the rix mix

Filling in for Glen Jones today at WFMU provided a fun challenge
to tweak his style toward my tastes, indulging myself a bit
while hopefully keeping his large regular audience contented
on a beautiful late summer afternoon. But it was bad news week,
so I wanted to get that behind me by playing upfront a 1/2 hour of
New Orleans stuff. But almost subconsciously - given how I set up
free form shows to allow some spontaneity - the storm seemed to
keep popping up in song titles: Morning Rain, Rain Day Women,
Where Were You When I Needed You, Pumping My Heart, Ray-O-Vac,
I'm Stranded, Let's Submerge, even a happy summer song, Shambala
has "wash away my trouble, wash away my pain". A few of these
songs have been in my notebook backlist for months, some were spot
choices. Usually, I'm very glad when I find these threads & themes
afterward in my programs - It means I was operating on a deeper
creative level, but I wish I'd tried more today to keep them out.
I can't fault the songs themselves. It's impossible to really forget;
New Orleans is at the heart of American music. I finally surrendered
in my way, in the two closing selections.