Our “It Might As Well Be Spring” series continues with WRIU’s  David House, host of Classical Brunch, on Tuesday morning. 

“I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm
I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string
I’d say that I had Spring fever
… But I know it isn’t Spring”
– Oscar Hammerstein II

DAVID HOUSE
Host of Divertimento / Classical Brunch

Q: What are your “Words to Live By”?

☞  Pause before I speak and act

Q: What are your favorite music venues (both indoor & outdoor)?

☞  Small ensemble performances in church spaces. Outdoors, it has to be Tanglewood! 

Q: When did you start listening to WRIU?

☞ In the late 1970’s

Q: What are your 12 “Desert Island” albums?

☞  Any Joni Mitchell up to and including “Dog Eat Dog”, Linda Ronstadt’s “Heart Like a Wheel”, Voces 8’s “Lux”,  Apollo’s Fire’s – Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering; The Power of Love with Amanda Forsyth, Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain; Bach’s Coffeehouse; Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers; Come to the River – An Early American Gathering; T-Bone Walker retrospective. 

Q: What is your favorite team?

☞  New England Patriots

Q: What is your favorite movie scene?

From Casablanca (1942) “I’m shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

“I Was There When it Happened …”
What are your 5 most memorable concerts? 

1. Rhode Island Civic Chorale’s performance of Carmina Burana 
2. Ed Markward conducting Appalachian Spring at the Music on the Hill concert series
3. Gesualdo Six’s performance last year as part of the Museum Concerts of RI series
4. Performing Sharpe’s “Proud Music of the Storm” and Mozart’s “Requiem” with the Providence Singers in the ’90s at Vets
5. The “Mr. House’s Opus” concert last November when the premiere of my 1982 work “7 Poems of Love” was performed at First Unitarian Church Providence

Q: What is your favorite ephemera in the WRIU studio?

☞ The broadcast radio console!

David House hosts Classical Brunch, the Tuesday morning Divertimento Show from 10 AM to 1 PM. | More in this series

The post It Might As Well Be Spring : Q&A with David House appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.

By Mike Stevenson | WRIU

“Punxsutawney Phil” saw his shadow on February 2nd (aka, Groundhog Day) marking the prediction of six more weeks of winter.

The famed weather-predicting rodent emerged from his den at 7:25 am into a clear, cold morning at Gobbler’s Knob to announce his 2026 forecast, contradicting hopes for an early spring.

Well, I don’t care if Phil saw his shadow or not. As Oscar Hammerstein wrote in his classic lyric for  It Might As Well Be Spring: 

“I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm
I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string
I’d say that I had Spring fever
… But I know it isn’t Spring”

That said, our “Might As Well Be Spring” series continues with WRIU ‘s  Jim Morgan, host of Delirium (Fridays at 9 – 12 pm). 

coffee time

JIM MORGAN
Host of Delirium

Q: What are your “Words to Live By”?

☞  Something involving coffee

Q: What are your favorite music venues (both indoor & outdoor)?

☞  Any small dingy club on the bad side of town will do.

Q: When did you start listening to WRIU?

☞  Sometime in the mid-late 1980s, primarily on a clock radio near my bed

Q: What are your 12 “Desert Island” albums?

☞  Most of the music I play on my show would only make a “trapped on a desert island” scenario worse. But here’s twelve of my favorite records:

-Eden Ahbez: Eden’s Island

-Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath

-Brian Eno: Neroli

-Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland

-Led Zeppelin: IV

-Marble Sheep and the Run Down Sun’s Children: Old from New Heads

-Charlie Parker: Broadcast Performances Vol. 2

-Linda Perhacs: Parallelograms

-Pink Floyd: Animals

-Skullflower: Last Shot at Heaven

-Slayer: Show No Mercy

-Teenage Filmstars: Buy Our Record, Support Our Sickness

Q: What is your favorite team?

☞  Red Sox

Q: What is your favorite movie scene?

☞  “Dave Deactivates Hal 9000” from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

“I Was There When it Happened …”
What are your 5 most memorable concerts? 

• The Dwarves, Club Baby Head. A ten minute show: they threw bottles into the crowd, the guitarist was naked, the other guitarist started a fire, and it ended with a massive cloud from a fire extinguisher. Those were ten minutes of greatness, right there.
• 

  Primal rumblings heard from at AS220

  Sunn O))), AS220. Incredible primal rumblings and otherworldy guest vocals by the singer from Mayhem.

• Misfits, Capitol Ballroom. The singer was arrested mid-show and my friend Dave Daglieri (“Demon Dave,” also a WRIU DJ) was one of the guest singers from the crowd invited on the stage. He sang “Mommy, Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight?”
• Link Wray, Met Café: Incredible energetic performance, shortly before his death.
• Thee Headcoates, Met Café: Fantastic rock and roll performance from these lads.

Q: What is your favorite ephemera in the WRIU studio?

☞ Whichever record player is working that particular week.

Coffee enthusiast Jim Mogan hosts Delirium Fridays 9 – 12 pm. | More in this series

The post It Might As Well Be Spring : Q&A with Jim Morgan appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.

“Punxsutawney Phil” saw his shadow on February 2nd (aka Groundhog Day) marking the prediction of six more weeks of winter.

The famous prognosticator emerged from his den at 7:25 a.m. into a clear, cold morning at Gobbler’s Knob to announce his 2026 forecast, contradicting hopes for an early spring.

Three feet of snow later, let me say that I don’t care if Phil saw his shadow or not. As Oscar Hammerstein wrote in his classic lyric for “It Might As Well Be Spring“: 

“I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm
I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string
I’d say that I had spring fever
But I know it isn’t Spring”

Continuing in this series of WRIU staff Q & A’s is with Mike Stevenson, host of The Kingston Coffee House (Tuesdays at 6 – 9 pm).

Unknown Pleasures

MIKE STEVENSON

Q: What are your “Words to Live By”?

“There are two kinds of people in this world. Avoid both of them.”
– Arthur Shopenhauer (b.1788 – d.1860)

Q: What are your favorite music venues (both indoor & outdoor)?

–  We are fortunate to have so many great venues within a short drive. Club Passim in Cambridge, MA is my #1 place to hear live music. Discounted parking nearby, excellent burgers and ‘Gansett in a can! Favorite outdoor venue is probably The Payomet in Truro, MA , when the Outer Cape mosquitoes are being kind. Very excited that The Blue Room recently opened in Pawtuxet Village and just a short walk from my home!

“The Blue Room”, historic Pawtuxet Village. Tasty jazz and perfect pitch calamari!

Q: When did you start listening to WRIU?

-I think it was 1992. I loved Laura Travis on her Celtic Realm show. Then I discovered The Boudin Barndance while listening on the car radio. Dan was playing songs from a new release, The Jayhawks “Hollywood Town Hall” and I’m thinking, “Damn, this guy plays MY music!”. I think it was the same show he played Tibby Edwards hillbilly version of “Flip, Flop and Fly” and I nearly drove off the road in ecstatic delight!

Q: What are your 12 “Desert Island” albums?

Thinking I will need some variety on the island (as well as my favorites) something like this, I guess: Jimmy Cliff “The Harder They Come” soundtrack; Willie Nelson & Family Live;  West Side Story soundtrack;  Van Morrison & The Chieftains “Irish Heartbeat”;  The Clash “London Calling”;  Smokey Robinson & the Miracles LIVE;  Atlantic Records” Rhythm And Blues 1947-1974” (box) Francis Cabrel “Double Tour” ;  The Zombies “Odyssey and Oracle”; “Ella Sings Gershwin”; John Prine “The Missing Years”; Lefty Frizzell’s Greatest Hits

Q: What is your favorite team?

– The Celtics, now and forever.

Q: What is your favorite movie scene?

–  My ‘better angels’ would normally choose the beautiful ‘Eating Cake in the Parlor’ scene from Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincent Minnelli, 1949) However, I watched the morning news and instead chose this from On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954). Amazing performances from Brando, Lee J. Cobb with the musical score by Leonard Bernstein.

“I Was There When it Happened …”
What are your 5 most memorable concerts? 

• Elvis Presley  (1972, Providence Civic Center) The King’s band and backup singers were awesome. Elvis, not-so-much.

• Bruce Springsteen (1980, Providence Civic Center) Just 2 days after John Lennon was killed. Bruce plays “Twist & Shout” in tribute

• Astrud Gilberto (1990? Cambridge MA Regattabar) Tall and tan, young and lovely. (In truth, not so tall). Love her still.

• Roy Orbison (1988, The Channel, Boston). Roy encores with a majestic “Running Scared,” leaves the stage, returns, and does the same song again – somehow even better! Mind officially blown. (Roy died of a heart attack 3 days later)

• The Everly Brothers (1983 Reunion Tour. Cape Cod Melody Tent) The recently-reunited brothers were tense in their stage banter, but the magic of their harmony singing was unforgettable.

  

  Astrud Gilberto

Q: What is your favorite ephemera in the WRIU studio?

–  The “official” DJ sign-in notebook

Mike Stevenson hosts The Kingston Coffee House  Tuesday 6 – 9 pm. Mike also hosts The French Connection on Sunday evenings over the summer months.

The post It Might As Well Be Spring : Q&A with DJ Mike Stevenson appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.

“Punxsutawney Phil” saw his shadow on February 2nd (aka Groundhog Day) marking the prediction of six more weeks of winter.

The famous prognosticator emerged from his den at 7:25 a.m. into a clear, cold morning at Gobbler’s Knob to announce his 2026 forecast, contradicting hopes for an early spring. I don’t care if Phil saw his shadow or not. As Oscar Hammerstein wrote in his classic lyric for “It Might As Well Be Spring”: 

“I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm
I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string
I’d say that I had spring fever
But I know it isn’t spring”

Our first in this series of WRIU staff Q & A’s is with Wayne Cresser, host of Picture This: Film Music on the Radio (Sundays at 6 – 8 pm). I had intended this piece to be published first day of Spring, but because I’m “restless as a willow in a windstorm, ” here ’tis.

[ FYI: Red Sox pitchers and catchers officially reported to JetBlue Park in Fort Myers last Tuesday! ]

Picture This …with linguini !

WAYNE CRESSER

Q: What are your “Words to Live By”?

“Hope is the thing with feathers” – Emily Dickinson

Q: What are your favorite Music Venues (indoor & outdoor)?

Outdoor: Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, Colorado

Indoor: The Metropolitan Café, 165 Friendship Street Providence, RI

The Met Cafe

Q: When did you start listening to WRIU?

When I was a high school senior, my friend Bill Nelson had a show on 90.3 FM, and he was a year behind me at S.K.H.S., and this was a long time ago. I filled in for him a couple of times, playing a lot of Traffic, Procol Harum and stuff from Rod Stewart’s first solo album, along with a mix of British psych, folk and new trad: Incredible String Band, Duncan Browne, Bert Jansch, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, and Pink Floyd. I could go on, but I’ll just say, my first memories of hearing RIU have me and my friends in the middle.

Q: What are your 12 Desert Island Records?

• Nick Drake Box Set: Nick Drake
• Blonde on Blonde -Bob Dylan
• Rubber Soul -The Beatles
• Anthology II– The Beatles
• The Basement Tapes – Bob Dylan and the Band
• Younger Than Yesterday -The Byrds
• Sandinista -The Clash
• The Name of This Band is Talking Heads – Talking Heads
• 24 of Hank Williams’ Greatest Hits – Hank Williams
• The Velvet Underground – the Velvet Underground
• A Love Supreme  – John Coltrane
• Job, a Masque for Dancing – Ralph Vaughn Williams

Q: What is your favorite team?

Boston Red Sox

Q: What is your favorite movie scene?

The Prater Wheel/Cuckoo Clock Speech in The Third Man (1949)

“I Was There When it Happened” – What are your 5 most memorable concerts? 

“Womp bop a loo bomp a lop bam boom”

A Sunday afternoon at Radio City Music Hall when during a break in the taping of the 70s quiz show, Jackpot (which I and my under-unemployed college graduate friends were really into), Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason made a cameo appearance to plug Hope’s Christmas Special, which they were taping upstairs. Pinch me. Another memorable detail, we had seats right behind the show’s announcer, Don Pardo, who chatted us up between takes.

• The (Un)Holy Modal Rounders at Meehan Auditorium, Brown Spring Weekend, 1975. Opened for Firefall. Ha!
• Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, 1995 – Little Richard, who received a key to the city from Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci.
• The last show I saw at the Warwick Tent -The Kinks, July, 1995.
• The last time Joe Strummer played Boston-with his band, the Mescaleros, at the Roxy, late, 1999.

Q: What is your favorite ephemora in the WRIU studio?

The walls made out of CDs.

Wayne Cresser hosts Picture This: Film Music on the Radio each Sunday 6 – 8 pm on WRIU 90.3 fm

The post It Might As Well Be Spring : Q&A with DJ Wayne Cresser appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.

Rufous Nightjar is an Irish three-part harmony folk trio formed in 2020, consisting of musicians Branwen Kavanagh, Anna-Mieke Bishop and Zoé Basha. They are known for their a cappella singing, focusing on themes of folklore, landscape, and mythology.

Open

– Ye Vagabonds & Boygenius “The Parting Glass” (traditional)
– Ye Yagabonds “Danny” All Tied Together, 2026
– Ye Vagabonds “On Sitric Road” All Tied Together, 2026
– Dexy’s Midnight Runners “Come On Eileen” Too Rye-Ay, 1982

Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker are “boygenius”

I Need Love
– Rufous Nightjar “Red Robin” Songs for Three Voices, 2025
– The Bothy Band “Fionnghula” Old Hag You Have Killed Me, 1976
– Luka Bloom “I Need Love” The Acoustic Motorbike, 1992
– Sharon Shannon & Steve Earle “The Galway Girl” The Diamond Mountain Sessions, 2000
– Dervish “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves’ Travelin Show
– Dervish “Welcome Poor Paddy Home” Harmony Hill, 1992

– Solas “Ni Na La” Solas, 1996
– Solas “The Newry Highwayman” Solas, 1996
– Lunasa “Morning Nightcap” The Merry Sisters of Fate, 2001
– Maire Ni Chathasaigh & Chris Newman “Eleanor Plunkett” Carolan Album, 1994

Van Morrison and Paddy Moloney (The Chieftains) in full on Irish Heartbeat – Groningen, Holland, 1988..

Irish Heartbeat
– Van Morrison & The Chieftains “Star of County Down” (trad) Irish Heartbeat, 1988
– Van Morrison & The Chieftains “Irish Heartbeat” (Morrison) Irish Heartbeat, 1988
– Lankum “What We Do When We Have No More Money” Between Earth and Sky 2017
– The Waterboys “Fisherman Blues, Fisherman Blues 1988

Sean-nós  and Overalls
– Liam Ó Maonlaí “Sadhbh ni Bhruinneallaigh”, 2012
– The Hothouse Flowers “Don’t Go”, People 1988
– Bing Crosby “Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder” | see original back story by Dai Bando
– Altan “Donal agus Morag” Harvest Storm 1992
– Dervish “Peigin Mo Chroi” Playing with Fire, 1992

2 BOBBY O’DYLAN SONGS
– Sinead Lohan “To Ramona” A Woman’s Heart
– Luka Bloom “Make Me Feel Your Love” Amsterdam

“Séamus Begley’s whose two great loves were music and driving tractors, breathed new life into traditional music” – The Irish Times

MISSING YOU
– Séamus Begley “Women of Ireland”
– Clancy & Makem “Ar Eirinn ni Neosainn” Clancy & Makem In Concert
– Sinead O’Connor “This Is To Mother You” Gospel Oak, 1997
– Sinead & The Chieftains “The Foggy Dew” (traditional)
– Muireann Bradley “These Days” (J Browne) 2025 single
– Christy Moore “Missing You” Live At the Point,
– Sinead O’Connor & the Chieftains “Foggy Dew” (traditional)
– Sinead O’Connor “This Is to Mother You” Gospel Oak

– John Prine & Dolores Keane “Cheatin’ Situation” (Throckmorton/ Putmam) In Spite of Ourselves, 1999
– Dolores Keane “Galway Bay” (Colahan) Dolores Keane, 1983

– The Cranberries “Dream” Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? 1992
– Lisa O’Neil “Goodnight World”

❀ ❀ ❀ CONCERT NOTES ❀ ❀ ❀

Ye Van: the band heading for San Francisco

• Ye Vagabonds performed Feb 1st at Middle East in Boston, MA, next play Feb 13 at the Brick and Mortar in San Francisco (be sure to wear a flower in your hair)
• Solas will perform at the Groton Hill Music Center in Groton, MA, March 1, 2026, at 7 PM.
• Lúnasa Feb 22 show at Blackstone River Theater in Cumberland, RI now listed as SOLD OUT
• Dervish will appear at The Jane Pickens Theater in Newport, RI Sunday, March 22, 2026 at 7:00
• Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman are in concert April 29 at The Burren, Somerville, MA

The post The Celtic Realm 2/11/26 Playlist and Audio appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.

The post The Trip appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.

OPEN
– Johnny Rivers “Summer Rain” (Jim Hendricks) Realization, 1967

The Royal Tenenbaums 25th Anniversary
– Emitt Rhodes “Lullabye”, Emitt Rhodes, 1970
– Nick Drake “Fly” Bryter, Later, 1970
– Bob Dylan “Wigwam”, Self Portrait 1970
– Elli0t Smith “Needle in the Hay” Elliot Smith, 1985

Mudslide Slim

Mud Slide Slim 55th anniversary in 2026
– “Hey, Mister, That’s Me Up On the Jukebox”
– “Machine Gun Kelly” (D Kortchmar)
– “You Can Close Your Eyes”
– “You’ve Got a Friend” (C King)

PAUL GEREMIA I Really Don’t Mind Livin’ 1982
– “I Just Roll Along”
– “Stone Sober Blues”
– “Holly” (Steve Mann)

NEW RELEASE: CAT CLYDE Mud Blood Bone
– “Wild One”
– “Another Time”

Jake Xerces Fussell & James Elkington from Rebuilding soundtrack, 2025
– “Prelude”
– “A Cowboy Without Claws”

2026 Grammy Nominees and Winners
– Alison Krause “Richmond on the James” Arcadia, 2025
– Jason Isbel “Crimson and Clay” Foxes in Snow, 2025
– I’m With Her “Ancient Light” Wild and Clear and Blue, 2025 (Winner: Best Folk)

2026 Grammy Award “Best Folk Album”

– Molly Tuttle “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark” So Long Miss Sunshine, 2025
– Jesse Welles “Horses” Middle, 2025
– Jason Isbel “Foxes in the Snow” Foxes in the Snow, 2025
– Charlie Musselwhite “Look Out Highway” Look Out Highway, 2025
– Rhiannon Giddens “Marching Jaybord” What did the blackbird Say to the Crow?, 2025
– Natalia LaFourcade “Cancionera” (Winner: Best Latin) Cancionera, 2025

HAPPY 85th TOM RUSH

– Cerys Hafana “Angel”
– Tom Rush “Urge for Going” (Joni Mitchell)

Michael Parks and Bonnie Bedelia in “Then Came Bronson” (1970)

HAPPY 85th BIRTHDAY JAMES HENDRICKS
– The Big Three “Nora’s Dove” (aka Dink’s Song) The Big Three, 1963
– Michael Parks “Long Lonesome Highway” aka Theme from Then Came Bronson (J Hendricks) 1970

– The Byrds “Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man” (Parsons / McGuinn)
– Roger McGuinn “Railroad Bill” (traditional)
– Claudia Schmidt “Old Devil Time” (Seeger) Out of the Dark, 1992
– Damn Tall Buildings “The Simulator” The Universe Is Hungry, 2025

Nicknamed the “Mayor of MacDougal Street,” Dave Van Ronk was an important figure in the American folk music revival.

DAVE VON RONK (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002)
– “House Carpenter” Inside Dave Van Ronk, 1964
– “Talking Cancer Blues” Inside Dave Van Ronk, 1964
– “He Never Came Back” Inside Dave Van Ronk, 1964

– Damn Tall Buildings “Thick Smoke” The Universe Is Hungry, 2025
– Roger McGuinn “Wasn’t Born to Follow” (King/Goffin)

– CLOSE / “Summer Rain’ (Reprise)

The post Kingston Coffee House 2/10/26 Playlist & Audio appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.

The post The Trip appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.

AT THE BARBERSHOP: Cliff Edwards, aka “Ukelele Ike” was the voice of Disney’s beloved character Jiminy Cricket

By Dai Bando [first published at The Hobbledehoy]

The most memorable song from Walt Disney’s Pinocchio, “When You Wish Upon a Star” was the very first Disney song to win an Academy Award in 1940. Written by Leigh Harline with lyrics by Ned Washington, it is performed in the film by a cute and acutely conscientious top hat-wearing insect named “Jiminy Cricket.”

“Like a bolt out of the blue

Fate steps in and sees you through

When you wish upon a star

Your dreams come true”

Jiminy’s warm, reassuring voice (with just the hint of Midwestern drawl) was supplied by singer/actor Cliff Edwards. Edwards was the possessor of high natural tenor voice with a three-octave range. The purity of his final note of “When You Wish Upon a Star” (appropriately landing on the word “true”) is nothing short of sublime. 

Cliff Edwards was born June 14, 1895 in Hannibal, Missouri – the birthplace of Mark Twain, whom Edwards remembered once passing on a city street. Edward’s professional life didn’t so much resemble a story of Twain’s, but more a chapter from Nathaniel West’s nightmarish depiction of 1930’s Hollywood “The Day of the Locust.”

Not long after the successes of Pinocchio, Edwards found himself in financial ruin due to unpaid taxes, gambling losses, multiple bankruptcies, cocaine and alcohol addictions, and three failed marriages. Today, a resume like this might belong to a GOP presidential candidate, but the 1940s were not as forgiving a time. “Cliff made millions,” said famed Disney animator Ward Kimball , “and he lost it all.”

When you get in trouble and you don’t know right from wrong, Give a little whistle! Give a little whistle! When you meet temptation and the urge is very strong, Give a little whistle! Give a little whistle!
– “Give a Little Whistle” (Leigh Harline and Ned Washington)

BEGINNINGS

Cliff “Ukelele Ike” Edward’s fans once included both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Decades after his death, both James Taylor and Paul McCartney covered his ukelele songs on their records. According to Van Dyke Parks, the brilliant Harry Nilsson (who knew a little about self-destructive behavior himself), regarded Cliff Edwards as “his favorite singer.” The man and legend had humble beginnings.

Growing up in the Midwest, Cliff Edwards worked as a youngster in a Hannibal, Missouri shoe factory. He ran away from home before finishing school. By age 16, he was singing in St. Louis saloons where he learned to play the ukulele to provide his own accompaniment since many of the bars had no piano.  He acquired the nickname “Ukelele Ike” when a barkeeper couldn’t remember his name.

Moving from St. Louis, to Chicago, and eventually New York, in 1924 he graduated from carnivals and vaudeville shows to Broadway when George Gershwin picked him to join the cast of Lady, Be Good. Sharing the bill were a young Fred and Adele Astaire. Lady, Be Good was a Broadway success and Astaire later recalled it was Cliff Edwards who regularly “stopped the show” with his rendition of Gershwin’s “Fascinating Rythym.”

After his Broadway success, Edwards had his first recording success with “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” The song later was recorded by all the greats, Crosby, Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole, but Cliff Edwards’ record, with his trademark sweetness and vulnerability, remains the gold standard version of the song.

Music critic Imogen Sara Smith observed: “No one has ever sung “Paper Moon” more beautifully . Edwards (backed by the exquisitely spare guitar of Dick McDonough) brings a pitch-perfect blend of wistful longing and rueful world-weariness to this great Yip Harburg-Harold Arlen song about searching for something real amid the phony dazzle of stage scenery, lighting effects, circus ballyhoo, parades, jingles, penny arcades and honky-tonks.”

Some 40 years after Edward’s recording, director Peter Bogdanovich changed the name of his 1973 film (originally titled Addie Prays) to Paper Moon, while choosing music for his film.

Along with pop songs of the “crooner” variety, Edwards recorded a number of novelty-jazz hits such as “Ja Da,” which included the irresistible lyric I myself sing nearly every time good fortune comes my way:

“Here’s a funny little melody It’s so soothing and appealing to me It goes Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Jing, Jing, Jing”

There was also “Hard Headed Hannah,” “I Want to Call You ‘Sweet Mama,” and the delightful “Hang On To Me,” (below) from the 1935 short film Starlit Days at the Lido. In this colorized scene from the film, Cliff plays his uke and mugs alongside “slight of hand artist” Suzy Wandas. If you knew Suzy like I knew Suzy, indeed

 Edwards left New York and headed west for The Hollywood Revue of 1929, one of MGM’s earliest sound films. The film marks the debut of the song “Singin’ in the Rain”, performed by Cliff Edwards as “Ukulele Ike.” When not credited as himself, Edward’ gathered over a hundred acting credits; mostly small “character” parts with names such as Froggy, Owly, Pooch, Snipe, Bumpy, Screwy, Sleepy, Shorty, Runty, Speed, Tips, Hogie, Handy, Happy, Minstrel Joe, Banjo Page, Bones Malloy, and (… wait for it …) “Squid Watkins.” In Howard Hawks’ classic His Girl Friday (1940) Edwards plays a reporter named Endicott who delivers snappy one-liners like, “Is there any truth in the report that you’re on Stalin’s payroll?”

On stage and on record, Edwards performed one of the earliest examples of scat singing, or as Edwards called it, his “Effus.” He imitated the wa-wa trumpet with growls and purrs, sounding like a cross between Louis Armstrong and Baby Snooks. No one has ever sounded quite like it, before or since.

BUSTER KEATON AND A BEAR IN A LADIES’ BOUDOIR

Between 1923 and 1933, Edwards recorded more than 120 sides for records, and one account claims that during his career, he sold more than 74 million records, including what was then described as “party” records with suggestive titles such “Bear in a Ladies’ Boudoir” and “I’m Gonna Give It To Mary With Love.” Had he lived long enough to work with the Coen Brothers, I can imagine Ukele Ike singinging “How Ya  Gonna Keep ’em Down Once They’ve Seen Karl Hungus?”

One of my favorite clips of Edwards “efussing” was in the film Doughboys a 1930 talkie-comedy film starring Buster Keaton, who was a close friend of Edwards’ and fellow hell-raiser in the hills of Hollywood. In  Doughboys Edwards beats the strings of a ukelele  with drumsticks while a deadpanned Keaton frets the chords on the song “You Never Did That Before.” It is a hilarious and extraordinary musical performance by both actors, and one can imagine the two pals developing their schtick over a drink or seven.

Keaton recalls in his autobiography, My Wonderful World of Slapstick (1960), “all my weekends were lost weekends. … I had as much fun with my land yacht as a man can whose purpose is to forget his whole private world has fallen apart.”

PINOCCHIO AND DUMBO

Edwards continued partying hard while gambling away his earnings. A case can be made that the success of Pinocchio served only to accelerate Edward’s eventual decline. Along with his drinking and cocaine binges, he was now using heroin.

He managed to stay afloat with his novelty and “party” songs” while taking dozens of small parts in Hollywood films, including his portrayal of a “Reminiscent Soldier” in Gone With the Wind.

In 1941, Edwards again landed a memorable role in a Disney animated classic Dumbo, portraying the regrettably-named “Jim Crow” who sings in ‘hokum’-style, “When I See an Elephant Fly.”

It was Disney animator Ward Kimball cast Edwards as Jim Crow in Dumbo: “We were recording the track for the Black Crows, and we got Hall Johnson’s Black Choir from the Methodist church in Los Angeles for it. Cliff was the only white guy among them. He actually sounded more black than the blacks we had backing him up.” (The tremor you just felt is Hall Johnson rolling in his grave.) But let us remember – this was 1941, when even Left-Wing lion Woody Guthrie was performing Amos n’ Andy-style ebonics on his Pasadena KFVD radio show. (Woody eventually abandoned the hokum and offered an on-air apology.)

MICKEY MOUSE CLUB and UKELELE IKE’S DECLINE

By the 1950s, the Disney Studio used Edwards as the voice of Jiminy Cricket on several animated short segments on the original Mickey Mouse Club show and aging actor appeared in person several times to entertain the Mouseketeers, including Annette Funicello, the teenage actress soon to appear in the idiotic Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) which sadly featured a cameo by Edward’s drinking buddy, Buster Keaton (somebody cue broadcaster Raymond Morrison, “Oh, the humanity!”)

As Jimmy Johnson, the man in charge of Disneyland Records remembered:

“Cliff was declining right before our eyes—I made some work for him on records which we really didn’t need. Toward the end, royalties from records were his only source of income. The last time he came into my office, he didn’t seem to know where he was or who I was. It brought tears to my eyes. He was a warm and wonderful man with never a sour word about anything or anybody. I cherish my memories of him.”

“Ukulele Ike Sings Again” was a 1956 Disneyland record, suggested by Walt himself, to remind the public of Edwards’ musical legacy. I’m one of the proud owners of this album, which I pulled from the bargain bin of my local record shop, along with Procol Harum’s “A Salty Dog,” for a dollar apiece! “Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Jing, Jing, Jing!“

“We recorded the whole album in six straight hours on one night,” remembered Disney producer Jimmy Johnson. “There were no written arrangements. With an assist of ‘John Barleycorn’ (booze), we made one of the most spontaneous and musical albums I have ever been associated with … We cut ‘Singin’ In The Rain’, Darktown Strutters Ball’, ‘Ja Da’ … we had a ball! Unfortunately, the album didn’t sell well and there wasn’t much in the way of royalties for Cliff.”

ONLY CRICKETS HEARD UPON HIS PASSING

Cliff Edwards was no longer officially employed by Disney when he entered a nursing home in Hollywood in 1969 as a charity patient supported by the Actor’s Fund. At the time of his death from a heart attack on July 17, 1971, at the age of 76, Edwards’ passing wasn’t reported to the public for several days because hospital officials didn’t consider it newsworthy since they didn’t know he had ever been famous.

His body was initially unclaimed and donated to the UCLA medical school. When Walt Disney Productions eventually discovered news of his passing, they offered to pay for the burial. Instead, the Actors Fund of America and the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund paid for the burial.

Thirteen years after Edwards’ death, Disney provided a marker for the performer’s grave when the lack of a proper headstone was reportedly brought to the company’s attention by the Ukulele Society of America. In addition to his name and years of life, the marker simply reads, “In loving memory of Ukulele Ike.”

“It is hard to laugh at the need for beauty and romance, no matter how tasteless, even horrible, the results of that are. But it is easy to sigh.” ― Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust

The post Give a little whistle: The life and tragic death of Cliff Edwards, voice of Disney’s Jiminy Cricket appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.

LISTEN TO A REPLAY (BELOW) 

“THE TRIP” with Matt Mania | WRIU Tuesdays 3-6 pm

“Matt doesn’t perform on his show, though — just respectfully and reverently plays tracks, and chimes in about them from time to time. He’s a man of few words both on the mic and off, which is no doubt one of the attractions of the blues for him. Recall that James Brown once bent the blues form into a tune that had but a single word in its lyric: “Please”.

Matt’s show The Trip plays Tuesdays 3-6pm on WURI (90.3), Rhode Island, but in the almost certain event that you are not IN Rhode Island, the WURI website, where the show is streamed live and archived is wuri.org.”
– from The Travalanche “Blues Take Note” 8/26/2025

The post The Trip 1/27/26 Replay and Playlist appeared first on WRIU Radio 90.3 FM Kingston, RI.