Water Over Old Stones
Jefferson Airplane asking if we've seen the saucers. Parliament landing the mothership. Jim Sullivan about to vanish into the New Mexico desert. Hugh Masekela's trumpet sounding a coal train's lament.
The first transmission opens beside the creek, the Operator under rhododendron, fall arriving little by little, water moving over old stones. It closes with Trevor breaking branches and a recipe for a warm apple night.
In between: psychedelic rock, Ethiopian jazz, Saharan blues, 8-bit Zelda, and Fela Kuti reminding us that water has no enemy.
31 tracks. The valley was listening.
Signal web
Artists in this transmission
San Francisco psychedelic pioneers. Anti-war counterculture.
The Barn BatsLocal NC legend of ghostly orbs near Brown Mountain. Folk standard covered by Kingston Trio, Roy Orbison.
Jim SullivanLA psych-folk singer who vanished in the New Mexico desert in 1975. His car found abandoned with wallet, guitar, unsold albums.
ParliamentGeorge Clinton's Afrofuturist masterpiece. Black people in outer space as radical reclamation of future narratives.
Erick CosaqueGwo Ka drum music rooted in enslaved African communication and resistance. 45 years independently recording.
Mulatu AstatkeFather of Ethio-jazz. Music survived the Derg regime's cultural suppression. First African student at Berklee.
Vieux Farka Touré,KhruangbinMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Amadou & MariamBlind couple from Mali who met at the Institute for the Young Blind. 'Sabali' means patience in Bambara.
Super Guitar BrosMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Gaming WorldMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Mac DeMarcoMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
セキトオ・シゲオJapanese keyboardist and composer. Known for the 1975 album 'Special Sound Selection', a cult favorite among crate-diggers and library music collectors.
The Sweet EnoughsMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
DOMi & JD BECKMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Mild High ClubMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Max GraefMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
PhotayMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Das Racist,HeemsIndian-American identity, Flushing Queens culture, academic references layered over humor. Label Greedhead Music.
Video AgeMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Nicolas JaarChilean-American. Album Sirens addresses Pinochet dictatorship and US imperialism. Father Alfredo Jaar created 'A Logo For America'.
Les McCannSoul jazz pioneer. 'Compared to What' is one of the great anti-war anthems: 'The president's got his war.'
CortexMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Black Merda!One of the first all-Black rock bands. Renamed after 1967 Detroit Rebellion. Direct statement on police violence and systemic racism.
Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ ChoirMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Hugh MasekelaSpoken-word trumpet lament for exploited Black miners under apartheid. Spent 30 years in exile. Trumpet was a gift from Louis Armstrong.
Fela KutiYoruba proverb. Fela created Afrobeat as a political weapon. Arrested 200+ times. Mother killed by soldiers. Defining figure of musical resistance.
Unknown Mortal OrchestraHawaiian perspective on Cook's death as Indigenous self-defense. Tribute to Ruban Nielson's mother who hula-danced in the video.
Michael NauMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Brad stankMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Derrick HarriottJamaican music legend. Singer, producer, label owner. Early dub pioneer. Received Jamaica's Order of Distinction.
Signals
Balm Valley
A real place in Appalachia. A state of listening. Where the show broadcasts and what it is about.
The Brown Mountain Lights
Ghostly orbs above the North Carolina ridges for centuries. A local mystery covered by Kingston Trio, Roy Orbison, and The Barn Bats.
Crate-Digger Signals
The show's devotion to the obscure, the overlooked, the record that sat in a bin for decades waiting to be found.
The Mothership Signal
A transmission from outside. Parliament's Afrofuturist mothership, Jefferson Airplane's saucers, Jim Sullivan's disappearance.
The Creek
The first voice on BVA. Water over old stones, and the valley's carrier frequency.
The Operator
The voice of the Balm Valley Authority: host, narrator, creek-side philosopher, and keeper of the woolly worm oracle.
The Sponsors
Born Again Dirt Composting. Interference Music Electronics. Ramblin' Poppy. 641 RPM. The businesses that make a night out by the creek a little better.
The Woolly Worm Oracle
The larval state of Pyrrharctia isabella, known as the woolly worm, is the valley's only legitimate weather oracle.
Themes
Afrobeat & Diaspora
The African musical diaspora: from Fela Kuti's Afrobeat to Ethio-jazz to Zamrock to the Caribbean Gwo Ka tradition.
Signals of Origin
Where the valley first speaks. Beginnings, first transmissions, and the sound of something new starting.
UFOs & Cosmic Signals
Saucers, mothership connections, vanished folk singers, and the cosmic intruding on the mundane.