Pastorale by Konstantin Somov, 1896. Image source

This episode is completely centered around the song "Hey Old Pal" and aims to continue that feel for the full two hours. Cozy and country-ish songs that maybe you could even see in the next John Denver/Muppets team up. They haven't done one in a while for some reason. Who is the modern day John Denver? I wonder...

36 acts in this show

Countries represented: USA, England, Netherlands, Canada, Scotland, Indonesia, Germany, Ireland

Next John Denver?

Twilight over the Path by Albert Bierstadt. Image source

Time for some mind bending psych. This is psych from the four corners of the globe that has been packed into two hours of life changing rocking and reeling. Some are about pollution, some are about being a rock and not being happy about it and some are about the color green. Very much a continuation of the episode from a few weeks ago Octopuff In Kumquat.

35 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, Iceland, Turkey, Belgium, France, Chile, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Kazakhstan

Radish by Unichi Hiratsuka, 1935. Image source

A super psychedelic episode, trippy weird things in this one here.

27 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, France, Germany, Sweden, Israel, Canada, Australia, Netherlands

Moonlight, Winter by Rockwell Kent c. 1940. Image source

Two hours or spacey far out rock for transporting you across the galaxy. Just in time for a certain solar event I've been hearing so much about. It's got some psych and it has some progressive rock and synth.

21 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, Japan, France, Canada, Switzerland, Argentina, Germany, Netherlands, Czechoslovakia

Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.

-Alfred Bester, "Tiger! Tiger!"

A collection of out-there psych. Often a bit dark and featuring off-beat topics, digging deep and casting the net wide, but ultimately it is, in my opinion, very captivating stuff.

37 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, Greece, Scotland, Netherlands, France, Iceland, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Indonesia, Jamaica, Australia, Japan

A collection of out-there psych. Often a bit dark and featuring off-beat topics, digging deep and casting the net wide, but ultimately it is, in my opinion, very captivating stuff.

37 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, Greece, Scotland, Netherlands, France, Iceland, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Indonesia, Jamaica, Australia, Japan

A collection of out-there psych. Often a bit dark and featuring off-beat topics, digging deep and casting the net wide, but ultimately it is, in my opinion, very captivating stuff.

37 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, Greece, Scotland, Netherlands, France, Iceland, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Indonesia, Jamaica, Australia, Japan

Le Père Magloire sur la route entre Saint-Clair et Etretat by Gustav Caillebotte, 1884. Image source

Songs to evoke feelings of nostalgia and looking backward. These are the reflective and wistful. What an odd theme for a show that plays almost exclusively 50 year old music...

Sequel to the episodes God Save Strawberry Jam And All The Different Varieties (6/3/2020), Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliate (9/26/2018) and Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium (9/5/2018)

A tribute The Kink's guitarist Dave Davies and his Victorian inspired, dandified outfits. Musicians of this period made dark trippy songs exploring the world of drugs, songs about the horrors of Vietnam oh and then also songs about marmalade and saying goodmorning to milkmen.

This is another in the series of ridiculous rock star outfitry following George Harrison's Ridiculous Floral Boots from 11/09/2022 and Mike Love's Ridiculous Fur Hat from 11/14/2018. These are the only times I use photos and not art as the show image.

When I did the George Harrison one I made some AI generated images in Dalle2, so I did that here too. I fear Dave Davies isn't recognizable enough to get accurate results...

[Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the spinning machine] by Japanese Department of Education. Image source

Two hours of the opposite of love songs. Songs of disgust, distaste and disaster, and since it is getting harder every year to find songs rude enough to fit the theme, they are complimented by another hour of unrequited and heartbreak songs that are mixed in.

Another episode in the anti-love series along with Dear Darla, I Hate Your Stinking Guts. You Make Me Vomit. You're Scum Between My Toes. Love, Alfalfa (2023), Table For One (2022), With How Sad Steps, O Moon, Thou Climb’st The Skies (2021), I Think You Should Leave (2020) and 7,700,000,000 People And You're Still Lonely (2019).

37 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, Scotland, Italy, Bulgaria, Brazil, Germany, Egypt

Dance of Eternal Love by Toshi Yoshida. Image source

Look at those birds, they love each other or something even if there is snow, or maybe it is just pointillism. Two hours of songs of love. The romantic type that is positive. Sure, sometimes there are cows, trucks, nuclear fallout or ghosts involved, but these all express their sometimes unique take on love. This is another in a long line of Valentine's Day episodes and this one even happens to be on the actual date.

38 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, South Africa, India, Finland, Italy, Estonia, Brazil, Canada, Sweden

Wear Celluloid Collars and Cuffs. Image source.

Deux hours of French tunes from chanson and yé-yé to almost no other types of French music. This should make for a very fun, up beat dive into the 60's, I mean just look at how good these single and EP sleeves are.

32 acts in this show.

Countries represented: France, England, Luxembourg, Egypt, Tunisia

Solar System quilt by Ellen Harding Bake. Image source.

Open the pod bay doors and count backward from ten. It is time to blast off with two hours of stargazing tunes that send you sailing past the nebulas and quasars.

28 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, France, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Norway, Japan, Turkey, Switzerland, Canada

Untitled by Louis Wain. Image source

A collection of especially trippy and psychedelic psychedelic rock songs. This ones have all those wacky sound effects, swirling soundscapes and droning. Winter Light / Summer Heat purports to be about half psychedelic rock, so here is the psychedelic rockiest.

29 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, Germany, England, Canada, Italy, Brazil, Hungary, Australia

A Drinking Monk by Egbert van Heemskerck, 1650. Image source

This is the fourth coming, that means the fourth episode on this show where the theme is spirituality. Typically I've done this theme right before Christmas, but not this time, this time it is a little after. The title, "Now Hush," Said Ham, is a reference to how I can't get over how the son of Noah of ark fame is Ham. He has two others named Shem and Japheth and altogether the trio sound like Three Stooges names. It is the funniest thing. The title also appears in a C.S. Lewis poem that makes an appearance in this show.

Sequel to the episodes: Losing Your Head With Holofernes (12/9/2020), …And The Fifth Horseman Is Fear (12/18/2019) and The Four Truths (12/19/2018)

23 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, South Africa, France, Canada, Germany.

Bonus image:

Noah Damning Ham

The Hostage by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1912. Image source

Hark, here be two hours of folk traditions and medieval influence (maybe it is really renaissance influence). A mix of interpretations of ye olde European songs and child ballads with newer stuff that just sounds like hundred of year old stuff. It leans heavily into British music but it makes sense that those songs would carry over to the new world. I had a really good write up last time with The Pickled King episode, I am aware I cannot top it, so here is just some nice folk tunes to make you pine for days of yore.

Sequel to the episodes The Pickled King (aired 5-12-2021), A Flagon For A Brigand (aired 3-4-2020) and Cobwebs On King Arthur's Zither (aired 11-28-2018).

32 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada, France, Netherlands

Aloha Oe: Farewell To Thee published by W.A. Quincke, 1912. Image source

It is the dead of winter, meaning the part without Christmas in it, and it is so very cold. But due to tropical and exotic themes taking over my life; in my filmmaking, in my home bar décor, in my outings, in my wardrobe and in my cat's wardrobe, I have been listening to even more exotica music than I already was, which feels at odds with the world surrounding me. The weather of course, but also this trend hasn't been popular for 70 years. Here's mostly a bunch of mostly old, mostly exotica music centering on mostly the tropics. there are a lot of the usual suspects, the easy listening heavy hitters, some authentic folks and some odd balls.

34 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, Italy, Indonesia, Trinidad, Brazil, South Africa, Peru, Brazil, Canada

Enjoy this tropic inspired cat video:

Admiralty Under the Snow by Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, 1909. Image source

Another year is turning and it is time to reflect and press on to the upcoming. I take this quiet time after the Christmas playlists to air one of my favorite episodes of the year, I call them my Winter Light themes and they consist of folk oriented songs that are quiet and sometimes stark and nearing on bleak. But they are actually nice, trust me.

Here are the past year's episodes of the Winter Light theme: Nattvardsgästerna, Up On The Roof, And Just Like That, I Can Feel My Soul Grow Back, Bryter Layter & Winter Light.

33 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, Scotland, Canada, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Spain

Come on in and know me better, man. This is a playlist of nice Christmas songs from the classic era of holiday tunery. The mid-century provided us with so many great Christmas classics and even more that should have become classics. Here are some familar voices, often singing less familiar songs, or at least the version you are most familiar with. Very wholesome all around, with some very sweet and some very silly and three songs about cats!

42 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, Denmark, Canada, France, Cuba

Skiers (Snow emergency) by Haddon Sundblom. Image source

Winter fun for Christmas time! Songs for your holiday party. Christmas is for everyone whether you are a into jazz, beat, mambo, calypso, swing or other, and this playlist is for you, a surprising, but always merry treat under your Christmas tree.

42 acts in this show.

Countries represented: USA, England, Trinidad, South Africa, Canada, France, Ecuador, Mexico