Friday the 13th was a beautiful evening for “Kiki’s Third Righteous Session” which featured (literal) Madison favorites The German Art Students, Austin’s Bonnie Whitmore and the return of the ever-popular Chuck Prophet + the Mission Express. WORT volunteers and staff were out in full force, since raffle ticket sales at the event that night were earmarked to benefit the station. (If you didn’t manage to snag yours yet, Sessions raffle tickets are still available from station volunteers until the drawing, which will be held on Sept. 12.) WORT’s live remote broadcast from McPike Park pre-empted our regular programming on Friday night August 13 (thanks, Harry Rag! – he’ll be back as usual next week from 8-11 pm.) Thanks also to perennial sub host Les Luster for anchoring, engineering and filling in with music.
Headliner Chuck Prophet dropped by the station Friday afternoon to chat with The Other Mr. S on Who Cooks For You? His stellar live set that evening roused the large crowd and entertained them from 8:30-10 pm with an extended set of rock, blues, folk and country. You can hear both the live performance and his WORT interview at the SoundCloud link above.
Since his time in the ’80s with the neo-psychedelic rock band Green On Red, the versatile Prophet has been turning out country, folk, blues, and more. His latest album ‘The Land That Time Forgot‘, released in August 2020, is something different, as he says – “a weather vane picking up signals from outer space – or maybe it’s the Heartland.”
Priced out of his beloved hometown, San Francisco, Prophet found himself re-energized in upstate NY near the Vermont border and made a record that is as much a 21st century exorcism as it is America. The songs inhabit a world where a Fast Kid might be on the run from the truant officer or a handsy boss…or the Immigration Service. These are love songs that turn political on a dime (Love Doesn’t Come from the Barrel of a Gun), and melodic hallucinations about kicking back in the Oval Office after hours “talking to my baby, saying baby, let’s not fight.” With special appearances by the ghost of Johnny Thunders and Willie Wonka and John the Baptist and the train that brought Abraham Lincoln home one last time.
More information about McPike Park Sessions can be found on the facebook event page.
