New Horizons
with William Dart
Sundays at 7:00 pm
Series Three 2008
5 October to 21 December (12 programmes)
21 December 2008
William Dart's basement has been virtually ransacked to find special seasonal treats for the last New Horizons programme of 2008. As might be expected, there are quite a few encounters with the big man in red, including a 1955 classic from a laughing Santa and his merry helpers. The old familiar tune of Jingle Bells is crooned by John "Bowtie" Barstow and turns up in other unexpected places but . . . . other themes emerge . . . . Christmas trees sprout up in songs by Holly Cole, Gracie Fields, Y'all and the amatory potential of the season is commented upon by Aretha Franklin, Kay Martin & her Bodyguards and Rod McKuen. People do funny things at this time of year and Johnny Cash expresses some dark, dark thoughts about a perennial Christmas favourite while swing chicks from the 40s take out their carol books. Stir in a Sufjan Stevens beauty, Roy Zimmerman taking us to the Islands in Hula Yule and a Yuletide tribute to the late Isaac Hayes and . . . you have another New Horizons Christmas!
14 December
Second-last programme of the year - it's wrap-up time and we have tracks from Ben's Brother, Old Crow Medicine Show, Blanche, Eric Matthews, Al Kooper, Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield, Polad Bool-Bool Ogly, Vashti Bunyan, Aidan Smith, Madonna, Tom Jones, Tim Finn and Mavis Staples. Now, only William Dart could come up with that line-up.
7 December
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely (Warners)
The Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder (Yep Roc)
Danny Cohen - Shades of Dorian Gray (Anti)
Inara George with Van Dyke Parks - An Invitation (Everloving)
Listen out for a handful of other tracks from Danny Cohen, The Bird and the Bee and Lily Allen as well as part of one of "somniloquist" Dion McGregor's narrated dreams taken from the album 'Dion McGregor Dreams Again' (Tzadic).
30 November
Featured albums:
Barry Saunders - Zodiac (Mana Music)
The Mamaku Project - Mal de terre (self-released)
Pacific Curls - Pacifi Celta (self-released)
L A Mitchell - Live at the Matterhorn (Honesty Box Records)
William opens cryptically with Jonathan King's A Modest Proposal. He plays two tracks from NZ on Air's latest Kiwi Hit Disc: Dave Dobbyn's Only Love Remains and Luke Thompson's Look the Other Way. Also there's a special feature for 1950s Auckland jazz singer Marlene Tong and the programme winds up with Nina Simone's cover of the Daryl Hall song Rich Girl off her 'Baltimore' album.
23 November
William looks at the career of Lucinda Williams. He includes tracks from her self-titled first album (Koch), 'Happy Woman Blues' (Smithsonian), 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (Mercury), 'Essence' (Lost Highway), 'World Without Tears' (Lost Highway), and 'West' (Lost Highway) as well as sampling her version of Nick Drake's Which Will (a B-side to her 1992 single Six Blocks Away), her contributions to tribute albums to Victoria Williams and Mississippi John Hurt and her collaborations with John Prine and P F Sloan. Phew! And then we get to three beautiful tracks from her recent release 'Little Honey' (Lost Highway).
16 November
Featured albums:
Randy Newman - Harps and Angels (Nonesuch)
Patricia Barber - The Cole Porter Mix (Blue Note)
Also played: Living Without You from Newman's eponymous first album (Reprise), his solo versions of Sail Away and The World isn't Fair from 'The Randy Newman Songbook Vol 1' (Nonesuch), and Cole Porter himself singing Just a Gigolo and You're The Top taken from an ASV collection, 'The Song is... Cole Porter'.
9 November
New Horizons has fuzzy borders and today's programme blurs them even further as William steps into the world of Broadway musical and looks at the works of William Finn: In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland, A New Brain, Elegies and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This, of course, to mark the opening of Auckland Theatre Company's production of Spelling Bee this week.
2 November
A kete of local releases:
Charlotte Yates - Beggar's Choice (Jayrem)
The Ponsonby DCs - That's What All the Girls Say! (self-released)
Dr Glam - Glitter Spreader (Ode)
White Swan Black Swan - self-titled double mini album (Arch Hill)
and Monkey Records's latest compilation 'Monkey Magic Vol II'. William features tracks from Renee-Louise Carafice, The Mamaku Project and Sleepytime.
26 October
Featured discs:
Jolie Holland - 'The Living and the Dead' (Anti)
Jenny Lewis - 'Acid Tongue' (Rough Trade)
and 'No Man's Woman' - an Australian-released compilation in tribute to female singers and songwriters with the songs performed by male artists (Universal): Angus Stone sings Joni Mitchell, Josh Pyke wuthers Kate Bush, Paul Kelly handles P J Harvey and Tex Perkins channels Helen Reddy.
19 October
Seattle's Sub Pop label - it's 20 years old! It's associated in most minds with the grunge of Nirvana and Mudhoney but has been slowly expanding and redefining itself. In this programme, William looks at new releases from Fleet Foxes and Flight of the Conchords and plays three tracks from Mojo Magazine's compilation 'Sub Pop 300!' featuring Eric Matthews, The Shins and The Postal Service.
12 October
Featured album:
Teddy Thompson - A Piece of What You Need (Verve Forecast)
William takes a look at two of Thompson's previous albums - his eponymous debut (Virgin) and 'Separate Ways' (Verve Forecast) - as well as his contributions to his mother Linda Thompson's CD 'Fashionably Late' (Rounder) and the soundtrack albums of the 1998 remake of 'Psycho' (Geffen) and 'Brokeback Mountain' (Verve Forecast).
5 October
Back in 2005, William featured Ry Cooder's album-story, 'Chávez Ravine', about a community of Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles evicted ultimately so that Dodger Stadium could be built.
Then last year, 'My Name is Buddy' told the story of Buddy Red Cat and his friends travelling through the dustbowl States of yesteryear.
The third release in this trilogy (all three are on Nonesuch Records) is 'I, Flathead' which comes accompanied by a novella written by Cooder himself and concerns itself with a bunch of characters in the salt-flat country of California.
The Team
Presented by
William Dart
Produced by Tim Dodd
Email us newhorizons@radionz.co.nz
About New Horizons
William Dart hosts an hour of rock, pop, country or folk music; each programme focusing on a new release or two and placing these in the context of an artist's career to date. His encyclopaedic knowledge and gargantuan record collection allow him to find hidden gems and surprising links. With plenty of humour along the way, William gives a serious treatment to these vital forms of music.
Schedule
New Horizons will have three series in 2012.
Series One: 4 March - 6 May (9 programmes - no programme on 18 March)
Series Two: 3 June - 12 August (11 programmes)
Series Three: To be confirmed (10 programmes)
Plus a Christmas special probably on 23 December.
When a series is running, the programme plays on Sundays at 7.00pm, on Radio New Zealand Concert.
Podcasts?
Each New Horizons programme will be available as audio on demand for two weeks following the date of broadcast.
William Dart's Track Record
New Horizons has been on air for over thirty years. Its first broadcast in April 1980 was heralded by a cover on the New Zealand Listener. The albums featured on that cover - albums by Ry Cooder, XTC, The Kinks and Ray Davies, Sparks, Randy Newman, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello and Jonathan Richman - were chosen by William. The artists have mostly continued to have flourishing careers and have been featured many times on the programme over the years. It just goes to show that William knows how to pick'em.