While many Vineyarders may be unfamiliar with radio station WUMB, the UMass Boston–based noncommercial station has a dedicated following on the Island, including 200 donor supporters.
On Saturday, Oct. 10, in an effort to raise awareness, and also to thank their devoted Island members and listeners, WUMB will be hosting two free events at the Loft in Oak Bluffs, beginning with a local singer-songwriter showcase followed by an evening concert later.
Headlining the evening show will be a performer very well known to Islanders — hometown hero Willy Mason, who has only just returned from an Australian tour of a show celebrating the work of Jeff and Tim Buckley. Mason continually travels all over the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere, performing his unique brand of contemporary folk music. Among those whom Mason has performed or recorded with are Mumford and Sons and the Chemical Brothers.
Two New England–based singer-songwriters will fill out the bill. Ian Fitzgerald has released four albums of original songs and has toured solo up and down the East Coast and throughout the Midwest. A festival favorite, Mr. Fitzgerald has performed at the Newport Folk Festival, the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and the Brown University Folk Festival, as well as venues such as Club Passim in Cambridge and Infinity Music Hall in Connecticut. The Noise magazine says, “Fitzgerald has a knack for an evocative melody.The lyrics are often transcendent, as on ‘Walks Like Tussaud,’ which is evocative of Leonard Cohen. Fitzgerald is a talent to be reckoned with.”
Krista Barone has released two albums of original folk music. She cites 1960s and ’70s songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, and Cat Stevens among her influences. In a review of her most recent recording, “Alabaster Girl,” the Worcester Telegram & Gazette said, “When I tell you this album is beautiful I mean that each note evokes a wistfulness in me I can barely understand.”
All three musicians are WUMB favorites who have performed live in the station’s studios.
During the day, WUMB will host a singer-songwriter’s showcase featuring some of the homegrown talent the Vineyard is well known for. While the lineup is still under development, some of those scheduled to perform include Marciana Jones, Emily Diamond, Jemima James, Alex Karalekas, and Michele Jones.
Michele Jones is the matriarch of the musically talented family whose members include her daughters Nina Violet, Marciana Jones, and May Oskin — all of whom have made names for themselves both here on the Vineyard and beyond, along with son George. Marciana Jones also recently married Willy Mason, and the two often perform together.
According to Jim Melkin, who helped organize the upcoming Vineyard shows, “Michele Jones has backed up and played behind virtually everyone you’ve heard of.”
Ms. Jones has been playing music since she was 7 years old, and teaching since she was 17. In her early teens the singer-songwriter performed at clubs in Greenwich Village with various folk singers. She teaches singing, songwriting, guitar, and other instruments: “I try to be a really thorough teacher to people who come to me for lessons. I teach in the classical style.” Mr. Melkin, who lives in Chilmark, is among her local students.
Ms. Jones is not only an accomplished musician, she is also a strong believer in the idea of artists supporting causes. “One of the things that is really important to me right now is that musicians start speaking out about the issues that are tearing us apart, including war and gun control,” she says. “My current writing is expressive of my overall feeling about various issues. I believe that artists can institute change. I really feel that music helped bring an end to the Vietnam War. It brought us all together.”
Ms. Jones believes that supporting noncommercial radio is another way that musicians can help make a difference. “Part of the issue is to have public radio and free speech,” she says. “It’s important to have listener-supported radio for that reason.”
Mr. Melkin is also an advocate of public radio. “I’ve been supporting WUMB for many years,” he says. “They feature a lot of singer-songwriters from the New England area as well as from around the U.S. and other countries. It’s new music and a mix of older music: jazz, blues, folk, and acoustic programming. It’s not commercial, so there’s not the same playlist as there is on commercial or corporate stations.”
Ms. Jones is happy to have been tapped, along with Mr. Mason, Mr. Melkin, and Linda Dewitt, to help recruit local musicians for the showcase in an effort to help WUMB radio reach more new listeners on the Vineyard.
According to the WUMB website, “The radio station is committed to serving as a local and national resource for the cultivation, promotion and preservation of various genres of folk music through its radio programming and selected enterprises.” Their range of music is described as “largely a mix including singer-songwriter, blues, Celtic, Americana, bluegrass and more. Weekends, the station is a cultural center for traditional folk and Celtic music, as well as blues, and world music.”
WUMB traces its roots to the late 1960s when a group of UMass Boston students began a 14-year campaign to get the station on the air. When WUMB finally went live in 1982, it was the last station in the Metro-Boston area to be granted an FM license from the Federal Communications Commission. Currently WUMB is a public radio affiliate of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), with its studios at UMass Boston Campus as the central hub for a network of seven public radio stations in Boston, Worcester, Falmouth, Newburyport, Stow, Marshfield, and Orleans, Mass., and one in Milford, N.H. On the Vineyard listeners can tune in to the Falmouth station, 91.9 FM.
One of the station’s initiatives is to give back to its supporters by hosting special events.
“We do member concerts almost on a monthly basis in and around Boston,” says general manager Patty Domeniconi. “We’ve never done anything on Martha’s Vineyard before, and we have quite a few donors. A group of people on the Island contacted me about doing something for our members there, particularly for people who reside on the Island year-round. Hopefully we’ll have an annual concert on the Vineyard.”
Generally the WUMB-sponsored concerts are free for their members only, but for the Vineyard community they have made an exception. The free show will be preceded by a members-only reception. “For this one we decided to do a special VIP reception for the members,” and “we wanted to do the show free and open to the public,” says Ms. Domeniconi.
WUMB Free Concerts, Saturday, Oct. 10, Loft, 9 Oak Bluffs Avenue, Oak Bluffs. Local Singer-Songwriter Showcase 1–3 pm; Willy Mason, Krista Baroni, and Ian Fitzgerald 7–10 pm. Members-only reception at 6 pm. All events free. For additional information, contact Jim Melkin at Jimmalkin@gmail.com or call 917-328-1987.