Our Saturday morning folk show (see Jesse James behind the wheel) at the undergraduate station was a hybrid of music, a juxtaposition of sounds that didn't always sound the best together but we made them work the best we could. The majority of music played during the four hours was generally referred to as "contemporary folk." In reality, I suspect most of it could have easily been played during the "softer" rock shifts; the only reason why it wasn't probably had to do with popularity. That is, Counting Crows could sound folkie but were still thought of a rock group. Sons of the Never Wrong were classified as folk and it was the folk show that highlighted them. Regularly.
Brad Phasner, the originator of the folk program, had sent word to records labels and magazines promoting this as well as asking for complimentary copies of albums to help boost our fledging library. One of the discs received was Three Good Reasons by a Chicago-based group called Sons of the Never Wrong. It did not take long for the title track to garner airplay and become a fast favorite of Brad, me, and listeners who called in asking who they were.
They were Sue Demel, Bruce Roper, and Nancy Walker, taking their collective name from mumbling through The Guns of Navarone. Three Good Reasons was their debut release on the Waterbug label, and four more albums have followed, the most recent being 2005’s Nuthatch Suite. Walker has since been replaced by Deborah Lader.
Three good things about listeners during the folk show that I never got from other shifts? One, listeners actually seemed generally interested in the music. There was no other format I was aware of that had people calling in and wanting to know where we got the album. Could they get a copy? (No.) Could we tell them how to buy a copy? (Yes.) Which is why Brad always gave out record label information in the early days of the program. Second, listeners seldom sounded like students, which all but proved that this type of music was attracting a community-wide audience that had only been assumed. Now we had proof. And certain people called often enough you might recognize voices. Third, and most bizarre to me, was that listeners went to bat for us. When the folk show was bumped from Saturday to Sunday mornings because of the Foreign Language department, I was told a few people called to protest – one going as far to say he would skip church for this music. I always assumed he ended up missing church because, while appreciated, his one call didn't sway station management.
There may have been a fourth reason but I couldn't think of it at the moment.
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Three Good Reasons
(Roper)
Sons of the Never Wrong
From the album Three Good Reasons
1995
And Mary was amazed that they would ever even meet
But god her help he sought his trinity to complete
And god said to Mary
Dear Mary please trust me what I’m about to do
But I’ve got three good reasons
Three good reasons
Three good reasons
And one of them is you
And there are three sisters
One prayer, one hymn, one graces
Whose countenance is required in whole or part
And often found in quite places
They will stand and watch over your shoulder
Smile on and see you through
Cause they’ve got three good reasons
Three good reasons
Three good reasons
And one of them is you
And where the ocean meets the land everything seems to rise and fall
You get caught up in all the motion
And never hear the simple things when they call
Oh you can stand out on a mountain top
And why the sky’s so blue
But that’s cause there are three good reasons
Three good reasons
Three good reasons
And one of them is you
