H! Everybody!

Bill Ward here.

I wanted to drop in a brief message about what’s in store for our November 19th and December 10th radio shows.

First, I’m still celebrating/acknowledging that it’s Sabbath’s 35th Anniversary in the U.S., so there will be Sabbath music and some pre-recorded well-wishes. There are two interviews in the November show, Shadows Fall – great band – Jason & Jon talking backstage, and also, recently I interviewed Matt McDonough of Mudvayne, particularly about their last CD “Lost and Found” (check out the October show Mudvayne track “Pushing Through,” incredible song). Matt’ s interview is great. So if you can, check out these guys, Matt McDonough of Mudvayne and Jason Bittner and Jon Donais of Shadows Fall. All most talented musicians.

On the November show, I finally get to catch up since coming off tour with the Sabs and play some more GZR as promised back in the early summer. If you’ ve not heard this CD or GZR period, then go buy their CD. The album’s superb. Try not to miss them on our November 19th radio show.

Other tracks being played in November: Soilwork, Fear Factory, Foo Fighters of course, Darkest Hour, possibly Soulfly (an incredible album) and surprise tracks. Surprise tracks are tracks I’ve not chosen yet, so it’ll be a surprise for you and me, hopefully. In any event, if you like hard rock and metal with some Pavarotti, blues and jazz thrown in from time to time, then check us out.

Our December show is kind of like my “Best of” show I do in one of the summer months, except I play what I think is cool for Christmas. Rather than playing Bing’s “White Christmas,” our mascot song pretty much is Type O Negative’ s “Red Water (Christmas Mourning)” which upon first hearing, I fell in love with, and I’ve been playing it ever since. There’s a brief interview with Johnny Kelly (drummer, Type O) who sets up the “Red Water” track. Again, there are pre-recorded Happy Anniversary messages for Sabbath.

I mentioned earlier the summer “Best of” show I do. It’s not necessarily slamming all the way. I go across the board, playing stuff from all musical paths. The Christmas show is like that, too. We don’t slam all the time. Those listening know that “Rock 50” plays 70% of what I consider hardcore metal, not to be confused with the corporate retailers’ version of “hardcore,” although what I call hardcore often intertwines with that latter definition. I digress.

My point is, we deviate from our normal programming for Christmas. At times, I’m tempted to put the Barking Dogs barking “Jingle Bells” next to Killswitch, but I’ve not done so yet. Songs featured so far for December are probably Killswitch, and possibly Spineshank’s version of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” We’ve played that version many times on “Rock 50.”

Speaking of George Harrison, I’m checking out some Bangladesh cuts. U2 have what I consider a great Christmas song, “Crumbs from Your Table.” I may play “Welcome to the Strange” (Murder Dolls), but we always play that on our ” Best of” show. Maybe we won’t play the Foo Fighters, that’ll be different.

I love doing the Christmas show. We’ll make it rock. Again, check it out, guys.

Long live music and the freedom to express exactly, precisely, what’s in the heart.

“Place your head upon whatever you’ve been chosen to call bed.” “Ward One: Along The Way

Thanks,
Bill

P.S. Big News: In Flames interview on the January “Rock 50” show and track glimpses from their brand new CD.

For more on Rock 50, please visit the Rock 50 page here at billward.com