The good news was getting an invitation to record an episode of Life & Lyrics at our local public radio station, The Summit, which will air at a future date. The bad news was that the 30-minute program would only contain five songs. For someone currently at 67 on the timeline of life, there were sleepless nights deciding which songs to choose, leaving several to be relegated as a participation trophy. There were some important albums that could have been chosen, like Peter, Paul & Mary Moving, The Who Tommy, David Bowie Ziggy Stardust, The Beatles Hey Jude, The Allman Brothers Brothers & Sisters, and Pink Floyd Dark Side of The Moon just for starters. There are songs like “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen, “My Back Pages” by Bob Dylan and “Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2 that are sewn to my heart and were passed over. Finally, I sent my list to Program Director Chad Miller, along with a rough transcript I would be using to introduce each song. My focus was on an important lyric in the song that parallels my life, if that makes sense.

#1

There wasn’t much to do growing up in Canton, Ohio, in the mid-1970s. Somehow, a small contingent of friends made a pilgrimage north on Cleveland Avenue to the one-stoplight intersection of Uniontown. Boulder Junction was a rustic, wooden ranch where guitars, banjos, and dulcimers were crafted. A small stage and seating area filled up on Fridays and Saturdays with songs from area troubadours like John Bassette, Jim Ballard, Charlie Wiener, and Alex Bevan. It was Bevan who took those magical songs we heard into the studio to cut Springboard in 1975. Listen for the lyrics in “Rodeo Rider” when Alex sings ‘He’ll end all his days ridin’ fence in Montana /On the high ground his dreamin’ gets done / He sings oh, all my life, oh my life”. Here is Roder Rider. (4:53)

#2

College saw the creation of Hyperdrive Mixtapes, played at house parties on the hallowed grounds of 31 E. 16th Avenue, at the corner of Pearl Alley, in the heart of The Ohio State University. While campus fraternities were caught up in the Saturday Night Fever craze, there was a screaming urge for counterculture to catch the new wave, rockabilly, punk, and ska, mixed with old Stax, Motown, and British Invasion sounds. The Pretenders, with Akronite Chrissy Hynde at the helm of a power-pop sound, were on heavy rotation. Old photos and those cassettes take me back to those glory days. Listen to the opening lyrics of “Back On The Chain Gang” as Chrissie sings “I found a picture of you / Well it hijacked my world at night / To a place in the past we’ve been cast out of / Now we’re back in the fight”. Here is “Back On The Chain Gang”. (3:51)

#3

Fast forward to the late ’80s, driving in Akron, and picking up this station on the dial at 91.3. They’re playing some good tunes, but they sign off at sunset. On Saturdays, the station syndicates shows like World Cafe, E-Town, and a cool in-house Celtic program until 2:00 p.m., when it goes off the air again. Things led to having my company, CO-OP Optical in Stow, be the first corporate sponsor purchasing an hour of airtime on Saturday titled “Alternative Archives”. The rest, as they say, is history. One of the artists the station introduced me to was Kasey Chambers. A favorite of mine contains the verse, “This is not Hollywood / This is my life,” which suggests that life does not follow a scripted path: it’s messy, painful, and unedited. From her album, Wayward Angel, this is “Hollywood”. (3:29)

#4

The postcard read “Do you want to be a member of the Lost Highway Street Team?” In 2001, I worked my very first show for Lost Highway Records. I’m 42 years old and operate a small business, but Lost Highway opened doors to Alt-Country and later Americana artists, bringing listening to music full circle from my childhood. One of the label’s artists was Kim Richey, the Ohio native with a sweet soul, with whom I’ve fostered a friendship over the years since working her show in 2002. Richey captures how lyrics hit you hard in her biggest hit, “Those Words We Said,” with the phrase “Every sad song on my radio sounds like it’s custom made / By some devil on my shoulder that keeps whispering in my ear”. From her debut album, here is “Those Words We Said”. (3:59)

#5

In 2007, after being grilled for two hours by Mimi’s Magazine editor Mitch Allen, who was doing a story on my business, he dropped a final question: “I was thinking about having a music column in the paper; would you write one for me?” Over the next twelve years, my new side hobby was writing Minkin’s Music, with print and online editions, for Mimi’s, Cleveland.com, and the international web page of No Depression magazine. Fostering friendships, trips to Americanafest in Nashville, and writing “behind the music” stories about singer-songwriters who pen and perform their own music was the ultimate way for me to give back. So my final pick goes to a protest song by Ohio native Griffin House, one of the first artists I bonded with while writing my column. His song ” I Remember (It’s Happening Again) contains the verse And when our citizens start saying that our wars are not ok / And Washington keeps telling them God loves the USA / And they teach us history so we can learn from our mistakes / And this generation wants to know how many years it takes. From the album Upside Down, here is “I Remember” (4:53)

Life & Lyrics radio interview