Capturing the waves on Penn Cove
By PATRICIA DUFF
South Whidbey Record Arts & Entertainment, Island Life
May 30 2009, 8:00 AM

The legacy of musician and beloved South Whidbey luminary Michael Nutt lives on at the end of Coupeville Wharf on Penn Cove.

KWPA, Whidbey Public Radio at 96.9 on the FM dial, is up and running 24 hours per day thanks to the indefatigable Nutt and various local supporters who stuck with the project from its humble beginnings in 2003.

In 2008, KWPA became a volunteer-based, noncommercial, community-broadcast station fully licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.

But although it is on the air, the station needs money to keep running.

A benefit concert for KWPA starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 5 at Mukilteo Coffee Roasters on Crawford Road in Langley. Performers include Levi Burkle, James Hinkley, David Licastro, Rachman Ross and Stephan Ross.

Burkle said he sees the radio station as a great addition to the vibrant artistic community that Nutt knew and loved.

“I think this radio station is a huge opportunity for local emerging talent,” Burkle said.
“I am seeing a lot of budding local talent that could use the radio station to play their first song, or to promote an event like a concert,” he said. “Plus, this local radio station will bring a new canvas to Whidbey Island. If someone has an idea for a radio show, they would actually have the opportunity to make it happen.”

Indeed, the station’s board chairman and early KWPA strategist William Bell said the station welcomes ideas and participants who would like to create shows.

“We would like to cover every possible aspect of Whidbey Island,” Bell said.
That includes music, farm events, coverage of festivals such as Choochokam Arts, Loganberry Festival and the Mussel Fest, to name a few.

“Anything topical or interesting that is based on the island,” Bell said.
Programmers do not have to be practiced in the art of broadcasting. The station is completely digital, so a person could actually create a program at home and bring it to the station on an iPod, or bring in a raw program that the team can edit for a show.
Bell said the station is also looking for people with broadcasting or radio technical experience.

Marty Behr is one of the station’s new board members who signed on just before Nutt’s death in 2007. Board members raised the FCC grant money and private donations to put the station on the air and created more than 30 hours of local programming.

“All of us are dedicated to the growth of the station as a legacy to Michael Nutt,” Behr said.

“Our studio on the pier in Coupeville is called ‘The Michael Nutt Production Studio,’” he added.

KWPA runs every day with about six hours of local programs and the remaining hours with music. The station creates about two to four hours of new local programs each week which are pre-recorded and transmitted at scheduled times.

Some of the current local programs include “Dawn Chorus,” bird songs by Academy Award-winning sound editor Kirk Francis; on-the-street interviews with actors and participants of Langley’s Mystery Weekend; and “The Libbey Sisters,” a chat with some of the pioneers of Central Whidbey.

Some programs in the development stage include the Rural Characters annual concert at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts and county commissioner meetings.

The benefit for KWPA is mainly a celebration for being on the air. But another goal is to raise money to extend the reach of the station to the South End by streaming on the Internet and broadcasting in Langley, Freeland and other locations.

Board members also hope to raise money through station memberships and underwriters.

Current underwriters include Bob Thurmond of New York Life Insurance of Langley and the Lavender Wind Farm in Coupeville.

Burkle is excited by the prospect of what KWPA can do for the community and the support it can lend to local musicians.

“We are very thankful and plan on recording the performance so that it can be broadcast on KWPA for our listeners,” Burkle said.

Tickets to the benefit are $25 and are available at Mulkilteo Coffee Roasters; call 321-5270.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for dinner and spirits. The music starts at 7 p.m.

Fourty percent of ticket sales will go to KWPA.

'Maze' is Levi Burkle's newest CD
By PATRICIA DUFF

Singer-songwriter Levi Burkle named his new album “Maze” for the challenge it created.

Writing a good song, he said, is often like a labyrinth of obstacles set squarely in the songwriter’s path to make a song better.

“You can’t judge a song before it’s finished,” Burkle said.

“Sometimes you have to find your way around so many walls, you can’t be afraid of trying a lot of different things to find what makes a song work.”

Audiences will be able to hear what makes “Maze” work when Burkle performs in concert at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14.

The songs from the new album were inspired by the songwriting workshops that Clinton resident Burkle conducted at various King County and Sno-Isle Libraries, and by the lessons of some of his guitar students.

The 15 tunes on “Maze” are unique in style, instrumentation and production and feature accompaniment from a talented bunch of local musicians.

The CD also features colorful and eye-catching cover art by local graphic artist Denis Zimmermann.

Burkle said the album was experimental and forced him to step out of his “box” and see what all these different people could bring to the disc.

“I’ve been working on it for about two years, from writing the songs to producing everything in my bedroom studio,” he said.

Burkle plays almost all the instruments on the album including vocals, drums, bass, guitar, harmonica, keyboard and various sound effects.

But it’s the inspiration from the wider world that makes Burkle shine here as a lyricist and arranger.

“Sometimes people would share thoughts or feelings, sometimes words, sometimes phrases. By the end of the workshop, I would take the jumble of madness and sculpt it into a song. Then it was on to my recording studio to lay down the tracks,” he said.

Indeed, the “Chicken Song,” is a good example of Burkle turning that “jumble” into something unique.

The song was inspired by a library workshop in Carnation that was attended by a fourth-grade class and a group of seniors with Alzheimer’s disease.

The song tells the quirky story of an old lady who loved her colorful chickens. The birds became rock stars and died, but then came back to life. The lyrics reveal the funny, free-association style of imaginative and unhindered children.

Burkle recorded the students singing “I love chicken, baby,” for part of the song’s refrain and then added one of the Alzheimer’s patients ending the song with a tenderly sung verse from “Home on the Range.”

All the songs have that down-home feeling of a connectedness to everyday people and daily life. But there are a few that stand out for a particular quirkiness.

The 31-year-old Burkle wrote “Shout It Out” with two young brothers, Aden and Luca Fallows, who are his students.

Burkle records a mock interview with the Fallows brothers from the premise that they are famous rock stars. The boys do an excellent job of improvising as if they were indeed rock stars with millions of fans. What follows is a Nirvanaesque recording of Burkle singing “Shout It Out,” inspired by the endearing sentiments of Aden and Luca, who dream of a world where people have what they need and boys will rock forever.

Other songs on the disc are not at all quirky but rather catchy, such as the first track entitled “Mirrors,” a pleasantly pop-ish love song in which Burkle pleads for something from his lover beyond the superficial.

Burkle and his student, bass-player Tommy Morgen-Burke, collaborated on the song “Bones,” a soulful riff inspired by the half-true, half-fictitious story of a man traveling a deserted highway to an undetermined destination. Burkle adds a nice touch with the harmonica on the tune, evoking the mournful wail of a man looking for the home that eludes him.

Burkle is happy with the outcome of the CD, and said he was glad to be able to learn what he did from the process. He said he’d like to help other young musicians delve into recording and production and looks forward to the next project.

For now, he just wants to rock the house at the “Maze” release concert and get the album out into the world.

“The tunes are just damn good; something you can feel comfortable connecting to, but different enough to stay interesting,” he said.

“Maze” is available at Joe’s Island Music in Langley and at www.leviburkle.com.

Burkle will be accompanied at the concert by James Hinkley (cello and fiddle), Rachman Ross (drums), Stephan Ross (bass), David Licastro (guitar), Jasper Hayes (guitar and mandolin), Tommy Morgen-Burke (bass), Alec Buchanan (clarinet and sax), Eric Vanderbilt (sax), and Dave Gignac (harmonica).

Tickets cost $15 and are available by calling WICA at 221-8268 or at www.WICAonline.com.