Last week's show featured tracks from the newly-released Jimi Hendrix album, Valleys of Neptune, and just a few days before that show I started looking around to see if there were any interesting cover versions of classic Hendrix songs.  I expected to find a few versions of "Purple Haze" (I found over 40) and maybe a few others, since I knew of at least one Hendrix-tribute album, and of course Stevie Ray Vaughan threw down the gauntlet with a Hendrix cover on almost every album.  But I found hundreds: jazz, orchestral, funk, bluegrass - even an all-sitar tribute album(!) - from all over the world.

It's hard to believe, but Jimi Hendrix, one of the most influential guitar players of all time, only released three albums of studio material plus one live album in his lifetime.  Since then, of course, at least a dozen times that many albums have been released, mostly bootlegs of live recordings and unfinished odds and ends.  Hendrix himself called it:  "It's funny how people love the dead.  Once you're dead, you're made for life."

This week brings us Valleys of Neptune, the first officially released Hendrix studio album in forty years, featuring twelve tracks recorded mostly between February and May of 1969, including new arrangements of signature Hendrix songs "Fire" and "Stone Free" and a studio version of live favorite, "Sunshine of Your Love."

Yes, the month of March has arrived with its perennially broken promise of Spring.  Let's not kid ourselves, folks: Spring around here has a notorious fear of commitment - you can't really be sure that the relationship is stable until around the first of May, if then.  

In the meantime, nothing helps maintain body heat like a good, fast march while carrying a tuba. This week's I.W.H. will feature nearly an hour of marching-band music from such unlikely sources as jazz-composer Anthony Braxton, The Who, John Wayne(!), Art Blakey & His Jazz Messengers and Michael Nesmith of The Monkees, not to mention a march arrangement of the song "Roundabout" by Yes.  Actual marching around in your living room, kitchen or car while listening is recommended.

Tuesday, 3/2/10  8-10 PM     REBROADCAST Friday midnight after P5K

It all began in 1957, when Richard Berry and the Pharoahs released Berry's composition "Louie, Louie", as the b-side of a single, and had some regional success in the San Francisco area.  Later, when the band toured the Pacific Northwest, several local groups picked up on the song's appeal and began adding it to their set-lists.  

The Year of the Tiger has been officially underway since Sunday, so this week's I.W.H. will open with a few songs about China and tigers.  

But mostly this show will focus on new music, which is to say both music that is actually new, more or less, and music that is older but recently acquired and deserving of your attention.

Tuesday, 2/16/10  8-10 PM

REBROADCAST Friday Midnight after P5K.

No, no, no...not that Frank.  This Frank:

The question that has occupied philosophers from time immemorial is:  What do groundhogs and crepes have in common?

The answer, weirdly enough, is that they are both associated with Candlemas, a Catholic holiday (which in turn was possibly celebrated on February 2nd in order to subvert the pagan celebration of the goddess Brighid, but that's another story).

In honor of the upcoming Motown/R&B show at the Sondheim this weekend, a uniquely I.W.H. salute to open this week's show, featuring: foreign-language versions of Motown hits sung by the original artists; cover versions; remixes; Funk Brothers instrumental tracks and more.

Tuesday 1/26/10  8-10 PM

REBROADCAST Friday midnight after P5K

Have you noticed that no one writes songs with lyrics referring to their beloved as 'Sugar' anymore? Perhaps it's because, thanks to modern health-awareness (if not necessarily health-practice) it now feels like calling your loved one 'Diabetes' or 'Kidney Failure'. And somehow 'Xylitol' just doesn't make it as term of endearment.

This week's I.W.H. opens with a salute to the confectionary qualities of love. Sweet.

Tuesday, 1/12/10 8-10PM

REBROADCAST Friday midnight after P5K

When Garry Trudeau used the phrase "a gallstone of a decade" in Doonesbury, he was referring to the 70's, but I think this past decade fulfills that description much more accurately: the best thing you can say about it is that it passed.

It was "The Aughts", a decade in which a lot of things didn't get done that 'ought' to have been and waaaay too many things were done that shouldn't had oughta. All right, move along, nothing to see here...

A salute to the New Year to kick off the first I.W.H. of 2010.

Tuesday 1/5/10 8-10 PM

REBROADCAST Friday Midnight after P5K