Phil Shapiro: Still 'Bound for Glory' after 40 years

The setting is the same as it has been for more than 1,200 Sundays -- a modest stage, some microphones, coffee brewing nearby and a small, engaged audience.

WVBR's "Bound For Glory," a beacon for folk-music lovers, is celebrating its 40th season on the air and continuing a tradition of free concerts for all ages, broadcasting live folk music from Cornell's Anabel Taylor Hall to the community and the world listening online.

Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson has declared Aug. 27 "Bound for Glory Day" as the 2006-07 season kicks off with a show by bluesman Josh White Jr.

Phil Shapiro, M.A. '69, has hosted "Bound for Glory" from its start at Brandeis University, even before he arrived at Cornell in 1967 as a graduate student in economics.

"Almost everything sooner or later becomes folk music -- the music that people share with each other," Shapiro says. "Even some early rock 'n' roll is now considered folk music."

The show was originally broadcast as "Live from the Commons Coffeehouse," the Anabel Taylor room that is still home to the program and is now the Cul de Snack Café.

"The thing that makes it fun is the live audience," Shapiro says. "It's one of the best live audiences anywhere. They will sing, sometimes unbidden, on choruses. They're actually listening."

In the beginning, the show featured local and regional performers almost exclusively. Over the years Shapiro has welcomed The Highwoods String Band, Mark Rust, The Horse Flies, Traonach, The Chicken Chokers (now The Hix) and banjo player Mac Benford's band UpSouth, as well as such nontraditional bands as Rochester's Colorblind James Experience and Watkins and the Rapiers.

Now the lineup is mostly touring acts of some renown, and the show has a worldwide listening audience online.

"The show nowadays feels very similar to what it did back then, except the caliber of the performers is now much higher," Shapiro says. "It's become a stop on a national tour."

Those who have stopped by include Christine Lavin, Mike Seeger, Aztec Two-Step, Roy Book Binder, Chris Smither, Bill Morrissey, John McCutcheon, Garnet and Stan Rogers, Guy Davis, Rosalie Sorrels and U. Utah Phillips.

The show remains a labor of love for all involved. Shapiro, the performers and the technical crew -- Terry Kelleher, Dave Rice and Ted Robinette -- are all unpaid.

"We pay performers in magic, which works," Shapiro says. "I always say that 'Bound for Glory' is a ratifying experience. Anybody who's a traveling folk musician has periods when they wonder why they do this. [Performing on the show] tells them, yes, I have something to say, and people want to hear what I have to say, and I want to do this. Lot of people come back again because it's so much fun."

The Friends of Bound for Glory, formed in 1996, purchases and maintains equipment and attends to the performers' needs, from a meal and a place to stay to CDs of their appearance. Members also vote on an annual "Best of Bound for Glory" award in October, given to one of the previous year's acts.

"We want to make performers feel that somebody cares," Shapiro says.

"Bound For Glory" broadcasts 33 live shows per year, with the other 19 weeks devoted to "albums from the studios." Since 1967, Shapiro has logged more than 2,000 shows and 6,000 hours of airtime.

Folk music is as much a participatory art as it is an entertainment experience. A professional musician since the 1960s, Shapiro now performs in a traditional folk duo with fiddler Carrie Shore. He also has coached thousands -- that's no exaggeration -- of beginning and intermediate guitarists since 1968 (including this writer) in group folk guitar classes in Willard Straight Hall (WSH) each semester. The next eight-week round of classes, a program of the WSH Student Union Board, begins Monday, Sept. 11.

"I've never been a believer that the folk tradition is static. It is growing, and people are writing thousands and thousands of songs. What I'm looking for on 'Bound for Glory' is people who respect the folk tradition. People whose songs tell stories and use motifs that have been handed down, or have the feel of the old songs to them. It's an ongoing tradition."

"Bound for Glory" can be heard live on WVBR, 93.5 and 105.5 FM, Sundays from 8 to 11 p.m., and online at http://wvbr.com/bfg.html.

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