Image Free Radio

For about a year in 2016 Hector Qirko (musician, author, professor) hosted the weekly "Image Free Radio" show on Charleston's WYLA-FM. Back in the 70s and early 80s he performed around the country with the Knoxville-based band Balboa. His partner in guitars in that band was the late Terry Hill. In this edition of IFR, Hector has unearthed a cassette that Terry prepared as pre-show music for band gigs. I'll let him explain it more fully:

WYLA-FM 08-10-16 Hector Qirko's Image Free Radio 16 (Terry Hill playlist)

The 9th Day of Blogmass 2018

There are hundreds of Christmas organ and chimes LPs. This is one of them.

Van Talbert and Joseph Smith-Christmas Organ and Chimes International Award Series – AKS-X4

A1 Oh Come All Ye Faithful
A2 We Three Kings
A3 Oh Holy Night
A4 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
A5 Deck The Halls
A6 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
A7 Joy To The World
B1 Silent Night
B2 What Child Is This
B3 Away In A Manger
B4 O Little Town Of Bethlehem
B5 Good King Wenceslas
B6 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
B7 O Tannenbaum
B8 The First Noel

* Carillon – Joseph Smith
* Organ – Van Talbert

Eddie Nash, One Man Band

Based on the picture and description you may be thinking that this is some sort of kitschy novelty recording.

You'd be absolutely right.

I get it: scheduling and rehearsing a band can be tough. Still, just hire a drummer and a piano player, because while live it's probably an impressive feat (ahem) to sort of half/roughly play "10" instruments yourself, on record  "knee piano", "big toe bass", and "heel steel" just don't cut it.

It's too bad, because Eddie has a roughly-appealing country voice.

He probably should have credited Merle and Don, though.


Eddie Nash- Just One Time.Mama Tried

The Lone Bellow on the Air

No, not that band, the classic country/folk/jazz musician Roger Bellow of Charleston, SC. Steeped in tradition but far from stale, Roger may be our town’s most authentic country artist. A recipient of the S.C. Folk Heritage Award, Bellow is equally at ease leading his Texas-style Western swing group, the Drifting Troubadours, as he is teaching Spanish to local students through classic Mexican folk songs. For the past two years he hosted the Vintage Country show on the now-sadly quiet WYLA-FM. In the 1990s Roger hosted the show from the bridge of the aircraft carrier Yorktown anchored in the Charleston harbor over the airwaves of the SC ETV Radio network and local affiliate WCSI-FM.


Recently a fan-made recording of one of his broadcasts has come to light.

Presented here is a recording of the 4-3-97 show featuring Webb Pierce.

Vintage Country - 4-3-97

Not Fake News, Reel News

Just unearthed this multiple-mixdown reel from Sea 7 States recording sessions at Underground Studios in Maryville, TN. These sessions were part of a prize package for winning a local round of a national battle of the bands (some audio gear was also part of the prize package).

The first three tracks (see tape label) are the "official" mixes as approved by the band. Following those are two experiments in bad mixing conducted by Kevin and Brett (I'm hoping that we didn't have to pay for this time). The final three tracks are mixes by the house engineer that the band rejected.

The sound on these recordings is a little weird - the drums are strangely thin and for some reason there is chorus on the bass (not an aesthetic choice that I normally would have made - at least not on all three tracks).

Sea 7 States-Underground Sessions