A great hour of great Christmas muisc from New Orleans: bluesy, jazzy, and always uplifting, this hour is an absolute must for your holiday programming. Hosts Dan Storper & Rosaliw Howarth are a bit stiff at times, but they present a great hour of tunes all drawn from the PuTumayo CD compilation, "NEW ORLEANS CHRISTMAS".

Do your listeners a favor by airing this holiday treat a few times in the weeks before Xmas.

Helen Borten's account of an historic black church on an antebellum southern plantation and its struggle to stave off a cynical developer is
fascinating look at two interwined communities, black and white, plantation and slave decendents, coming together to preserve their shared heritage. Interview with white & blacks in the town are paired with historicak narrative to flesh out this tale of greed, redemption, tradition, and spirituality.

Direction and scenery are a bit muddled at times, due to the duel story of history , and present day, but overall the half hour habgs togethr.

Good for any Sunday afternoon

This account of the life of flautist Sarah Green who died of complications from ALS is sunningly beautiful in its presentation of Sarah's own voice, or actually her computer generated voice, a voice which coupled with her earlier flute recordings, family accounts, and frank expressions make a beautiful piece of raio that never plays its hand too soon. It shows that the beauty of one person's thoughts and feelings can shine though the technology that became, for a time, her only way of communicating.

By the end of the 13 plus minutes, you nearly forget that you're istening to a machine. Sarah Green's voice is one that will not easily be forgotten.

Outront is a series worth airing on Sunday Afternoons. After hearing this piece and others, listeners will want more.

A good piece on the Harmony Harmoneers, a pre-rock n' roll a capella gospel group. The producer's use of music works well enough, with the music going on a bit long, but fortunately, it's great music.

This would go well as an insert roots or folk music programming.

This story of a library vandal targeting books perceived to be on gay and lesbian topics and their subsequent transformation into artworks by community members starts out promisingly enough, taking a page from This American Life's style book with interviews backed by music, but after the balance of voice & music star to fall apart, the inconsistent audio quality of the interviewees begins to distance the listener from the material, and the "sountracky" music attempts to lead the listener to a certain emotional conclusion, a job which the voices alone could have done on their own.

In 4 minutes Bethaney Ocansey takes a hammer and nails the spectre of racism in the US down to the floor and gives it a personal, engaging, and thorough examination from the perspective of a young woman who was raised outside of America, and whose parent are of different backgrounds: African and British, black and white. This piece is especially effective be cause presumptive listeners with untrained ears, listening to a clear british accent may assume that Ocansey is white.

Her view on racism's subtlties is spot on, and this commentary could be featured as a drop in to Morning Edition or ATC.

I look foward to more observations from Ocansey, a sorely need voice in a time of uncertainty.

This is a near perfect 2 hour musical program with Fred Migliore as gracious host and Richie Havens as gracious guest. Interview is interwoven with Havens' music, new and old, and the time never drags in this time with one of this generations great folk singers. Tis feels like a summer program, maybe recalling Woodstock, but air this show soon, perhaps as your favorite DJ takes a week off. Or perhaps a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Heck, this would even make a good fundraiser...just don't cut anything out!

Audition this show, and you will agree that it must have a place on your schedule.

This is a feature on two art exhibits: one, the works of an african american senior women's quilting group, and the other of painter Chuck Close. The two coincidentally end up at the same museum, and voila, instant synergy. But listening to this production, I was scratching my head, wondering why the producer was talking about these exhibits, as they seemed to be as related as things one might see in different magazines. Five minutes into this six minute piece the museum that houses both exhibits is identified, the listener gets a sense of time, place, and connection, and the scenes begin to make some sense in hindsight but that may be too late for even the most patient of the audience.

The Viola Liuzzo story is a portrait of the only pro-ported white woman killed in the civil rights movement, told through a biographer, her friends and others who were present during the 1965 Selma civil rights marches. There's a lot of music in this hour, music that adds editorial comment that is unnecessary and adds a note of treacle to the entire hour, but doesn't manage to dull a compelling story of how far one individual will go to defends the rights of others.

A very thorough look at a possible racial profiling case at a liberal arts college from Vermont Public Radio reporter Nina Keck. The story of a young black man accused of a crime on a majority white campus is examined from many sides,

A good kick-off for a discussion on racial profiling in any community, as the themes addressed in this 8 minutes are unfortunately common in many locals.

Ths piece originally produced for Weekend America's Song & Memory features, is a tightly paced and moving story of a king and his son, and the song that connects them through the son's memory of his father, an emir in a muslim community in Ghana, While the circumstances may sound extraordinary at first blush, the tale of father and son, and how a pop song recalls memories for the son living abroad in America is a story of connection, sense memory, familial affection, and reminds this reviewer or the story songs of Harry Chapin. The wish of a father to reconnect with his far flung progeny, the decision to return home, the song, happy and upbeat to the ear, but stirring deep emotions as it recalls a painful time of life.

This feature is produced by the same team who put together the effective "And I Walked..." feature on immigrants crossing into the US from Mexico. It's another bullseye that could work as a drop in on a world music program, or a Father's Day special.

?Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu? may be a hard to pronounce song from Ghana pop music culture, but it will ring familair as much as any Sinatra song a parent hums, a lingering melody that serves as a portal, a snapshot, another opprtunity for a story from the past to resonate in the present generation.

This hour features excerpts highlights from a 2006 conference on Vietnam and the Presidency conference held at the JFK Library & . Most compelling are the self-made tapes of President Johnson (LBJ) agonizing over the expanding war in Vietnam, and the analysis from scholars, journalists, and historic and knowledgeable figures as Alexander Haig, Robert MacNamara, and others who were directly involved in the Vietnam war, even including a rare appearance by Henry Kissinger.

It's a startlingly clear portrait of the Vietnam War from the inside, and the parallels drawn to the war in Iraq are sharp, clear, and balanced.

This feature should run as a noontime special at the beginning of the week, and then repeated twice on different evenings later during the week. You'll save the trouble of having your listeners calling the station asking you to repeat the program.

A half hour radio visit with singing legend Jo Stafford is a fun and jauntywalk down memory lane with the classics singer. There is little at fault outside of some too short music clips, and for the first half of the program, seemingly scripted host questions. But that doesn't dim the charm of this warm personality, and by the second half of the piece, the flow is more natural and authentic from interviewer, the rapport shines through and the great voice and kind heart of Jo Stafford will leave the listener wanting more. So that may be inspiration to run more episodes of Swing Lady Swing of which this is a part.

Sunday afternoon would be a perfect spot for this gem of a program.

Listening to Rigel Crockett's soft spoken voice reading his reflections on sailing, racism, maritime history, oyster fishing, and more..is a journey. A very long meandering journey which probably hold up better in print. The story is quite moving, but the narrative trajectory changes course more than did Columbus on his early voyages.

This is clearly from a book or print effort that could translate to radio with more attention to production, and lots of editing. It's a great story, but it's not the best radio story in it's current state. In a check of Rigel's website, the same piece is available as a podcast, which may make it more listenable, but at it's current length of 17 minutes ( including the 3 minute music out ) it may be a journey too far... at least for the radio.

Radio Netherlands David Swatling presents this edition of Vox Humana, with an eye on human trafficking, from the perspective of a Latvian woman who was herself a victim, and an author.

Woven with passges from Ovid, courtroom hearings and personal interviews, it is deeply affecting.

It is a story which play out in letters and music writ with somber tones, but as a weekday evening programming, listeners will again know why they listen to public radio.