More old recordings from Page Wilson's radio show being revived

Classic performances and interviews with more than 40 renowned Americana musical artists for the late Page Wilson’s “Out O’ the Blue Radio Revue” will be aired in coming weeks on the new online radio station The Breeze.

JAMinc presents Page’s Kitchen ... The Swamp Sessions will debut on The Breeze at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 4, with an appearance by the Good Humor Band.

Wilson, who died in 2011 at age 56, would invite touring artists to sit down at his “kitchen table” in his imaginary Chickahominy Swamp hangout. He would feed them gumbo, brisket or some other tasty fare and then engage them in conversation and ask them to play music. Wilson’s “theater of the mind” seemed to charm the musicians, who played along and opened up about their work.

Wilson would select segments of these performances to include in his long-running Saturday night radio show that aired on WVGO, K-95 and ultimately WCVE, now VPM Music. Those interviews dating to the 1980s were recorded on reel-to-reel tapes, which for years sat in cardboard boxes in a garage and were fragile and deteriorating until they were stabilized and an effort to digitize them began.

The first fruit of that labor was aired in 2021, when longtime broadcaster and local music enthusiast Tim Timberlake brought excerpts of some of those interviews back to life in a series of shows called Page’s Kitchen. The next phase of the revival of those conversations and performances—aired in their entirety—are The Swamp Sessions on The Breeze, (www.vabreeze.com)

Episodes will air on Saturdays at 8 p.m. Following the debut with the Good Humor Band on March 4, subsequent episodes will feature such artists as Maura O’Connell, Sun Rhythm Section, James McMurtry, Clancy Brothers, Terry Garland, Robbin Thompson, Zachary Richard, Amazing Rhythm Aces, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Elvin Bishop.

In late April, VPM Music will re-air the original Page’s Kitchen shows Thursday nights at 9 p.m. and then will continue with Swamp Sessions. The episodes also will be up for on-demand streaming on the VPM Music website.