Mixed Bag 25th Anniversary Material:
25 Years of Interesting and Memorable Music
On May 13, 1999, Mixed Bag, the program I created and have been producing and hosting since 1974, marked its 25th anniversary as a daily radio show on Public Radio WVIA-FM. As one of the longest-running continuous programs in creative contemporary music, and the probably the first "AAA" (album adult alternative) program, Mixed Bag seems to have set music programming pattern for all that followed. As part of a week-long 25th anniversary observance, I put together a list of one or two albums released in each of the years of the program's existence that came to epitomize the program. They are certainly not the best-selling albums of each year, and many have since gone out of print. And they may not have been the recordings that immediately attracted my attention at the time of their release, but are they albums that have been particularly durable, that I find myself going back to time after time, and which also include some of the most requested recordings on the Friday night request program.
My intent was to limit myself to a single recording for each year, but I found that impossible, except for a few years in the late 1970s (disco days) to the mid-1980s, before the rise of the high-quality independent record labels, when the music scene seemed to be in a slump, at least as far as interesting music in concerned. Some of these recordings were winners of Graham Awards for their respective years, and some, over time, eclipsed those which did.
| 1974 | Bob Dylan: Blood On the Tracks Frank Zappa: Apostrophe' |
| 1975 | Ambrosia Kraftwerk: Autobahn |
| 1976 | Joni Mitchell: Hejira Tom Waits: Small Change |
| 1977 | Weather Report Heavy Weather Steely Dan: Aja |
| 1978 | Roomful of Blues Pat Metheny Group |
| 1979 | Rickie Lee Jones |
| 1980 | Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice: Skaggs & Rice |
| 1981 | B.B. King: There Must Be a Better World Somewhere King Crimson: Discipline |
| 1982 | XTC: English Settlement Donald Fagen: The Nightfly |
| 1983 | Caswell Carnahan: Borderlands |
| 1984 | Laurie Anderson: Mr. Heartbreak |
| 1985 | Suzanne Vega |
| 1986 | Paul Simon: Graceland Christine Lavin: Beau Woes and Other Problems of Modern Life |
| 1987 | John Hiatt: Bring the Family Linda Waterfall: Body English |
| 1988 | Bobby Mc Ferrin: Simple Pleasures |
| 1989 | Strength in Numbers: The Telluride Sessions |
| 1990 | Rob Mounsey and the Flying Monkey Orchestra: Dig Béla Fleck and the Flecktones |
| 1991 | The Merchants of Venus Stewart & Gaskin: Spin |
| 1992 | Lyle Lovett: Joshua Judges Ruth Del Amitri: Change Everything |
| 1993 | Maria Muldaur: Louisiana Love Call Freddie Jones Band: Waiting for the Night |
| 1994 | Indigo Girls: Swamp Ophelia Everything But the Girl: Amplified Heart |
| 1995 | Neal Casal: Fade Away Diamond Time Suddenly Tammy: We Get There When We Do |
| 1996 | John Gorka: Between Five and Seven Naked to the World: Pilgrim's Kiss |
| 1997 | Scott Henderson: Tore Down House Alison Krauss and Union Station: So Long So Wrong |
| 1998 | A String Cheese Incident Susan Werner: Time Between Trains |
(c) Copyright 1999 George D. Graham. All rights reseved.
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