tilley's blog

Tues night 6pm-8pm on "The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown", my guest will be piano player Tom Merrigan. Tom loves to sing and play boogie-woogie and stride piano -- and if you tune in this evening, you'll hear why -- as I talk to Tom about the music that inspires him, his own songwriting and the Durham Street Piano Project (where Tom hauls a small upright piano around town with the help of a small trailer and cart and plays on street corners and in front of bars and restaurants). Tom's wild and rollicking piano and vocal style is a great addition to the streets of Durham and will liven up any corner in a hurry! Tune in locally 6pm-8pm on 88.7FM or listen to WXDU online via your computer, phone or internet-capable-fridge.

 Raleigh bluesman Th' Bullfrog Willard McGee will play live on The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown, Tues May 3rd in the 7:00pm hour...   Bullfrog has a great love for our local Piedmont Blues and plays many tunes from the likes of The Rev Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, John Jackson and many others...  His subtle guitar playing and big gravely voice make up his trademark sound.  Bullfrog is also a great illustrator and spends a lot of time drawing pencil and ink drawings of local blue-men and women

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The Durham Trainspotters will bring their fiddles, harmonicas, guitars and washboard to play live on-air during The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown on Tues March 1st during the 7:00pm hour.  They'll be playing you their twisted versions of classic Mardi Gras tunes to get you ready for next week's Mardi Gras parade down at the FullSteam Brewery.  Chris Turner and Rachel Maloney will lead the charge on-air and during the parade.  Tune in to The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown 6pm-8pm and get ready for Fat Tuesday!

Skeedaddle plays live on The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown  this Tues, Feb 15 in the 7:00pm hour.  Durham's Skeedaddle plays pre-war swing, jug band music, jump blues, rockabilly, old time, Hawaiian music and novelty tunes from the 20's and 30's. National steel-bodied guitars, mandolins and ukes are the norm here, along with upright bass, trumpet, sax, clarinet and jug.  Tune in for some raucous acoustic music Tues, 6pm-8pm.

 On Tues Aug 31, The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown will feature newly discovered recordings from 1967 of Hill Country bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell. These recordings were originally made by UNC folklorist William Ferris, but the tapes have sat idle at UNC until folklore student Vincent Joos learned of their existence and began an effort to release the recordings commercially.  Tune in during the 7:00pm hour to hear an interview with co-producer Vincent Joos, a discussion of the newly formed Devil Down Records and some of the newly released Fred McDowell songs.

Intergalactic Blam! - A high-octane old-time string band featuring musicians from Durham, Hillsborough and Boston, will be playing live on-air during "The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown" tonight (Tues) during the 7:00 hour.  Expect total chaos and destruction of stringed instruments as planets collide.

Mt. Airy, NC's own Sacred Steel Guitar gospel group "DaShawn Hickman and Steel Moven" will be playing live on your radio tonight (Tues) around 7pm on  "The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown" here on WXDU.

 Tune in to The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown during the 7:00pm hour on Tues April 20 to hear a live performance and interview with Chapel Hill's Mandolin Orange.  This exciting young folk/bluegrass duo has been burning up the club circuit and outdoor festivals with their fiddle and mandolin playing and their tight vocal harmonies.  Andrew Marlin and Emily Franz have been drawing large crowds wherever they play and have gotten a lot of attention for their wonderful duet singing and original songs, as well as covers of classic country and bluegrass tunes.     Last year they released an EP and are now about to release their first full-length album, "Quiet Little Room", with an album release party at Local 506 on May 1st.

Tune into The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown on Tues March 30th 6-8pm to hear live Flamenco guitar music played by Ed Stephenson and Craig Hilton of the Raleigh-based Paco Band.  They'll be playing flamenco classics from the likes of Paco de Lucia as well as tunes that mix jazz and flamenco styles.  The live music starts in the 7pm hour.

Tune in Tues March 16 6pm-8pm for The Bull City Cosmic Hoedown to hear two of North Carolina's finest harp slingers, Chris Turner and Bill Newton.  Chris is well known for his work in blues, folk and celtic music and has led such ragged Durham aggregations as The Nee Ningy Band, The Wompers and The Pesky Varmints. Bill Newton can be seen weekly with The Duke Street Dawgs or out in full force with Rebecca and The Hi-Tones, playing regularly in The Jon Shain Trio, or leading his own horn-heavy BBQ.   These guys are both deadly harmonica players and will be sporting a massive collection of diatonic, chromatic and chord harmonicas, including some two and three foot-long German specimens... Tune in for their live set in the 7:00 hour tonight.