By Brian Bockelman
Remember that snow storm back in February that brought a whopping 15 inches of snow and drifts as high as 15 feet in the Iowa City area? Well, Local Tunes hosts Jason Larson and Joe McGuire sure do, because they were walking through it. Determined to expose listeners to the talents of local musicians as they do every Tuesday night from 10 pm – 12 am, they trekked through the icy terrain of Iowa City to the studio.
If you love local music, or music in general for that matter, then you’ll love the Local Tunes program. Created by Jason Larson, Local Tunes is all about “supporting and promoting local music” and tries to get a different musical guest to come in every week. In fact, they have new guests so frequently that they’ve “lost count of the number of guests (they’ve) had in-studio or phone-in over the past two years,” says Jason. Besides local music, Local Tunes also plays the music of bands that are going to be playing shows in Iowa City, with home-roots stretching from coast to coast.
Along with live and phone-in interviews, Local Tunes have also had many live in-studio performances from local groups such as White Tornado, Johnny Oaahn Point, and Koplant No. They even had eight musicians from the Bloco Flocorico Afro Samba School come in and play an all acoustic performance on the air, one that Larson ranks among his most memorable performances.
Whether you want to get more in touch with the Iowa City music scene or just want to hear a band on the air that you know is coming through town soon, Local Tunes is where it’s at. Airing on Tuesday nights form 10 p.m. – 12 a.m., you can count on this determined duo to be bringing you local jams over the airwaves no matter what the elements may bring.
For more Local Tunes information and playlists, check out their blog, MySpace page, or Facebook group:
http://localtuneskrui.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/localtunesonkrui
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=88271837793
