Farnsworth Rocks Budget Tapes and Records on RFC 170, plus Weirdness and Meet Ginger From The Stock Car Musical

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Radio Free Charleston 170, "Regular Show Shirt," is a valentine to Budget Tapes and Records, the legendary music and lifestyle emporium that is celebrating forty years of serving area music fans from their Kanawha City location. Our host segments originate from Budget, and we even have two songs by Farnsworth, recorded on location at the release party for their new EP at Budget.

RFC 170 also brings viewers a song from the Contemporary Youth Arts Company production of the Dan Kehde/Mark Scarpelli original, "The Legend of Ginger and Billy Joe: The Stock Car Musical," as well as animation and a found film compilation by Frank Panucci.



Our show's title shirt this week features the cast of "Regular Show," the Cartoon Network Emmy-winning smash hit that just began its fourth season. We've been big fans of the show for some time, and didn't just choose this shirt in a cynical attempt to boost our hit counts on YouTube.

Budget Tapes and Records is an institution in Charleston, and is still going strong in the face of internet competition. Part of the credit for that is due to the service. In fact, true to form, when we were there to shoot our host segments, John Nelson hooked Melanie up with the brand-new Heart album. Back in our radio days we were proud to have Budget as sponsors, and it wa a real treat for us to finally have them on the video incarnation of the show.

[caption id="attachment_9274" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Farnsowrth at Budget[/caption]

It was a real kick recording Farnsworth at Budget. While I've know Chris Vance and Jason Reese for years, I hadn't recorded Farnsworth before. Also, we'd never recorded at Budget. Chris has been on RFC as part of Eva Elution (debuting back on episode 100) and Jason has been on the show with The Synergy Collective and Universes.

Farnsworth has a terrific new EP on sale at Budget and at their live gigs. "I'll Tell You When I've Had Enough" is a four-song gem, produced by Bud Carroll at Trackside Studios in Barboursville. We bring you two songs from the EP, "Let's Play Nice," and "Everything Must Go."

[caption id="attachment_9276" align="aligncenter" width="500"] A scene from "The Legend of Ginger and Billy Joe: The Stock Car musical"[/caption]

It was also a kick bringing our cameras into the final dress rehearsal for "The Legend of Ginger and Billy Joe: The Stock Car Musical." We didn't really know what to expect from this Contemporary Youth Arts Company production, but we were treated to a hilarious musical poke at redneck culture. Mark Scarpelli's music was appropriately corn-pone, but still catchy as hell. Dan Kehde, who is often known for his dark, brooding pieces, has unleashed his sense of humor with some of the funniest lyrics ever presented on the stage.

Our clip features Donnie Smith and Maddy Gourevich, but the show is packed with talent, not the least of which is Travis Stephens as Billy Joe. Maddy plays Ginger, the thrice-divorced single mother of three, who just turned twenty-one. Donnie is a sort of one-man Greek chorus, narrating and playing Mandolin. It's a great show and I hope loads of people come out to see the remaining performances, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 PM, at the WVSU Capitol Center Theater.

This episode of RFC also includes "LAX 2011: Capsules" and "Let Us Prelinger," both by Frank Panucci. We're hard at work pestering Frank to give us more stuff to use on the show in the coming weeks. So consider yourself warned.

That's it for the behind-the-scenes dirt on RFC 170. In two weeks Radio Free Charleston will return with the first of two Halloween specials. On October 15 we will bring you a "best of Halloween" compilation. One week later you will be treated to a brand-new Halloween episode recorded at last weekend's Shocka Con, with music from The Tom McGees, The Nanker Phelge, The Renfields and tons more stuff recorded at Shocka Con.