“Sweeney’s Gumbo YaYa”plays a wide range of music originating from New Orleans on two community radio stations in Western Washington (Olympia and Bellingham) and is available through Pacific Network airing on community stations around the country.
This show is for the rare breed of listener who enjoys a wide mix of music selected by a real person, not an algorithm. I try to tell the story of how this 300-year-old city became an essential source of our music culture. It doesn’t always work but in the process you will hear blues, jazz, R&B, hip hop, folk, cajun, zydeco, Mardi Gras Indian, rock, and everything in between-new and old. It’s music from New Orleans, as well as Lafayette and Baton Rouge. You can listen to the shows from this website or tune in directly (air times below). By the way, I am a volunteer deejay and the show and website generates zero dollars. I even pay to keep the bloody ads. off.
While I live in the Northwest, I was born in New Orleans and attended Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School at the corner of Freret and Napoleon from kindergarten to fourth grade in the 60’s. I wore the uniform required of Catholic students — khaki shorts, black tie and saddle oxford shoes. Lourdes is no longer a school but I still wear the khaki shorts.
To get a flavor of the show, here’s a bit about the show’s patron saint, Ernie K-Doe!
I visit New Orleans annually and I stay plugged in with help from New Orleans musicians who respond to my emails, by reading Offbeat, listening to stations like WWOZ and WHYR in Baton Rouge, and by talking with friends and connections. I also follow all my favorite NOLA artists through my facebook page. If you poke around this website, you’ll find articles, interviews and pictures of bands and musicians performing in New Orleans and the Northwest. Let me know what you think.
Thursdays, 10 a.m. – KAOS, 89.3 FM Olympia – Live
Fridays, 7 p.m.. – KMRE, 102.3 FM Bellingham – Same show edited from the day before and its the version you will likely hear from this website.
Following Thursdays, 8 p.m. – KIDE, 91.2 FM Hoopa Tribal Radio – Previous week show usually.
Sometimes on WHPW, 97.3 FM Harpswell Maine
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Sweeney's Gumbo YaYa 
Hello,
Thanks for the shout outs on the show. That particular stack of 45rpm phonograph records were discovered at a second hand store in Beaumont, TX. Stopped off on the way to Lafayellte to hunt up records and stuff. Also stopped in Port Arthur and Lake Charles but this was by far the best find. There were a few other r&b singles in there but they’ve since been absorbed into the general stacks of wax. Anywho, glad you are enjoying them.
ta,
Calvin Johnson
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Your show is bomb today, thank you for sharing! Where could I find a track list of the songs you played in order on your show today on kaos? There was a band I heard and I couldn’t quite make out the name.
Melissa
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Spinitron.com – Look for KAOS and my show. It will give you the times when I played. If that fails, we can talk and I’ll figure it out.
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I’d love to carry this on KOCF, Fern Ridge Community Radio, but it appears I’d have to edit it each week to put in a station ID. Is this correct? Great show! Allen (Program Director)
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