The 50th Annual Grammy Awards happen this Sunday, February 10. The Grammy’s wouldn’t appear to have much relevancy for Echoes listeners or most people interested in non-commercial or alternative music. And as far as the TV spectacle goes, you’re right. There hasn’t been an interesting non-Rock act on there since forever. The […]

I hope many of you enjoyed our seasonal programming this year with Sonic Seasonings, An Echoes Christmas and An Echoes Winter Solstice. WEXT in Schenectady ran 30 straight hours of Echoes Christmas programming. WXPN in Philadelphia scattered at least 8 hours of programming throughout Christmas day.
These programs tap into a more […]

Halloween is always a difficult proposition on Echoes. How do you play scary horror music on a show that’s supposed to be chill? We started doing Halloween programs right from the beginning. I remember the first one featured an interview with Diamanda Galas, the grande dame of the macabre (albeit with deeper […]

It’s been a long time since Sheila Chandra graced us with new music. Her last proper album was This Sentence Is True (The Previous Sentence Is False) in 2001. Since then Chandra has been retiring in southwest England, singing only in an amateur choir, still nursing her voice after years of nagging […]

As I put together our Celtic Soundscape for St. Patrick’s Day, I was struck by the dearth of new Celtic music coming out. Now, let me be clear. There is still a vital Celtic music community with lots of discs being released. However, not too much of it is in the Echoes […]

Well, it’s that time again, for my cameo appearance as host of Echoes. March 8th is International Women’s Day!
I’ve been in this spot for decades. Long before we began producing Echoes, John and I hosted various programs on WXPN in Philadelphia. On March 8th, I’d usually pull two or three […]

December has been a frantic month at Echoes. In addition to all the seasonal shows we produce: Sonic Seasonings, An Echoes Christmas, An Echoes Winter Solstice, Best of Echoes 2006 Listener Poll, Essential Echoes 2006. In the midst of all that, we’ve had a run of live performances and spontaneously picked up two […]

I’ve been in maximum Christmas mode for the last few days, producing Sonic Seasonings, Living Room Concerts for Christmas. Every year since forever, we’ve produced these shows with 3-4 live performances. Finding Echoes artists that play seasonal music is always a difficult proposition. The shlock factor for seasonal music is high. […]

It’s been nearly a decade since Loreena McKennitt’s last studio album, The Book of Secrets.
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I just received the sad news from Jeff Johnson that Micheáll Ó Domhnaill, the guitarist and composer with The Bothy Band and Nightnoise passed this weekend after suffering from a heart attack. He was only 54.
I first heard Micheáll in the 1970s when The Bothy Band was among a host of groups kick-starting a […]