Last night I visited the WUPX studio at Northern Michigan University and played some songs live on the air for about an hour.
The music director Alex Watenen was nice enough to invite me in for the performance and make all the necessary arrangements. We had a good time talking travel, art, music, and pickled eggs (look it up). He showed me the music library packed to the hilt with music that’s being transferred from physical to digital format and he introduced me to some interesting new stuff.
I played pretty good. I had fun. Radio is cool. Let’s do more.
-John
I'm a little late in getting to this, but a couple weeks ago, Harry South and I drove up to Calumet, Michigan to perform at the Red Jacket Jamboree at the Historic Calumet Theater. Harry was part of the house band The Copper Cats which included Jerry Younce (guitar), Bill Carrothers (piano), Carrie Biolo (percussion), and Harry South (bass). These guys accompanied me on a few songs and it was a real thrill to hear jazz and classical players translate my songs.
Mean Mary graced the stage for the second part of the show and was a real doll.
Some highlights were standing on that beautiful old stage, watching the sunset in Copper Country with Carrie Biolo and Harry South, listening to Cole Porter songs with Harry late at night and sharing some of my favorite country songs with him. The Copper Cats did great renditions of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", "Don't Fence Me In", and "Up a Lazy River".
We also had a nice visit to the new Keweenaw Coffee Works the day of the show. The weather was perfect and the whole thing was awfully fun.
Below is a video of me performing the Billy Hill song "There's a Cabin in the Pines" with Jerry Younce accompanying me on guitar.
