Oh-kay… We are all thinking about black armbands whenever the topic of music performances comes up, but there are ways. It’s no new news for blues aficionados that neither Bay-FM or KROCK have loads of blues programs, and we need to find substitutes.
First and foremost, you should be looking at the websites of your favourite musicians, and keeping an eye on the “Geelong Blues Family” Facebook page. Many performers are doing live streaming — Geoff Achison, Andrea Robertson, Fiona Boyes and the like. The von Robertsons ran a great online gig through Facebook Live. A great number of people linked in, and I hope they donated to the performers.
However, there are situations where watching YouTube, Facebook Live or a Facebook watch party will take you away from keeping your eyes on the road, or the bush trail. Bugger it, we’re not supposed to be doing that either, anyhow… There are many different streaming services on the web covering a lot of different topics, music styles, news and sports, just to name a few.
The problem is keeping track of them all.
This is where TuneIn ( tunein.com ) comes in handy. It’s an aggregator app, which links them all together in one spot. Simply by selecting Blues Music, you will get screenfuls of stations and podcasts of blues music.
My favourite is GotRadio Bit O Blues from Southern California. They are one of the oldest, most established streaming destinations of free internet radio on the planet! They even ran a pic of Chris Wilson as their avatar recently. It’s public radio and you do get some promos about finishing high school and reading, but they are relatively few.
Jus Blues Radio operates out of Atlanta Georgia. They play some of America’s finest African-American Blues and Soul music talents who are often left out of the more popular mainstream media and awards shows.
Amazing Blues is part of the Amazing Radios Network, and their website contains reviews to supplement their streaming.
If streaming sites are the web equivalent of 24-hour radio stations, then podcasts are regular programs which are available at set days and times.
Blues Before Sunrise is a Chicago-based, nationally syndicated public radio program which explores preserves, and popularizes the various eras and genre of Blues Heritage. Host Steve Cushing numbers among his friends and closest associates fellow musicians to whom the blues is vital, thriving music as well as a means of making a living.
Fish Fry is a radio party in your living room, as Chuck Haddock serves up the best in blues, r&b, soul, jumpin’ jazz and zydeco.
102 The Cue covers hard blues and classic rock and seek listener donations, to remain commercial-free.
You’ll also find ABC stations, 94.7 the Pulse, MAINfm from Castlemaine (!) and basically, if you can’t find something you like, you’re just not trying.
You can link through the web, or there are apps for most devices.
That’s one end of the process. In the next column, I’ll put together some info on making your own streams.
Written by Dr John Lamp
