As I've mentioned in the past, a local radio station has a show on Sunday mornings called The Sunday Brunch, hosted by Michael Buckley, from 7-10am. It's mix of good music and interviews with local poets, musicians, artists, fishermen, authors, park rangers, et al.
Truth be told, Michael does much more than just host the show. He's the curator, interviewer, DJ, and probably the producer and director as well. Michael is a certifiable treasure - he's sort of my local Charles Kuralt.
Today was an exceptionally good show.
Michael played an unusally long two part interview with Nils Lofgren totalling about 40 minutes, in which Nils recounted working with Lou Reed, Maya Angelou, Branford Marsalis, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Neil Young ("He bought me a cheesebuger and a Coke"), and Rod Stewart. The first part is 15 or so minutes, then the Whitey Schmidt interview, then another 25 mintues with Nils.
Nils made no mention of harp playing or tap dancing, or how he worked a polka beat into Neil Young's Southern Man as a teenager, but it's gotta be hard to fit a full life into a 40 minute interview. Nevertheless, every second is golden.
Michael also included part of an interview with Whitey Schmidt, a local author who seemingly ate his way around the Chesapeake Bay, focusing on crabs, although asparagus and oysters were certainly not out of his purview. CB's gotta love that idea. You can read about Whitey here and here.
I love some of the Whitey stories -
Whitey's books are available at Amazon and elsewhere."...the host made the mistake of saying, 'Hey, I’m gonna order a Domino’s Pizza.'"
"[I] traveled with him in that grey station wagon with the driver-side mirror attached with duct tape, I made it to about a dozen of the 250 crab houses he visited. 'I'm doing research,' were his words."
"Rachael Ray, you wouldn’t stand a chance."
"Eventually, he bought a single-wide trailer on a large lot in Crisfield and transformed it into an oasis of comfort. He created a kitchen any good cook would envy. He outfitted an office, and installed extras including a bay window, built in bookcases, stained glass, custom doors, and a large screened in porch for entertaining. Then he built the garage that houses his publishing operation along with a pool table, couches and stone-lined spa. A few years ago he Whitey installed a large wood-fired pizza oven he had imported from Tuscany. 'It will cook a pizza in 90 seconds.'"