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Be a part of history with your pledge of only $89.50! Put your name or the name of a loved one on one of our 177 high-density LP storage shelves. Enter your dedication text in the "Additional information Order notes (optional)" during checkout. It can be your name, your family name, a friend's name... anyone you want to remember! -
Black & White Baseball Cap w/WPKN Oval Logo -
Black & White Baseball Cap w/WPKN Record Logo -
BRAND NEW WPKN bumper stickers are here! Show your support for WPKN and get one of each for only $10! Dimensions: 9" x 3" -
From Kenya's Ubuntu Life. Massai Maker-Mums create these beaded bracelets with proceeds going to help their center for children with disabilities. -
The Greatest Radio Station in the World, a film by Cob Carlson
You are invited to a private pre-screening of the WPKN Documentary film in the privacy of your own home! "The Director's Cut" with a run time of 2:20 minutes. WPKN will send your unique access code by email within 48 hours for "The Greatest Radio Station in the World" on Vimeo. The access code is good for 6 months, but once you activate it, you have a window of 72 hours to watch the film. $50 Pledge = Movie -
WPKN Record Logo Cork Turntable Mat -
Short Sleeve WPKN Record Logo (designed by Martha Willette Lewis) in Black - 100% Ring-spun, Cotton T-Shirt. -
Check out our WPKN 60th Anniversary commemorative mug! Cheers to 60 years of commercial free, listener supported, freeform radio...still going strong, thanks to YOU! Help us keep it going for another 60 years. -
Check out our new bag style with our retro WPKN logo. Durable, multifunctional bag can be used to carry records, your laptop, pack it for an overnight trip- possibilities are endless! Has a zipper and a convenient pocket to hold your water bottle. -
WPKN Earth Day Reusable Shopping Bag - $40 Pledge -
WPKN Cannabis Grinder - $65 Pledge -
The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics is an authoritative text, providing standard versions of all the original songs you thought you knew forwards and backwards. These are some of the best-loved songs in the modern American songbook. They are hummed and spoken among thousands as counterculture code and recorded by musicians of all stripes for their inimitable singability and obscure accessibility. How do they do all this? To provide a context for this formidable body of work, of which his part is primary, Robert Hunter has written a foreword that goes to the heart of the matter. And the annotations on sources provide a gloss on the lyrics, which goes to the roots of Western culture as they are incorporated into them. An avid Grateful Dead concertgoer for more than two decades, David Dodd is a librarian who brings to the work a detective’s love of following a clue as far as it will take him. Including essays by Dead lyricists Robert Hunter and John Perry and Jim Carpenter’s original illustrations, whimsical elements in the lyrics are brought to light, showcasing the American legend that is present in so many songs. A gorgeous keepsake edition of the Dead’s official annotated lyrics, The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics is an absolute must-have for the fiftieth anniversary—you won’t think of this cultural icon the same way again. In fact, founding band member Bob Weir said: “This book is great. Now I’ll never have to explain myself.” -
Take an extra burst of power with you wherever you go with the WPKN Charmast Portable Power Pack. Fits right in your pocket, this nifty little device will charge up any of your portable electronics devices. Its compatible with all brands through USB connection.
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After more than two decades together, the three members of Genticorum form one of the tightest units on the planet. In music from their native Québec (both traditional and original) they have found a rich seam that clearly has plenty of treasures to mine.... It crackles with gleeful energy. The interplay between the instruments and harmonies is sharp and adept, yet still a completely natural, high-octane conversation that constantly shifts from one player to another. Read a review and listen to the music. -
Lebeha Drummers formed in 2003 in Hopkins Village in Belize as an after-school program dedicated to nurturing and transmitting the music’s unique percussion, vocals, and dance styles to young Garifuna. Rooted in Garifuna spiritual practices, its energetic percussive character, dance movements, and vocals resonate with other West African and Amerindian genres brought together in a cultural efflorescence inadvertently sparked by the European colonial adventure in the erstwhile New World. Michael Stone, in his review in RootsWorld. -
Mbalax rhythms underpin split-second horn blasts, hypnotic, stoned discharges of Seck’s fuzz-drenched lead guitar, and Sarr’s deep, soaring vocals on the long awaited return of Senegambian band Dieuf-Dieul De Thiès. Recorded on analog equipment brought to St. Louis, Senegal from France, with the rhythm section recorded live while vocals and horns were tracked in separate booths, the music percolates, complimenting their earlier work without feeling forced or antiquated. Bruce Miller, in his review in RootsWorld. -
It's a year and a half since Simon Emmerson, the founder and guiding light of Afro Celt Sound System, died. But the band lives on, playing a fresh set of dates to coincide with the release of OVA, Emmerson's swansong with the group. It's a beautiful piece of work, and from the opening notes of "The Hawk Owl's Lament," which swoops and glides, rises and dives like the bird, everything is pitched just right. It's a reminder of just what he achieved with Afro Celt Sound System, as well as all his other projects. He was the imagination behind them all, and the glue that held them together. Chris Nickson, in his review in RootsWorld. -
"Sometimes it can be better to accept and not examine things too deeply. Let it flow and enjoy it. Take Tranquebar's music. In many ways, what the Danish band creates shouldn't work. The mix of banjo, voice, accordion, and percussion is beautifully ramshackle (at least on the surface). Yet it succeeds, and it does it in a fashion that's quite mesmerizing. Ø is actually a collection of four EPs, each recorded on a different Danish island (hence the title, as Ø means island). And each island exerts a subtle influence on the shading of the music." Chris Nickson, in his review in RootsWorld. -
If you’ve heard any maloya music from the Indian Ocean island of Réunion, the chances are it brings to mind a characteristic rhythm played on percussion, and probably an image of today’s best-known maloya musician internationally, Danyel Waro, energetically shaking his rectangular flat kayamb shaker. Ann O’aro’s third recording isn’t at all like that, even though she’s toured with Waro, and his son Bino is the percussionist in her band, along with trombone player Teddy Doris and electronic manipulations by Brice Nauroy. Bleu is an album far from the usual, far from what’s generally thought of as maloya, and indeed music that wouldn’t immediately be identified as from Réunion. For both Ann O’aro and the music of Réunion, it’s quite a step, and an interesting one. Read Andrew Cronshaw's review and listen to some of the music. -
Award-winning journalist and CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir draws on his years of immersive travel and reporting to share the best ideas and stories of hope and positivity from the people and communities around the world who are thriving in the wake of climate change, and what we can learn from them to build a more promising future. -
Salvant’s ability to sing in multiple languages is, in part, due to her being the child of a French mother and Haitian father. She began classical piano studies at 5, sang in a children’s choir at 8, and started classical voice lessons as a teenager. She emerged with a vocal range and talent that one might expect from a performer with significantly more life experience. Yet this old soul, who generally surrounds herself with performers in their 30s, brings a layered depth to her music that comes from historical research and an ability to unearth forgotten songs and make them her own. The story of Mélusine has a common theme of imagining women as witches, mermaids and other transformative creatures from Greek mythology. It conjures a European folklore legend sung in French, Occitan and Haitian Creole, with her own compositions, and selections dating from the 12th Century. She uses these songs and stories in part to convey a character she often plays in her work - an intelligent coquette who is more interested in playing with men’s affection than seeking it out. - Lisa Sahulka -
Omar Sosa and Paolo Fresu have a three album trilogy, Eros and Alma, and now their latest, Food, takes on another layer of their cross cultural musical exploration. What elevates Omar Sosa's playing is that his improvisational muse is grounded by the clave and montuno of Afro-Cuban music. Sosa may go farther afield but he always comes back to the invisible scaffolding of Cuban music. These parameters are joyous constraints that make him so interesting to listen to. Paolo Fresu is an Italian trumpeter from Sardinia Italy, who is often compared to the moody atmospheres Miles Davis and Chet Baker conjured. On Food, Sosa and Fresu have created a beautiful album that channels the joy of food, the communal table life, and also the implications of climate change, in an emotional and intimate album. Read Lisa Sahulka's review and listen. -
Back in 2019, we were introduced to Bâton Bleu's Weird and Wonderful Tales and their "hybrid of styles from France, Louisiana, Mongolia, and elsewhere” as David Cox wrote in his review. The France based duo of Maria Laurent and Gautier Degandt, and their quirky songs in French and English, were enchanting and sometimes disorienting. As we approach the end of 2023, Gautier Degandt returns with a new ensemble, with all the quirkiness, and a harder edge. En Gramma ("the trace that memory left”) is a trio of Degandt on lead voice, and kalimba here and there, with Oscar Philéas on guitars and chorus, and Pierre-Yves Dubois on percussion, chorus and occasional violin. Beau Brûlis (Burnt Beauty) is an adventure, a complex mixture of subtly, rawness and humor. It leans heavily on blues guitar structures, but I'll not call it blues, or rock. They call it 'trance rock,' but I am not sure if I am so much mesmerized as simply fascinated. - Cliff Furnald in RootsWorld
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