Volunteer Opportunities

This year, our Spring Fundraiser will take place on March 11–21.  As always we’re in need of volunteers to help with phones, mailings and other duties during this busy time. If you’d like to volunteer, email wumb@umb.edu.

Donate to our Spring Member Drive!

Help WUMB by spreading the word. Invite a friend to become a new Member during our Drive!

We can’t emphasize enough how we depend on our listeners (that’s you!) to donate your support. Take the opportunity this month to give a little more, renew your Membership, or invite a friend to support our station. We would greatly appreciate it!

To donate online, go to our website at http://wumb.org and click on the “donate now” button.

Thank you! Read More…

American Routes

3/6 – Jesse Winchester, Wayne & Jayne Henderson

3/13 – The Emperor and the Professor of New Orleans Music: Ernie K-Doe & Professor Longhair

3/20 – Music of the Folk Revival: Judy Collins, Jim Kweskin & Ramblin’ Jack Elliot

3/27 – Kingpins of the Gulf Coast: Rodney Crowell & Dr. John

Mountain Stage

3/5 – Jonathan Edwards, Tim O’Brien & Old Man Luedecke, Session Americana, Tony Furtado, and Anna & Elizabeth

3/12 – Josh Ritter, Amy Helm & The Handsome Strangers, Noah Gundersen, Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys, The Cactus Blossoms

3/19 – Blitzen Trapper, Ruby Amanfu, Wild Child, Birds of Chicago and The Suitcase Junket

3/26 – Guster, Robert Earl Keen, The Westies, and a special appearance by Larry Groce Read More…

I just wanted to take a second and say thank you to everyone who’s been listening and supporting WUMB!  We’re not out of Winter quite yet but nevertheless we’re looking forward to Spring.  We have a LOT of exciting things happening behind the scenes at WUMB and I’d like to share some of what’s taking place:

Guest Mix.  You might remember Guest Mix from years back at WUMB.  It was a really terrific show where musicians and industry folk were able to play Guest DJ and play songs that inspired them to get into music, what they’re currently listening to, songs they wish they’d written etc.  Over the years I’ve heard many of you ask about potentially bringing it back.  Because of your support for WUMB, we were able to hire a part time producer to work specifically on this show and the good news is that we’re almost there!  I can’t give you an exact time table of when Guest Mix will be ready to launch but I expect sometime in April you’ll find out. Read More…

I finally succumbed and took an Amazon Prime Membership.  Not for the free 2-Day shipping but for the videos. I wanted to see the show they produced based on the Harry Bosch novels. And who could resist Transparent, which not only stars Jeffrey Tambor but was created by Jill Soloway, sister of song-writer Faith Soloway.

Over all, I found the whole “Prime Video” thing a little hard to navigate, and was, perhaps, overcome by the sheer amount of things available. If you have found yourself in the same situation, let me offer a couple of suggestions. OK, three to be exact: A performance film, A music documentary, and a “movie” movie.

The Broken Circle Breakdown is a film from Belgium, which revolves around a bluegrass band. No I didn’t know that American bluegrass was big in Belgium either, but apparently it is, at least enough so that it features in a movie. The plot is a bit of a soap opera. Love story, child dying of cancer, etc., but the warm relationship among the band members make it worth seeing. There is also the music, which is amazing. It’s all performed by the cast so when you see them playing, it’s them that you’re hearing. The movie was filmed in Dutch and is only available with English subtitles. This is not a problem for two reasons: all the songs are in English, and there isn’t much dialog. They tend to follow the old theater adage “Show, don’t tell.” Speaking of that, there is some skin and sex in the movie, which means you probably don’t want to watch it with your kids, your parents or both.   Read More…

Have you taken a close look at WUMB’s program schedule lately?  We are serving up the same 24/7 slate of folk, blues, roots, Americana and world music you’ve come to expect, but there have also been some exciting additions and changes.

Monday – Friday, Brendan Hogan is now the host of The Morning Show, filling the hours from 6-10 AM with a great mix of music, commentary and a variety of special features. Dave Palmater takes over at 10 and keeps the music flowing until 3 PM with a different special feature every weekday at noon. From 3 PM to 7 PM Albert O. takes us through the afternoon rush, and Jess Phaneuf provides the soundtrack to your evening from 7-10 PM. The nationally syndicated World Café follows from 10 PM to midnight, and the WUMB Music Mix takes us through the night from midnight until 6 AM. Read More…

Every Saturday from noon to 2:00 PM, Patrick Coman presents Local Folk, featuring musicians who call the New England area home. Each week Patrick serves up a sampling of the region’s best folk, roots, blues and Americana. And Patrick can tell you why he is perfectly positioned to find and have access to these artists: “As a proud Boston-based musician and former booker/sound engineer/musician wrangler at local venues like Club Passim, Johnny D’s, Atwood’s, and the New England Americana Festival, I keep my ear to the ground for some of the best up-and-coming performers from throughout the rich New England music community.” Patrick also brings much more to Local Folk than recorded music: “In addition to live in-studio performances and in-depth looks at the music scene in the region’s music hubs, we also look back on famous artists who got their start right here in New England with our weekly “Hometown Heroes” segment.”

As a performer, Patrick plays “the reds and blues.” Merging bluesy barroom shuffles with the red dirt of his native Oklahoma,  he has garnered fans for his upbeat and contemporary take on traditional American music.  He also founded and presents “For the Sake of the Song,” a concert series in which regional artists pair songs by their greatest influence with their own original work.  You can read more about Patrick on his website, and on his WUMB Announcers page.

Whether you want to learn more about the artists who call New England home or you like to celebrate the musicians who frequent your favorite local haunts, tune in to 91.9 FM each week to get an earful of Local Folk, or listen online at wumb.org.

Recently some of you have asked me, “Where have you been?”   Thanks very much!   Actually, even though I have not been on the air as much, I have not gone anywhere.  In the last couple months I have moved into more of a production role at the station.  Perhaps you’ve noticed my voice on a few more promotional spots on WUMB; sometimes on many more promo spots. We had a lot of things going on in February… Read More…