The Title: From the Mud to the Stars
When Jerry Garcia died in 1995 Rolling Stone magazine (October ’95) published tributes from musicians and artists. Here’s part of what Bob Dylan said of Jerry:
“There’s no way to measure his greatness or magnitude as a person or as a player… He was that great – much more than a superb musician with an uncanny ear and dexterity. He is the very spirit personified of whatever is muddy river country at its core and screams up into the spheres”
The Concept
From the Mud to the Stars is a three hour long music program played every second Saturday morning on community radio KRR 98.7. [Kandos and Rylstone, NSW, Australia]. Just as Dylan’s quote is inclusive of many forms of music, so too is the show. A typical program may begin with old country blues, earthy, “muddy” sounds, and gradually move into other forms such as soul, reggae, world, folk, alt country, electronic, ambient, jazz and into “stellar” sounds. The mix always varies, but tracks are as old as 1927 and as recent as last week.
Here’s Dylan again, of Garcia: “There are a lot of spaces and advances between the Carter family, Buddy Holly and, say, Ornette Coleman, a lot of universes, but he filled them all without being a member of any school.”