RadioIO Folk
My goal is to stay off the phone. But on one especially boring call, I clicked on the radio stations in iTunes, something I haven’t done for years, and discovered RadioIO Folk.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a yearning for songs. And intimacy. And I find just about each and every cut on this station not only listenable, but fulfilling.
Googling RadioIO I found out it was a complete service, a competitor to both satellite and Slacker and others I guess I haven’t yet discovered. How these companies all plan to make a profit, I don’t know. But I will tell you this, if there’s a future for radio, it will not be the Pandora/LastFM model, it will be tracks handpicked by humans, like RadioIO.
Radio isn’t an endless string of songs interspersed between commercials. Radio needs to be a religion if it is to survive. It can’t be the only alternative in the car, it no longer is, it’s got to be something people WANT to listen to. And I’m even enduring the commercials on RadioIO Folk to hear what they’re playing, to see what the deejay has in store.
Today’s big winner is the Weepies’ "Orbiting". You can hear it here:
Also, RadioIO has made me a Ray LaMontagne fan, someone who I actively hated previously. Incredible, if you think about it. As opposed to being harangued by his followers, just hearing "Winter Birds" and other cuts on this streaming station converted me
It’s a confusing world out there. We’ve got to have faith in our President, but his economic advisors are buddies with those they’re charged with regulating. One feels powerless, one feels overwhelmed. This is when music triumphs. Nothing wraps you like a blanket and soothes like music.
Hit music bops you on the head, it’s fodder for the gossip sites, but these tunes labeled folk are made over the hills and far away, they’re about humanity more than stardom. These tracks resonate with me.
You can see what’s been recently played at RadioIO Folk here:
Or just click on "Radio" in the left-hand column of iTunes, then Folk, where RadioIO Folk is alphabetically listed, and listen.
