I'm Stone Free!

 

 

 

 

Transmission 10413

 

"The Buddha found what he had to see by sitting still, but even he had to travel to get to that point, to see through the

other roads that would lead nowhere and come

finally to the understanding

that

the truth we're looking for is

no further than the hair on our arms.

The lives of each of us,

the Buddha was saying on his path,

are a journey toward recognizing

where

we've been all along." 

 

                                                        

Out with the old and in with the new - Radio Free Wohlman ends our year stay in Massachusetts with the final show from the Swampscott Studio before hitting the road for our new digs and gigs in Vermont! 2013 was a year of transformation, realization, growth and understanding - not to mention some of the best music in our 8 year history! So let's improv our way thru the archives before we pack it up and head north. Celebrate the arrival of 2014 with Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck & Seal, Steve Miller, Trixie Whitley, Fleetwood Mac, Judas Priest, Maxi Priest, Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart, Suzi Quatro, Teddy & His Patches and Creedence Clearwater Revival!

 

T10413 is a 171mb 320k mp3 1:15:07 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"What's got into you?"

 

RFW

 

 

 

 

*The picture(s) above show CJ "RF" Wohlman in front of the new compound outside of Burlington, VT. We have a barn!! Time to let go and continue onward and upward!

 

**The quote by Pico Iyer from The Long Road to Sitting Still was a message posted by my wonderful and talented radio sister, Tracy Roach. Thanks, T!

He Made It!!

 

It's Here!

 

 

 

Santa's Holding The Secret Stash!

 

Transmission 10313

 

DJ SC and RFW team up for Christmas In The Wohlman Archives 2013, spinning the seasonal platters that matter from Madeline Peyroux, The Dandy Warhols, The Smithereens, The Killers featuring Toni Haliday, Dwight Twilley, The db's, Bad Religion, The Dickies, Starbelly, Supersuckers, The Malibus, Guster, Eels, Nick Lowe, The Hives & Cindy Lauper, Randy Greer & Ignasi Terraza Trio, Jimmy Reed, Zebra, The Moonglows, Johnny Guarnieri with Stan Stewart, Marc Anthony & The Elfs,  Ted Lyons, The Residents, Erasure and The Flaming Lips with Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band!

 

T10313 is a 189mb 320k mp3 1:22:58 in length made festive to played festively!

 

"he's so high in the sky"

 

RFW

 

* Here is the newest RFW Christmas Spectacular. Like you, my life continues to evolve and change is the sole constant - but I believe true and lasting friendships are the bedrock of life. I was thinking of you when I did this show - enjoy it as we wait together for the arrival of Santa Claus and the eventual return of Jesus Christ. With love in my heart, David

 

 

  

** Read someone you love "The Magical Tale of Santa Dust - A Christmas Tradition" by Patricia Cardel.

*** For more Christmas In The Wohlman Archives you can find the 2012 show here and the mother load of 2006 to 2011 here!

On Dasher.....

 

Transmission 10213

 

We hit the Highway for a Christmas Hideaway with traveling music supplied by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Freddie King, Eric Clapton, Derek & The Dominoes, The Fireman, Can, Deep Purple, Steven Tyler, Elvis Presley and Clarence Carter!

T10213 is a 146mb 320k mp3 1:03:54 in length made loud to be played louder!

"I ain't like old Saint Nick, he don't come but once a year"

RFW

* We interrupted Derek "RF" Wohlman in his Dungeon watching Season 2, Episode 20 of "Lizzie McGuire - Xtreme Xmas" originally aired on The Disney Channel on December 6, 2002.

 

 

Constantly Progressing!

 Transmission 10113

  

Beginnings and Endings occupy the same space on the big circle. Stop/start listening as we intersect at the moment of change with Ronnie Montrose, Greg Lake, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Fleetwood Mac, The Kings, Seventh Wave, Nine Inch Nails, Jeff Beck, The Doors, Joy Division, Roxy Music, Kings Of Leon, Pearl Jam, Alejandro Escovedo and The Strokes!

 

T10113 is a 152mb 320k mp3 1:06:26 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"Is this really the end?"

 

RFW

 

* The great image is  "Family Circle" by visual artist Ian K. Willding - you can check out more of Ian's work here!

  

Stoogemania!

Transmission 10013

 

What would the Holiday Season be without Eddie Goredetsky, Billy West, Iggy Pop, The Stooges, Sid Vicious, Neneh Cherry & The Thing and Buick MacKane?

 

T10013 is a 156mb 320k mp3 1:08:32 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"I got two words for you and guess what (?) - they ain't Merry Christmas"

 

RFW

 

*"Christmas Party With Eddie G." is a long out-of-print compilation released in 1990 on Columbia Records. The wonderful parodies of the Three Stooges recording "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" are typical of the inspired production that was a part of the legendary WBCN-Boston where I worked with the brilliant writer Eddie Goredetsky (featured here as The Producer) and amazing voice-actor Billy West (doing triple duty as Moe, Larry and Curly Joe). They are both very talented men and I am proud to have them as radio-brothers. Enjoy! 

 



 

 

One More Than Twelve!

 

Transmission 9913

 

13 funky tunes include loving confections from Joe Walsh, Soundgarden, Ohio Players, The Girls, Prince, Goat, Bohannon, Jeff Beck, Chic, Daft Punk, Woodkid, Ryuichi Sakamoto and The Rolling Stones!

 

T9913 is a 158mb 320k mp3 1:09:22 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"do we get paid for this?"

 

RFW

 

 

 

 

*Make it a point to read "The Baker's Dozen - A Saint Nicholas Tale" by Aaron Shepard and Wendy Edelson to someone you love this holiday season!

Stuff What Where?

 

Transmission 9813

 

 

Alright, fellow pilgrims - let's do the Turkey Trot and gobble up this fine Thanksgiving Day spread supplied by Mike Kennealy, Drive-By Truckers, The James Gang, Dead Meadow, J. Robert Bradley, Wolfmother, The Byrds, The Pilgrim Travelers, The High Llamas, The Family Of Apostolic, Procal Harum, Little Eva, Johnny Dowd, Black Mosses and Cheap Trick!

 

T9813 is a 140mb 320k mp3 1:01:33 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"let's get it while it's hot"

 

RFW

 

Rust Free RFW!

 

Transmission 9713
 

Mary makes a musical entrance, a contribution from Curtis' Corner casts an Iron set and Twin Peaks continues to inspire with sounds from The Boomtown Rats, Can, Mary Fahl, Woodkid, Yukihiro Takahashi, Dr. Israel, Bill Laswell, Fantomas, Laura Lee Perkins, Bob Dylan, David Lynch and Angelo Badalementi!

 

T9713 is a 654mb 320k mp3 1:04:50 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"The sound of iron shocks is stuck in my head"

 

RFW

 

 

*Yoann "Woodkid" Lemoine is not only a talented composer, musician and producer - he is also a gifted director and actor. Check out his Grammy nominated video for "Run Boy Run" off of his 2013 full length debut "The Golden Age". I thank Curtis "RF" Wohlman for turning us on!

 

 

He Kills The Bad Guys!

Transmission 9613

"Machete don't text, Machete don't tweet". Sharpen the edge of your mind with Haim, Macy Gray, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, Eugene McDaniels, Chingon, Tears For Fears, Emerson - Lake & Palmer, Brian Wilson, Jeff Beck, Reeves Gabrelle and The Chemical Brothers.

T9613 is a 136mb 320k mp3 59:38 in length made loud to be played louder!

"you just fucked with the wrong Mexican"

RFW

*"Machete Kills" is the 2013 sequel to wonderfully exploitative "Grindhouse" off-shoot "Machete",  once again starring Danny Trejo, directed by Robert Rodriguez (who is also a member of Chingon and heard within hacking out "They Call Him Machete") and introducing Carlos Estevez as Mr. President !



The Day The Music Died?

 

RFW Time Machine
 

 

 

 

Listen to This Chilling Audio as Crowd at the Boston Symphony Learns President Kennedy Is Dead.

One of the last remaining witnesses to the orchestra's funeral march speaks about his experience.

 By James Inverne

There are times when music can seem a solitary experience. That goes for the listener, sectioned-off from the world in headphones or listening solo and glorying in “their” music through speakers. It also goes for performers, so often portrayed as ego-driven – and indeed some soloists can only survive the nerves, the lonely travelling life and the terrifying exposure through an assertion of ego. In a cacophonous age, the choice of music can define and anchor the individual. But there are times, of collective crisis or celebration, when music can remind us what a society is. And on Friday November 22, 1963, at the top of a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra that happened to also be a WGBH radio broadcast and so was captured for posterity, the BSO’s revered music director Erich Leinsdorf broke some unimaginable news to a crowded symphony hall. What was to have been a routine concert became a memorial to the 35th President of the United States, reduced audience members to tears and in some ways redefined what music could be for those present. It is also, surely, one of the most emotional pieces of radio ever recorded.

As can be heard from the broadcast, after the radio announcer’s introduction to the first scheduled work, a suite from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Le coq d’or, Leinsdorf emerged and spoke just 53 words, his voice sounding a bit odd, as if taking care to clearly and a little unnaturally project every word. He falters slightly only once, in his second sentence. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a press report over the wireless. We hope that it is unconfirmed, but we have to doubt it. That the president of the United States has been the victim of an assassination. We will play the funeral march from Beethoven’s Third Symphony.” Gasps and screams of shock can be heard after the statement of JFK’s death, and after the change of programme is announced there is a general panicked hubbub that takes its time to subside. Then, as the orchestra begins its funeral dirge more slowly than is usual, every note throbbing with pain, there is only a numbed quiet as the news, the awful reality, sinks in.
As is evidenced by the radio announcer’s preamble few in the hall, even backstage, knew in advance what had happened or what, as far as the concert was concerned, was about to occur. One of those few, and one of the only remaining witnesses to that event still with the orchestra, was its librarian, then and now, William Shisler. In a phone interview, he spoke publicly for the first time about his recollections. The memories, he confides, are still painful. He hasn’t been able to bring himself to listen to the broadcast in the 50 years since.
Along with many others he had already heard about the shooting and that Kennedy was hospitalised. “I was in the library working on scoring some music, when my wife called from our home in Needham, Massachusets – it’s around 10 miles from Boston,” he says, “She liked to watch the soap operas in the afternoon. On this day she was watching one called As The World Turned. And the world did turn. The program was interrupted to report the shooting in Dallas. So she phoned me immediately and I was one of the first to hear that in Symphony Hall.”
Word quickly spread, but as the musicians prepared for their afternoon concert and the audience started to arrive it was not yet known whether or not Kennedy had been killed. “Nobody in Symphony Hall was aware. It was near 1 p.m. in Dallas when they announced it, which was nearly 2 p.m. in Boston, coinciding almost exactly with the scheduled start of our regular Friday afternoon concert.”
With the show due to start in less than ten minutes’ time, Shisler got a relayed message from Leinsdorf himself. Run to the archives, put out and distribute the music for Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. The president is dead.
Such was the rush that Shisler remembers little of his feelings from that moment. His memories get clearer of the minutes immediately following, when it was incumbent upon him to hasten to the stage with scores in hand. “The musicians were already there on the stage, in their places and of course the hall was filled with people. I had to tell each of the musicians as I was handing out the music what was going on. That was the first they knew of the death. It wasn’t an easy moment, for them or for me.”
In the short pause before the conductor strode out with his own heavy burden, Shisler walked, in something of a daze, back into the wings and then out to the auditorium where he took up his favoured listening position, at the back of the first balcony where he could hear but not see. The entrance to the library is nearby and he would sometimes slip through the balcony door to listen in during rehearsals and concerts. He was an accustomed presence there, none of the ushers would have detected anything unusual. Everything seemed normal. Only Shisler knew how different this concert was about to be. “I was – standing there,” he says, haltingly, trying to express the strangeness of the moment, “Knowing he was going to make the announcement and I was about to witness that moment. I had already had my own gasp upon hearing the news, and now I’m standing there witnessing the audience about to have the same reaction. When it came, of course Leinsdorf came out and announced to the audience and there was this huge gasp, it was very emotional.”
Some people left, rushing out in grief. But most, he says, stayed as the orchestra played. Many cried. Shisler was among them. “I was brought to tears by the movement of the Beethoven. It’s such beautiful music anyway.”
Afterwards, he recalls, “everybody was on their own. We all had to deal with it in our own ways and there was no gathering, Leinsdorf didn’t call us together to make any comment, nothing like that.” Nevertheless the dynamic with their music director changed. When they came together again for the next night’s concert, “there was a new camaraderie. I strongly felt that. By the nature of things there’s a love-hate relationship between orchestra and conductor, and that was perhaps especially true with Leinsdorf, but a certain bond was created between us all with him that day.”
It was likely that Leinsdorf, a Jewish immigrant (helped upon arrival, coincidentally, by Kennedy’s eventual successor Lyndon Johnson) who had left his native Austria shortly before the Anschluss with Hitler’s Germany and had been drafted to the American military in the 1940’s, felt the killing of a leader of his idealised adopted homeland as deeply as anyone. He was after all a protégé of Arturo Toscanini, the most famous of Italian conductors, who had publicly made a point of quitting his own country with Mussolini’s rise. Some things, after all, are suddenly more important than ego, or battling for your personal authority over an orchestra.
But Shisler believes something more happened in that unforgettable Friday afternoon concert. “I sincerely believe that music played its part in the tragedy for all of us. Afterwards of course everyone was glued to the television sets for days and days. But in that period of time when we were all there, listening to Beethoven in that concert hall, we all had to respond to this terrible tragedy for ourselves. And the music sort of soothed us, reached out to each and every individual, and helped us to process what had happened.” On that day, for those sitting in a grand concert hall in Boston and perhaps for everyone tuning in via the wireless, a society torn apart by an assassin’s bullets perhaps, in a small way and already, began to be restored, by music.

James Inverne is a classical music consultant and journalist, former editor of Gramophone and European Performing Arts Correspondent for TIME

None Are Refused.

Transmission 9513

 

Sit with me on this bank of sand and watch it flow - Pete Townshend, Bruce Springsteen, Booka Shade, David Sylvian, Jeff Beck, Annie Lennox, Ocean Colour Scene, Chis Spedding, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Robert Johnson, Joe Bonamassa, Neil Young and Roy Buchannon.

 

T9513 is a 142mb 320k mp3 1:02:18 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"down to the river, my baby and I, down to the river we ride"

 

RFW

*The perfect image is Cold River by Kiara Reynolds.

 

**Dedicated to the wonderful listeners and talented staff of WXRV, The River on the day of Riverfeast 2013 - a benefit concert for The Greater Boston Food Bank featuring Guster!

 





Without A Spark To Ignite The Flame

 

Transmission 9413

 

I hear your voice,

In ever changing whispers...

What it is you feel,

On those days you choose to say...

Words you wish me to believe are real.

But I can not trust,

What it is I can not feel.

Or be made to believe...

A feeling that is not there,

Can be made for me to know is real.

Unspoken is that touch that reaches my heart.

Silent are those embers that warm and linger.

Not stirred by words...

Just to have them heard.

Unspoken is that touch that reaches my heart.

I hear your voice,

In ever changing whispers...

What it is you feel,

On those days you choose to say...

Words you wish me to believe are real.

Unspoken is that touch that reaches my heart.

And a passion within me just will not burn...

Or start,

Without a spark to ignite the flame.

Lawrence S. Pertillar

 

 A combustible combination of handy themes and punkish attitude burns hot with Sparks, ZZ Top, Pine Top Sparks, DeWolff, Foghat, Gentle Giant, The Guess Who, The Who, Teddybears, Julies Haircut, The Mothers Of Invention and Daft Punk!

 

T9413 is a 144mb 320k mp3 1:03:08 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"when I hit the ground you could hear the sound, and see the sparks a country mile"

 

RFW



RFW Salutes You!

 

Transmission 9313

 

Politicians and Generals wage wars - Soldiers fight them. With all due respect and appreciation, enjoy the sounds of Stevie Salas Colorcode, Nitzinger, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The Clash, Loretta Lynn, The Long Riders, Wilco, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Burning Spear, The Temptations, Thin Lizzy, Def Leppard, Scorpian and Isao Tomita!

 

T9313 is a 196mb 320k mp3 1:25:52 in length made proud to be played prouder!

 

"You put a gun in my hand, and you hide from my eyes, and you turn and run farther, when the fast bullets fly"

 

RFW

Am I Still Dead?

 

Transmission 9113

 

We all the know the rumor, Paul McCartney died in a car crash during his mid-Beatle days and was secretly replaced by Angela Lansbury. Craig Ferguson, Geoff and the rest of us tragically un-hip conspiracy theorists know the truth, and say "who cares"? PM's performance at Fenway Park in July was my concert highlight of 2013 and the "New" release is consistently impressive. Join Paula McBury and special co-stars, Dave Grohl, Kris Novosalic, Pat Smear and the mysterious Fireman for this week's exciting episode of Rock He Wrote on RFW!

 

T9113 is a 165mb 320k mp3 1:12:16 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"daed m'I"

 

RFW

 

 

?

Transmission 9113

 

  

Clue Number One

You Can Get There From Here!

 

Transmission 9013

 

Misery is a roadmap to the other side - you can't arrive at your desired destination without driving though it's heart. The good news is there's room in the car for you and we're leaving right now. Road trip!

 

Beating within is much mod, paternal, automotive and miserably motivational  music from Spirit, Ming Tea, The Len Price 3, The Who, The Jam, Pearl Jam, Elton John, Fistful Of Mercy, Brendan Benson, XTC, The Beatles, Kathy Bates & James Caan, Foo Fighters, Adrian Belew, John Fox & Louis Gordon, The Cars and Steven Wilson. Believe!

 

T9013 is a 162mb 320k mp3 1:10:55 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"so with a mop and a bucket, I'll just say forget her, and carry on sweeping up, where I've been weeping, the jesters will creep in to strike down the newly crowned Monarch of Misery"

 

RFW

* The wonderful image, Misery Loves Company by Nikri, was inspired by the song of the same name by Emile Autumn.

 

All Part Of The Master Plan?

Transmission 8913

 

I have been pondering life's daily dramas and the decisions we all feel compelled to make that cause us debilitating sorrow or that provide us with anticipation of happiness based on the belief that if we ask often and hard enough it will miraculously arrive. If it is all pre-ordained, our collective agonizing and faith-fueled presumptions are the central causes of the disharmony in our minds and in the world, while in fact it is all one hundred percent unnecessary and ineffective. If you are really out there, we get the message, but we honestly need some serious help down here!

 

Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Sharrock, The Last Poets and Bardo Pond find the lost-chord on RFW!

 

T8913 is a 156mb 320k mp3 1:12:11 in length made loud to be played loud.

 

"stop all the madness"

 

RFW

  



Sweat, Sweat, Sweat!

 

Transmission 8813

 

The spirit of *"Nouveau Disco" lives with a RFW Dance Floor session featuring Donny Hathaway remixed by Dimitri of Paris, David Bowie remixed by James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem, Legowelt, Kraftwerk, The Sisters of Mercy, Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band and The Arcade Fire!

 

The question is not "can you get on up?" - it's "can you keep it on up?".

 

Live For Dance!!

 

T8813 is a 141mb 320k mp3 1:02:14 in length made loud to be danced to louder.

 

"aint nothing but a party, y'all"

 

RFW

 

 

*"Nouveau Disco" was a memorable and influential radio show on WMBR, Cambridge that debuted in 1979, hosted by the talented and beautiful Thom Lane, (who along with me) was also one of the original five hosts of the legendary Late Risers Club , (in fact the LRC is still aired on 88.1FM 36 years after it's inception). His Saturday Night must-listen was just one of many accomplishments in a storied career and Thom remains one of  my closest radio brothers, life advisors and confidants.

 I recently called Coach Lane,  now living in Lost Wages, NV and asked him to describe the original concept behind his "Nouveau Disco" vision:

Hi, Thom?

"Hello- ughhh - every time I pull my phone out of my pants pocket I push the off button"........

After calling back, I asked - "Could you please stay on subject, Coach Lane?":

"Punk stripped away Rock back to the basics. "Nouveau Disco" was a search for the essence of Dance music without the excesses, that surrounded you and (allowed you to) free your mind so your ass would follow. Guitars, synthesizers, or reggae dub all fit in. Dave, if it has a good beat and I can dance to it, I give it a 10".

Thank you, Thom. Hello, Thom - are you still there still there.....?

 

 

*This is a favorite from the newest Daft Punk album "Random Access Memories". "Lose Your Self To Dance" features those loveable French technobots along with  Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers and MJ busting back with a few lethal moves. Sweat!

 



Reed Comes Alive!

Transmission 8713

Lewis Allen Reed

1942-2013

A purported 1982 quote by Brian Eno stated that while the first Velvet Underground album may have sold only 30,000 copies in its early years, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band."

We lost Lou Reed this week at 71, but his music will continue to soothe your psyche and slap you in the face, as long as you continue to listen and keep him alive!

T8713 is a 136mb 320k mp3 59:26 in length made loud to be played louder!

"and it was alright"

RFW

There's Nothing Grateful About It!

 

Transmission 8613

 

Die, walk, eat and rock to the Halloween sounds of Alice Cooper, LaPeste, UK Subs, The Clash, Ultravox!, The Shazam, Queens of the Stone Age, Alex Chilton, Richard Thompson, Iggy Pop, Rob Zombie, Louis Jordon, Scientist, Curtis Mayfield, X-Legged Sally, Babyshambles and Harry Nilsson. Part Two begins with a trip down to the basement of The Wohlman Archives to visit Derek's Dungeon and Stone Temple Pilots and continues to haunt with Nine Inch Nails, Marylyn Manson, The Black Keys, Does It Offend You, Yea?, JB Lenoir, J Geils Band, Beck, Motorpsycho, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Eyvind Kang with Mike Patton, Eno and Bauhaus! 

 

T8613 is a two part 320k mp3 made loud to be played louder.

 

Part 1 is 141mb and 1:01:56 in length!

 

Part 2 is 155 mb and 1:07:53 in length!

 

"cadaver eyes upon me see nothing"

 

RFW

 



*The basement bound host of our new feature, Derek's Dungeon is my son #1, DM "RF" Wohlman. Good job ham bone!

 



 

Blurring The Lines Of Age!

 

Transmission 8513

 

The Generation Gap is widened by this maddening but worriless display of RFW cross-demo appeal! Regardless of the year of your birth, enjoy Dick Clark, The Shazam, Alice Cooper, Bob McFadden & Dor, Garland Jeffreys, The Universals, The Chambers Brothers, Prince, Prince Far I, Julian Cope, Generation X and Patti Smith!

 

T8513 is a 139mb 320k mp3 1:01:06 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"I'm gonna live before I get old"

 

RFW

 

Let me Take you Down!

 

Transmission 8413

 

Girls with double-first-names are celebrated by The Flying Machine, The Anderson Council, The Hollies and Bob Seeger & The Silver Bullet Band. The 2013 release pile contains Gary Numan, Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie. The debut of Curtis' Corner features Avicii followed by Blitzen Trapper, The Avett Brothers and Okervil River. The strawberry swirling starts with prophetic statements by John Lennon, continues on a field exploration by Bill Frisell and concludes with an eggman status report by Crack The Sky!

 

T8413 is a 146mb 320k mp3 1:03:54 in length made loud to be played louder!

 

"nothing is real"

 

RFW

 

*The mesmerizing visual is "Strawberry Fields" by Thelma 1 on deviantArt.

 

** The Curtis in the corner is none other than CJ "Radio Free" Wohlman, son #2! He's a cool teen, a huge music fan and a chip off the old block. Thanks, son!

 

*** Showing equal parental love, RFW will visit son #1 deep in Derek's Dungeon during our Halloween show next weekend. I'm scared!

 

****Thanks to Mary from Swampscott for Betty Lou. You were great!