Once upon a time radio was a wonderland at the end of the rabbit hole. It wasn’t canned lines in between homogenous music and endless ads but an embryonic journey that was an end unto itself. To stay home and listen to the radio all night was a reasonable activity, and this was decades after television made the scene. You had a personal guide in the deejay, and although he referenced some known sites, it was the new destinations that thrilled you, that made you feel warm inside.

Somewhere along the line we were sold the bill of goods known as MTV, radio morphed into television and those who lived through the golden era were left high and dry. And those who hadn’t experienced sixties and seventies radio thought the medium was crap, just something to listen to on your way from here to there.

I don’t know if radio can come back, but I can tell you that being human has not changed. We still want to belong, we still want to be thrilled, we still want to experience new stuff. But in the race to monetization, the audience has been left behind. It’s not about growing a business, doing what feels right, but making tons of money, fast.

When I tell people I’m addicted to satellite radio, they laugh. Didn’t I get the memo? Radio’s a joke, passe. And, if you’re gonna listen at all, do it on the Internet. But you can’t get the Internet in the car, and too many of the Net stations, although free, are programmed by amateurs, they don’t know what the zeitgeist is, never mind how to achieve it. If you want the old time experience, there’s only one place to go, XM. Oh, Sirius has its highlights, but the research and tight playlists eviscerate the experience. It’s just about the music, a computer could program most stations. Whereas to work, radio needs a human element. As does the music.

So I’m driving long after dark, thumbing through the XM stations, when I stumble upon something ear-pleasing on the folk channel, XM 15, the Village.

It may be hard to believe, but in the early sixties, folk music ruled. Stuff that touched your heart, that you could sing along with. Success wasn’t predicated on machines, effects, but acoustic instruments, played by human beings. And it wasn’t only Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul & Mary, acts like the Lovin’ Spoonful and the Mamas & the Papas came out of the folk tradition. And their music has lasted longer than the evanescent Top Forty/MTV hits of the past two decades. Folk music has got that old radio quality. Play it over the radio and you’ve got a riveting experience, if you’re in the mood.

To be in the mood for folk music you must be slowed down, reflective. You can’t be in a hurry, you can’t be all caught up in business, you must be living your life the same way it’s been done for millions of years, slowly, one moment at a time. If you’re willing to marinate in the sound, folk music can possess you, it can make you feel positively human and alive in a way that Top Forty can’t. It opens up the topography of your mind and allows you to explore, to visit old haunts, to ruminate on future actions and activities.

The record that set my mind free on the Village was by someone named Richard Berman. It’s entitled: "That Old Song ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’". You can’t hear it for free on his homepage. As for those free MP3s he’s hawking there, the link is dead.

Richard Berman has not gotten the message. He thinks we’re still living in the nineties, that the twenty first century doesn’t exist.

I’ve got this friend James Lee Stanley. He almost broke through on Wooden Nickel Records thirty years ago, but he didn’t. But he didn’t give up. And now it’s his time.

Used to be you had to get on the radio, TV, you had to explode. Now you’ve just got to have a fan base. James Lee plays endless gigs. Often house concerts. But he’s making money. Not only from the door, but selling CDs. You see someone who comes to a gig needs a souvenir.

But James Lee has history, how do you get traction if you’re a relative newbie?

By giving the music away online. Free music does not mean you can’t sell CDs. It means you’ve got a chance of the word spreading, if you’re good, and you can monetize this good will at the gig.

You don’t need to play Madison Square Garden. You don’t even need to play the Hammerstein Ballroom. Overhead can be gasoline. People will host your gigs for free, and advertise them for you. You can become a regular on the house concert series. You can make quite a good living. If you’re good.

And Richard Berman is good.

You’re gonna hate his voice. You’re gonna tell me he can’t blow up. But does he need to? Do you need to believe, or does it only matter if his audience, a small cadre, believes?

That mass game, perpetuated by the major labels, that winnowing down to winners, that’s the sideshow now. Now it’s about cottage industry, whether it be the Eagles or Richard Berman, you don’t need the old powers to get the word out, to make a living.

But even if you can get a ticket to an Eagles show, even if you can afford one, you’re going to be in attendance with thousands. Whereas a baby boomer wants to be close. After your teens, after your early twenties, what you desire most is access. You want something personal in a personal space.

I can’t link to the song I heard on XM. But Mr. Berman does have a MySpace page

Richard Berman MySpace

The song that sounds most like the one that captured me is the last in the player, "On The Mexican Coast". This guy has a way with a change. Like I said, you might be bothered by his affected voice. I’d tell him to worry less about being perfect, to let more of his true personality out, but Mr. Berman doesn’t have to listen to me. That’s the luxury of doing it yourself, critics are irrelevant. Click on the lyrics button. There’s more truth in "On The Mexican Coast" than is contained in any of the Top Forty hits. This is an educated man who’s got something to say.

Even better lyrically is "Monopoly", two songs up in the player.

If you want to get a picture
Of what a person’s really like
Don’t take ’em to a movie
Don’t dine by candlelight
Pull that game down from the shelf
That reveals the inner self
It’s there to see in Monopoly

I don’t want to hang with the throng at the club, never did. Give me something more personal, more intimate, like a game of Monopoly.

I still play. My goal is to make sure the asshole loses. It’s like reality TV come alive, like a living "Survivor". You see interpersonal relationships, human dynamics, come alive around the board. The person who believes he can steam through life and people undeterred finds out otherwise. The protagonist plays Monopoly with a coworker, one he has desires upon. Listen to hear how it turns out.

I’d rather go see Richard Berman than all those household names. I feel I won’t get a show, but an experience. One that doesn’t blind my eyes, but sets my mind free. That’s what I’m looking for. An acknowledgment of my humanity, insight into this complicated life we live, a sense that although I’m unique, I belong.