Friday, May 15, 2009

Mountain Music

I do like mountain music, though I wouldn't qualify myself as a "big" fan.

Today's discovery:
WMMT, broadcasting from Whitesburg, KY (about an hour from my parents' place), using 15,000 watts, a decent Internet service, and an all-volunteer staff.

The mountain version of "All My Loving" was nice, though I'm actually partial to instrumentals. I like the traditional mountain music, with dulcimer, fiddle, banjo, including the gospels. Bluegrass is okay, but I'm not a big fan of modern country. I'm not wild about steel guitar and, despite (because of?) being a drummer, I don't like the heavy drums and simple 4/4 beat of a lot of commercial country.

Just to blow my mind, after three hours of "Bluegrass Express", they wedged some Latin jazz in between "I Need You Like a Train Needs a Track" and "He Got You, I Got the Dog" (how can you go wrong with a song that starts, "He's sleeping in my double-wide, hunting on my land" and proceeds to conclude that getting the dog was the better end of the deal?).

I commented recently that the problem with a lot of Internet music services is that they are predictable, and hence have no personality. This one - and my favorite, KCSM - definitely have personality.

And every WMMT announcer I've heard so far sounds like someone I went to high school with. Ah, the sounds of home...