The Godfather of Rock Steady

Rock Steady sounds like you'd think it would - slow and steady, the relentless upbeat of the guitar, an easy cadence that spawned reggae. Ska slowed down and sweetened. The music gets its name from Alton Ellis' song, "Get Ready Rock Steady". Ellis died last weekend. In the NYT obit, a fellow musician's quoted as saying Ellis was bigger than Bob Marley in Jamaica. Now that's big. Que en paz descanse, Alton...

Take It to the Bay!

I'm off momentarily to a LIVE! broadcast of the Beat Authority at Skiffs in Alexandria Bay. Looking in on Skiffs' web cam, there's currently a little blue bicycle in the space where esteemed live sound daddy extraordinaire, Joel Hurd, will be setting up our equipment in a couple hours.

Doing an on-location show is different from doing it week-to-week in the studio. It's more of a balancing act. Usually, I try to vary tempos, genres, and textures to create a radio show you can stay with for a whole two hours (actually, 1:45). Today's broadcast is a kick-off for the Caribbean North Coast Carnival, featuring lots of steel drum, reggae, and latin bands this weekend. So I'll be playing more caribbean music than usual - fine by me. Also, theoretically, there'll be people at Skiffs who want to dance, actually shake booty bigtime, not just sway at home or nod in the car. So the challenge today is to maintain the groove to keep the dance floor busy, while also keeping things interesting and varied for radio listeners.

Want to see how it turns out? Watch the show live starting at 3 this afternoon from Skiffs live video cam. I'll be looking for you...