Through the Wire » playlist

This week I decided to go long on Highlife music, one of the the wonderful popular musics of West Africa. This isn't a particularly scholarly show, although I was inspired partly because I starte...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/05/05/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-05-05-heavy-on-the-highlife/

It's far from a theme, but while I was putting this show together, news of the rioting in Baltimore was spreading, which explains the scattering of tunes with that city's name. Enjoy! Continue re...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/04/28/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-04-28/

In the moment, this didn't feel like a very 'together' show, but there are plenty of good tracks in the playlist so give it a listen and tell me the verdict. Enjoy! Continue reading →

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/04/21/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-04-21/

I totally winged this show, but I'm pretty happy with the song selection. Note that the "Shall We Gather at the River" compilation from which a couple of songs were featured is available for free...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/04/14/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-04-14/

This week I decided to feature music from Johnny "Mbizo" Dyani, the legendary South African expatriate bass player/pianist/bandleader. Dyani will be familiar to regular listeners to the show, but...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/04/07/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-04-07-mostly-mbizo/

Something got me into the songs with "bone" in the title and we milked that angle for more than half the show. And I mean that in the best way, there's a lot of fun songs here from different angl...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/03/31/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-03-31/

After landing on one of the songs with "testify" in the title, I realized how many other interesting songs I had with the word in the title. Only two versions of the same actual tune—"I Wanna T...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/03/24/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-03-24/

No theme to this week's show, but a good number of obscure gems. Enjoy! Continue reading →

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/03/17/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-03-17/

Last Sunday was "International Women's Day." In honor, today's show features women musicians. Enjoy! PS if you make it all the way to the end, there's a bit of bonus music from Steven's show: "To...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/03/10/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-03-10/

Phoneathon week this week. I pulled out a few greatest hits but also found plenty of new (to the show) good stuff. I tried to keep the pitching to a minimum, but thanks to the listeners who did d...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/03/03/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-03-03/

A lot of fun music in this show. No theme in particular, although I did play a little set of "Chicago" tunes to commemorate the municipal election. I stuck around past my normal show end time, so...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/02/24/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-02-24/

Since station technical issues blocked my pre-Valentine's day show, I took the opportunity to get in a few "love" songs that I didn't get to air. But mostly this week's show is Mardi Gras music. ...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/02/17/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-02-17/

This, that, and the others. Enjoy! Continue reading →

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/02/03/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-02-03/

“Conference of the Birds” is my weekly radio program on WNUR-FM. It airs on Tuesdays from 5-7:30 am Chicago time (UTC-6). And, of course, when technology cooperates, you can just come here fo...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/01/27/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-01-27/

For some reason the stream archive cut a little short, so you get most of the David Boykin track but not the ones after. That said, there's plenty of great music until then. Enjoy! Continue readi...

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/01/20/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-01-20/

Calypso, afro-pop, gospel, Bahamas, funk, soul, jazz... Enjoy! Continue reading →

http://blog.germuska.com/2015/01/06/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2015-01-06/

Much of this week's show features music that my friend Mike introduced me to while he and his family were visiting before Christmas. Enjoy! Continue reading →

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/12/30/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-12-30/

This show came after we had guests in town for a few days, so I didn't prepare much, unless you count the Dusty Groove adventure I took with Mike or the other music acquisition of the weekend, so...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/12/23/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-12-23/

Not really a theme, but this show did happen to have three Cole Porter tunes in it, and a pair of songs in honor of FDR. Otherwise, basically more of the same ol' Conference of the Birds soul/jaz...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/12/16/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-12-16/

This week's show starts with a nod to a great book I just finished, Roll With It, by Matt Sakakeeny, a Tulane professor and former producer for the excellent American Routes program. It's an ethn...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/12/09/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-12-09/

As I was preparing for this week's show, my Twitter stream erupted with responses to the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown killing case. I found myself drawn to the ever-inspiring music of...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/11/25/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-11-25/

A couple of “Taxi Drivers”, a handful of Brazilian music and lots of jazz. This show’s playlist goes on past the end of the recorded archive, since Stephen wasn’t able to make his show an...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/11/18/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-11-18/

Don't be startled, there's no technical difficulty: this week's show starts with Kathleen's voice—she's the host of K Theory Radio and she ended her show this week with a track that seemed like...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/11/11/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-11-11/

I still really love this Haiti Direct comp and would love pointers to more old school Haitian music like that. Note the not-so-clever pairing of "007" with "I'm the Magnificent," which sampled it...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/11/04/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-11-04/

I had travel last weekend, so I had no chance to properly prepare for my show this week. In the moment, I realized that I'd gathered a big of "Halloween Music" including Kogar's Spooky Spectacula...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/10/28/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-10-28/

“Conference of the Birds” is my weekly radio program on WNUR-FM. It airs on Tuesdays from 5-7:30 am Chicago time (UTC-5). And, of course, when technology cooperates, you can just come here fo...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/10/21/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-10-21/

The archive is back. I hope you dig it. I had fun. Not a proper feature, but things led pretty well down a South American route, with late 60's stuff from Peru, Brazil and Uruguay, among other th...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/10/14/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-10-14/

Another imagination-needed show: the archiver is still out-of-order, but most of the details are sorted so hopefully soon! Continue reading →

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/10/07/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-10-07/

My home computer which archives the stream of the show melted down pretty seriously, so this show was not archived. Use your imagination! Continue reading →

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/09/23/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-09-23/

“Conference of the Birds” is my weekly radio program on WNUR-FM. It airs on Tuesdays from 5-7:30 am Chicago time (UTC-5). And, of course, when technology cooperates, you can just come here fo...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/09/16/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-09-16/

No theme in particular, but I left the station feeling pretty good about this week's show. Enjoy! Continue reading →

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/09/09/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-09-09/

Groovy jazz, afrobeat, afropop, salsa and then some Woody Guthrie to keep you on your toes. Enjoy! Continue reading →

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/09/02/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-09-02/

This week's show went long, so the playlist includes stuff you can't hear on the archive—which cuts just as Leo Smith's "Who Killed David Walker?" is getting rolling. But there's still plenty o...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/08/19/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-08-19/

“Conference of the Birds” is my weekly radio program on WNUR-FM. It airs on Tuesdays from 5-7:30 am Chicago time (UTC-5). And, of course, when technology cooperates, you can just come here fo...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/08/18/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-08-12/

We ease into this week's show with a little soul and then, for no particular reason, a handful of songs about gossip. After that, we pay respect to the memory of Idris Muhammad , who died last we...

http://blog.germuska.com/2014/08/05/wnur-conference-of-the-birds-2014-08-05/