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Music with a Water Motif for the Celebration of Easter

Duane Nichols — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 13:39:57 +0000

: Ed McDonald

”Music with a Water Motif for the Celebration of Easter”

SIDETRACKS PLAY LIST, March 29-31, 2013

The entry for each song in the play list below contains information in the following order: artist(s) name / song title / album title / record label.

>> THE 1937 FLOOD / Wade in the Water / Wade in the Water / Braxton

>> THE BIRMINGHAM SUNLIGHTS / Jesus Gave Me Water / In the Garden / Cracker Barrel

>> PETER ROWAN w/ THE NASHVILLE BLUEGRASS BAND / Jesus Made the Wine / New Moon Rising / Sugar Hill

>> THE GORDONS / Give Me Water, Lord / Our Time / Inside-Out

>> RUTH & MAX BLOOMQUIST / Bathe Me in the Water / Turn Back a Page / Ruby

>> DOYLE LAWSON & QUICKSILVER / Never Shall Run Dry / Sing Me a Song about Jesus / Mountain Home

>> IRIS DEMENT / The Shores of Jordan / My Life / Warner Brothers

>> GINNY HAWKER & TRACY SCHWARZ / Cool Down on the Banks of Jordan / Good Songs for Hard Times / Copper Creek

>> RICKY SKAGGS et al / River of Jordan / Family and Friends / Rounder

>> LAUREL CANYON RAMBLERS / Jordan / Rambler’s Blues / Sugar Hill

>> CATFISH KEITH / Cross the River of Jordan / A True Friend Is Hard To Find / Fish Tail

>> NASHVILLE BLUEGRASS BAND & FAIRFIELD FOUR / Roll Jordan Roll / Home of the Blues / Sugar Hill

>> TIM O’BRIEN et al / Out on the Rollin’ Sea / When No One’s Around / Sugar Hill

>> DOYLE LAWSON & QUICKSILVER / On the Sea of Life / Rock My Soul / Sugar Hill

>> DOC WATSON / Life Is Like a River / My Dear Old Southern Home / Sugar Hill

>> ODETTA w/ THE HOLMES BROTHERS / Down by the Riverside / Gonna Let It Shine / MC

>> ROBIN & LINDA WILLIAMS / Let Us Cross Over the River / Stonewall Country / Red House

Producer/Host, Ed McDonald and Associate Producer/Music Director, Karen McDonald

Tuning in to Sidetracks

By Christine Miller Ford, the Braille Monitor, March 2009

It’s likely that more West Virginians are now hearing Ed McDonald’s unique mix of contemporary acoustic music rooted in the traditions of folk, bluegrass, and blues. In recent weeks Sidetracks, the popular hour-long program that McDonald and his wife Karen have put together from their home in Keyser each week since 1998, is still airing on West Virginia Public Radio stations on Fridays, but now two hours earlier, at 9 p.m. McDonald said he hopes the change will pay off with a larger audience for the program. “A lot of times we hear from folks who say they really enjoy Sidetracks but don’t like staying up till 11 o’clock,” he said. “Audience surveys show the number of listeners tends to peak during drive time around 7 p.m. and then gradually taper off every hour after that. Being on early should mean more people listening.”

Each Sidetracks show centers on a theme, with McDonald in recent months organizing programs around the one hundredth anniversary of the Mother’s Day holiday, Father’s Day, the anniversary of West Virginia’s statehood, Independence Day, Labor Day, the arrival of fall, and other key dates. “Some themes are just a given as I look through the calendar,” said McDonald, who worked as a DJ in St. Albans near Charleston and other cities in West Virginia before pursuing a master’s degree in broadcasting at Ohio University, then returning to his native Keyser in the late 1980s. “Other times I’ll follow up on something that’s on the news or that strikes me as interesting.”

When the Wall Street meltdown hit the nation in late September, McDonald put together a show featuring songs about hard times. The thematic approach comes from the way the McDonalds organize their music collection. McDonald, who, like his wife, is blind, makes Braille labels and attaches them to the CDs as soon as they arrive in the mail. “We have thousands and thousands of CDs, so many that I’m honestly afraid to count them all,” said McDonald. “Karen writes up a card for every song that has potential for our show. Then, as I listen to the CDs, I put the cards into different envelopes. It might take a year or longer before I have enough song titles in an envelope to build a show around. When I need a theme, I’ll look through my envelopes and see what looks full enough to make a show out of.”

At any given time McDonald is working on dozens of themes. Some that he’s mulling over for coming months: songs about dogs, songs about wandering, the Civil War, and the two hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth in February. This week’s show is a Thanksgiving celebration. “We’re featuring songs about home–Thanksgiving being an occasion that often turns our thoughts toward home,” McDonald said. Next week Sidetracks starts the first in a series of shows centered on the holiday season.

Besides the West Virginia Public Radio stations around the state, where the program has been a fixture since the fall of 2003, Sidetracks is also heard on community and Internet stations as far away as New York, Missouri, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and elsewhere.

In part because both McDonalds are West Virginia natives, references to the Mountain State pop up regularly on Sidetracks, as do songs from Hazel Dickens, Kathy Mattea, Tim and Molly O’Brien, and other West Virginia musicians. “I make no apologies about the program being West Virginia-centric,” McDonald said. “When I think that maybe that’s not a good thing, I look at Garrison Keillor and his focus on Minnesota. That hasn’t hurt him. The truth is, the bulk of our listeners are here, and West Virginia artists have learned who we are and make sure that we get a copy of their latest work.”

Having ties to West Virginia, however, isn’t enough to land a musician on the program, McDonald said. “We don’t play anything from a West Virginia artist if it’s not up to our standards,” he said. “Karen makes sure of that.”

Karen McDonald, the show’s music director and associate producer, for years worked as the director of the Farmington Youth Experience community choir. She also plays the piano and other instruments. In addition to adding to the audience for Sidetracks in 2009, the McDonalds hope to establish a Website for the business and find underwriters for the program.

“Our focus for all these years has been on establishing a track record and building an audience, both with radio listeners and among musicians, and we’ve done those things,” he said. “Now we’re hoping to find businesses that are willing to invest in us. That’s our next big step.”

Friday nights at 8 pm, Sidetracks is a one-hour weekly program of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and related styles of contemporary acoustic music.

The Producer is Ed McDonald and the Associate Producer/Music Director is Karen McDonald.

Address: Sidetracks, c/o EIO Productions, 151 S. Mineral Street, Keyser WV 26726

Op-Ed Commentary: Pattern of Complaints Arises near Fracking

Duane Nichols — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:05:02 +0000

: Halliburton regulations “loopholes”

Pattern of complaints arises near fracking, by S. Thomas Bond

Charleston Gazette, Op-Ed, July 24, 2012: One of the most remarkable features of today’s news is the disparity between the shale gas drilling industry claims and the claims of people and organizations where they drill.

Drillers say no harm is done and great economic benefits result. Certainly, a vast building project is involved, the investment is in the billions, with money coming from all over the world. A map showing the shale areas of the United States where natural gas is believed to be recoverable is impressive. Politicians in some big shale states are ecstatic about what they have been told.

At the same time, newspapers and TV stations carry numerous accounts of complaints of injury by people who live in those areas when shale drilling takes place. No matter where it is done, it is the same constellation of damages. Most prominently these include destruction of aquifers, contamination of surface waters, and air pollution resulting in health claims.

There also are reports of road damage, sick and dead livestock, soil contamination. Property devaluation figures into these complaints too. The countryside where drilling occurs is abuzz with such stories.

The drilling industry has numerous public relations organizations to counter these claims. They will provide speakers for your meetings, articles to be published wherever possible, and “experts” on demand. Every company has one or more spokesmen primed to answer any question or negate any assertion.

Opposition to shale drilling has produced some 200 Internet sites in the United States and more in a dozen other countries, Canada foremost among them. The diversity of these sites is remarkable. Some want to preserve clean water, some emphasize clean air, some want to exercise political pressure by meetings, some focus on the compounds used in fracking, some on property damage, and a few are displays of aggrieved individuals. My personal favorite of the last category is Harry Boyd’s once-certified organic farm for ginseng in Ohio. Shale drilling has reduced it to an open toxic dump.

So, head to head, why is this? No one is calling anyone a liar — yet. A few days ago, a Wyoming state official took things to a new (low) level when he said, “I really believe greed is driving a lot of this … they’re just looking to get compensated.” Subsequently he offered an apology.

The Oil and Gas Journal has gone so far as to say, “It’s the allegation that drilling and completing wells in gas-bearing shales threaten subsurface supplies of drinking water. If not discredited, repeated falsehoods will coalesce into a political force able to stop the most promising development in generations for U.S. energy supply.”

On the other hand, there is a movement among investors with over a trillion dollars invested to have the industry use more responsible drilling methods.

Are the claims “falsehoods”? Numerous claims have been taken to court. When it looks like the company will lose, such as in the Hallowich case in Pennsylvania, the company settles, paying extra to have the claimants agree to refrain from discussing the terms or amount of the settlement. Some suits are lost.

The industry is stressed. The investment is more than most of us could understand. They picked up a raw technology, never passing through the “scaled up” stage. It went straight from a single proof of concept to full-scale application without the kind or research that should have been done to check for environmental problems. This would have involved testing water and air before drilling, during drilling and after to see what happened.

Since each well has a unique geological setting, this should have been done numerous times. What goes down the well in hydraulic fracturing is known to the petroleum engineers in charge, but to this day what comes back up in the way of drill cuttings and flowback is not public knowledge, and perhaps is not known to the petroleum engineers. The high temperatures and pressures below change solubility of many compounds.

The public health industry is vitally interested. Just as the “Halliburton loophole(s)” helps the industry avoid responsibility for clean air, water and creation of contaminated brownfields, new legislation in Pennsylvania and Ohio seeks to hamstring physicians in their relations with their patients and in interaction with other doctors. The shale drilling industry may just be its own worst enemy.

S. Thomas Bond, of Jane Lew in Lewis County WV, is a retired teacher and an inorganic chemist. He is a member of the Guardians of the West Fork and the Monongahela Area Watersheds Compact.

Green Legislative Update from WV Environmental Council

Duane Nichols — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:15:14 +0000

: WV Capitol on Kanawha River

WVEC Green Legislative Update

Since 1989 the West Virginia Environmental Council has been your voice for the environment at the Legislature. We not only speak for your interests at important Legislative Interim sessions, but we are also able to keep you apprised of what’s going on, alert you to meetings that might be important to attend and solicit your input on issues of importance before they reach the regular session. So please help us by sending a contribution today so we can continue to have a consistent “year-round” presence at the State Capitol.

To read the update online, click here or on article links below. If you want to view or print an exact copy of the printed newsletter, try the PDF version.

Links for anyone still using plain text email:
www.wvecouncil.org/legisupdate/2012/04_06.html
www.wvecouncil.org/legisupdate/2012/04_06.pdf

We thank you for your continued support.

Donald S. Garvin, Jr.
WVEC Legislative Coordinator

Don Alexander
WVEC E-mail List Coordinator

Drilling Hazards and Homes: How Close is too Close?

Nicole Good — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:44:37 +0000

As draft legislation to regulate horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in West Virginia is making progress in committee, WV SORO takes up dispute with one particular amendment that has not been proposed yet: the buffer between a home and a well pad. As the draft legislation stands, a rig could be set up 200 feet (or less, possibly) from a private structure, including a home. Julie Archer of WV SORO says this is unacceptable, and wants the buffer to be at least 1,000 feet. While this distance may protect inhabitants’ safety, it still doesn’t protect property value.

The most common complaint of those living in close proximity to a rig is the light and noise, but accidents, explosions, and air pollution are also concerns. Pro-Publica published an article late last week covering the lack of comprehensive studies to track air quality and health complications from persons living in close proximity to shale gas operations.

Environment/Public Health Advocates Find Flaws in NY Regulatory Plan

Dee Fulton — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:46:41 +0000

On June 30, 2011, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced the release of preliminary revised regulations on hydraulic fracturing. I was initially impressed with the scope and depth of the regulation, particularly since the regulations included banning fracking on public lands and air pollution regulations.

However, the New York Water Rangers Campaign, a collection of seven public health/environmental advocate groups, issued a press release that itemizes what the groups have collectively prioritized as the Top Ten Fracking Flaws in the preliminary revised regulations. Below is an abbreviated version of the list.

1. New York State isn’t proposing to ban any chemicals, even those known to be toxic and carcinogenic.
2. The preliminary draft allows drilling waste to escape treatment as hazardous waste, even if it is in fact hazardous under the law. This means fracking waste could be sent to treatment facilities unable to properly treat it, putting the health and safety of our waters and communities at grave risk.
3. The state proposes allowing sewage plants to treat drilling wastes.
4. Drinking water supplies would be inadequately protected. The preliminary draft increases buffers and setbacks from aquifers and wells. However the protections are inconsistent and can be waived in some instances.
5. Some fracking restrictions would have sunset dates.
6. The preliminary draft does not analyze public health impacts, despite the fact that fracking-related air pollution and the potential for water contamination have serious effects on people—especially the elderly and children, and communities downwind and downstream of proposed fracking operations. There is growing evidence of negative health impacts related to gas extraction in other states.
7. The DEC proposes issuing permits before formal rulemaking is complete, a backward move that leaves New York’s waters and communities at risk.
8. The state is breaking up environmental impact reviews. The thousands of miles of pipelines or compressor stations required for drilling to get the resulting gas to market will be reviewed by a different agency under a different process.
9. While proposing to put the New York City and Syracuse watersheds off- limits to drilling, critical water supply infrastructure would not be protected. The state proposes…….(an inadequate)….. buffer around New York City drinking water infrastructure in which only an additional review would be required and upon which projects could be permitted—not a formal ban.
10. New York’s environmental agency has been subject to steep budget and staff cuts and does not have adequate staff or resources to properly oversee fracking, even if every possible protection were in place.

“Without providing the necessary measures that will prevent pollution from drilling and fracking, New York’s communities and environment will suffer like Pennsylvania’s,where drilling is running wild. On the whole, the revised Draft doesn’t cure the ills of gas development that are the most dangerous so the industry’s interests will win out over public health,” said Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

A press release by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation summarizes the preliminary changes. The recommendations contain these major revisions:

High-volume fracturing would be prohibited in the New York City and Syracuse watersheds, including a buffer zone;
Drilling would be prohibited within primary aquifers and within 500 feet of their boundaries;
Surface drilling would be prohibited on state-owned land including parks, forest areas and wildlife management areas;
High-volume fracturing will be permitted on privately held lands under rigorous and effective controls; and
DEC will issue regulations to codify these recommendations into state law.

The complete revised draft is expected to be released for public comment and review in August. The groups are strongly requesting the DEC to expand public comment period from 60 days, one month less than the public comment period for the first draft of the SGEIS, to at least 180 days.

The full 1,095 page Preliminary Revised Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement is available here.

Award-Winning ‘Gasland’ Documentary Coming to Morgantown

admin — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 16:17:16 +0000

The award-winning documentary “Gasland” will be shown free to the public on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 6:30pm in the WVU College of Law Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom (directions), Morgantown, W.Va. The screening will be followed by a live Skype Q&A session with filmmaker Josh Fox. Beginning at 5pm there will be a public reception and information tables to browse before the film begins.

The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudi Arabia of natural gas” beneath most of West Virginia. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets and surprises, including contamination and unanticipated health risks. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.

Fracking has come to West Virginia, and if you own land, drink water, or breathe air, it’s time to learn how fracking could impact your community. Come see the film, so you can take informed action before it is too late.

Student and citizen groups who want to reserve an information table in the lobby, please contact Kurt Doiron at kurtdoiron(at)gmail(dot)com. Other questions may be directed to Deb Fulton at dfvet(at)aol(dot)com or (304) 864-0044.

The event is sponsored in part by the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club and the WVU College of Law’s Environmental Law Society.

FrackCheckWV Site Launched

admin — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:46:39 +0000

Thanks for visiting FrackCheckWV, designed to inform, connect and mobilize the public so Marcellus Shale gas drilling activities are conducted responsibly throughout West Virginia.

You can sign up for e-mail notifications whenever the FrackCheckWV site is updated (see form at left). For those that use Twitter and Facebook, connect with us at:

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Over the coming weeks, we’ll be working to generate awareness of the site and appreciate any assistance you can lend in spreading the message.

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