Jody Kruskal-Living Tradition Interview

[Jody Kruskal]

Perhaps The Living Tradition magazine is delivered to you by post, or you may have seen it on news stands in the UK. I am honored to be interviewed in their Meet The Folk column, April/May 2016 issue 113 just out.

It’s not often that someone asks about my life story and then prints it up... so please excuse me being chuffed enough to share.

Get your own copy or read the text here.

[Bill N]

I bought my copy last week. You and John Kirkpatrick sharing the same issue made for lots of good reading!

[Mike Franch]

Loved seeing the reference to WFMT. "The Midnight Special" played an important role in my folk and weird music education.

[Lakeman]

Great read Jody - the passion shone through !

[Steve Wilson]

So glad you shared that with us Jody. You are very lucky to have had such a solid musical grounding in your younger years. I never did, wished I had.

[Daria]

Thanks for sharing this Jody. I envy your musical background. At 60 I have only recently discovered the joy of making music. Very nice article.

[Jim Besser]

Loved seeing the reference to WFMT. "The Midnight Special" played an important role in my folk and weird music education.

 

Me too, Mike, from about 1963. Still hear those announcers voices in my heads. Maybe there's a drug to cure that.

[Jody Kruskal]

Norm Pellegrini and Ray Nordstrand were the hosts of "The Midnight Special" back in my youth. The whole family would gather around the radio on Saturday nights to listen and laugh.

 

Norm and Ray certainly had a distinctive and mellifluous way of speaking. Since 1996, Rich Warren has been the sole host. Rich has played a few tracks on the show from my CD "Sing to Me, Concertina Boy"

Edited March 7, 2016 by Jody Kruskal

[Jim Besser]

Norm Pellegrini and Ray Nordstrand were the hosts of "The Midnight Special" back in my youth. The whole family would gather around the radio on Saturday nights to listen and laugh.

 

Norm and Ray certainly had a distinctive and mellifluous way of speaking. Since 1996, Rich Warren has been the sole host. Rich has played a few tracks on the show from my CD "Sing to Me, Concertina Boy"

 

Yes, I listened to Norm and Ray every Saturday night. I can' hear a recording of Nonesuch without thinking of them Or the comedy bits ("My wife is always living in the past; now she wants to get divorced in the Virgin Islands.")

 

During the height of the 60s Folk Scare, there was another show that aired on WGN - Traveling On, with Jack Taylor. IT was more Kingston Trioish.

 

And I bet you hung out at the Medici. Sometime I'll show you my cool Medici Tshirt (Logo on the front, "Obama Eats Here" on the back)

[Jody Kruskal]

Yeah, the Medici was cool, but I preferred the Tiki Hut and Harold's Fried Chicken Shack.

[Mike Franch]

Forgive me for contributing to this drift away from concertina talk, but I can't think of WFMT without thinking of one of their sponsors, Toad Hall, a seller of hi-fi (I think this was pre stereo) equipment.

 

WFMT was a commercial station, but their commercials were much more low-key than the hawking for "sponsors" that public radio now does.

 

Mike

[Jody Kruskal]

From Wikipedia:

 

A unique feature of this commercial station is that it airs no pre-recorded (by non-station hosts) advertising on-air. A brief attempt at introducing pre-recorded commercial advertising, the only time in its history, proved unpopular with listeners. All advertising on the station is currently read exclusively by WFMT's on-air hosts.