Of Schooners and Snider

From the desk of Peter Crowley:

Episode 96, in which I play more than an hour of boat songs and then the new Todd Snider album, "The Excitement Plan," all the way through.

I found out about Todd Snider in 1996 at a summer job at the Catholic cemeteries in Plattsburgh, N.Y.: digging graves, mowing grass and mostly drinking coffee and trading tall tales in the cemetery shack. My boss was a biker and Vietnam vet who introduced me to John Prine, and then to this young guy who had opened for Johnny P on "Austin City Limits" and sung a funny song about a fictional Seattle grunge band that rose to stardom (briefly) by refusing to play any of their songs.

Two years later, on May 11, 1998, Todd and his blazing rock band, the Nervous Wrecks, played at a bar in Toronto, where I was living at the time. I got there early, waiting for a friend who never showed up. Instead, a couple of girls sat down next to me. One of them has been my wife for almost eight years now. (The show was amazing, too, by the way.)

On boats, my great uncle Lou ran away to sea and for decades ran cargo on sailing ships between Nova Scotia and the Caribbean. He was one of the last to use only sailing ships commercially, and a German sub sunk one of them during World War II. The Saturday Evening Post did a piece on him in the '50s, and Neil Young wrote a song about him in the '70s. I play it here.

I'm sure sailing is splendid, but my kind of boat is a canoe. Getting one was my top priority (after getting a job) when I moved up to the Adirondacks in 1999. I still have the canoe I got then, and my wife and I bought another as our wedding present to each other. There's nothing like being out on the water ...

The Ten Dollar Radio Show - sounds like dragonflies buzzing and silver maples rustling on a river, and plays for free.

This week's playlist:

 

Heavenly Houseboat Blues - Townes Van Zandt

Sail Away - Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry

Party Barge - Silver Jews

River Boat - Allen Toussaint

The First Showboat - Jerry Jeff Walker

Rowboat - Beck

Ohio River Boat Song - Palace Music

Boatman - Frankenpine

Ships - Redbird

The Dawntreader - Joni Mitchell

Wooden Ships (live) - Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young?)

Sailing On - Toots & the Maytals

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot

Jim Jones - Bob Dylan

Twenty Miles from Shore - Hankshaw Hawkins

Captain Kennedy - Neil Young

Talkin' Sailor Blues - Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Birds and Ships - Natalie Merchant, Billy Bragg and Wilco

I Cover the Waterfront (live) - Billie Holliday

-----Todd Snider's new album, "The Excitement Plan," is played in its entirety:

Slim Chance

Greencastle Blues

America's Favorite Pasttime

Doll Face

Bring 'em Home

Corpus Christi Bay

The Last Laugh

Unorganized Crime

Barefoot Champagne

Don't Tempt Me (duet with Loretta Lynn)

Money, Compliments, Publicity (Song Number Ten)

Good Fortune

 

 As always:
-On the air from 6 to 8 p.m. Sundays on 105.5 and 102.1 FM in the northern Adirondacks 
-On the Web at www.tendollarradioshow.com
-On e-mail at [e-mail]

P.S. - I forgot to dedicate it on the air, but "Party Barge" goes out to Bob the Barge Pilot of Raquette Lake. Also, heartfelt thanks to all of you who gave me boat song ideas for this show. I wasn't able to use even half of them, but I was blown away by the quantity and quality of your suggestions. It's wonderful to have friends who know and love music.