Echoes From The Ash Grove

In the early 1980s, Nicaragua was rebuilding itself after revolution and the soundtrack of that transformation was carried not just in speeches, but in song. In this episode of  Echoes from the Ash Grove , we revisit a broadcast that takes listeners on a journey through post-Somozan Nicaragua using folk music as a guide. From literacy brigades to cooperative farms, from community choirs to traveli...

In the 1970s and 80s, across Central America, church basements became organizing hubs, hymns became protest songs, and the Gospel was read through the lens of poverty and power. In this episode of  Echoes from the Ash Grove , we revisit a powerful broadcast exploring Liberation Theology — the movement that asked what Christianity demands in the face of dictatorship, inequality, and war. Through th...

In 1981, Venice Beach wasn’t a brand — it was a battleground. In this episode, we dive into a remarkable broadcast from KPFK’s  Up From the Ash Grove , capturing Venice, Los Angeles in the middle of a fight over who gets to live by the sea. Long before tech money and million-dollar bungalows, renters, artists, and local organizers were battling City Hall, building their own park from scavenged mat...

In late 1983, inside a packed Los Angeles auditorium, a staged draft raid opened a rally called  “The War at Home.” What followed was not just speeches — it was an attempt to connect battleships to steel mills, tomato fields to foreign policy, poetry to ballot initiatives. In this episode, we dive into a remarkable recording from that night. A steelworker breaks down the economics of military spen...

In the summer of 1982, as Beirut was under bombardment, Ed Pearl broadcast a remarkable episode of  Up From the Ash Grove  devoted to Palestinian music and poetry. This wasn’t a news bulletin. It was something quieter — and, in its own way, more powerful. Through wedding field recordings, work songs, fisherman ballads from Jaffa, and the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish set to music, the program explored...

Before protest music filled stadiums, there was a small club on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles where traditional songs were being transformed into something sharper. In this episode of  Echoes from the Ash Grove , we revisit Ed Pearl’s return to the airwaves on  Up From the Ash Grove  and explore how the club became more than a venue. It was a sanctuary, a classroom, and eventually a staging ground...

In September 1973, as Chile’s military seized power, the new regime did more than arrest political opponents — they went after the music. This episode of  Echoes from the Ash Grove  explores the rise of Chile’s  Nueva Canción  movement, from Violeta Parra’s cultural revival to Víctor Jara’s defiant songs, and examines why a dictatorship saw guitars and folk clubs as a threat. Drawing on a late-197...