Well kids, it is officially the summer of 2016 and it is looking to be one amazing summer season. This morning I downloaded the newest album by Luke Brindley, it's called "Invitation To Joy" and it is just that. A wonderful and wonder filled collection of guitar oriented tunes which are absolutely perfect for summer listening. I'll be adding the album to the radio show's rotation as of this evening. As a matter of fact I am listening to the album as I write this newest blog entry. I continue to be amazed and ecstatic about the art that I am exposed to lately whether that be music, literature, poetry or film. Such musical artists such as Luke Brindley, SHEL, Kelley McRae, Sils Maria and others are creating some of the best music this old disc jockey has ever heard. Books like "Tolkien's Sacramental Vision' by Craig Bernthal, "Short Trip To The Edge" by Scott Cairns, "Silence" by Shusako Endo and "Beauty And Silence" by Makoto Fujimura are feeding my mind and imagination in ways that I desperately need. I have also taken up the habit of listening to audio books such as "Out Of The Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis and I am getting ready to dive into "The Man Who Was Thursday" by G.K. Chesterton and plan on re-visiting the epic poem "The Lay Of Lirazel" by Stephen R. Babb in the near future. By the way I found out this week that the new Glass Hammer album called "Valkyrie" is slated for a fall 2016 release, good things are just around the corner. One of the absolute musical highlights, at least for me, will be the reunion set at Soulfest by Boston based trio Maeve. This is an event not to be missed and is one fully worthy of a road trip. I hope to see and meet some of you over the summer months, until then God Bless all of you!!!

Today is the Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend the unofficial opening weekend of Summer. As usual, for the past 25 years, Rock N Soul Gospel will be giving away tickets for Splish Splash Water Park in Riverhead Long Island. A few months ago I found out that, apparently, Rock N Soul Gospel is the world's oldest rock n roll radio show. It is my firm intention to make it the best show on the air. While I am aware that sounds very cocky I can't see doing anything less. Looking back over some of the music that I have been exposed to over the last year or so I am just so very stoked every time I sit down in the studio of 88.1fm & WCWP.org . After doing this show for almost 35 years, the music just keeps getting better and better no doubt about it. After seeing clips from the Billboard Music Awards and the I Heart Radio Awards I am so very glad that I have concentrated on playing independent artists. These bands and solo artists may never make the cover of  Relix or No Depression Magazines, none the less they are putting out some of the finest music that I have ever heard. And that is after playing rock n roll on the radio for over 48 years. No brag, just fact!!!

Let me take a moment and turn you on to some of the album highlights of the past year or so. I won't go into a review of each album, I'll just give you the title and artist and let you judge for yourselves.
"Dreams And Visions" by Dennis Dean Hendricksen
"The Wayside" by Kelley McRae
"Magnetic" by Rachel Taylor
"VA" by The Last Bison
"East" by Sils Maria
"20 Years Gone" by 77's
"Double Live" by Glass Hammer
"Kairos" by Jae Jin
"The Remembering" by Dave Bainbridge
"Based On A True Story" by Dave Brons

The list could go on and on but that is just a short sample of what is out there. There is just so much to discover.

It has been 48 years since I did my very first radio show on KCGN radio aboard the USS Long Beach floating around the Tonkin Gulf off the coast of Viet-Nam. I have been listening to rock n roll for over 6o years and been playing it on the radio for 48 of those years. I have been doing my current show, "Rock N Soul Gospel", at 88.1fm & WCWP.org. for almost 35 years now. Having been born at the tale end of the '40's I have pretty much grown up with rock n roll and am firmly convinced that the music I now play on a weekly basis is some of the best music that I have ever heard. In the past two weeks I have gotten new albums from Brooks Williams, Kelley McRae & SHEL. These recordings just serve to reinforce the idea that the tunes being released today are some of the very best ever done. To me, at least, the fact that the artists that I play claim to be in a unique relationship with the Master Creator is just icing on the cake. It is as it should be! I found out last month that "Rock N Soul Gospel" according to a very reliable source is the world's oldest rock n roll radio show. That and $2.75 will get me onto the subway in NYC but I am so very grateful that I can say that this is so. As long as I have the ability to keep this program going I will strive to play only the very best music that I can find. And with the caliber of music and musicians that I am dealing with, that will not be a very hard promise to keep. After all these years I still get a thrill whenever I walk into the studio at the radio station, sit down behind the console and open up the mike before pushing the play button on the first song of the show. By the way in case you are wondering the very first song I ever played on the radio was called "The Supernatural" by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. It is an instrumental piece with Peter Green on guitar that still gives me the chills whenever I hear it. That being said I invite you to check out the radio show every Friday at 9pm & Sunday at 5pm, NY time of course on 88.1fm & WCWP.org, check it out!!!

Today is Saint Patrick's Day, this Sunday is the first day of Spring for 2016. Springtime is traditionally a time of refreshment and renewal, gone are the cold, cold blasts of Winter's air and hopefully we can actually say no more snow at least until next winter. Spring is a time musically look when we look forward to a summer of great concerts and music festivals. SXSW has already begun in Austin, Texas and there are many more to come spread throughout the country until Autumn rolls around. On Long Island we have the Great South Bay Festival, in New England there is Soulfest and in the Mid-west there is Audiofeed. I just found out this past weekend through an extremely reliable source that "Rock N Soul Gospel" is at this present time the world's oldest indie rock radio show. That includes both the Christian and the mainstream markets.

One of the things that I am most looking forward to this Spring is seeing my friend Dave Bainbridge of the band Iona coming through the NY/Long Island area as the keyboard player for the band Strawbs. They will be playing their album "Hero And Heroine" in its entirety. This will indeed be a very cool gig. This is also a time when I think very seriously about the direction my radio show has taken and a time to once again promise my listeners that I will always and only strive to play the absolute finest music that I can find. That's no brag, just fact! It has been such an honor and privilege for almost 35 years now to do just that and I will continue to do just that for as long as I am given the opportunity to do so. You can check out "Rock N Soul Gospel on 88.1fm & WCWP.org every Friday from 9 till 11pm and Sunday from 5 till 9pm, of course that's NY time.

Last night was the annual music fiasco called The Grammy Awards Show. With the exception of the performance by Eagles with Jackson Browne doing "Take It Easy" and a vocal duet by a male & female duo whose name I didn't catch the show was pretty much a waste of time. Hollywood vampires with Alice Cooper, Joe Perry & Johnny Depp was a possible highlight but the vocals were incomprehensible. The sound man needed to go back to school for mixing lessons. Other than that most of the performances reminded me of the teen idol days before the British Invasion of the early '60's. All flash but no substance and very little if any talent to show. A musician friend of mine once said concerning a band that played at a festival we were both attending: "Flash pots and laser beams don't make up for a lack of talent and poor musicianship". Last night was an example of both!!! Some of the performances were alright but just alright doesn't do it for me these days. I need music that is going to make me stand up and take notice, not only music but extend that idea to all forms of art and media.

Working at a non-commercial college radio station I am exposed to quite a number of  artists who will never get airplay on the big boy radio stations simply because they don't have a record deal with a major label. These artists, to me at least, are the ones who are actually making an impact on the culture around us. They are the ones who are playing in joints like the Rockwood Music Hall, The Bitter End, The Mercury Lounge, The Living Room in New York City and places like Jammin' Java in Virginia, Club Passim in Boston or Schuba's in Chicago. The ones who are out there playing for gas money from a tip jar or a cut of the door. These are the ones, you can tell from their performances, who have a fire in their belly and are not just going through the motions. If you want to hear the best music being played these days then check out your local college radio station and hunt down the places where the bands that you hear on those stations play. You'll be glad you did!!!

I recently finished reading a book called "The Rock That Is Higher" by author Madeleine L'Engele, the sub-title of the book is "Story As Truth". I may be repeating myself but for the past few months, perhaps even longer I am becoming or rather becoming re-aware of the concept of great storytelling as a way of communicating truth. Reading people such as George MacDonald, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Stephen Lawhead, Jeffrey Overstreet and most recently Matthew Dickerson has reinvigorated my mind as to the necessity of great storytelling. Now just what does that have to do with producing a twice a week radio show. To me it means everything. It would be oh so simple to just crank out a top twenty countdown program but them I would sound like every other countdown show on the air. My desire is not to do that, I want to create a sonic tapestry that will not only make people stop and think about what they are hearing but will also touch them at the very core of their being. Let me say that you will never ever hear an edited song on my radio program. If an artist feels that it takes twenty or twenty five minutes to tell the story that is on his or her heart, then I have an obligation to that artist to play his or her thoughts in their fullest and not rip it apart. And anyway at my age it gives me time to make a bathroom run. A few years ago the band Glass Hammer released an album entitled "Perilous". It was one sixty plus minute tune, now I didn't play it every show but when it was played it was done in whole and not ripped apart into an edited version. My new years resolution for 2016 is to play nothing but the best music I can offer to my listeners, no brag, just fact!!! Judging from the albums that I have received in the past few weeks 2016 is going to be a banner year for "Rock N Soul Gospel" Check it out!!!

It is December, it is a month of magic and miracles. It is a time when Christians all over the world celebrate the Incarnation, the idea or rather the truth that GOD became a man, the man called Jesus of Nazareth. The author and topic of the greatest story ever told. The older that I become, and by the way I turned 66 earlier this month, the more I am aware of the importance of story as a way of communicating the concepts of truth and beauty. When I sit in the studio at 88.1fm & WCWP.org it would be so very easy to crank out a countdown show and sound like every other show on the air. My desire is to produce a show every week that will touch people and inspire them to seek after great art. In the past month or so I have found out about a number of artist that I am really excited about. Groups like The Oh Hello's, The Gray Havens, artists like Jae Gin and my old friend Mara Measor all have new or current albums in rotation on my radio show. Old standby's like Glass Hammer and Over The Rhine also have new projects hitting the airwaves and are as usual creating some of the best rock n roll that this old codger has ever heard. 2016 is going to be the very best year that Rock N Soul Gospel has ever seen or rather heard.