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Willie Hutch

In the paper version of Unfair Park this week, I make mention of my interview with Willie Hutch, the Carrollton-born great who, during our 1998 chat at his Cedar Hill recording studio, recounted how he came to write the Jackson 5's immortal "I'll Be There." The story about The Mack, who died in Duncanville in 2005 at the age of 60, can be found here. But here are some links to versions of "I'll Be There" worth a spin during the holiday weekend.

From 1986 comes this proudly sloppy cover by The Replacements, joined during a Boston gig by the great Barrence Whitfield -- you'll get drunk just listening to the thing. Far more respectful (and tuneful) is this version recorded last Sunday night at the BET Awards, during which Tyler's own Jamie Foxx joined Ne-Yo to close the show with their take on the 1970 hit single. But most surprising and moving of all is this hard-to-find find from 1979: the Jacksons themselves, recorded during a concert in Amsterdam. Revelatory, even at this late date.

And don't miss this bonus Jacksons-related, locally connected track, which Pete pointed to earlier this week: Erykah Badu and The Roots' version of "I Wanna Be Where You Are," a hit in 1972 ... and a song later covered by Willie Hutch. Now, the circle is complete.

The watch-listed Danny Hurley sends the sad news: Joe Christ -- filmmaker, musician, provocateur, parent and all-'round hell-raiser -- died on Father's Day. According to the Facebook memorial page to which the faithful have been posting fond memories and farewells, he passed away in his sleep -- heart attack, three days after he'd turned 52.

For those who don't recall Joe, or didn't live in Dallas when he did (throughout most of the 1980s), he was John Waters turned up to 11 -- don't watch this at work, seriously. Shannon Sutlief nailed it in the paper version of Unfair Park in 2005, when she wrote about one of his many frequent trips back to Dallas: "a sultan of sick humor." And speaking of Waters, this is Joe in 1999, talking about perhaps his most infamous moment in Dallas:

As I understand it, John Waters has seen my movies, and considers them "bad" bad taste, as opposed to his concept of "good" bad taste. But when my band pulled a big publicity stunt -- on the 20th anniversary of his assassination, we rode in a limo through the JFK memorial services in Dallas in costumes resembling JFK and company -- John Waters personally congratulated us over the phone on our immensely bad taste.

As for the music, well, "Acid is Groovy ... Kill the Pigs" remains an unheralded surfabilly classic. What you see above is Joe and his late, great band, the Healing Faith, on a Dallas cable access show called Hi-Res Diner hosted by Paul Quigg; it dates back to August 17, 1987, a million years ago.

Courtesy George Gimarc/94.5 Reunion

That's former KDGE jock Wendy Naylor at left, with the Sugarcubes and some oddly familiar young man backstage at the first Edgefest in 1992.

Back in April we brought word of the KDGE-FM 20th anniversary shindig that George Gimarc's been putting together at the Lakewood Theater without a cent from Clear Channel, which ain't got many pennies left. Well, George called this afternoon to remind us that, yes, the thing's still on and, according to his Web site, filling out with a few familiar faces, among them John Easdale of Dramarama, which headlined the first Edgefest at Starplex at Pearl Jam's request. (Says George, Eddie Vedder was worried folks would leave before the band played, as PJ had yet to perform in a venue that held more than 1,000.) Advance tickets are available through the site; George says buy 'em now, "as they're as cheap as they're gonna be" at this very moment.

Oh, and George says he has "loads of Tales from the Edge CDs" available for those who want 'em -- but they only go back as far as the Volume 5-6 two-fer, which features a whole disc's worth of historic DFW punk and new wave (Nervebreakers, The Doo, Telefones, Stick Men with Rayguns, N.C.M., etc.). And the Volume 9-10 double-disc set, featuing previously unreleased New Bos and Buck Pets, is worth owning too. You can get 'em at the reunion, where George expects all the original on-air staffers to show, even those long out of the radio business. "If you can remember them from The Edge, they will be there," he says. "It's kind of like conjuring a ghost."

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This morning I took a peek at the City Plan Commission's agenda for today in the hopes of getting better grasp on the current state of the University of North Texas Dallas Area Plan, at least as presented during the morning briefing by Peer Chacko in Long Range Planning. (It's a ForwardDallas! thing, if you'll recall. No?) But I found this significantly more interesting (to me, anyway) item on the agenda: Only one day after the Dallas City Council gave Clint Barlow the greenlight to replant Trees, the specific use permit process is beginning for yet another current Deep Ellum not-spot.

It was almost one year ago to the day that the Red Blood Club on Commerce Street shut down, claiming it was a victim of the controversial SUP policies and process put in place by the city council in December 2006. Which isn't stopping Roland Young from trying to open up a new joint in the same location that was also once home to Blue Cat Blues: Today, Young will make his case to the City Plan Commission for "a blues bar, lounge or tavern with live music Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays." The staff's recommending approval for a two-year permit, pending a further look at the plans -- which you can take a further look at right here, matter of fact. Check DC9 later today for results from today's meeting.

Last night, as the storm was turning out lights across town, Jeff Liles and Barry Kooda went down to the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff. Jeff brought his video camera; Barry, his acoustic guitar and Loco Gringos' "Texas Ranger Man." Not quite sure who brought the thunder.

Yet again, Clint Barlow went down to City Hall all dressed up, only to find out that, well, it wasn't really necessary. That's because it took "all of three minutes" for the Dallas City Council to approve the specific use permit for Trees, which the City Plan Commission unanimously OK'd one month ago.

And just how long will we have to wait till the re-opening of the venerable Deep Ellum venue that died in Dallas bankruptcy court in December 2005? All goes according to schedule, Barlow says, the joint'll reopen on August 14.

"I'll know better in the next week or so," he tells Unfair Park. "I have some tentative bands lined up, some local stuff, for the opening, but a lot of bands have come out of the woodwork who've broken up who want to play the club, so it's pretty cool."

He says construction will begin immediately -- as in, this very moment, as scaffolding's being set into place to crews can begin tearing out the ceiling tomorrow. (He says a dumpster should be out front right .. about ... now.) But there's still significant remodeling to do, not to mention the installation of the sound system, all of which Barlow and his wife Whitney and one other partner are paying for all by their lonesomes.

"It's costly," he says. "We're putting everything we've got into it. We're going broke, or we're gonna do kick-ass, one of the two." He laughs. "It's always easy for everybody to talk about it, but till you try ..." He pauses, then laughs again. "And that's where are. We'll see how it goes."

If you want a sneak peek at what KERA's new frequency will sound like, Paul Slavens's podcast is a "microcosm." That, and World Cafe.

I just got off the phone with Deborah Johnson, the senior veep of marketing at KERA, who was more than happy to answer any and all questions concerning its just-announced, fall-debuting music-only radio station, 91.7 on your FM dial. And, yes, that's the very same frequency currently occupied by The Truth, a Christian talk station owned by Covenant Educational Media, Inc. But Johnson says the owners were looking to sell -- which is how, 18 months ago, KERA management began looking into acquiring the frequency.

"We did a lot of due diligence with the board to see how other public Triple-A radio stations were operated," she says. "We looked at the funding models in other urban markets and put together a business plan, and we decided it was an opportunity we couldn't pass by because it would probably never present itself again."

In the end, KERA purchased the frequency for $18 million, Johnson says.

"That comes from prudent operation of the station," she tells Unfair Park. "We're pretty frugal when it comes to managing our operating budget, so we had the money necessary to get it started on an operating basis. We're also working with three lenders who specialize in nonprofit lending, and we were able to negotiate financing terms even in this economy because our financial situation is strong."

As for what the station will sound like in the fall, look no further than Paul Slavens's biweekly "Track by Track" podcast. "That points to the direction of the station in the future," Johnson says, adding that the show is a "microcosm" of 91.7's future. But she also says such stations as Minnesota Public Radio's The Current, Philadelphia's WXPN and Seattle's KEXP ("Where Music Matters") served as role models during the exploratory process.

Just received a press release from KERA-FM concerning its latest acquisition: 91.7 on your FM dial. So many questions, which we'll get to shortly, but I wanted to offer the announcement in the meantime. The takeaway?

KERA has yet to select a name for the new station. The programming on 91.7 FM will be within the public radio "Triple A" (Adult Album Alternative) music format with diverse, adult-oriented playlists covering a broad spectrum of music such as folk, acoustic, world music, alternative and indie rock and country. Among the programs under consideration for the new station are World Café (distributed by NPR), Echoes (from Public Radio International), Undercurrents (from Native Voice One), American Routes (from American Public Media), plus music specials. NPR news headlines will be broadcast at the top of the hour. KERA's own local programs will include interviews, studio performances and arts-related news and commentary.

Such good news, as the station preps for its "fall 2009" debut. The full release follows.

A recent late-spring clean-up resulted in the discovery of a stash of Dallas-related 78s I'd collected back when I was music editor, which was some time between the switchover from cylinder recordings to reel-to-reel. Most are the scratchy leftovers of forgotten footnotes; one or two sound like sandpaper rubbing against the echo of a pedal steel. But among the pile, which also includes out-of-print 45s from long-ago busted-up Dallas bands from the '50s through the early '90s, I found this gem worth sharing on this flashback Friday: Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers' "Palace in Dallas," a mid-'40s B-side that survived just long enough for me to transfer it from shellac to MP3 today before it cracked in half when I laid it on a soft surface, awesome.

Boyd was a local -- born in Ladonia in Fannin County in 1910, but moved to Dallas in '29, where three years later, he debuted the first iteration of the Cowboy Ramblers on WRR before going on to record hundreds of titles for a handful of labels. Boyd, who died in Dallas in '77, remains a beloved figure among your more hardcore Western swing afficianados -- you know, those who'll spend hours arguing whether Milton Brown and the Musical Brownies were better than Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. If "Palace in Dallas" does it for you, take heart: Archive.org has some 90 downloadable Cowboy Ramblers MP3s (scroll down) for your listening pleasure, and the Western Swing on 78 blog offered more than 100 tunes back in '07 that appear to be accessible to this day.

In coming weeks, I'll share these bits of local history here and over on DC9 at Night. Assuming, of course, they don't snap in half for no good reason before then.

Bonus MP3: Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers, "Palace in Dallas"

Since last we checked in on efforts to resurrect the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff, my old friend Jeff Liles -- a "consultant" on the project -- has been hard at work parading folks in and out of the old joint for some stripped-down performances, a lovely bonus. I've given Pete one to post over on DC9, featuring Chris Savage of the Buck Pets performing a Mercurotones bonus track; writes Jeff, "I bet he hasn't played that song in twenty years." I'm going instead with Lara Lenhoff's "The Very Thought of You," only because, well, I've always loved that song, so there.

Lara Lenhoff at the Kessler Theatre