Rik Palieri's 'Songs & Stories' Concludes COVID-Era Live Broadcast
The final live broadcast of Rik Palieri’s ‘Songs & Stories for Hard Hitting Times’ on 105.9FM The Radiator will be Tuesday, July 5, 6pm.
Here’s a note from Rik:
In March of 2020, I received a note from Jim Lockridge of “Big Heavy World’ and the “Radiator”, WOMM-LP 105.9 FM, a community radio station, based in Burlington Vermont. In his email he asked me, if I would be interested in hosting a weekly half hour live stream show, to sing a few songs and share a story or two to help create a calm atmosphere as the Covid 19 pandemic hit Vermont. As the station was closed, they had worked out a way that they could bounce my Facebook Live video, from my home studio onto the radio station.
So, it was, on March 25th, as the world was shutting down and we faced an uncertain future, that I began my weekly live stream. I called my show, ‘Songs & Stories for Hard Hitting Times.’ The idea was inspired from a book that was written by Pete Seeger & Woody Guthrie, that was a collection on songs of struggle that came from hard working people during difficult times. I figured that these times were the most difficult days that any of us had ever experienced and that it was part of my job as a singer to try to bring in a little sunshine, using the power of music to let people laugh and sing together while Covid was keeping us apart and locked away in our houses.
I wanted my half hour to not only be fun and entertaining but also educational with friendly health updates and information. As the pandemic took over, and changed our lives for months without any human connection, what people seem to thirst for more than anything else, was communication and music.
Week after week I walked into my basement studio, switched on the computer and microphone and waited to make sure that my signal was being bounced to the radio station in Burlington and then started my show singing my song “Way Back in The Hills of Old Vermont. For the next 30 minutes I would greet my on-line community, which grew from a few friends to a global following with listeners in Canada, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia and all over the USA. I entertained everyone by singing old songs, reading stories and even flipping my banjo up in the air!
Soon the list of listeners' comments grew, building many new friendships as they checked in with each other. We celebrated birthdays, anniversaries and holidays and also paid tribute to our friends that were impacted by the virus and those who joined the long list of over a million who died during the pandemic.
Along with my live stream many other musicians were also reaching out with their own daily shows helping to build and strengthen our community. Shows like “Coffee with Kokomo “with Guy Davis and “The Daily Antidote of Song” became like a lifeline for all of us. These live streams gave many of us musicians a way to reconnect and give something back to the musical world that had supported us over the years.
No one knew how long this would last or if our lives would ever be normal again, so I kept on broadcasting month after month providing a little bit of light in the darkness. In the middle of the pandemic I was inspired to write a song. I imagined a time when the virus had waned and we could gather together again:
“Alone in the morning I greet the morning sun.
Alone in the evening, I will sing when my work is done.
But we’ll all sing together, we’ll all sing together, we’ll all sing together as the virus leaves this land”
Now in 2022, it seems with the use of vaccines, pills and a better understanding of the virus, that the worst days of Covid are behind us. I feel now it’s time to end my show as its purpose is complete and my work is done.I would like to thank Jim Lockridge and the staff of Big Heavy World for sticking with me and sponsoring this show. I would also like to thank my wife Marianna for her support and most of all I would like to thank the hundreds of listeners who week after week would tune in both on the radio and on Facebook Live and become part of my musical family.
I am sure that I will be doing more live streams in the future so I will see you all again. But for now, keep healthy, happy and keep on singing!
Best Wishes,
Your Banjo Picking Pal
Rik Palieri
Rik Palieri
Rik@banjo.net
RikPalieri@icloud.com