Sister Sara Simmons

LINER NOTES

There are some voices that don’t belong to a person. They belong to a room. Sister Sara Simmons is one of those voices.

No one can quite agree when she first sang in public. Some say it was in a borrowed church with folding chairs and a piano missing three keys. Others insist it happened outdoors, under a stormy sky that wouldn’t make up its mind, with people gathering because they heard something before they saw anything. What is agreed upon is this: when Sister Sara opened her mouth, the room leaned in. Continue reading →

WINESTOCK: A FESTIVAL THAT FERMENTED

Winestock began, according to every reliable source, by accident.

It started as a small end-of-season grape harvest gathering at a Northern California vineyard whose owners believed—incorrectly—that inviting a few friends, a few musicians, and a few cases of unfinished wine would result in a quiet afternoon. Someone hung a handwritten sign that said “Music Later”. Someone else added “Bring a Bottle.” No one remembers who added “Free.”

By mid-afternoon, the parking problem had become purely philosophical. Continue reading →

Polly Barton was born already late for chores.
That’s how she tells it, anyway. According to family legend, she arrived one humid morning in eastern Tennessee while her mother was halfway through hanging laundry and her father was fixing something that didn’t need fixing yet. From day one, Polly had a way of appearing right when work was underway, smiling as if to say, “Don’t stop on my account.” Continue reading →

THE MINKEEZ

An Unauthorized Biography, Authorized by Nobody

The Minkeez did not form the way bands are supposed to form. Continue reading →

Gorby’s Barbershop Backstory:

Gorby’s Barbershop Quartet insists they did not form on purpose. They say the group assembled itself one afternoon when four men reached for the same chair, missed, and instinctively harmonized their apologies. A chord locked. No one sat down. History was made. Continue reading →

janice & lost horizons

janice (always spelled lowercase) isn’t a revival, a tribute act, or a reconstruction. She’s a frequency — a voice that shows up when a singer stops trying to survive and starts telling the truth out loud. Continue reading →

Worked all night organizing & reviewing song inventory. Will play same at today’s zoom meeting, see you there! Continue reading →

How to Listen to KGOD Demo Sessions

When you listen to a KGOD demo session for ideas for your band, don’t listen like a consumer. Don’t listen like someone casually browsing. Listen like you’re buying some songs for your band.

A DEMO session is not the same as a regular broadcast. A DEMO session is meant for bands to listen to the songs and pick out what they would like to “cover”. Continue reading →

Most people think a DJ just throws on songs they like, when assembling a “set” for a show, but what I do for KGOD is more like assembling a spell or mixing a cake batter.

I start by rounding up about twenty somehow related tracks for the morning set. I’m not trying to “prove” anything with it. I’m trying to create an arc — a sequence that has a mood, a flow, and a kind of emotional logic. Continue reading →

What can we do about all this crap in the news???

This is the big question right now — and I would ask it in a Zoom circle context, because that’s where we actually have some — albeit small — leverage.

First: our group can’t stop Trump by force of will, but we absolutely can help shape what happens next — culturally, emotionally, locally, and politically. And honestly? Groups like ours are one of the few things that still work in a fractured society: small circles with discipline, creativity, attention, and actual human decency. Continue reading →