Best Richmond radio show 2025, per Style Weekly readers

I'm pleased to announce that Global A Go-Go has been selected by readers of Style Weekly, Richmond's alternative voice since 1982, as Richmond's best radio show of 2025.  Thank you for the honor, and I'm looking forward to decolonizing your ears with music from around the world in the universal language of groove for many years to come.

 

And how about WRIR almost winning a Pick 4 in this category?  Global A Go-Go and Open Source RVA and What The Fontaine, broken up only by former WRIR DJ Todd Ranson's Loblolly Pine Show on WDCE.  Your community radio station, indeed! 

El heredero de la cumbia

Yeison Landero, from San Jacinto in Colombia’s Montes de María province near Cartagena, is called el heredero de la cumbia – the heir to cumbia, the inheritor of cumbia.  He’s from the birthplace of that style of music, a style that’s now enormously popular all across Latin America and increasingly in the USA as well.

 

Yeison, the grandson of Andrés Landero, el rey de la cumbia (the king of cumbia), brings his band to Richmond for the first time ever on Friday January 17 at Révéler Experiences for two shows, at 7:30 and 9:30 PM presented by Secret Planet Richmond.  Yeison and his band will also be playing live at WRIR on Head Empty Radio, on the afternoon of January 17 between 1 and 3 PM.  This week on Global A Go-Go, I'll introduce you to the festive and deeply culturally significant music of Yeison Landero.

 

Also this week (Sunday January 5, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): A set of reggae for the upcoming Marijuana Justice Lobby Day at the General Assembly; new music from Brazil via Los Angeles by Rogê; new Afropop from Bakk Lamp Fall, Vaudou Game and Fely Tchaco; four very different takes on the cumbia tradition; and the sound of West Africa's ancient culture of hunters and spiritual guardians played on the donso ngoni.

Loboko takes over Cause & Effect

Cause & Effect (Saturday 1-3 PM) is WRIR's weekly program focusing on a single artist and exploring in detail their work, their influences and their peers.  We don't often have the artist in question here in person for their own Cause & Effect.  But that's what's happening this week.

 

I will be hosting Cause & Effect this week (Saturday October 26, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, and any old time at my podcast site), and my in-studio guests will be the New York City-based Congolese band Loboko, who are performing Saturday night at Révéler Experiences.

 

David Noyes of WRIR's Ambiance Congo (alternate Sundays 3-5 PM, the only Congolese broadcast radio show in the USA) and The Motherland Influence (Sunday 5-7 PM) and I will interview the band.  And the band will take over the selector chair, spinning sounds they love, music that's influenced them, other artists working in related spaces, and maybe some of their unreleased recordings.

 

You can participate too by making a donation on Saturday, the first full day of WRIR's Fall 2024 Fund Drive, which is raising money to make programming like this show possible, powering "The Tower of Low Power" to keep Richmond Community Radio in the pink for another six months.  Just visit wrir.org, click the Donate button, and you're almost done!  Thank you for your support!

More polyrhythmic, even more lysergic

The music scene in Bogotá, Colombia is red-hot right now, and one of that city's finest bands will be visiting Richmond this week.  La Sonora Mazurén play at the Get Tight Lounge on Wednesday September 25, and you'll hear their music this week on Global A Go-Go.  I'll put them in context alongside tracks from other current bogotana bands like Meridian Brothers, Frente Cumbiero, La Perla, Romperayo and Conjunto Media Luna (the last three bands all share members with La Sonora Mazurén).

 

Speaking of hot, Richmond's bolero royalty Miramar have a new single coming out imminently on the legendary salsa label Ansonia.  And they will be performing with a slightly larger ensemble, the Richmond Symphony, at the Carpenter Theatre on October 5, so I'll play some Miramar music as well.

 

And trainee Tim joins me in the studio to spin a tasty selection of African and Brazilian vinyl.  So it's a jam-packed show this week (Sunday September 22, 1:00-3:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site), don't miss it!

Colombian pride

Bill Lupoletti of Global A Go-Go will be subbing for his WRIR colleague DJ Maiya on the first hour of the program she co-hosts, Head Empty Radio, Friday July 19 at 1 PM.

 

That's the same day that Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Colombia's original sound of cumbia, will be playing at Richmond's Get Tight Lounge (more information here: facebook.com/events/831676748322907), so you'll hear some of Los Gaiteros' music plus that of Colombian artists who have been inspired by Los Gaiteros in various ways, and some new sounds from around the world with a cumbia twist to them.

Head Empty Radio's regular co-host DJ Orangina will be at the controls and keeping the party going for hour number two.  Check both of us out this Friday afternoon!

La Perla from Bogotá, live in Richmond Saturday May 4

La Perla, las tres brujas del tambor (the three witches of the drums) from Bogotá Colombia, are coming to Richmond this week.

 

They will be performing at the Get Tight Lounge, 1104 W. Main Street, on Saturday May 4.  Doors open at 7:30 PM; La Perla goes on stage at 9:00.  You can get your tickets here: https://dice.fm/event/g8rpb-la-perla-at-gtl-4th-may-get-tight-lounge-richmond-tickets

They will also be performing live on WRIR this Saturday afternoon between 1 and 3 PM.  I'll be hosting a special edition of the WRIR program "Cause & Effect," featuring the music of La Perla, their influences, and some of the many bands in the very hip current Bogotá scene.  And La Perla will join me in WRIR's Studio C for a live performance and conversation.  You can listen on 97.3 FM in Richmond or at wrir.org anywhere.

Sun Ra and me

From L to R: Sun Ra, Walt Dickerson & yours truly

Nobody has ever asked me to write liner notes for an album, until now.  The album in question is Haverford College, Jan. 25, 1980 by Sun Ra.  It was released in physical form last weekend for Record Store Day 2023 (discogs.com/release/26666099-Sun-Ra-Haverford-College-1980-Solo-Piano) and previously as Bandcamp download in 2019 (sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/haverford-college-1980-solo-piano).

So why am I writing liner notes for a Sun Ra album?  Well, it's because I was one of the promoters of the concert on the recording.  The album and the concert make a pretty good story, and you can read about it in the liner notes below.  My notes follow those of Irwin Chusid, the administrator of Sun Ra's estate and the person who asked to publish my reminiscences.  Thank you, Irwin!

 

For a 3-minute summary, here's an interview about the album that I did as a Record Store Day promotion with my long-time friend Jim Bland, owner of Plan 9 Music in Richmond: facebook.com/watch/?v=932921114422140.

WRIR's Afropop Dance Thang, Saturday November 11

Hey, if you're in Richmond this weekend here's an event you might want to check out: a rare public sighting of the Global A Go-Go Sound System.

DJ Graybeard of WRIR's The Other Black Music and The Motherland Influence and I will be spinning an evening's worth of our favorite African dance music. We're calling the event the Afropop Dance Thang -- it's happening Saturday November 11 at Studio Two Three, 3300 W. Clay Street in Scott's Addition. Here's our Facebook Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/178133479408937

The Global A Go-Go Guide To The 2016 Richmond Folk Festival

 My favorite weekend of the year is coming up soon – that would be the weekend of the Richmond Folk Festival, this year held on October 7-9.  It’s like Christmas for a music junkie: 107 performances by 37 artists from around the world on seven stages, all free (but don’t forget to “make a drop in the bucket” when you’re there), all in my hometown, and I get to share it with 200,000 likeminded fans.

If those big numbers make the event seem a little daunting, I’m here to help you.  Every year I make myself a little Folk Festival guide: an itinerary that keeps me from getting overwhelmed by the choices and the crowds.  I plan out my whole Festival day for Saturday – if there are other acts I want to hear, or if weather or other complications ensue, I can always fill in the gaps on Friday night or Sunday.

Here’s what my Saturday itinerary looks like this year:

Live At Portrait House, Friday February 27 9:00-10:30 PM

I rarely DJ outside of WRIR's studio, but I will be doing so at a WRIR event this Friday, February 27, right after my last Friday edition of Global A Go-Go (more on that subject in the post below this one).

The event takes place at Portrait House, 2907 W. Cary Street in Richmond's Carytown.  They'll have the last kegs of Hardywood's WRIR X beer, brewed in commemoration of the station's first 10 years on the air.  A portion of every beer sold will be donated to WRIR, and our goal is to kick all the kegs that night.

I'll be there spinning music from 9:00 to 10:30 PM and celebrating 10 years of Global A Go-Go on Friday nights.  I'll be doing an all-Ethiopian set in honor of the The Nile restaurant, long Richmond's go-to spot for Ethiopian food and now under the same roof as Portrait House.

Following me will be DJ Graybeard ("The Other Black Music" and "The Motherland Influence") at 10:30 mixing Ethiopian and other Afro sounds, and DJ Carlito ("If Music Could Talk") at midnight with international dancefloor booty shakers.  Come down and celebrate with us!

More event info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/604152343049030

Global A Go-Go's New Time: Wednesdays 3-5 PM, Beginning March 4

You may already have heard that WRIR is implementing the biggest schedule change in our 10 years on the air.  Starting on March 2nd, our weeknight music programming will begin two hours earlier, at 3 PM.  For the first time ever, we'll have news and public affairs programming on weekends: one hour on Saturday at 5 PM, and three hours Sunday morning starting at 6 AM.  And we'll be carrying news programs overnight, from 3 to 6 AM on weekdays.

Global A Go-Go will be a part of these schedule changes.  Effective March 4th, my show will be heard on Wednesdays between 3 and 5 PM.

I'm very excited about the changes.  You may not know this, but the 3-5 PM time slot ("afternoon drive-time," in radio lingo) is the most-listened-to two hours in America radio.  We're aiming to make it equally popular at WRIR by moving some of our best music programs into that time slot, so I'm honored to have my show included in that group.

A Shout-Out From Chris Bopst

I have a radio-station megaphone for two hours each week, so I hardly need any more amplification than that.  Nevertheless, it's a great pleasure to have been touted by Chris Bopst, a man whose work I truly admire, in yesterday's Richmond Times-Dispatch.  Click the image above to make it more legible, or link up with the article here:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/entertainment-life/weekend/the-hear-now-globe-trotting-radio-and-psychedelic-appalachian/article_96654f58-f9ca-569c-aef0-3ae22d2d282a.html

Panel discussion on September 29, 2010

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be participating in a discussion about collecting African music that's happening at Virginia Commonwealth University's Anderson Gallery on Wednesday September 29 at 6 PM.  See the poster above for more details, or visit the Anderson Gallery's website:

http://www.vcu.edu/arts/gallery

My fellow panelists will be Siemon Allen, whose show Imaging South Africa is up at the Anderson Gallery right now; and my WRIR colleague David Noyes, host of Ambiance Congo and co-host of The Motherland Influence.  With those two guys, you can be sure that the conversation is going to be lively and challenging.

Also, Siemon Allen will be my guest co-host on Global A Go-Go on Friday October 1 from 5 to 7 PM.  We'll talk about Imaging South Africa and we'll play selections from Siemon's vast archive of rare South African recordings.

By the way, if you're at all interested in African music and culture, make sure to see Siemon's show at the Anderson Gallery before it closes on October 31.  It's a truly mind-blowing experience.

WRIR's Julia McCauley recorded our conversation; if you weren't able to be there, you can download the recording here:

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/45934