Program 333: Rock & Roll Roadtrips; Irish Homecoming; Proving Up On the Great Plains

Release Date: 07-27-2013

On-Air Description

Music always makes a trip more fun.   On the next Travel with Rick Steves, we explore sites that pay homage to some of the icons of rock and roll.  We'll also get a heartfelt taste of music traditions in Ireland, where a homecoming theme invites visitors this year.  And explore how the Great Plains can get you in touch with Native American and pioneer history, the natural world, and a few curiosities along the way. 

Vacation themes from rock and roll to a homecoming in Ireland and the Great Plains, are on this week's Travel with Rick Steves. 

Notes to Stations

Don't forget that we also post .wav versions of each week's show and promo on an FTP page at ftp://downloads.ricksteves.com/radio/ - but you should still check this download site each week for notes to stations and other text information about the weekly shows.  That way you'll be sure you're airing the correct show each week, and be able to note other details that aren't provided on the FTP page.   By the way, the .wav format on the FTP page allows us to extract each week's midbreak music beds for you as separate audio files, instead of having them embedded in segments A and B.

Guests

  • Travel writer Robert Reid
  • Traditional Irish singer Liam O'Riordan, from County Cork, Ireland
  • Tour guide and hostel proprietor Stephen McPhilemy, based in Derry, Northern Ireland
  • Josh Garrett Davis, author of "Ghost Dances: Proving Up on the Great Plains" (Little, Brown)

Related Links

Callers

  • "Each March, 500-thousand migrating Sandhill Cranes - four feet tall with six-foot wing spans - converge on a 75-mile stretch of Nebraska’s Platte River to eat, sleep, and dance. The National Wildlife Foundation calls it: 'One of the most beautiful natural phenomena in the United States.' You can watch from behind Audubon blinds.  I moved to California from Nebraska many years ago, so my biggest surprise upon returning was wineries and vineyards lining some of the hills. There are 25 vineyards in Nebraska, with similar numbers in So. Dakota and Kansas, mostly producing 'fruit-forward' wines from German and French vines."   (Barbara in Mill Valley, California)
  • The Great Plains "are the wild west of western fame. Dodge City is in Kansas. Most people just try to 'get out of Dodge' (Kansas) as fast as possible. But in Nebraska they miss the Buffalo Bill Ranch near North Platte, Scotts Bluff, and who would want to miss Carhenge (Stonehenge recreated with old cars!)?"   (Steve in Albany, Oregon) 

Incidental Music

  • Peter Kater, "The Road Before Us," Many Blessings (collection) / Silver Wave
  • Santana, "Oye Como Va," World Hits (collection) / Putumayo
  • Buddy Holly and the Crickets, "That'll Be the Day," Forever / Magnitude Records
  • J. R. Castillo, "Newsflash on February 3, 1959," Diablo / CEG Records
  • Pink Floyd, “Another Brick in the Wall (part 1),” The Wall / EMI UK
  • Dean Reed, "The Search," Teen Idol:  1959-1961 / Master Classics Records
  • Dave Baby Cortez, "Rinky Dink," Chess Pieces:  The Very Best of Chess, disc 1 (collection) / Chess
  • Anil Bhagwat, tabla solo on The Beatles’ “Love You To,” Revolver / Apple Records
  • The Beatles, "Got to Get You Into My Life," Revolver / Apple Records
  • Chuck Berry, "Johnny B. Goode," Chess Pieces:  The Very Best of Chess, disc 1 (collection) / Chess
  • * Mike Toppins, "American Pie," Original Dueling Banjos: The Sequel (collection) / CMH Records
  • Quincy Jones, "Soul Bossa Nova,"  Cocktail Mix vol. 2 (collection) / Rhino
  • Dervish, “Trip to Sligo,” At The End of the Day / Dervish
  • The Chieftans, "Ireland Moving," Film Cuts / RCA Victor
  • Barry Foy, and unspecified musicians from a Seattle-area Irish music session, “Reel #2” / (custom recording)
  • Liam O'Riordan sings excerpts from traditional Irish songs:   "Whiskey in the Jar," "The Unquiet Grave," "The Sally Gardens," "The Parting Glass," "Four Green Fields (written by Tommy Makem)," and Stephen McPhilemy sings part of the chorus of "The City of Chicago."
  • Seamus Ennnis, "Piper of the Embers;  Down the Back Lane;  Dixpenny Money; Paudeen O'Rafferty," Forty Years of Irish Piping / Green Linnet
  • Enya, "Bard Dance," The Celts / Reprise
  • * Jay Ungar, et al, "Old French (Dancing with the Mandans)" (traditional melody, arranged by Ken Burns),  Lewis and Clark:  The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (soundtrack) / RCA
  • Du'Oud, "Interluth,"  Wild Serenade / Label Bleu
  • Mamou Prairie Band, "Blue Runner," Catch My Hat / Swallow
  • Cleveland Quartet, “'American' Quartet No. 12, opus 96  (allegro ma non troppo) (Dvorak),” Dvorak:  Quartet No. 14, Quartet No. 12 / Telarc
  • Paul Winter, "Buffalo Prairie,"  Prayer for the Wild Things / Living Music
  • Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, "Rolley Polley," The Greatest Hits / Rosin Reccords
  • James Galway, Cincinnati Pops, Erich Kunzel, cond., "Simple Gifts (trad., arr. Joseph D. Price)," Celtic Spectacular (collection) / Telarc
  • Paul Winter, "Tritones in the Canyon," Prayer for the Wild Things / Living Music
  • Robbie Robertson and the Red Road Ensemble, "Ghost Dance," Music for the Native Americans / Capitol
  • Tulku, "Ghost Dance," Transcendence / Worldly-Triloka

Dated References

  • In the billboard and in the segment B interview, Rick and guests refer to a special emphasis in 2013 to increase tourism to Ireland, and Rick adds at 7:00 in segment A that "Ireland is calling its emigrees back this year."
  • At 8:59, Robert Reid talks about Feb. 4, 1959, "the day the music died," when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in Iowa.
  • At 17:13, Robert explains that his number one choice for this top 40 rock and roll sites is hearing Chuck Berry perform, at age 86, at Blueberry Hill in Saint Louis. 
  • At 21:45, Liam O'Riordan adds that the economy in Ireland "is very bad at the moment," which is an impetus for their 2013 tourism "Gathering" emphasis.
  • At 33:33, Stephen McPhilemy says traditional music centers in Ireland are Doolan, Dingle, Galway, and, but adds that Kinsale and many towns in the midlands of Ireland now feature trad music venues. 
  • Liam says he is proud, at 34:17, that the Flead Cheoil traditional music festival is being held in Derry this year in August. 
  • Josh Garrett Davis says at 47:36  that bison herds on the Great Plains are slowly being restored.
  • At 49:42, caller Barbara describes how half a million sandhill cranes migrate over a month each spring near Kearney, Nebraska.  Rick adds that this happens each year in March. 

Program Extras

Program Extra 1 - Robert Reid describes more sites for a rock and roll roadtrip in London and New York: The Dakota building at New York's Central Park West, where John Lennon was shot, the Ed Sullivan Theater, and Denmark Street in London. (runs 1:32)

Program Extra 2 - Josh Garrett Davis shares two more of his favorite places in the Great Plains: The Bad Lands of South Dakota, and the "Garden of Eden" folk art installation in Lucas, Kansas. (runs 1:11)