As we approach the end of this school year, we offer quite the music education during Saturday afternoons on Guest Mix this month. We’ll feature two new episodes in May 2022, with blues and roots artist Corey Harris on May 7, and with soul music singer-songwriter and Boston-area native Eli “Paperboy” Reed on May 21. We’ll also rebroadcast two favorites from our archives—one featuring another artist with Boston roots, Aoife O’Donovan; and one with songwriter and vocalist Carsie Blanton.

Corey Harris

There’s a heavy dose of the blues on Corey Harris’s playlist, with some other roots music in the mix. Harris happened to choose two of my all-time favorite blues tracks—Bukka White’s “Parchment Farm Blues,” and, from Rev. Gary Davis Jr., “Samson and Delilah.” Both tracks feature incredibly moving vocal performances and soulful guitar playing. Corey Harris’s latest album is Insurrection Blues.

The Eli “Paperboy” Reed Guest Mix show is all about country soul—a beautiful marriage of two styles that have really always been unified, says Reed, due to their shared Southern origins. Reed listened to a lot of country music when he was very young, a fact which may surprise some, considering the Brookline High grad’s heavy emphasis on the gritty soul music that predominates his recordings. But his latest—Down Every Road—is an album of Merle Haggard songs that Reed made completely his own. The list of songs he brought to our Guest Mix chat ranged from James Carr to Conway Twitty. Doesn’t get much more country soul than that.

You’ll get a bit of Aoife O’Donovan’s life story in her playlist, including folk, pop, old-time, and Irish music. Her latest solo album is Age of Apathy, and you’ve been hearing a lot of that on our airwaves. Carsie Blanton’s latest album is Love & Rage, and you hear a whole range of emotions in a playlist that features artists like Bonnie Raitt, Nina Simone, and the Wood Brothers.

Thanks as always for your support and for listening to the station. Here’s hoping that as temps rise around here, so will your frequency of listening to WUMB, and enjoying some live music, too!

~ Rob Hochschild

GUEST MIX FOR MAY 2022
SATURDAYS 1 P.M.

May 7 – Corey Harris
May 14 – Carsie Blanton (rerun)
May 21 – Eli “Paperboy” Reed
May 28 – Aoife O’Donovan (rerun)