The Oppenheimer Report - 10/24/16

Quite a while ago, when I was perhaps 30 or 40 shows into my budding career as a radio host, I received my first fan mail from a listener in Mactier, Ontario. It came in the form of a text on a computer screen. At Hunters Bay Radio, there is a text line wherein listeners can text in requests to the station, or post comments, and DJs can read the texts on a monitor and respond if they so choose. One Thursday night, while I was doing my show, on came a message, responding to some self-deprecating remark I had just made on air. The message was very complimentary, and the sender represented himself as “Crisco the Soul Man” from Mactier. I don’t get a lot of fan mail; correction, I don’t get any fan mail, so I remembered this guy. Jump ahead to early last summer, when HBR had a gathering to commemorate the late James Carroll, and to dedicate a bench to him. Crisco showed up for the event, and I then had the opportunity to meet my one fan in person. Several months later, Crisco, a/k/a Chris Brown, began to make regular visits to the station on weekends. He brought coffee and baked goods to share, and most important, he brought with him some of his extensive collection of R&B, Soul, Funk, and Blues music to load into the HBR music library. A new volunteer was born.

Over the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to get to know Chris a little better, and he is an interesting and entertaining fellow. He is older than I am, has been a soul/R&B drummer and singer for many years, and has played around Toronto in I think more than one band. In his travels he has met some famous musicians. He’s now been a guest on several HBR radio shows, introducing our listeners to some of the lesser known soul and R&B acts about which he seems well informed. Community radio is all about informing the public, and I’ve found his commentary very interesting. Get him started and he can talk for hours about the origins of the legendary STAX Music label, or the back story behind a certain obscure soul band from the 60s or 70s. His knowledge and his passion for the music he loves is contagious, and it is that same enthusiasm for good music that first drew me to the radio station. I have a lot of friends who are music lovers, and it is their collective influence that has broadened my horizons. Presently, Shauna’s almost 92 year-old mom Ethel is hosting a show broadcast on Sunday nights entitled “Martini Music” and this was one of the many shows that James Carroll used to host. Never a big fan of crooner music, I have grown to appreciate it more in the past few years. Some of the songwriting and musical arrangements are exceptional, and it has definitely influenced my song writing.

There is no shortage of good music and songwriting in the world today, old and new. The problem is, not all that much of it is being broadcast on mainstream radio. Little community and campus radio stations are the only ones carrying the torch. With the advent of satellite radio, subscribers listen to the genre of music they choose, and nothing else, which is, I think, problematic. On my show, I try to feature a wide variety of songs in all genres, and from all eras. My reasoning is that good songs are timeless. You may not appreciate the Cole Porter tune I play, that precedes the Procal Harum rock classic I also like, but the show is about songs that have influenced me as a songwriter. If you listen to my new CD Imposters Game, you will hear how those many different styles have influenced my music. Had I not been exposed to many different styles of music, I could never have written this album, or would I have written the other 130 songs I have so far written. My favorite music used to classic rock ‘n roll, but over the years, my tastes in music have changed to include Rockabilly, Bluegrass, Texas Swing, Blues, Soul, Jazz, Reggae, some Country, Punk, New Wave, and many other styles. Opera and Rap not so much, yet.  In much the same way as cell phone texting and emails have eroded the art of written communication, so has satellite radio and short-attention-span commercial radio done a disservice to diversity, and to new, original creators of music.

I watch many of my musician friends struggle to make ends meet, and there seems to be a trend away from attending live concerts in smaller venues. Festival attendance in many venues is down, and the music business has been upended in the past two or three decades. That has had negative ramifications for the artists who rely on touring to earn a living. Perhaps in the near future, no one will attend live concerts, because everyone will elect to watch live feeds on their computers. I will be forever grateful to Hunters Bay Radio and stations like it, who broadcast live acts, feature under-recognized local talent, and act as a conduit for gifted artists who want to be heard. We have a good team of music lovers who volunteer at Hunters Bay Radio, and they keep the flame alive by presenting what they like to hear, not what some corporation dictates they play. Welcome aboard Crisco, nice to have another well-informed music lover on the team!

   - Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED