Tag: kson
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A Celebration of Bill Monroe’s Birthday
The “Father of Bluegrass Music” is Bill Monroe, the first recording artist to incorporate into his band the five acoustic instruments (mandolin, 5-string banjo played three-finger style, fiddle, guitar and string bass) that make up a classic bluegrass ensemble. He was born September 13, 1911 in Rosine, Kentucky, 104 years ago. September 13 fell on…
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39 Years on KSON!
KSON’s Bluegrass Special went on the air for the first time on March 7, 1976 from 6-8 PM. The first few programs were aired on KSON-FM 97.3 which at that time was called “Country 97” and honestly had very few listeners. Most country music fans listened to KSON-AM 1240. AM radio was still king 39…
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Robert Earl Keen Records Bluegrassy “Happy Prisoner”
You may or not be familiar with Texan Robert Earl Keen as he has never been a mainstream country or pop artist, preferring instead to stay on the fringes and record his own brand of folk, roots, blues, protest, outlaw, alt-country (Americana) music. And like bluegrass, Americana generally gets marginalized by the major record labels…
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Another Banner Year for Bluegrass Music
Once again I had a tough time choosing the top bluegrass albums of the year. There were simply too many good ones to choose from. But I made my choices, based primarily on what gets played the most on my radio show. So here’s my list of the top 40 albums of 2014. My apologies…
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Jerry Douglas Talks About the Earls of Leicester
I was in Raleigh, North Carolina a couple weeks ago and heard more bluegrass music in five days than some people hear in a lifetime. I listened to new artist showcases, went to the IBMA Awards Show and caught most of the Wide Open Bluegrass Festival which boasted more than 70 bands on a dozen…
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Countdown to 2000 Radio Shows
A couple of weeks ago, somebody asked me how long I had been doing my radio show on KSON and I told them 38 years and counting. That was followed by the comment, “Wow, that’s a lot of radio shows! Do you know how many?” And I was stumped. So I got out the calculator…
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To Dan McKinnon, a Great Friend and Encourager
Today my old friend Dan McKinnon was laid to rest at Miramar National Cemetery after a very Christ-centered funeral service at Clairemont Emmanual Baptist Church. He died on Thanksgiving Day, having lived a fruitful life of 78 years. You can read an article about Dan’s life in the UT newspaper by clicking here. Before he…
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Happy Birthday Bill Monroe!
If you want a good excuse for a party this Tuesday, it’s Bill Monroe’s 100th Birthday. “The Father of Bluegrass” was born on September 13th, 1911. He passed away on September 9, 1996. In case you aren’t familiar with Bill Monroe, you are most certainly familiar with the music he created. He was a singer…
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Another Amazing Family Band on my Radio Show
Each month I try to feature a live bluegrass band on my radio program–usually whoever is appearing at the local San Diego Bluegrass Society’s 4th Tuesday event at the Boll Weevil Restaurant. I heard that a group from Orange County called the Wimberly Bluegrass Band was going to be appearing at the June SDBS event,…
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Seen On a Car Window in San Diego
One of KSON’s listeners made this sticker for his car, e-mailed it to the radio station and it was then forwarded to me. I really don’t know this person so I’m not sure what led him to do this. He either likes my radio show … or likes guitarist Tony Rice … or maybe he…