Connecticut Music Oral History Podcast

The latest installment of Chris Ruggiero's monthly Preservation Sound Radio show brought forth members of Hamden/New Haven's Blake Street Gut Band including Bobo Lavorgna and DeArmond Mourgen , with Brendan Toller along for the interview ride.    Ruggiero featured the band's newly released 1969 demo The Kaleidescope Sessions recorded locally at Kaleidescope Studio, Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, CT the...

Hank Hoffman, now retired, was the former executive director and programming director for Best Video Film & Cultural Center in Hamden. An archivist of the New Haven original rock music scene since the late 1970s, Hank has cassette and digital recordings he's made at hundreds of shows. Along with being a fan and supporter of the local music scene, Hank has been a musical participant as both a l...

This episode features, Karen Ponzio, arts and culture journalist for the New Haven Independent. Karen has shared her poems, displayed her artwork, and hosted a variety of live shows at venues throughout the New Haven area over the past ten years as well as the CygnusRadio.com show The Word According to KP which featured both poetry and music. Here’s our conversation… https://www.karenponzio.com/

Welcome to another installment of the Connecticut Music Oral History Podcast. This episode features Westport’s own Barbara Reis, a musician, composer, and music therapist whose travels took her to Julliard, High School of Music and Arts, University of Michigan, Tanglewood, the Brill Building, Westport Country Playhouse and theater committee. Barbara’s story is truly inspirational and vital to anyo...

The Connecticut Music Oral History Podcast returns with an interview conducted all the way back In February of this year (2023). It’s a complete deep dive with hip hop artist and documentary filmmaker, Jim Slice. From growing up in and around the advent of hip hop culture, performing all over the globe with New Haven’s Stezo, and now documenting Connecticut’s Skinny Boys and the legend of 70s funk...

Buckle up for Gary of Gee’s Records wild ride through true hip-hop culture as a producer, promoter, and record dealer. From roller rink hip-hop shows, to house parties, to 1212 Studios with Paul C, to Jazzy Jay at Strong City, to producing tracks with Beatnuts, and Afrika Bambaataa, recording with Grandmaster Flash, and selling sought-after break-beat records to Q-Tip, Large Professor, and Questlo...

Rob Fraboni is a renowned producer and engineer. Fraboni is well-known for his work with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Buckwheat Zydeco, Hubert Sumlin, John Martyn, Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, and Melissa Ethridge, and served as VP of Island Records in its heyday.    Fraboni, leant his expertise to the Verso hybrid analog recording studio, having built Bob Dylan and the Band’s Shangri La Studios to...

https://christineohlman.net/home.html This queen of blue-eyed rock n’ soul, who grew up loving equally the sweetness of a Memphis horn line and the raunch of an electric guitar riff, whether played by Muddy Waters, Keith Richards, or Pop Staples, teased her blonde hair into a beehive in honor of Ronnie Spector and never looked back, picking up a guitar and forging a career as a songwriter in the p...

http://www.lysguillorn.com/  Lys Guillorn is a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and multi-disciplinary artist based in Shelton, Connecticut. She is of the same musical school as Laura Veirs, and Kristin Hersh, with a little Emmylou Harris thrown in: dreamy, lyric-driven, melodically interesting, and undefinable. She calls her genre of music "Avant-Twang."

Connecticut music legend!   https://bigalanderson.com/   He’s been known as one of  rock n’ roll’s greatest guitar players. Listed as one of the top 100 guitar players of the 20th century by Musician Magazine and with over 900 cuts internationally, Big Al’s music career was destined. Raised by his piano teacher mother and a radio that would get WWVA in Wheeling West Virginia late at night, he woul...

Dick Kalt began his radio career in Detroit, moving to Connecticut in 1970 to join the management team of WPLR-FM New Haven which is celebrating its 50th year of broadcasting. As most of us know, WPLR has been central in the Connecticut community and music scene. Dick is an expert at creating synergistic buzz and making the seemingly impossible, possible.    In 1981 Dick joined Connecticut Radio N...

Rick Allison is a central and towering Connecticut music figure both literally at 6 foot four and figuratively. Rick has been a radio DJ at an alphabet soup of stations including: wybc, wkci, wplr, whcn, kpig, wpix, sirius satellite radio and cygnusradio.com.  Rick has also been an announcer for abc, nbc, cbs, espn, hbo and a bushel of commercial clients.    For 29 years Rick has also been the co-...

https://frankcritelli.bandcamp.com/ Frank Critelli writes songs and often performs live. Many times solo, and sometimes accompanied by one or more musical co-conspirators. For over 30 years, he's played in streets and subways, clubs and coffeehouses, barrooms and classrooms, colleges, festivals, theaters, and in his kitchen. Frank Critelli co-host The Local Bands Show on 99.1fm WPLR-New Haven and...

The Connecticut Music Oral History Podcast is a deep-dive interview series with musicians, artists, conduits, collectors, and dedicated fans focusing on 20th century Connecticut music history across all genres. This project preserves narratives, heralds unsung movers and shakers, and defines Connecticut’s influential role in cultural history.  https://kellyreilly.bandcamp.com/ Kelly Reilly is a mu...