The Bob Edwards Show, July 15-19, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013: The music industry has changed over the last few decades. The struggling, independent artist now has an even smaller chance of being discovered by a major label and rewarded with a career-changing contract. But, these days bands can record their own studio-quality music, put their video on YouTube and work all of the social media sites to build a fan base. Another part of that equation is often direct funding from that growing fan base. Paul Schomer runs a new music discovery blog called RadioCrowdfund.com and he talks with Bob about the new landscape of the music industry and about some of the bands he has helped fans discover. Then, Bob talks with Sally Ellyson and Dan Messe of the band Hem about their latest CD. The tunes on Departure and Farewell are not much of a departure from their previous work – still a mix of light airiness and layered density. The full band will also play a few of their new songs in our performance studio.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013: For 40 years, Bob Dotson has traveled the country profiling ordinary Americans for a segment on NBC’s Today Show called “American Story.” He always felt that the people he met deserved more than 5 minutes of television fame, so he’s compiled the most memorable stories into a book titled American Story: A Lifetime Search for Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things. Then, children’s book author and illustrator Daniel Pinkwater talks with Bob about the importance of good early children’s primer books, and recommends Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka’s Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013: Over a five year period beginning in 1968, airplane hijackings were astonishingly common. Commercial jets were seized once a week on average. One of the most famous occurred in 1972 when Army veteran Roger Holder and his beautiful girlfriend Cathy Kerkow commandeered Western Airlines flight 701 from Los Angeles to Seattle as a vague protest against the Vietnam War. The couple claimed to have a bomb, but they were not in fact carrying any weapons and no one was hurt. Brendan Koerner chronicles the bizarre story in a new book titled The Skies Belong to Us. Then, the former first lady of France, Carla Bruni, has recently released her fourth album, Little French Songs. It’s been called a “tightly crafted, sweet collection of French chasons” and features “Mon Raymond,” a love song to her husband, Nicholas Sarkozy. Bruni explains that Raymond was easier to rhyme than Nicholas.
Thursday, July 18, 2013: Early in the morning of January 1, 2009, Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a transit officer on the subway system in Oakland. The incident triggered riots throughout the city. Filmmaker Ryan Coogler made a feature film about Grant, called Fruitvale Station, which chronicles his last day alive and the positive changes he’d hoped to make. Then, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer…” an old adage spoken by the Machiavellian among us, including Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II. Today, Steve Winick and Nancy Groce slink into the studio and cast a sideways glance at our venerated host, toting recordings about “friends and enemies” from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
Friday, July 19, 2013: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, Oscar and Emmy Award nominated actor James Cromwell is best-known for two very different roles: Farmer Hoggett in the surprise 1995 family film Babe and as the ruthless Captain Dudley Smith in 1997’s noir thriller L.A. Confidential. Cromwell’s latest film is Still Mine and it opens today. Finally, the latest installment of our ongoing series This I Believe.