The Local Bands Show Goes Remote

“Frank? Frank? Frank? Hello?” Rick Allison called out to Frank Critelli — his friend and cohost of The Local Bands Show.

“Hello?” Critelli answered.

“You’re sounding a little more distant than usual, Frank!” Allison said with a laugh, but he was only slightly joking. Critelli was there via phone, doing his first remote cohosting of the show, which has been on WPLR 99.1 FM at 10 p.m. on Sunday nights for 33 years (and is also replayed on CygnusRadio.com Mondays at ​“noonish”).

The Local Bands Show is typically recorded with both men sitting across from each other at ​“The Crow’s Nest” every Tuesday morning, right before Critelli joins Allison on his weekday Cygnus show, The Allison Transmission. With the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting daily life, the two had to come up with another way to keep their weekly show going.

“It was decided it would be best to comply with the wishes of people smarter than us,” said Critelli via phone.” We will stay the fuck home if scientists tell us to do it.”

And how does a show that promotes local shows by local bands keep going when there are no shows? By playing the new music that continues to be released by the local community, and by returning to the wealth of older music at their disposal.

“We’re going on 33 years now,” said Critelli. ​“We have an incredibly huge catalogue. Rick has a great library both online and off…. He calls and we talk and he says ​‘what’s on your mind this week?’ and I might say, ​‘oh, Sam Carlson has a new single out,’ or he says, ​‘this came in the inbox’ — we always check the inbox — and we play songs that have been on our brains.”

For Critelli’s first remote show, on March 30, the two chose to pay tribute to their friend and former Local Bands Show cohost James Velvet, whose birthday had been a couple of days earlier. They aired solo Velvet songs, and songs from bands he had played in, such as The Mockingbirds and the High Lonesome Plains. The following week included new music that had been released digitally during the pandemic by such local artists as The Sawtelles and The Alpaca Gnomes.

The intention remains — to promote local music — even through changes large and small.

“My yellow pad is no longer here, so that’s been a learning curve, but it’s working out so far,” Critelli said with a laugh, referring to the yellow pad he uses to promote the show on social media each week. Its pages are adorned not only with the bands and their songs, but also the show’s sponsors and other details lovingly added in Critelli’s own handwriting. He has adapted, but he does sorely miss the more personal aspects of the show.

“I don’t get to drink Rick’s coffee, which I sorely miss, and I don’t get to be in his company, which I sorely miss,” Critelli said. ​“Normally we’re sitting across from each other, and I can see when he’s going to hit the buttons. Trying to read him over the phone has been different but kind of funny, actually.”

Allison had similar feelings when discussing the new distance between he and Critelli. ​“It throws the timing off a little — using verbal versus visual cues — and there are no bagels, which is a drag. Otherwise it’s same as it ever was,” Allison said. ​“My biggest concern was, would there be human people at WPLR to play the show?”

There were and there are, much to Allison’s delight. He credits not only WPLR for their ongoing support, but the ongoing supporters of the local music scene.

“There are an army of folks that care about local music. We know it to be vital, real and true,” Allison said. ​“And that’s really what that music ought to be about: personal communication. Everybody who does a local band thing isn’t doing it for the glory or the dough.”

Critelli expressed similar sentiments and elaborated on it from a performer’s perspective.

“People need their music and to feel communal. I can’t host the Buzz” — the weekly Sunday matinee show presented by Cygnus at Cafe Nine — ​“I can’t sing nice songs for nice people. I can’t play at the farmer’s market,” he said. ​“For me as a songwriter, a performing songwriter, it’s occurred to me that radio is a show. You gotta put on a show. You plan out your show. It’s a loose set up, but it’s a set up. It takes a bit of attention to make it a winner.”

“We can’t interact,” he added, referring to bars and venues being closed and musicians being unable to perform in front of a live audience. Many are now using not only radio, but live streaming on Facebook and Instagram to reach their fans while others continue to record new music at home.

“Artists: we do these things. We have to show them. It is what it has to be. So you do it and do it right and make it cool,” Critelli said.

Critelli has been doing it right for a long time, according to Allison, both as a performer and supporter of local music.

“The Local Bands Show has the Loco Archives” — also on Cygnus every Sunday afternoon — ​“with James and I, and it’s amazing how much Frank shows up on the show” said Allison. ​“He, like James Velvet, not only performed music, but they were also impresarios who put on music shows for years.”

When Velvet died in 2015, Allison said the show was at ​“a crossroads.”

“First thing I knew would happen is: I had to put together a James Velvet retrospective,” said Allison. ​“Frank said he would like to help put together the radio show, and he was the perfect guy to take up the James Velvet side of the equation.
They share the same heart — the music they make and their reach out to other musicians — and I needed a musician to add that reality to the show.
The retrospective ended up being one and a half hours. WPLR gave me as much time as I wanted, which was a wonderful gesture. By the time we finished, I said to Frank, ​‘would you take that chair?’ and he said, ​‘fuck yeah.’ It was just that wonderful and organic. He is a wonderful character full of great music.”

Critelli also wants to keep sharing great music, both his own and that of bands on the local scene. He has seen the public’s desire for music increasing over the past month of isolation.

“People are turning to the arts more now,” he said. ​“They realize how much it means to them. Arts and culture are absolute essentials. It’s the scene it’s always been. We’ve survived others things. We keep creating things and appreciating life. We’re reminded of our mortality, but the art makes life enjoyable. Enjoy life and bring beauty into the world. That doesn’t stop. It has always been and will always be.”

Allison, of course, shared similar sentiments, and has no plans to stop being a supporter of local music and no plans to retire from radio. ​“I keep telling people: the last noise they’ll hear from me is my head hitting the console. That’s my official policy,” he said. ​“This is the reason I get up in the morning. It’s not a hobby. It’s a calling. It’s the same motivation that keeps musicians in their home studios making new music. It’s not the audience, though that’s nice. It’s the song inside the person, and there’s gotta be a place to hear that song.”

The Local Bands Show is on WPLR 99.1 FM every Sunday night at 10 p.m. It replays Monday at ​“noonish” on CygnusRadio.com and can be heard on demand at CygnusRadio.com as well. Are you a local musician or band? The Local Bands Show wants to hear your music. Contact them via [email protected].