Welcome to Your World Music Show

This blog has come about because of the inadequacies of Facebook. My name is Michael Hess. I'm a staff person at a university, an adjunct professor of political science, and a music lover. My wife, Megan Kamerick, is a journalist. A few years ago, she was asked to serve as a backup DJ for a weekly world music show on our local public radio station. While both of us loved music, world music was not a genre that we were very familiar with. However, my wife is always game to try something new and she enlisted my help to find music. We were very quickly surprised by the breadth of world music. Today my wife is one of four regular rotating DJs on the show and I serve as her program assistant, music procurator and occasional replacement if she is unavailable. One of the things that has become apparent is that we LOVE discovering this music. We have become familiar with many of the greatest names in music that Americans have never heard from, as well as exciting new bands and solo artists that emerge every day from places outside of the United States. America may be the entertainment center of the world, but there are many amazing things happening with music in both other places in the first and third worlds. There are fusions and collaborations, reinterpretations of traditional folk musics and new musics being invented all the time. We have been privileged to expand our musical horizons and open our minds and ears to sounds that would not come to us over the airwaves in our home country.

For a couple of years, I have been maintaining a Facebook page called KUNM Global Music First Monday. On the page, I post a daily song about a world musician or band and a piece of work that he or she has done. Despite our exhortations for people to "like" us and get exposed, we only have 81 followers and, according to the statistics, it's the rare day that anyone actually tries out the music. So, I'm casting the net to the wider world in the hopes that there are more people that will find us on this platform and who may be willing to also open up their ears and their minds.

I once had an argument with a person about world music. She maintained that it wasn't interesting because she couldn't understand the lyrics. Here's a little secret that I've learned - you don't need to understand the lyrics to be moved by the music, by the longing or happiness or sadness in the singer's voice, the same emotions in the the way the kora player, the fiddle player, the guitar player, the Uilleann pipe player, or any of the other musicians at play.

By the way, you might be interested in the radio station that hosts us and our show. We air on KUNM, which is one of Albuquerque's public radio stations serving North and North Central New Mexico at 89.9 FM and at some other frequencies through translators. We air mostly on the first Monday of each month from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time (USA). My hope is that with this page, I'll be able to expand on the Facebook page by doing a little more exploration into the music and also provide some commentary on how the music and the artist makes me feel. We purchase at least 10 to 15 new songs for each show, plus we play music from the station's collection. My wife and I have built up quite a collection of our own, and I will draw on all of these for this page.

So, let's start this and see if we can build a small community around the joy of music from around the world. As KUNM's motto "News and music that connect" suggests, we can come together in our enjoyment of music. I hope you find this site interesting, and please let me know if you come by by leaving a comment, even if it a suggestion or a correction! Michael Hess