Open Source RVA returns on Sept. 1

Open Source RVA, the news-talk radio show that I host for WRIR radio in Richmond, will start its new season on Friday, Sept. 1. The program can now be heard at a new time -  Fridays at 12 noon on 97.3 FM and http://wrir.org. Open Source RVA is "Richmond, Virginia's audio news digest" and covers politics, food, theater, the arts, schools, culture, music, the non-profit sector - anything and everything -- in and around the city.

Go to the Open Source RVA SoundCloud page right here and grab an earful of past episodes and special extended interviews.

(Photo by mighty Open Source RVA producer Krysti Albus!)

Library Weak? Richmond's Public Libraries

What is the state of Richmond, Virginia's public library system?

For this cash-strapped city with a new mayor, Levar Stoney, there are going to be challenges in maintaining services. "Library Weak?," my feature for Richmond Magazine, outlines the hurdles faced by Richmond Public Library director Scott Firestine and his short staffed crew.

Get the story right here. 

(Photo by the mighty Tina Eshleman!)

The Hampton Lego Club

 

When I was a wee lad, I loved building things with Legos -- and still do.

So it was no hardship at all to spend a fun Saturday afternoon with the kids and parents at the Hampton Public Library's Lego Club, one of many special Lego and STEM-related events that happen regularly in libraries, schools, community meeting halls and paid learning centers across Virginia.

Read my Coastal Virginia Magazine article on the regional popularity of Legos, and meet the inventive little builders at the jam-packed Hampton Lego Club by clicking right here.

(Photo by the mighty Jim Pile!)

Where I Stood: The Music of Dori Freeman

“The best thing you can do as an artist is what comes naturally and try to be as genuine as you can.”

Virginia Living Magazine has finally posted my April music column about the amazing singer-songwriter, Dori Freeman. The Galax native's debut disc on Free Dirt Records has been deservedly hailed as a contemporary classic with a throwback sound.

Check out the article by going here.

And for more on Dori Freeman and her music, go here.

(Photo by the mighty Zena Gill!)

Martha Rollins: Caring and Commerce

The Library of Virginia recently honored eight distinguished Virginians with its Virginia Women in History Awards.

Here is my Richmond Magazine profile of one of the living honorees, Martha Rollins, a now-retired Richmond businesswomen whose inclination to mix care with commerce became hallmarks of the successful city businesses she fostered, and was “the root” of Boaz & Ruth, the charitable nonprofit organization, repair shop and thrift store that she founded in 2002. “I had this burning thought that somehow the refinishing business could be intertwined with healing,” she says.

Read the story of this inspirational instigator by going right here.

(Photo by the mighty Tina Eshleman!)

The Memphis Beat

I've always loved Memphis, but I've never really written much about that great southern city. So when Virginia Living Magazine asked me if I wanted to take a trip there for a long weekend, and a big travel feature, it was a no-brainer. Sign me up.

End result: I ate too well, heard great music, learned some important history and laughed and smiled (a lot). I found a place still clinging to its unique identity but also pushing to break free of tradition.

"Memphis is all too aware of what its culture has meant to the American zeitgeist. But it also seems eager to break out and try new things. This eternal restlessness is why so much of its great music is raw and beautifully disheveled, not polished and neat like Nashville’s, and why the city still seems alive and vibrant, perpetually reinventing despite an inclination to embalm itself. It remains a great city, revelatory for a few days or a lifetime...

 Read "The Memphis Beat" by clicking right here.

Photo by the mighty Justin Fox Burks, whose images of Memphis perfectly represent and complement the article!

Don't Mean Maybe: Gene Vincent and "Be-Bop-a-Lula"

At 60 years old, the song “Be-Bop-a-Lula” still seems improbable. Written by a hospital patient now lost to history, sung by a sailor with a crippled leg, performed by a ragtag group of country radio musicians, the two-minute, 34-second “Lula” has become an acknowledged rock ’n’ roll classic, celebrated the world over (Rolling Stone ranked it #103 on their Greatest Songs list). The story behind the tune, recorded by Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, is also a potent piece of Virginia history.

"Don't Mean Maybe," my latest piece for Coastal Virginia Magazine, takes a look at how "Be-Bop-a-Lula" came to be, and why it resonated over the years with so many later-influential performers -- the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jeff Beck, etc.

Vincent’s voice was not only chameleonic in the way that Elvis’s was—it was schizophrenic. Going from a drawling croon to a piercing cry, he was volatile, loving, temperamental, soothing; the ultimate “tough” teenaged child-man. His brooding performance, aided by deep, cavernous slapback echo, perfectly matched up with the tortured teenage fantasia being played out on theater screens at the time, in movies such as The Wild One, Rebel Without a Cause and Blackboard Jungle.

Click here to read "Don't Mean Maybe: The Story of 'Be-Bop-a-Lula'."

If you enjoy this article, you'll also dig "Virginia Rocks," a 2-CD box set and book of liner notes (co-written by yours truly with archivist Brent Hosier). You can get that here. In 2007-08, Brent and I worked with the Blue Ridge Institute to research Virginia's rockabilly and early rock 'n' roll history. For more on that project, click here.