The papal death this morning led to a hastily organized opening set spotlighting the pope in pop from artists that included Prince, Donovan, Joe Pernice and Pope Francis himself, from his 2015 rock album. We also paid tribute to Nino Tempo, Larry Welch and even Win Martindale, who was a recording artist before he was
The eve of Tax Day brings a number of songs about taxation itself, the nature of money, the fate of the poor and the rich and finally the coming of hard times, which seemed plausible after the wild fluctuations in the stock market. It was also the birthday of Loretta Lynn, born this day in
Late news of Clem Burke’s death this morning at 70 meant lots of last minute changes in order to properly pay tribute to the great drummer from Blondie, first with a handful of songs from that groundbreaking band before hearing work he did with The Split Squad and in the studio work with artists ranging
Supposedly secret messages illegally sent through a commercial texting platform (and carelessly also sent to a journalist) remains the talk of D.C. and was the subject of half of Capital Radio today, with songs about messages, secrets and signal. Began the show by paying tribute to Eddie Adcock, banjo ace of The Country Gentlemen, who
A wealth of birthdays meant big sets for two D.C.-bred R&B giants, Billy Stewart and Don Covay, salutes to three (!) German rock figures, and a wide array of others, from Harry Houdini to Steve McQueen to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Patterson Hood and Nick Lowe. A lot of the show was devoted to the 90th birthday
Our St. Patrick’s Day show started with a half dozen songs about the four-leaf clover — and none about the shamrock, although it came up in the 28 other songs for Ireland, which this year seemed to concentrate on the cities: Galway, Derry and of course Dublin. But also County Hell, which came up in
For the first show back after three weeks away, the names of the artists who died — and deserved a tribute — was up to 17. They include the 17-year-old singer of “Joltin’ Joe Dimaggio” who died at 100, the rocker David Johansen of the New York Dolls and Joey Molland of Badfinger and a
Cutting into the annual 24 Hours of Christmas programming for my own holiday edition of Capital Radio, I tried to concentrate on somber, more solemn numbers appropriate for the day rather than dazzle dazzle of jingle bells. Themes of “Christmas Day is Here” were much favored over “Christmas time is coming.” Nice to have Coltrane
The last show before Christmas warrants the annual avalanche of holiday songs, starting with the Bosstones, Aimee Mann and Nick Lowe, shifting to ’60s oddities from Bobby Goldsboro and Brian Hyland, and enduring rokcers from the Kinks and the Ramones. There was so much Yuletide, there wasn’t time for the usual birthday salutes, except for
Things don’t always go right when you pre-record a show. Sometimes, last week’s show repeats by mistake, which it did today. And as happy as I was with that show, I’m sadder that the today’s Shane MacGowan-dominated show didn’t go live. But here it is, a few hours later, in archived form. Besides our full-bodied
