Woody Cavenaugh

I spent two weekends away from home with with fencing, it was good work and I was proud to do it. I was glad however to be back at home on the weekend, especially Sunday mornings for Buddy Michael's KIX Bluegrass Festival on WKXU radio 101.1 from 8am through noon. It had been a tradition of mine every since I accidentally found the station while I was scanning the radio for music early one Sunday morning several years ago.

There is lots of music and I listen to most of it. There is very little truth and beauty in music and that is found in Bluegrass. Celtic comes close, so does celtic rock, but celtic rock isn't the truth so much as what I wish were true. Bluegrass is the truth and the light. Some people go to church on Sunday mornings. As a child I used to go to church too, but that ended the moment I became old enough to question the baptist faith. "What do you mean everyone else goes to hell and only we are saved?" It was about that time I came to relize that the word of God couldn't possible be edited by a series of kings ending in King James and still be of any real spiritual value. That would be like me trying to reinterpret tax law.

So for years I went without church. And then I rediscovered Bluegrass music, which had been lost to me since I was very young when the 8 Track player died and the origional Grand Old Opery reruns stopped being shown on PBS. Buddy Michaels nailed the lyrics of Dr. Ralph Stanley to the doors of my temple like a modern day Martin Luther and I was reborn.

But enough of the religious symbolism, I probably insulted you folks enough when I bashed the major political parties yesterday. (The constitutionalist party is more insane than Michael Moore and Rush Limbah trying to share a telephone booth by the way.)

I turned on the Radio Sunday expecting to hear truth and beauty. Instead I found talk and Jazz. Talk and Jazz????? WTF man! If I wanted talk and Jazz on Sunday mornings I would turn on NPR which does these things very well thank you. (Plus they have a great Celtic show on Saturday afternoons at 6pm).

Without Buddy Michael I never would've known about Bass Mountain. I wouldn't even have any Bluegrass CDs right now because I never would have heard any of the songs that I have come to love. And its not like you can rush out to the local music store and and choose from the vast selection at random. The most bluegrass CDs I have ever seen in one place was from a vender at Bass Mountain and every year I add to my CD collection there.

Well the first thing I did when I ended up somewhere with an internet connection was to email Buddy Michaels and in as few words as possible, as politely as possible ask, my idol of radio where I could continue to find bluegrass on the radio. I wanted to say more. I wanted to say how much his show meant to me. I wanted to say how he had become my Sunday morning tradition. I wanted to make sure he was Ok. I wanted to make sure he still had a job of some sort, since he had been at WKXU for over 26 years. But I was respectful. I kept it short and respectful. The man probably has enough on his mind right now.

I want my Bluegrass! I want Buddy Michaels!