Airwaves

by Brian Goslow

WCUW's ethnic programming continues to get a public-relations boost as the Cultural Connection Concert Series begins the final month of its first season with an Albanian music and dance program this Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Elm Park, site of the remaining three events. Demetre Steffon, host of the Albanian Hour, heard Saturdays from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. on WCUW (91.3 FM), will host the festivities.

Weekend mornings have long been home to Irish music on WCUW. Buddy Sargent anchors Four Green Fields, Saturday from 9:30 to 11 a.m., while sharing host duties with Patrick Moriarty of the Celtic Connection on Sundays from 9 to 11 a.m. They will celebrate the appearance of longtime local Irish favorites the Bards, who appear at Elm Park on September 14.

The series comes to a swinging conclusion on September 20 when polka wildmen Crusade have the park (and its hundreds of ducks and Canadian geese) swinging from the trees. The group feature Eddie Biegaj, who took home the United States Polka Association's "Male Vocalist of the Year" trophy in 1990 when he fronted TPM. They'll perform a mixture of Eastern and Chicago polkas with a modern touch. WCUW presents Polkas in the A.M. every Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. to noon, followed later in the day by Prime Time Polkas from 8 to 10 p.m. (hosted by Papa Joe and Terry Kaczyk). The legendary Polkamania continues to be heard Saturdays from 2 to 4 p.m.

NEWCOMERS TO THE AREA (and those of you tired of being blasted by loud jocks and endless commercials in the morning) can start their days with WCUW's multi-music-format program, New Traditions, which airs Monday through Friday from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday's edition is hosted by Troy Tyree, who put together Rotman's Cafe Fantastique series this spring. His program runs the gamut from folk to rock to straight blues. He was in an acoustic mood when he forwarded a rundown of his favorite new music. "Kate Campbell would be at the top of any list I came up with." The Compass recording artist who warms the airwaves with Moonpie Dreams is tentatively scheduled to perform here in November.

He's also fond of Nashville songwriter Buddy Mondlock, who mixes his Chicago upbringing with Music City influences on On the Line, which joins Martin Sexton's Black Sheep (Eastern Front), Alison Krauss and Union Station's So Long, So Wrong So Long, So Wrong (Rounder) at the top of Tyree's list.

Remember the cowpunk movement that threatened to carve a place for itself in the mid-'80s? The self-labeled dysfunctional roots music was recently celebrated by UK music fanatics with the release of Cowpunks (Vinyl Junkie), featuring Roy Condo and His Hardrock Goners' "Something that I Said." Condo's other crazed outfit, the Ricochets, are known worldwide for their contributions to endless rockabilly and psychobilly compilations (including Blood on the Cats). Now they've got their own manic-filled CD on Joaquin Records, Swing Brother Swing!, which gives Tyree a good opportunity to help listeners push away the morning cobwebs.

Colin Linden, who's helped everyone from the Band to Brooks Williams in the studio, and bonded with Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson in Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, earns major plaudits for his solo CD Through the Storm Through the Night (Compass), which joins Greg Brown's The Poet Game (Red House), Molly and the Heymakers' Big Things (Mouthpiece), the Klezmatics' Possessed (Xenophile), and Marcia Ball's Let Me Play with Your Poodle (Rounder) on the New Traditions playlist.