Radio Free Song Club is a group of writers with a monthly song deadline. Host Nicholas Hill presents these new tunes along with interviews and live performances and special guests. Some of the songs are finished and fully produced, some are roughly recorded fragments, some in-between. The writers are looking for a good song, the world is looking for a good song. Someone might get lucky.
“Songs are hard to beat. . . Portable, flexible, adhesive; appealing to mind, heart, and body as required. They can unite a community or touch the solitary in each listener or both at once. No mean feat.” (Peter Blegvad)
I love radio. The spell that is cast when the clock is ticking, the music is providing some comfort, a phone call to the studio twists you in a way you could never have expected. Making radio is opening your soul and connecting with everyone all at once—the artist whose work you share in the most intimate way; the listener who is there. Somewhere. I know you are. You have all heard the magic that comes through the ether and out of a receiver.
This show is a balancing act. An album of sorts. A radio program with no FM modulation. A broadcast that you will seek out. You will find it right here monthly, where it lays in wait for you.
These songs are meant for you to hear. Just because you have made time for them. They are sent out on their own. Some of them may not be ready, but you are trusted with them. It is a beautiful relationship.
Nicholas Hill, on the inauguration of the Radio Free Song Club. January, 2010
drawings by Peter Blegvad