Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Thanks Benny

The pending change of The River's format is bad enough, but the loss of the station's Americana Café show might send Madame Georgie into the Tennessee River. The Sunday night specialty program features the kind of singer/songwriter, rootsy folk/rock sadly absent from most commercial radio. The brainchild of Benny Smith, the show was easily one of Knoxville's best radio programs.

And now that The River is going off the air July 31, we're wondering when, or if, we'll ever hear Smith's voice again and if the Americana Café will find another home on the airwaves.

That doesn't seem likely in the near future. "I am heartbroken to have lost The Americana Café, but not just so I can get on the air and play music that I enjoy," Smith says. "I will miss being able to give the talented local and regional artists a chance to be heard on a 100,000-watt commercial station whose signal can reach into seven different states," he says.

The show was great because Smith is so passionate about the music and knows what he's talking about. "There has to be a way to bring this music to the 'masses,' and that is one of the things we tried to do every Sunday night, as well as in our regular playlist," says Smith (who is also a huge hip-hop fan).

Smith was speaking via email because his warm, radio-friendly voice has been absent of late. His plight started back in February when his voice "went South," as he puts it. His doctors diagnosed the problem as polyps on his vocal cords. Surgery in April removed the polyps and improved his voice. "My voice sounded better than it had since I was probably 6 or 7," Smith wrote. But two months after surgery, he was losing his voice again. Irritation around the cords and a few other exacerbating symptoms have postponed a full recovery. To communicate, Smith has been using a notepad and a dry erase board, plus some helpful facial expressions. With his wife, Erin, however, he just uses the "ESP" they've developed.

He had to cancel a live Americana Cafe broadcast with Robinella and the CCstringband and Mary Alice Wood, but the studio show has continued with help from fellow DJ Shane Cox, who cues the songs and introduces the artists with Smith's guidance. Before the news of The River's demise was announced, Smith was upbeat about what he'll be able to accomplish down the road with the radio show, but without a transmitter, his plans have been put in limbo.

"It's not often that a deejay anywhere is allowed to play The Stanley Brothers, Todd Steed and the Suns of Sphere, or even John Prine on a 100,000-watt radio station, and I count my lucky stars for being able to have done just that," Smith says. "Reckon it's better to burn out, 'cause rust never sleeps, right Neil?"

10 Watts Goes A Long Way

Although Knoxville is losing The River, it is getting a little bit more WDVX. The award-winning public station—specializing in bluegrass and Americana—now broadcasts at a new translator from Sharps Ridge on the 102.9 FM frequency. The 10-watt translator is significantly high enough to increase the range of the station, whose main frequency is 89.9 FM. "It really fills in Knoxville, East Knoxville, Fountain City, North Knoxville—places where WDVX had some reception problems. It's good downtown, good in Sequoyah Hills," says Tony Lawson, the station's manager.

The station will continue broadcast at its other translator, 106.7 FM for the time being.

All the Jag Star News That's Fit to Print

Madame Georgie is often bitterly attacked for writing only about a handful of bands. Truth is, s/he writes about bands that do a lot and Jag Star is certainly keeping busy. The band is one of six finalists in the Independent Music World Series, a list that was whittled down from 1,500 by the music company TAXI and Billboard Magazine, singer Sarah Lewis reports. The finals will take place in Nashville and the band is competing against a hip-hop group, a folk artist, an indie rock band and some jazz and blues groups. The winner gets $35,000 worth of studio equipment and instruments.

The band is also in the running to win a trip to Las Vegas to play with the Goo Goo Dolls and the Donnas—a competition of 90 bands sponsored by Budweiser.

Go.

Thursday: Shoot pool, drink ale and hear the Mitch Rutman Group at Union Jack's.

Friday: Jag Star is giving a free show at Blue Cats.

Saturday: Okay, you're going to have to run around the Old City a little, but with some luck, you can hear some of all these sets and they all deserve to be heard. Drink plenty of water in-between sprints to stay hydrated. The Westside Daredevils at Barley's, Donald Brown at ThInQ Tank, and the Indicators, the Fairmount Girls and the High Score at Patrick Sullivans.

Sunday: John Sewell says the Suburban Urchins are young but great. Check them out at Old City Java.

Monday: Can you believe what they did? It's crazy! Hear the dirt at the Pilot Light.

Tuesday: No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all.

Wednesday: Brandy Robinson at the Preservation Pub and then head to the Pilot Light for some weird laughs from Neil Hamburger.

—Madame "in the service of the bleakest realism" Georgie with Paige M. Travis and Joe Tarr