Radio
Archaeology
By Peter Aaron
...“I
happened to catch this country band called Courtney & Western
and I thought their singer was great,” she recalls. “So
told her to call me if they needed a drummer—and they did.
I played with them for a while and got exposed to all of the stuff
they were into. So I guess I had to move to New York to € nd country
music!”
But
by 1992 St. Pierre had had her €ll of the Big Apple and moved back
to the Hudson Valley. She took a job with world music label Original
Music and played in avant-rock band Wormwood, children’s music
out€t Dog on Fleas, and other groups. Her trajectory landed her
back at her alma mater in 1999, where she became the associate director
of the Bard Music Festival program and organized the now-defunct
Jazz at Bard series. The following year she began her on-air career
at Radio Woodstock, WDST’s online station, before jumping
to Bard’s WXBC to start “Radio Archaeology.” In
2004, however, she joined the KZE team, bringing the program to
the station’s roster.
“Raissa’s
show is a huge asset for the station,” says Stuart Hall, who
hosts WKZE’s “Up and Running,” which airs weekdays
from 6 to 10 AM. “It really €lls a gap for listeners who like
eclectic music. Hardcore music heads, like me, love it because they
learn something new every week.”
Yet
despite her show’s deep musicological appeal and her own interest
in headier styles (recently she studied under free jazz drum queen
Susie Ibarra,) St. Pierre doesn’t play a lot of avantgarde
material on “Radio Archaeology.” “Once in a while
I do play something that’s pretty ‘out,’”
she says. “But most of the time I try to keep it on the up-beat,
‘entertaining’ side. I € gure I can turn more people
on to more different kinds of stuff that way.” And although
“Radio Archaeology” features mostly older music, St.
Pierre occasionally complements the mix with tracks by contemporary
artists (Rufus Wainwright is a favorite.) CONTINUE...
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