On-Air Hosts: Jonny Meister

On-Air Host for Blues & Beyond and The Blues Show

Top Ten Things about Jonny Meister

Born:

Yes, I was.

First Records Purchased

Elvis Presley - Elvis's Gold Records, Chubby Checker - Twist With Chubby Checker, Rick Nelson's Rick Is 21 all at the same time.

First Cassette Owned

Jefferson Airplane - The Worst Of The Jefferson Airplane and James Taylor (self-titled).

First Concert

Probably Dave Clark Five circa 1965. I saw an early Supremes concert. I got my dad to take me, and we were the only white people there. The show was amazing.

Favorite Bands/Artists

Blind Lemon Jefferson, J. B. Lenoir, James Taylor, Jefferson Airplane, John Coltrane, Eddie "One-String" Jones, Blind Blake, Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, Meade "Lux" Lewis, Dolly Parton, Dory Previn, Merle Haggard, John Lee Hooker, Martin Carthy, June Tabor, Skip James, Linda Waterfall, Bert Jansch, Pentangle, Steeleye Span, Michael Hedges, Joy Of Cooking, Melt Banana, gosh, many others.

Favorite Local Bands/Artists

Lonnie Shields, June Evans, Dukes Of Destiny, LeRoy Foster

Favorite Movie and/or Book

My favorite writings are mostly poems. Dylan Thomas - "Fern Hill," "Poem In October," and "A Refusal To Mourn." John Donne - "The Good Morrow," "Death Be Not Proud". e. e. cummings - "a wind has blown the rain away," "Thy fingers make early flowers of all things," "since feeling is first." Sir Thomas Wyatt - "They Flee From Me". William Wordsworth - "The World Is Too Much With Us". Robert Burns - "To A Mouse," Christopher Marlowe, Michael Drayton, Emily Dickinson, William Blake, Masaoka Shiki.... and many others. King Of Hearts is a favorite film of mine, but mostly I gravitate towards documentaries and nonfiction books. The Imperial Animal by two guys named Robin Tiger and Lionel Fox!! The Singing Neanderthals by Stephen Mithen.

Musician you were most excited to meet

Probably John Lee Hooker. J. B. Lenoir was dead by the time I first heard him, but I spent a week with Lenoir's family, which was very exciting. Linda Waterfall is a close friend of mine, and it's fun to be really good friends with someone who wrote one of the absolutely greatest songs ever written. "Song Like A Roar" still awaits a much-needed reissue on CD!

Favorite People

My wife and (4) kids.

Bands you’ve played in

None that have been heard of! One was called Yesterday's Coffee.

How He Got into Radio

A friend hosted The Blues Show. His girlfriend wanted to see him Saturday nights, so he offered to teach me to alternate with him. Soon she wanted to see him every Saturday and he handed the show off to me. Thank goodness for her!

Weirdest Boss

A frequently inebriated man who conducted job interviews in a tavern next to the office.

Three things you don't know about Jonny:

If I were to tell you, then you would know...

A Few More Things You Don't Know About Jonny:

XPN has been my only station, though The Blues & Beyond is now aired on several other stations. I had a job for a while with a company where people paid to come in and do fifteen minute shows; they bought up overnight time on small stations and put these show segments on them. Thus the people could say that they were "on the air" somewhere.

Jonny's picks for Best CDs and Songs of 2009 from XPN's Year In Review