The Christmas Show That Almost Wasn’t
December 21, 2010 by rudy panucci
Up at the top of this post you see Radio Free Charleston’s 116th episode, “Christmas With CYAC.” This was almost the year without an RFC Christmas show, but after a production schedule bedeviled by weather woes and other intrusions of life, I decided to call an audible.
The original plan was that this episode of the show would feature songs from two local favorites, plus a song or two from the CYAC production of the original rock opera, “Mary.” with everything being tied together with host segments shot the Monday before Christmas while caroling with Dan and Penny Kehde and the gang from CYAC.
The taping for the other songs didn’t happen (through no fault of the artists) and I was left with the possibility of skipping the holiday show this year, when it occurred to me that I could record some of the Christmas carols, toss in some of the tunes from “Mary” and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
And so I did. Many thanks to Dan and Penny and all the good and talented folk of The
Contemporary Youth Arts Companyand the many drivers who didn’t mow us down, “Death Race 2000″ style when they had the chance. Without these folks coming to the rescue, we would not have had a holiday show this year.
That’s pretty much all we have to say about this special episode of Radio Free Charleston. Check PopCult on Thursday for a special preview of the Holiday ArtWalk. Oh…be sure to stick around for the whole show. You’ll get a very special Christmas treat, some would even say it’s a “Blizzard.”
“Norman Rockwell’s An American Love Story” opens Thursday at 8 PM at The WVSU Capitol Center Theater, 123 Summers St., in Charleston. This is a brand new original work with words by Dan Kehde and music by Mark Scarpelli.
The first Radio Free Charleston of 2011 is a very special show. As you can see above, it’s a “fly on the wall” preview of Charleston’s own Beatles tribute band, Rubber Soul, as they prepare for this weekend’s performance of “The Beatles (The White Album)” in St. Albans.
Host segments were shot on the grounds of the State Capitol, after we considered shooting at Yeager Airport without permission, then thought better of that idea. Evidently last Saturday was “Take Your Screaming Baby To The Capitol” day, and also over at Laidley Field they were having a special Mumble Incoherently Over The Public Adress System Tournament. So it was a bit of a challenging shoot. But we did get our host segments recorded and the show was uploaded a mere eight hours after the hosting adventure.
Flashback to last summer with part seven of oursix-part coverage of FestivAll 2010. This show brings you more music from Brian Diller and The Velvet Gypsies, plus extra music from Craig D’Andrea and Ron Sowell, and footage of the balloon sculptures at The Charleston Town Center.
We had some great material that didn’t quite fit into our six-part extravaganza last summer, so we went back to the well one more time. Host segments were shot at the same time as the host bits for episode 107, back in July. Now that the heat of summer is passed, we can sit back and enjoy the music.