KRNN

The Hershey Chocolate Company, displaying the name of its founder Milton Hershey, established its Pennsylvania workshop on this date in 1894. Gavin and Wyatt run toward the factory in hopes of a non-chocolate dog treat. You are invited to find your own Hershey sweet music treats served up by John at the ear-candy studio on Crosscurrents, 2/9 at 8 a.m.

Originally a Celtic seasonal festival associated with weather prediction ritual adopted by North American immigrants – Groundhog Day celebrated on this day foretells the end of winter. Gavin and Wyatt find the groundhog who is emerging from underground as John gets down with the music for the show. You are invited to join the groundhog, and marmots of all sorts, as we engage in our own form of down home merriment, on Crosscurrents, 2/2 at 8 a.m.

The Juneau Arts and Culture Center hosts the Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Humanities tonight. Ryan Conarro will emcee, and Gov. Bill Walker will present awards. Two of the winners are based  in Southeast. The Arts Organization award will go to the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, and the Alaska Native Arts award will go to Sealaska Heritage Institute.

Performers will entertain the audience throughout the night. They include Juneau’s Alaska Youth Choir, the Juneau GIANT Puppet Project and a rap-jazz-funk fusion improvisational band from Anchorage called Yada Di.

Allison Warden, a.k.a. AKU-MATU, is Yada Di’s lead singer. Her stage name is an abbreviation of her two Iñupiaq names, Akootchook and Matumeak.

“Part of what I do in Yada Di is rap. We play all genres. We listen to each other. We explore the edges of what is possible in terms of music, and we take the audience on a journey in a very bold way,” Warden says.

Tickets are still available on the Alaska State Council on the Arts website. The awards will also be broadcast on 360 North beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tune into A Juneau Afternoon today for more information. Alaska State Council on the Arts Executive Director Shannon Daut will have more details on the festivities.

Frank Solivan, a musician with roots in Juneau and Alaska, leads a band called Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen. Their latest album, Cold Spell, has been nominated for a Grammy for best Bluegrass album. While the band’s sound is based in Bluegrass, it also pulls from the musicians’ diverse musical backgrounds and pushes traditional boundaries.

“For all practical purposes we are a Bluegrass band, but there is something for everybody in what we play,” Solivan says.

In a recent interview on KTOO’s A Juneau Afternoon, Solivan speaks of his time in Alaska and how it feels to get a nomination.

The Grammys will be held of Feb. 8 in Los Angeles and can be viewed online beginning at 1 p.m. Alaska Standard Time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first African American woman with a pilot license displayed her aviation skills at airshows while she dreamed of founding a flight school for woman – Bessie Coleman was born on this day in 1892. Gavin and Wyatt hope to go “barnstorming” with Bessie Coleman as she poses on the wheel of her Curtiss JN-4 biplane. You can “soar into the air” as John “broadcasts on the air” to celebrate Bessie Coleman by listening to Crosscurrents, 1/26 at 8 a.m.

The Cajun Country Revival dropped into the KRNN studio today. The band is on its way up to the Anchorage Folk Festival and will be playing tonight and tomorrow at the Alaskan Bar. They sat down with Scott Burton in the KRNN studio, talked Cajun music and played a few tunes.

The band will be at Alice’s Champagne Palace in Homer on Tuesday and at the Anchorage Folk Festival next weekend.