Rough Sundays—The Japanese Chapters

It was 2007, I believe.

I was home for the holidays and Dad and I took a road trip to our old neighborhood in Harrah, OK (pop. 4501... and 2 Democrats). I had been on this old time gospel music kick—much in part to my father there in the car, of whom used to be asked to speak at black church every once and a while, which turned my world upside-down.

The song was The Old Ship of Zion by the Roberta Martin singers, a track that immediately makes you stop, sit and be transported back to when gospel reigned over religion, when celebration was at the forefront, and not judgment or silence while singing. In short, it was—and remains still to this day—my favorite song of all-time. It came on the mix CD or minidisc or whatever I had and Dad immediately looked me with a now this is music smile and we sat in silent while that 1949 goodness took us both to the same place.

A year later, I launched a show called Rough Sundays—a Sunday morning wake-me-up featuring a lot of those old songs, as well as easy funk, blues, soul and tolerable jazz, and ended every episode with a song by Otis Redding... of whose family I've stalked. Twice.

Since then, it's been an on-again, off-again show.

Sometimes with a theme.

Sometimes with a guest.

Sometimes featuring music from wherever we happen to be.

And now, since we've been here, we've got three (fourth one coming (update: now live!) on Sunday, Dec. 04th) Japanese Chapters—a country famous for going all-in when it comes to dedication, and one with an absolutely insane catalog of jazz, futuristic funk and more.

When you include my start as a radio deejay, and then the dozens of podcasts I've produced, there will be more than a thousand shows under my belt, but this one is the one I love, always come back to, and get most excited about.

And while it might seem like a bit of an eye-roll to plug one's own show on this travel platform, it's not about audience size or getting my name out there. Trust me. I spent nearly two decades trying to do that and am so happy it failed. No, this is simply about giving you a nice and easy way to wake up, while bringing some music into your kitchen you didn't know you loved.

Have a listen.