Issue date: 11/5/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment

The spooktacular music event ‘Night of the Living Radio’ was another sample of the musical talent that public radio station WUWF-FM offers Pensacola. The special Halloween performance at the University of West Florida Commons Auditorium included three acts and house performer, Bobby van Deusen.

The show was moved to the Commons from the downtown museum location since post-Ivan cleanup is not complete. Some audience members said they prefer the “in the round” museum location and find it more inviting. Pat Crawford, host of Radio Live, affirmed this appreciation.

“We love the museum, it’s so unique,” Crawford said.

He said audiences enjoy the museum venue, but the show started at the campus auditorium in September 1988.

“It’s kind of a homecoming in that sense,” Crawford said.

The night’s performers included Bob and Joline Patterson, who entertained the audience with music and stories. His storytelling and 12-string talent is remarkable. Her bass rhythm appears to keep him grounded as they played selections from recent albums. The two played “Ragtime Millionaire,” and Bob Patterson played “Dueling Banjos” on the 12-string guitar. It was an eclectic mix of story and song that was well received.

“Acoustic Roots Americana, that’s what they call it,” Patterson said. “We also perform music that was performed in Florida in the ‘30s and ‘40s, so we do those re-creations of classics mixed in with our original stuff.”

Joline Patterson said her husband taught her to play the bass so she could go with him on the road.

“The bass is the easiest instrument in the world,” she said. “There are only four strings, and you only play one note at a time, it’s just rhythm.”

Patterson said more of their music could be heard the first weekend in May at the “Gamble Rogers Folk Festival.” The festival is held annually in the couple’s hometown of St. Augustine.

The evening’s theme was Halloween and hounds, and the studio audience was encouraged to dress in costume. Prizes were awarded at the end of the evening with some of the more notable costumes including a group who dressed as the “blue roofs” and a “flip-flapping” supporter of John Kerry. Admission to the show was a non-perishable food item donation for the Manna Food Bank.

The show continued with The Watchman, which featured Ad van Meurs, lead vocalist on guitar, Ankie Keultjes singing backup vocals and Gene Williams on acoustic guitar. Keultjes and van Meurs call Holland home, while Williams is from Oklahoma.

The group played “Ostend,” a song from their latest album. It offered a light touch of accented voices combined with Williams’s lead guitar, which rivals Ottmar Liebert.

The vocals of Keultjes were light and melodic, similar to Emmylou Harris in style. Van Meurs brought to the stage an undertone of severity, which is at times tandem to his lyrics and at other times opposed. His voice brings Guy Clark to mind, with the slightest hint of Dutch. The group also played other selections from their recent album including “Hunger and Play” and entertained the crowd with bluesy, melodic music.

As usual, Bobby van Deusen played between acts with tunes such as “Monster Mash” and “Masochism Tango.”

Truckstop Honeymoon finished out the line-up and once again introduced the Radio Live listeners to hilarious lyrics and antics. Their talents and good rhythm reminded the listener of John Prine paired with Nancy Griffith, on a much wilder note. These two carried on with each other and the crowd in a way that delighted the audience. They played selections from their latest album, “Christmas in Ocala,” including “Down Wind from the Refinery” and “Mama’s Moving Back.”

Mike West and Katie Euliss are the duo that is Truckstop Honeymoon. The pair plays a variety of instruments and writes most of their own music. They describe their music as “hell-bent songs about Jesus and adultery” and say it is “like a Dodge with a burnt out clutch. It has two speeds and no reverse.”

“A little song that started off as a reflection on U.S. foreign policy and ended up a redneck love song,” West said introducing one song. The uncanny relativity of such markedly different topics was brought together in the lyrics of “U.S. Foreign Policy.”

The pair will be appearing again in downtown Pensacola on Nov. 5 at Sluggo’s, located at 1602 W. Garden St.

Crawford said what he enjoys most about the Radio Live series is the ability to meet and enjoy these extraordinary artists.

“Getting to know all these artists, they are the greatest people in the world,” Crawford said. “I have met some of the nicest people who come on the show. They are amazing talent and amazingly nice people. They do what they do because they love it.”

The Radio Live show is scheduled from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month, except November. The broadcasts are aired on WUWF, 88.1 FM, and encore highlight shows are run other Thursdays at 7 p.m. For more information concerning WUWF, Radio Live or any of the artists featured on Radio Live, visit the Web site at http://radiolive.org/.

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