Scattered around these pages...are the results of a pleasure, a mild obsession, a wonderful education and one of the best times of my life. Playing blues records on the radio fufilled one of my oldest desires and gave me the opportunity to meet great and talented musicians, geenrous and kind blues fans, and some very smart, funny and dedicated disc jockeys. I am indebted to all of them for making that time so rewarding.
The radio shows also gave me a chance to have some fun with two of my closest friends, Howell Norfolk and Bones d'Ivory. Norfolk was on the show almost from the very beginning, delivering his Millennium Reports from Los Angeles, Nova Scotia and many points in between. His shining moment for me, though, has always been his hilarious impersonation of the late George Harrison, delivered on the former Beatles 52nd birthday. This amazing performance happened on the 4th show I ever did on Geronimo Radio. Not many people have heard it, but those who have agree with me that it is one of the funniest things they've ever heard.
I met Bones d'Ivory a few months later, and I'd never had the experience of meeting someone and immediately having so much in common with them. Music, the blues, barbeque, media, politics, even clothing. If it wasn't so nice, it would've been creepy. Bones was a "sidekick" in name only. He was always a co-host in my mind, and the show was never as good without him as it was with him.
Same with Howell. That's why when I moved "The Smitty Ray Barlow Show" down to KZSU, I changed the name to "The 3-Way Blues Caravan". It was a blues show that went three ways. Well, that and the obvious barbeque reference.
In the last years of the show, the economy and personal burnout had taken its toll. I went off the air for almost a year, and then returned for a couple of quarters with "The Plywood Lounge". This was me and Bones attempting to create a more atmospheric kind of show, complete with barroom ambience designed by my pal Vance Walden of One Union Sound. But frankly, I'd run out of gas.
Someday, I hope to return to the radio with a full tank, but for now I hope that anyone trolling around here will get a kick out of the recipes, the playlists, the listings and Howell's stuff.
In the meantime, maybe every now and then I'll fill in for The Byrd Of Paradise and other KZSU DJs as time permits. If you'd like me to e-mail you time and dates of when I'll be on the air, and/or when we'll be returning with a regular show please drop me a line here.
>>BONES' MEMPHIS MINNIE LINKS<<
PAST SHOWS...
Recent playlists are now in KZSU's dj playlist section.
Older playlists are in the archive.
............
Our most recent recipe contest resulted in the usual finish: one entry, one winner. And that winner is JONNA RAMEY of Salt Lake City, Utah. I sampled this pound cake, and it rocks. (No Mormons were harmed in the creation of this recipe.)
>> printer-friendly version of this recipe <<
And now, heeerrrreee's Jonna!
Hi Smitty,
Here is the best, most fail-safe pound cake recipe I know. I've used it for years. It's from Maida Heatter, the goddess of baking.
East 62nd Street Lemon Cake
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (1 cup) butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
Finely grated rind of 2 lemons
Adjust rack one-third up from bottom of oven.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a 9x3 1/2 inch tube pan and dust it lightly with flour.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
Grate lemon rind and set aside.
In large bowl of electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes. Beat in eggs individually, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula to keep mixture smooth.
On lowest speed, alternately add the dry ingredients in 3 portions and the milk in 2 portions, scraping the bowl with the spatula as necessary and beating only until smooth after each addition.
Stir in lemon rind.
Turn batter into prepared pan. Level top by rotating pan briskly back and forth.
Bake for 1 hour. If you use a convection oven, test at 45 minutes, it could be done.
Let cake stand in the pan for about 5 minutes and then cover with a rack and invert. Remove pan, leaving cake upside down. Place over a large piece of aluminum foil or wax paper and prepare glaze.
Glaze
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
The glaze should be used immediately after it is mixed.
Stir the lemon juice and sugar and brush all over the hot cake until absorbed.
Let cake cool completely.
Use two wide metal pancake turners or a cookie sheet to transfer it to a cake plate.
Do not cut for at least several hours (for glaze to percolate throughout the cake).
HOT LINK! The Rise And Fall Of Jim Crow features stories about a particularly vile part of this country's legacy. This was a PBS series that aired in October, but these stories and the rest of the site are too important to miss.
HOT LINK! See if you can download this beautiful poem (its a Word document) dedicated to John Lee Hooker by Linda Mac, The Roller Skating Blues Maniac. I forget what you have to do to download a file, hold the mouse button down and then click on "download file" or something. You're an adult, figure it out.
............
............
INSTANT MESSAGE me with requests, questions and comments while I'm on the air. I'm at kzsudj.
............
SMITTY'S PICKS OF 2001! Nobody asked for it, but everybody's gonna get it.
THIS TIME: Willie King & The Liberators, Little Milton, and Jimmy Smith. plus Alberta Adams, Scott Dunbar, Robert Belfour and more.
......................
For more blues on KZSU...
Saturday mornings are chock full of the good stuff on KZSU. First, Sunshine kicks it off at 6 a.m. with "Morning Glory", three hours of great soul, blues, funk and what have you to get your thang on right. Then class is in session with The Byrd Of Paradise for "Blues With A Feeling" from 9 a.m. to noon. Byrd brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as a musician and historian of the area blues scene. Oh, and he rocks!
......................
Oh, and if you or your business want to underwrite the show, please check out KZSU's underwriting info. It's ridiculously cheap, tax-deductible, and Ol' Smitty throws in a banner ad on this here web site for FREE!
