Friday , March 29 2024
This week's show included music, sex, and an unexpected guest.

BC Radio Live Welcomes Author Mary Roach, Singer/Songwriter Caroline Herring, Entertainer Michael Matone, and An Unexpected Guest from Meat Beat Manifesto

BC Radio Live is the flagship program of the BC Magazine station on BlogTalkRadio. It's hosted by Phillip Winn, Eric Olsen, and Lisa McKay and airs weekly on Wednesday evenings at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Shows are archived and available for streaming or download after the live broadcast. Our guests on April 9 were entertainer Michael Matone, author Mary Roach, Meat Beat Manifesto, and singer/songwriter Caroline Herring.

New York native Michael Matone has made a name for himself as an entertainer who brings a Sinatra-style vibe to his music. A behavioral scientist by virtue of his professional training, Matone's lifelong love of music has led him to a second career as an entertainer who's in big demand at a variety of venues, from glitzy casinos to trade shows and private functions. Currently based in south Florida, Matone is a purveyor of smooth jazz with a "Rat Pack" sensibility. Although his website describes him as a Frank Sinatra impersonator, Matone told BC Radio that he's not so much an impersonator as he is a tribute artist. Audiences don't care so much about impersonations, said Matone, "as long as you can carry the music in the quality that people want … it's the music that's great." Judging from the demand for his talents, Matone is delivering on that front.

You can learn more about Michael Matone by visiting his website and you can hear some clips of Michael singing on our archived show.

Writer Mary Roach can, by means of a wry sense of humor and a talent for thorough research, turn the most off-putting topics into engrossing and entertaining books. Her first two books, Stiff and Spook, were both New York Times bestsellers and dealt, respectively, with death (in all its gooey aspects) and the afterlife. Her current book, titled Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, brings readers into the world of the researchers who study the physiology of sex. Because her dedication knows no bounds, Roach and her husband volunteered to take part in said research, in which a scientist utilizing 4-D ultrasound recorded them having sex. BC Radio asked about that experience, and Roach responded with characteristic humor. "There's a guy standing four inches away holding an ultrasound wand to my belly… and I'm taking notes the whole time; Ed's the one who has the burden of performance," related Roach when asked about the experience. Will there ever be a female version of Viagra? What's the most unusual fact that Roach uncovered while researching the book? Listen to the broadcast to find out.

Roach was born in New Hampshire and is currently based in San Francisco, where she spends most of her time writing books and churning out the occasional magazine article. She's currently embarking on a book tour in support of Bonk, and you can learn more about her (and the book tour) at her website.

Meat Beat Manifesto, pioneers of electronica, are currently embarking on a tour to support their new album, Autoimmune. BC Radio was scheduled to talk to founding band member Jack Dangers, but since live radio is nothing if not a real-time response to real-life situations, we ended up speaking to MBM's tour manager Drew instead as technical issues that arose during sound check prevented Dangers from joining us. Because the show must go on, Drew talked with us about the life of a tour manager, which is a logistical task of mammoth proportions. This is his first tour with Meat Beat Manifesto and he's not yet seen the live show, but he's previously managed tours for a lot of other bands and talked about some of the hip-hop artists he's had the pleasure of working with. BC Radio hopes to speak to Jack Dangers himself when everyone's schedules permit, and we'll keep you apprised of the details.

The Autoimmune tour kicked off in Seattle last night, and Drew described it as a multimedia event. You can learn more about the band, the new album, and find tour dates at Meat Beat Manifesto's official website.

 
Lantana
is singer/songwriter Caroline Herring's third album. The Mississippi-born artist currently resides in Austin, Texas with her family (she took some time off from her career to have two children) and she talked with BC Radio about the ways in which motherhood and family life have informed her recent work. Her rich alto voice and thoughtful compositions work together to make Lantana a tapestry woven from a distinctly female fabric. She shared with BC Radio the insight that pregnancy hormones had a beneficial effect on her voice as she worked on the album. Currently touring in support of Lantana, Herring is headed to the Netherlands and Belgium in June and then will return to the United States. Her organic approach to songwriting is best exemplified when she talks about the process by which she tried to understand the mind of Susan Smith (the mother who was convicted of killing her two children) in order to write the song "Paper Gown". She talked with us about the difficulties of combining motherhood with a musical career that involves touring, and let us in on which tunes on the album are her personal favorites.

Visit Caroline Herring's official website for more information about the new album and for a schedule of tour dates.

About Lisa McKay

Check Also

Book Review: ‘A Pocketful of Happiness’ by Richard E. Grant

Richard E. Grant details how his wife, Joan Washington, lived her final months and inspired him to find a pocketful of happiness in each day.