Twirl Radio

2019 Twirlie Award Winners and podcast (Show #860 – February 2, 2019)

Mike and Marty getting ready to give out some Twirlie Awards.

Here is the complete list of 2019 Twirlie Award winners, presented live on Twirl Radio, Saturday, February 2, 2019, in Sacramento, California, at Access Sacramento’s KUBU 96.5 FM. Congratulations to all, and more importantly, a big thank you to all the great independent musicians who make it possible for me to do this radio show.

The award presenters: Martin Anaya and Mike Lidskin. Marty was our Hollywood correspondent, co-hosting live from Hollywood, California, while I broadcasted from the Sacramento studios.

A new feature this year: although the Song of the Year was announced at the Twirlies, the rest of the Top 40 Songs list was revealed and played, in its entirety, on Woody Radio on Tuesday, February 5, 2019. It’s what we in the biz refer to as “the best of both worlds”.

Twirlie Awards show, 2/2/2019:

Twirlie Awards top songs countdown show, 2/5/2019:

Album of the Year
Sunshine Boys, for their album Blue Music

Album of the Year Runner up
Danny Wilkerson, for his album Wilkerson

Song of the Year
Elk City, for their song 25 Lines

Song of the Year Runner up
Blake Jones & The Trike Shop, for their song Alchemy C’mere

Female Vocalist of the Year
Krista Acheson, for her Krista D and Molly Grue projects

Male Vocalist of the Year (tie)
Danny Wilkerson, for his album Wilkerson

Male Vocalist of the Year (tie)
Michael Simmons, for his album First Days Of Summer

EP of the Year
Roger Joseph Manning Jr., for his EP Glamping

Ear Candy
Bill Lloyd, for his album Working The Long Game
The Ear Candy Award is given to an album that is a “go-to” album. You can pick any song, and it sounds great in any set of music, at any time.

Debut Album of the Year
Addison Love, for his album Thoughts On Lunch?

Best Album that’s NOT an Album
Lannie Flowers, for his 10 March To Home monthly single releases in 2018

Best Songwriting
Steve Barton, for his triple album set Tall Tales & Alibis

Best Line in a Song
Rachel Taylor Brown. The album: “Run Tiny Human”. The song: “Maker”. The line: “We’ll take your town, we’ll make it better.” The context: Hipsters moving to your city (in her case, Portland), and gentrifying it.

Best Interview
Lisa Mychols, 6/30/2018

Best Live, in-studio Session
Rick Hromadka of Maple Mars/Ruby Free, 7/14/2018

Best Concert Performance
The Re-Used Electrics, Arlington, TX 7/28/2018

Music Scene of the Year
Big Stir: Big Stir Records, Big Stir Magazine, Big Stir live shows, Big Stir Radar Hour radio show

Record Label of the Year
Spyderpop Records, with releases by Wilkerson, Bill Lloyd, Lannie Flowers, The Re-Used Electrics, Pat Buchanan

Spirit of Twirl Award
Poplord recording radio drops and promos for Twirl Radio

Tip of the Iceberg Award
Given to the Song of the Year Award. I only played and announced the Song of the Year, but there are dozens more songs on my list, which will be named shortly. Thus–I have literally given an award to one of my awards.

The Meta Award
Given to the Tip of the Iceberg Award, for giving an award to one of my awards. Oops–I did it again! As Marty said during the broadcast, I think we broke the fourth wall here.

Best Rock And Roll Moment
1. Getting to do 55 interviews in one year
2. Woody Radio stole/started carrying Twirl Radio
3. BBQ / Tex-Mex / Spyderpop live music fest / Whataburger / Record Shopping / Heat and humidity / Carousing in Texas, late July 2018
4. Meeting the following musicians in person: Lisa Said, Marty Schneider & Stu Shader of Trip Wire, Chuck Lindo & Cheryl Hendrickson of The American Professionals, Matt Langlois of The Welcome Matt, Roger Rocha of Felsen, Trevi Weiser, Ronnie Barnett of The Muffs, John Clifton
5. Twirl Radio Pop Fest ’18, 5/20/2018, Blue Note Brewing Company, Woodland, CA

Wayback Award
Yung Wu, for the re-release of their 1988 album Shore Leave. Yung Wu is a Feelies side-project, led by drummer Dave Weckerman.

Cover Song of the Year
The Test Pressings, for their cover of The Love Boat Theme. This came from the compilation album White Lace And Promises: The Songs Of Paul Williams. Performers: Karen Basset, Robbie Rist, John Borack.

Best Compilation Album
The Fowl Tone Sampler, released by Fowl Tone Records, Fowler, CA. 12 different bands and genres–but all performed by Poplord: Tom Magill, Craig Daniel, Stan Schaffer.

Reason To Live Award
New albums coming in 2019 from The Bobbleheads, The Armoires, Maxi Dunn, Matt Langlois, Edward Rogers, Duncan Faure, Lannie Flowers, Jimmy Catlett, Karen Haglof, The Handcuffs, and more.

Best Album Title
Molly Grue (Krista Acheson), for the EP titled The Happy Ending Cannot Come In The Middle Of The Story

Best Band Name
Little Jimmy Giant, on The Fowl Tone Sampler

Beverage of the Year
Top beverages consumed during production of Twirl Radio.
1. Hot green tea
2. Almond milk latte
3. Water
4. Coffee
5. Iced coffee

Top Albums of 2018:
1. Sunshine Boys – Blue Music
2. Wilkerson – Wilkerson
3. Steve Barton – Tall Tales & Alibis (1, 2, 3)
4. Anton Barbeau – Natural Causes
5. Bill Lloyd – Working The Long Game
6. Blake Jones & The Trike Shop – Make
7. The Cherry Bluestorms – Whirligig!
8. The Imperial Sound – The New AM
9. Victor Sotelo – Homeland Insecurities
10. Elk City – Everybody’s Insecure
11. Fowl Tone Records – 12 Timeless Classics: The Fowl Tone Sampler
12. Gretchen’s Wheel – Black Box Theory
13. Vegas With Randolph – Legs And Luggage
14. Michael Simmons – First Days Of Summer
15. Lisa Mychols – Sugar
16. Byron Isaacs – Disappearing Man
17. Rachel Taylor Brown – Run Tiny Human
18. The Bottle Kids – Let Me In On This Action
19. Chandler Travis Three-O – Backward Crooked From The Sunset
20. Spygenius – Pacéphale
21. Daniel Trigger – Right Turn
22. Skip Heller & Spike Sikes – Sacramento
23. William Duke – Quatro
24. Pugwash – Silverlake
25. Addison Love – Thoughts On Lunch?
26. The Orange Peels – Trespassing
27. Astral Drive – Astral Drive
28. Banjo Bones – Ghostly Musings From The Delta
29. Bay Station – Other Desert Cities
30. Alison Hogan – Songs From The Third Act

Top Songs of 2018:
The full list was revealed and played on Woody Radio on February 5, 2019.
1. Elk City – 25 Lines
2. Blake Jones & The Trike Shop – Alchemy C’mere
3. Anton Barbeau – Magazine Street
4. Rachel Taylor Brown – Up You
5. The Cherry Bluestorms – Purple Heart Magic
6. Wilkerson – How She Lost My Heart
7. Sunshine Boys – Only A Million Miles
8. Lannie Flowers – Day Glow
9. Bill Lloyd – Satellite
10. Melissa Phillips – The Flame
11. Pete’s Copter – Magic Circle
12. Byron Isaacs – Disappearing Man
13. Steve Barton – Before I Get Too Young
14. Pugwash – Everyone Knows That You’re Mine
15. Wade Johnson – You Know It
16. Agony Aunts – FU4 Tryna’ Be Bolth
17. Michael Simmons – No More Girls
18. Addison Love – Wee & Nancy Lee
19. Crooked Flower – Dancing
20. William Duke – Caroline And The Silver Screen
21. Krista D – Penny For Your Thoughts
22. Gretchen’s Wheel – Plans
23. Lisa Mychols – Into Oblivion
24. The Bottle Kids – Let Me In On This Action
25. Piramid Scheme – Bandwagon Jumping Machine
26. Vegas With Randolph – Women In Airports
27. Victor Sotelo – Hey Paul!
28. The Imperial Sound – Yesterday
29. Astral Drive – Summer Of ’76
30. Chandler Travis Three-O – Backward Crooked From The Sunset
31. Alison Hogan – This Time
32. Spygenius – Godfearing
33. Daniel Trigger – Rock N Roll Party
34. The Orange Peels – Running Away
35. Gail George – Blue
36. Hot Nun – Big Fat No
37. Karen Haglof – Palomino Steady Rocking
38. The Crushing Violets – Strange Voices
39. The Outryders – Should Have Known
40. Cootes Paradise – It’s True

Top EPs of 2018:
1. Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – Glamping
2. Melissa Phillips – Both Ways
3. Gail George – It’s Personal
4. Krista D – Look At Me I’m Krista D
5. Karen Haglof – Palomino Steady Rocking
6. Hot Nun – Born To Blaze
7. Piramid Scheme – Get Rich Quick Too
8. Crooked Flower – Into The Light
9. The Jangle Band – The Guy Who Used To Care/Now That’s Over
10. The Re-Used Electrics – For Johnny

February 3, 2019
Categories: Playlists, Twirl Radio Events . . Author: The Lids . Comments: Leave a comment

Happening today: The 2019 Twirlie Awards!

Mike wearing the legendary tuxedo T-shirt–worn only once a year, at the Twirlie Awards!

We are in what the entertainment press refers to as “the run up to the Twirlies”! That is, if the entertainment press were to cover this fine independent music awards presentation.

As it turns out, the eleventh annual Twirlie Awards happens today: Saturday, February 2nd, 2019, from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Pacific time, at KUBU 96.5 FM, Sacramento’s voice, and http://www.twirlradio.com. We’ll be broadcasting live from the red carpet. Or at least from a room that has carpet in it.

Hosts Marty Anaya and Mike Lidskin will be presenting such coveted awards as Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Male and Female Vocalists of the Year, and many others. We will be ripping open hermetically-sealed awards envelopes, and revealing the top albums and songs lists, for work released in 2018 and played on Twirl Radio. We’ll have the well-loved red carpet interviews that Marty is known for. You simply cannot afford to miss this epic show. In fact, we will be taking attendance, so you’ll want to listen to every minute of it!

And this year, there’s a new twist. Although we will be giving out the Song of the Year Award on today’s show, we will be revealing–and playing every song from–the entire list on Woody Radio on Tuesday, February 5th, starting at 8:00 p.m. Pacific at www.woodyradio.com. This important group of songs deserves its own show.

In all seriousness, we are glad to honor the great musicians who give Twirl Radio its reason for being. Hope to see you there!

More information: The 2019 Twirlie Awards event on Facebook.

February 2, 2019
Categories: Twirl Radio Events . . Author: The Lids . Comments: Leave a comment

Twirl Radio Playlist – Show #859 – 1/26/2019: Louis Michot interview!

Michot’s Melody Makers

Louis Michot is a busy guy. The Louisiana-based Cajun musician has been a bit hard to get ahold of lately, because he’s constantly touring and gigging with several bands, including the Lost Bayou Ramblers, which he co-founded, and the spinoff Michot’s Melody Makers. But we finally pinned him down for a bit, and I had a nice chat with him about the new music.

Michot’s Melody Makers recently released their debut record, “Blood Moon”. The songs are mostly very old Cajun songs, but given a modern treatment. They date back to the days before accordion became a commmon instrument in the genre, and the fiddle was king (incidentally, Louis is a fiddle player). The rock and roll equivalent would be the era before the guitar took over as lead instrument–and saxophones ruled the world.

In the interview, we also find out that there’s going to be a documentary film about the Lost Bayou Ramblers, Louis has yet another band called Soul Creole, and he recently released the first of 12(!) albums from his recent residency at The Stone, John Zorn’s legendary performance space, in New York City. Busy much?

All in all, it was a fun conversation. We heard a couple of his new songs, and then returned to the rock ‘n’ roll right after that. More info at https://michotsmelodymakers.bandcamp.com/.

Louis Michot interview
Michot’s Melody Makers | Two-Step De Ste. Marie | Blood Moon
Michot’s Melody Makers | La Lune Est Croche | Blood Moon

January 28, 2019
Categories: Playlists . . Author: The Lids . Comments: 1 Comment

Twirl Radio Playlist – Show #858 – 1/19/2019: Dara Ackerman interview!

Dara Ackerman

Dara Ackerman’s been a good friend of Twirl Radio for the past 5 years, ever since I met her when she joined Bay Area powerhouse band Felsen. At that point, I thought Felsen was the perfect band, strong in the studio and incredibly powerful and dynamic in the live setting. They lacked nothing. Then Dara came along and joined as a vocalist and percussionist. I was wrong–the perfect band got a little better–she’s joyous and full of life on stage.

At a Felsen show in 2014, Dara handed me her first album, Skyland. That’s when I first noticed her amazing vocal talents, on the album which concerned itself with her 7 years in India. There was a spiritual aspect to the album.

So the past fall, Dara sent me an advance digital copy of her forthcoming release, Partially True Stories, and it is a more than worthy successor to her debut. It’s a little more rockin’ and upbeat–and she lets the fun flag fly on this one! Terrific vocals abound, but it completely matches the joy you see when she performs on a stage. We had a great chat about all of this, and heard a few tracks on the show. More info at http://www.daraackerman.com/.

January 20, 2019
Categories: Playlists . . Author: The Lids . Comments: Leave a comment

Twirl Radio Playlist – Show #857 – 1/12/2019: Interview doubleheader: Elizabeth Le Fey of Globelamp and Michal Towber!

Elizabeth Le Fey of Globelamp

Today was “edgy day” on Twirl Radio. What do I mean by that? I was fortunate enough to interview two different singer-songwriters on the show, who both have an adventurous edge to their music and songwriting. Both released albums this past fall.

In the first hour, we met Elizabeth Le Fey of Globelamp. Her new album, Romantic Cancer, is a stripped-down affair, whose songs deal with the turbulence of relationships, and how you come back from a rough one. One writer referred to her vocals as having “outlandish phrasing”. That’s true at times–Elizabeth uses her voice as a tool to express emotions and feelings, to more powerfully serve the song. She listens to a lot of music, and has many influences, but rarely sounds like any of them. This record sounds a lot like her live shows, which are often solo gigs, just voice and guitar or keyboard. It’s the melodies and intimate, yet powerful vocals which stand out here. More info can be found at https://globelamp.bandcamp.com/album/romantic-cancer-2.

Michal Towber

After that, we got to chat with Mychal Towber. She’s a force of nature. Signed to Columbia/Sony Records at the age of 17, she put out several albums. Then went to Yale, and Columbia Law School, and practiced law for several years. She also won an Emmy Award as part of the music team for One Life To Live. But most recently, she released her 10th album, No Resolution. (Sharp-eyed viewers note that the “re” in “resolution” is grayed out, as a visual play on words.) It’s gritty at times, hard-rockin’ at times, and beautiful at times. A lot of it is loosely based on different phases of Michal’s life. She’s classically trained, yet counts the 90s alternative rock era as an equally strong influence (think Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails). Her voice is powerful and evocative, and if you listen to her performance on the song “Rockstar”, you’ll realize that’s exactly what she is. Get your copy at https://www.amazon.com/No-Resolution-Explicit-Michal-Towber/dp/B07J2VTJF8.

Elizabeth Le Fey interview
Globelamp | Everything’s A Spiral | Romantic Cancer
Globelamp | Sorceress Of Your Soul | Romantic Cancer

Michal Towber interview
Michal Towber | Rockstar | No Resolution
Michal Towber | Old | No Resolution

Steve Barton | The Day My Baby Went Blind | Tall Tales & Alibis

January 13, 2019
Categories: Playlists . . Author: The Lids . Comments: Leave a comment

Twirl Radio Playlist – Show #856 – 1/5/2019: John Borack in-studio interview!

John Borack and Mike Lidskin in the Twirl studios.

2019 started off with a bang. I had planned to interview music author John Borack via Skype or telephone, from his home in Southern California, for the first Twirl Radio episode of the year. But then he dropped me a little note, and asked how I’d feel if the interview were an in-person one instead. Sign me up! He decided to combine the interview with a visit to family here in NorCal, and Sacramento was the perfect jumping off point.

John’s got quite a few irons in the fire. He recently finished his book “Shake Some Action 2.0: An updated guide to the 200 greatest power pop albums 1970-2017”. I didn’t know him last decade, when his first book was published, so we had a lot to catch up on with just that topic alone.

But wait–there’s more. If you purchased the book, you also got the long awaited CD from his band Popdudes, “Maximum Rock Stupidity”. Popdudes is a loose musical collective, featuring Michael Simmons, and a rotating cast of other musical characters, including Robbie Rist–but the one constant is John, holding forth behind the drum kit. They’ve released several singles over the years, a perfect blend of originals and creative covers, but never released a proper album. Until now. It’s a really fun listen.

John also writes reviews for Goldmine Magazine, and is quite the collector himself. We went music shopping earlier in the day here in Sacramento with our mutual music friend Stephen “Spaz” Schnee, and just wait until you hear what John unearthed on vinyl. Yes, he really did “go there”, and you’ll hear the results on the show.

All in all, a fun visit. Here’s some more info about John: https://www.facebook.com/JohnBorackAuthor/

January 10, 2019
Categories: Playlists . . Author: The Lids . Comments: Leave a comment

2018 Twirl Radio Interviews

Musically speaking, the year 2018 has been stellar in so many ways. The quantity and quality of the music that came my way has been astounding. I received more music than I do in most typical years, and the quality has been uniformly top notch. We heard from old friends, and got introduced to some new artists.

And for me, the thing that’s really gone hand in hand with this new music has been the chance to chat with some of the artists on my show. So many of them have made themselves available to me this year–and for that, I’m extremely grateful. In some cases, the artists were passing through Sacramento on a Saturday, and were able to stop by my studio in person. In a few other instances, I was given a couple of extra hours for my show, so I was able to squeeze in 2 and 3 interviews in one day.

What’s the final tally look like? In 2018, I conducted 55 interviews. That number becomes even more amazing when you realize that there were a few weeks where I had no interviews, or took the Saturday off from doing my show. 16 of these interviews were done in person, in the Sacramento studio. 2 were prerecorded in person in Fresno, and 4 others were prerecorded via Skype or telephone, due to time zone or availability issues. That means that 49 of these interviews were conducted live, on the radio. 6 of these included a live, in-studio performance. In all, more than 70 individuals have been on the show with me.

So here’s the rundown of the interviews, with my sincere thanks and happy holidays to all the artists who were kind enough to spend a little time with me on Twirl Radio in 2018.

December 25, 2018
Categories: Twirl Radio Events . . Author: The Lids . Comments: Leave a comment

Twirl Radio Playlist – Show #855 – 12/15/2018: Melissa Phillips interview!

Melissa Phillips

This week’s show was the final live Twirl Radio episode of 2018. Just like that…poof! And that’s another year of great music in the books. So how do we wrap up a year like this? Well, fortunately, my friend Melissa Phillips, a wonderful Bay Area singer-songwriter, just released her brand new EP “Both Ways”, a few days ago. She’s perennially been one of my favorite people to chat with on the radio, so it was a no-brainer to ask her on. And it was a comfortable, fun conversation. We covered everything…her songwriting inspirations, the process of making Both Ways, and her take on how we discover and acquire new music in the 21st century, vs. during our formative years.

Both Ways is an intimate album, mostly in the Americana vein. It’s a fitting showcase for Melissa’s songs, which as she revealed, were crafted individually and separately from one another. She and her husband, James DePrato, who produced and played all the guitars on the album, really did take each song one at a time, and didn’t start another one until the current song was finished. Each of these stories gets you thinking and feeling some powerful emotions about life and its changes. It’s a sad album, with notes of loss, but it’s buoyed by Melissa’s hopeful soprano voice and attitude. Her voice has really strengthened and matured since her last album. As good as it was back then, there’s a certain depth to it now that makes these songs really stick to you. And as a rock guitarist, James adds some touches of electric guitar that beef up the overall sound. Much care went into this record–from the sequencing of the songs, to the lovely artwork and packaging. It’s not every day that Melissa Phillips releases an album, so when she does, it’s an occasion. Learn more, and pick up your copy at http://www.melissaphillipsmusic.com.

This show also featured some great music from 2018–and even a song by The Who’s John Entwistle, which could reluctantly be called a “Christmas song”! Give a listen to all of it, and enjoy. Happy holidays from Twirl Radio!

December 17, 2018
Categories: Playlists . . Author: The Lids . Comments: 1 Comment

Twirl Radio Playlist – Show #854 – 12/8/2018: Nelson Bragg interview!

Nelson Bragg

This week’s show was a real treat. It had been a good while since I’d had Nelson Bragg on the show. A quick check of the Twirl archives showed that it was exactly 6 years ago–to the day–when he was last on! So it seems that we probably had a lot to catch up on since that show of December 8, 2012. And boy, did we ever. We had a wide ranging, freewheeling conversation for the better part of an hour, punctuated with a few of his perfect, melodic pop songs.

Nelson had been the percussionist in Brian Wilson’s band for a lot of years, while at the same time, pursuing his own music career. But leaving the Beach Boys mastermind’s band has not left him without opportunities to travel and make music. He recently toured the UK with Anny Celsi and Duncan Maitland, and has been constantly gigging around Los Angeles. He dropped a massive hint that he’s working on his next record, as well as promoting music by others on his own Steel Derrick Music label. My favorite part of the conversation was Nelson emphatically reminding us how easy and wonderful music discovery is these days–and how easy and important it is to support the artists you like. Both I and several listeners were inspired and moved to action by this. Nelson is truly a music fan first, before anything else. For more info, check out http://nelsonbragg.com/

We also dug into some of the indie rock ‘n’ roll that’s made 2018 such a banner year, and we even threw in a few of the cooler holiday songs I’ve got in my collection. Enjoy the show!

December 9, 2018
Categories: Playlists . . Author: The Lids . Comments: 2 Comments

Twirl Radio Playlist – Show #853 – 12/1/2018

Here it is–the first of December already. The holidays are upon us, and the end of the year looms large. It looms especially large here at Twirl Radio, because there are only a couple more live shows to go, and then our Access Sacramento studios close down for the annual year end inventory and maintenance. So we need to make these last few shows pretty memorable, and close down 2018 with a bang. But not to worry–I’ll be doing some additional shows over at Woody Radio, so there’s still a lot of music discovery to come, before the month and year are over.

The musical guest we had scheduled for this show had a small family emergency, so we have rescheduled him for late January. That turned the episode into an all music show, and we were able to sneak in even more of the stellar releases from 2018 that keep coming in. Folks who are preparing and releasing their year end lists of top songs and albums need to hold off for another month. 2018 isn’t even close to over, musically speaking. My list isn’t even a glimmer until 11:59 p.m. on December 31st.

So let’s celebrate the holiday season by listening to the great music gifted to us by the year 2018. Enjoy the show!

December 2, 2018
Categories: Playlists . . Author: The Lids . Comments: 1 Comment

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