Radio Archaeology
By Peter Aaron

So you’re stuck driving solo around the Hudson Valley early one Saturday evening with a busted CD player. Uh-oh. Got satellite radio? Yeah, we can’t quite justify that expense yet, either. This means you have only local radio to keep you company. You poor thing.

Turn it on and �ip around, try to �nd something listenable. NPR? Great, but most of the time they don’t play music. Christina/ Britney/Jessica/Gwen? Not if you’re old enough to drive to the mall by yourself. How about the same damn classic rock you grew up with and still get blasted with over and over again? Didn’t think so. But what else is there? Easy listening? Mewling brown-suede singer-songwriters? Mindless jam-band noodling? Hey, we’re trying to stay awake here. Those soft-voiced soul-savers on the religious stations, the ones that sound like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey? Um, no thanks. Keep spinning that dial, getting into the upper 90’s...

Wait, what’s that? Some kinda crazy rockabilly tune. Hey, that’s Charlie Feathers! No way—on the radio?! Next up: Sixties Jamaican ska from Alton Ellis. Raw blues from Howlin’ Wolf. Unr eal. And ther e’s mor e: Vintage French yeh-yeh pop from Francoise Hardy. New Orleans R&B from Professor Longhair. Prewar string-band country from the Carter Family. 1930s calypso. 1940s bebop. 1920s hot jazz. Old-time gospel. African and Middle Eastern sounds. What kind of amazing godsend program is this? Pull over and pinch yourself, music lover—you’ve hit pay dirt: It’s WKZE’s “Radio Archaeology.”

Hosted by DJ, musician, and insatiable record fanatic Raissa St. Pierre, “Radio Archaeology” has been heard at 98.1 WKZE every Saturday from 5 to 7pm since May 2004. And it’s safe to say there’s really nothing else like it on the regional dial.

“Most of what I play is stuff I �nd myself, digging around at the �ea market or a yard sale up the street,” says St. Pierre. “If it’s a record with a cover that looks cool or interesting, or if it has a fun-sounding title, I’ll pretty much always pick it up. I like to take chances; that’s how you come across the really interesting stuff. One good thing usually leads to another.”

Which is certainly the perfect metaphor for the music-—and music history-dominated course that makes up St. Pierre’s intriguing backstory. She grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts—“the hometown of (boxer) Rocky Marciano”—and fell under the spell of her father’s � rst-rate jazz LP collection early on, discovering artists like Milt Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ray Charles when most kids her age were jumping up and down on their beds to Tubby the Tuba and The Banana Splits. In the fourth grade she took up the drums, playing � rst in the school marching band and later in a couple of high school rock groups with her bassist brother.

In the mid Eighties, St. Pierre majored in anthropology at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, where she became interested in improvised music, eventually making it the subject of her thesis. At Bard she also performed in dub/reggae band 6-6-12 (which cut a demo produced by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch,) and got involved in promoting jazz concerts on campus. She lived in Boston for a year, attending Berklee College of Music, working for roots music label Rounder Records, and playing live with local improvisers. In 1988, after visiting Nicaragua and recording folk music in India, St. Pierre made the requisite move to New York, where she became heavily involved in the Downtown creative music scene, playing venues like ABC No Rio and P.S. 122 with Elliot Sharp, Zeena Parkins, Chris Cochrane and other luminaries. Curiously, the city is also where her love of country music began.

“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.)

But whatever the formula is, it seems to be working, as “Radio Archaeology” is consistently cited by discriminating and casual music fans alike as a beloved local program. “Raissa’s show moves with grace and �nesse through 80-plus years of recorded music,” says Kingston singer-songwriter Mark Brown, who fronts the band Uncle Buckle. “She dusts off all of this great old vinyl and just brings it to life. The way she puts it all together really lets you hear it for the treasure it is.” And for St. Pierre the hunt for such treasure is one that never ends. “I was in a record store a little while ago, looking for something by [French pop auteur] Serge Gainsbourg, and someone I met there said, ‘Oh, if you’re into Gainsbourg, you gotta check out [yeh-yeh singer] Jacques Dutronc.’ So that’s how I found out about him, ” she says. “I love it when stuff like that happens!”