NPT Music Monthly March 2009

You have probably figured out by now that pledge drive months mean big concert events and special programming. I’ve always considered it a gala event on the air, where the diverse entertainment includes Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Andrea Bocelli, Alison Krauss, James Taylor, Elvis Presley, David Foster and more. That said, I can’t recall in recent memory a stronger, or more diverse, lineup of music programming than what we’re bringing you this month.

There are so many good shows this month, and something for every taste, that it’s hard to focus on just a few. So I’m going to point out a few of the specials that I’m looking forward to most. I never saw The Police in concert, neither in their prime, nor when they reunited in 2007, but the trio of records they released in the early 80s, Zenyatta Mondatta, Ghost in the Machine and Synchronicity, all got considerable spin time on my bedroom record player. A few years later, I even went back to 1978’s Outlandos d’Amour to dig up “Can’t Stand Losing You” for a desperate, last minute mix-tape attempt to win a girl’s heart. That’s serious stuff. That’s why I’m looking forward to the Great Performances presentation of The Police Certifiable on March 4 at 8:30 p.m. The concert, recorded in Buenes Aires in 2007 during the band’s farewell tour, looks to be outstanding.

Speaking of trying to win a girl’s heart, you can do no wrong digging into the Stax and Volt Records’ catalog. Or, if you are living in Oslo, Norway and it’s 1967, taking that girl to the concert captured in Sweet Soul: Stax/Volt Revue – Live in Norway 1967, airing on Thursday, March 12 at 7:00 p.m. Can you imagine Otis Redding, Sam and Dave and Booker T. and the MG’s, in their prime, on the same bill? It’s shows like this that put the video camera up there with the wheel and fire as one of man’s greatest inventions.