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WBHM Interviews

November 8, 2007:

• Bestselling author Robert McCammon talks about The Queen of Bedlam
• Tracking the history of club DJing
• Storyteller Tom Brosseau uses music to tell his tales.
• Community Calendar
• Music from guitarist Holguer Pimiento and Los Broken Corazones

Ever wonder what the Big Apple was like before it was, well, big? Get a glimpse of the small Dutch settlement town that would grow into New York in the pages of The Queen of Bedlam, the latest novel from Birmingham's Robert McCammon. The award-winning author of Boys Life, Swan Song and a dozen other books takes us to the turn of the 18th century where we encounter young law clerk Matthew Corbett who is following the trail of blood left by a serial killer dubbed by a local broadsheet as The Masker. McCammon stopped writing back in the '90s but picked up his pen again to create a detective series set in pre-revolutionary America. I asked him where the idea came from.

Robert McCammon interview

Robert McCammon's latest novel is The Queen of Bedlam, the sequel to his 2002 book Speaks the Night Bird. McCammon will discuss the book at a benefit for the Literacy Council of Alabama Wednesday, November 14th.

Back in the day, club DJs selected songs from albums and played them while crowds jammed the dance floor, grooving to the newest tracks. Then in the eighties, technology allowed the DJs to fade or dissolve songs in and out of one another. Now there's another sound revolution. Terms like 'albums', 'faders', and 'turntables', have been replaced with 'old school vinyl', 'MP3s' and 'time-controlled CDs'. Les Lovoy reports on how the world of digital technology has changed the artistry of club DJing, and saved a lot of backaches.

DJing and technology

North Dakotan Tom Brosseau uses music to tell stories. His songs of lost love and his hometown, Grand Forks, caught the attention of Nickel Creek mandolinist Chris Thile. Thile released an album titled How to Grow a Woman From the Ground - that's the Brosseau song Thile covers on the record. Brosseau's most recent CD, Grand Forks, includes stories about the northbound Red River and the disaster that shook the city.

Tom Brosseau interview

Tom Brosseau opens for Nickel Creek at the Alabama Theatre Sunday night.

To hear the audio portion of the Community Calendar from Tapestry, click here.

Want to know more? Activeculture.info is a one-stop source for finding out what's going on in the Birmingham metro area.

Translated to English, Los Broken Corazones means The Broken Hearts. Not a bad name for a couple of guys playing and singing romantic ballads, right? But Holguer Pimiento and Greg Hendrick have more beats up their sleeves than just that broken heart will allow. They move with a Latin rhythm that includes the Brazilian cha cha cha, which we'll hear in just a moment, and sambas, mambos and bossa novas. We invited Pimiento and Hendrick to the Tapestry studio to share their music. This is El Bodaguero. (AUDIO MONTAGE) Los Broken Corazones perform Thursday nights at The Cuban Grill and Saturday nights at Chez Lulu in English Village, Mountain Brook.

Tapestry is produced by Tanya Ott and Michael Krall. Additional reporting this week from Les Lovoy and production help from Hunter Bell, Steve Chiotakis and Davis Haines. Islara Vazquez tracks community events. Next week on Tapestry - behind the scenes in Pompeii. I'm Greg Bass, and we'll see you next week.