adding some serious flair to the sparkling dance moves by Sya Johnson, supported by the choreography of Shane Langford.

Cookeville is beyond blessed by the cultural diversity that is honored annually in these superb productions by Cookeville Theatre Company. In addition to being touched to the edge of tears more than once, I felt my body moving in my seat, feeling ready to join in with an arm waving or an Amen shouting. My opening night experience connected Friday night to Sunday morning, and you will have that strong feeling of worship and connection, no matter your background and no matter what show you attend. Just be sure to catch one before it closes.

-Andrew William Smith is a local poet, teacher, & DJ. He has been the theater critic for Cookeville for the last 20 years. 

As of this post, the remaining shows are:

Thursday March 26 @7:30 pm (Pay what you can night)

Friday, March 27 @ 7:30 pm

Saturday March 28 @ 7:30 pm (Matinee)

The venue is at 271 E. 9th St Cookeville

More info - www.cookevilletheatreco.org

Run to the River (TOTR 524)

 

image - Colin Cutler

-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Saturday, March 21, 2026

-Listen to the episode archive here:

Stream episode Run To The River - TOTR 524 by Teacher On The Radio podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

-in anticipation of the Colin Cutler, Adeem The Artist, & One Eye Jack show on Monday, 3-23-26 at Mean Mel’s Uncle Presents: Adeem The Artist, Colin Cutler and One Eye Jack — Mean Mel's

-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university

Adeem The Artist - ruin me 

Colin Cutler - Swannanoa Tunnel 

One Eye Jack - Dangerous

One Eye Jack - Get Away Today

One Eye Jack - Give Me A Second
One Eye Jack - Let Me Live 

One Eye Jack - Stop Drop And Roll
One Eye Jack - It’s Been So Long

Colin Cutler - Bad Means Easy

Colin Cutler - A New Tattoo

Colin Cutler - Mama Don’t Know Where Heaven Is
Colin Cutler - The Cold That’s Forever

Colin Cutler - A New Tattoo (Parker’s Reprise)

Colin Cutler - Save Your Life and Drive

Interview with Colin Cutler

Colin Cutler - Parker’s Back

Colin Cutler - Temple of the Holy Ghost

Colin Cutler - Run to the River

Colin Cutler - Mama Don’t Know (Reprise)

Adeem The Artist - parka
Adeem The Artist - jason isbell b-side
Adeem The Artist - canvas to the frame
Adeem The Artist - st. todd (i grow lonely in new ways)

Adeem The Artist - impossible

Adeem The Artist - blueprints

Adeem The Artist - cowards together