Check out our own Amanda on Fox Providence's Rhode Show for the "Knit-Off"
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August 12, 2009
A Moo Point: The Ride Records gang made a custom version of Steve Azar's "Moo La Moo" video
featuring the WCTK/Providence "Cat Country Elite Dance Troupe." Watch here.
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August 10, 2009 Issue 153
My Tunes: Music That Shaped My Life
WCTK/Providence AM driver Tim Leary
discusses his most important songs, artists
or concerts:
1) Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gold & Platinum: This is
the “Sistine Chapel” of Southern rock! Played
it so many times as a kid, I ended up buying
two copies. At $25 a pop I had to mow every
lawn in Massachusetts 40x to come up with
that kind of coin.
2) John Cougar Mellencamp/Jack &
Diane: I mean John Cougar ... no, John
Mellencamp? Whoever the hell sang that song - Mellencamp,
John Rich, or Joe Don Rooney - it was a classic anthem song that
we always blared on the radio growing up.
3) The Grateful Dead: I was dropped off at my first concert when
I was about 11years old. I saw for the first time that night: a 57-
minute guitar solo and people who dressed/smelled like lawn
furniture dancing together after all music had stopped!
4) Bill Cosby, The Best Of: One of the best comedy albums ever
made by a master/legend of the industry.
5) KISS, Alive: We weren’t allowed to have KISS records in the
house, so I had to wait until I would go to my grandparent’s house
every summer and borrow them from my friend Andy.
• A highly regarded song or album you’ve never heard: The
Best of Zamfir and the Pan Flute. Although I’ve got to hand it to
a guy who can strap a bunch of PVC piping together and play
“Yesterday” by the Beatles on it.
• An “important” piece of music you just don’t get: Any piece
of music that has the word Enya attached to it. Is there someone
singing on those songs, or is that just effect #124 entitled “Tubular
Voices” on someone’s Casio keyboard doing that?
• An album you played or listened to incessantly: I want to say
“The Best of Mountain Banjo.” Not sure, exactly. I didn’t play it, my
dad did, every night when we were kids after he put us to bed.
Nothing lulls a five-year-old to sleep faster than a little goodnight
“Nine-Pound Hammer” or “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” by Flatt
and Scruggs.
• One obscure or non-country song everyone should listen
to right now: “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant” by Billy Joel.
However, you need to hear it on Disc 4/Cut 2 An Evening of
Questions & Answers...& A Little Music [Complete Hits Collection].
He explains the creation of the song, and the live version that
follows is killer.
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April 20, 2009 Issue 137
Chesney Swings Into Action
Kenny Chesney's Sun City Carnival tour opened Friday in Uncasville, CT, and Country radio--and by extension Country Aircheck--was there. WCTK/Providence morning show Technical Director Amanda Leonardo filed this report on the show's first night:
"It comes as no surprise that the sold-out concert at Mohegan Sun Arena had fans on their feet the entire show," she says. "You never know what stops Kenny is going to pull out next. Simply walking on to the stage is never an option. So, with fans' attention focused on his twelve-man band on stage, Chesney entered from the back of the arena on a cable-suspended seat while singing 'She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy.'"
Details: The swing is suspended completely with cables and there is no track, allowing Chesney to move in any direction over the floor seats he wants. The seat is also low over the crowd.
"If I want to take somebody a beer in the back of section six or whatever, I could," Chesney said in a press release issued this afternoon.
Back to Leonardo: "'Out Last Night' was a crowd pleaser and the audience already knew the lyrics and helped Kenny sing it," she says. "Split screens of different views are continually displayed on the huge screens. Blue disco ball-like lighting shines on the audience during 'I Go Back,' and a slideshow of local monuments ran throughout 'Back Where I Come From.'"
"The chrome-trimmed stage and his classic, fan-favorite tracks give a vintage feel to the show, mixed with a Caribbean undertone. The addition of Wailers Band member Drummie Zeb was a perfect fit. The show came to its official conclusion with Kenny's masterful cover of John Cougar Mellencamp's 'Jack and Diane.' His encore was 'Don't Blink,' during which he seemed to get a little choked up. There's no doubt he poured his heart and soul into the night's performance."
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May 8, 2009
Urban Escape Vehicle
"I'm nervous as hell," Keith Urban said early in last night's (5/7) launch of his Escape Together World Tour. "It's the first night of the tour and I almost lost my voice during the first few songs, but I'm getting back on track now." Our woman on the scene, WCTK/Providence Tim Leary & The Morning Showgram Technical Director Amanda Leonardo, said the capacity crowd's reaction gave no indication that Urban was anything but on his game. Keith emerged through the stage floor and opened with "Hit The Ground Running," one of six cuts he played from his new album Defying Gravity.
Urban's stage was backed by five large, vertically oriented and moveable video screens. And he seemed to spend as much time in the seating area as he did onstage, venturing to every corner of the floor and even working up into the lower grandstands. His final encore, "Better Life," ended with a blast of glow-in-the-dark confetti. Leonardo says the most striking aspect of his performance was his ability to interact almost directly with each and every ticket holder. "He made you feel like you were his friend and he knew you individually," she says.
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June 1, 2009 Issue 143
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Pop Goes The Country!
Universal South's Phil Vassar is Nashville's latest crossover, but orchestral music seems an unlikely destination for a country singer. Nevertheless, that was Vassar onstage in Boston Saturday night (5/30) with a nice little backing band known as the Boston Pops. The occasion was the Share the Beat concert hosted by James Denton (Desperate Housewives) and benefitting the James Redford (yes, Robert's son) Institute for Transplant.
Country Airched Northeast beat reporter Amanda Leonardo (who moonlights on WCTK/Providence's Tim Leary & The Morning Showgram) filed this report: "Phil and two band mates took the Symphony Hall stage first for acoustic versions of 'Love Is a Beautiful Thing' and 'I'm Alright.' He came back later with the Pops, and Conductor John Williams introduced him by saying, "He is an award winning, prize winning musical author and, as I'm told, he is Nashville's piano man.' Vassar said of the unlikely collaboration, 'They're not going to believe this back in Tennessee. Wow! Hillbillies take over Boston!' He and the Pops performed 'This Is My Life' and 'Prayer of A Common Man,' and Vassar got choked up introducing closer 'American Child,' noting it was inspired by his late father and grandfather."
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