The Host of Sunday Rock Vespers and The Afternoon DJ on THE ROCK

THE PROFESSOR's BIO

                I was born in North Alabama back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and came of age sometime after the end of the “war of northern aggression”, as my mama always called it.  Love of music was my only means of emotional survival in those formative days.  I cherish a fuzzy precognizant memory of how my parents’ 78 rpm, big band jazz recordings (Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, etc.) were used as lullabies.  My earliest true memories are likewise permeated with musical groove. An ancient black woman named Hallie, full of soul and of undetermined age, was my close companion during infancy and childhood.  Sometimes I think I can yet feel her planetary bosom, smell tobacco snuff on her breath or hear her husky voice crooning a simple gospel or blues phrase.  Her record collection was small but seminal—I mean, how many little cripple cracker kids ate their grits to the tunes of Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker?  I also learned the joys of ducking out of church on Sunday mornings so I could “cross the tracks” to a rundown boarding house on the Tennessee River.  If I was lucky and he felt like it, I could listen to my “black sheep” Uncle Otha Lee blow the mouth harp and play the blues on an old slide guitar that he got with Top Value stamps.  It was my good fortune that my siblings were also attracted to music.  My older sister lived and breathed Elvis and my older brother brought home (from unidentified and unsavory sources, according to our mother) recordings by the likes of Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding.

                Growing up with this interesting soundtrack in my head, it is little wonder that my interests and vocations have made for a long strange pilgrimage in life.  In my time I have been a museum curator, a preacher, a college professor, a scuba instructor, a counselor, a theologian, a sorcerer’s apprentice, an historian, an archeologist, an archivist, an art smuggler, a story-teller, a musician and now, once again, a radio host.  I had my first fling with radio in the late 1960’s as a teenaged kid, hanging around bumming smokes at my town’s only rock and roll radio station, WAJF-AM.  From the time I was five years old, people always said my voice and face were perfect for radio, so when I moved to Auburn in the late 1980’s (to study history with Annie Bond’s renowned scholar dad), I hooked up with the campus station WEGL-FM.  For several years I hosted a variety of specialty shows such as The Blues Show and The Backporch (bluegrass/acoustic program) and for four years, The Golden Oldies Show.

                Undoubtedly a person of my ilk would eventually come upon Wildman Steve Bronson, who was the proprietor of a very cool Auburn record store I frequented. Through the years we discovered a vast galaxy of interests and opinions that were common to the both of us, and what I would like to think of as a close friendship has been the result.  In me, Wildman Steve found a willing accomplice to help him bring about his radical dream of transforming a fairly good classic rock radio station into a superbly new kind of musical vehicle entirely.  Sure, we would play classic rock and Indie rock and alternative rock and some jam band stuff, but way beyond that we would find great music of every kind, old and new, from everywhere … be it progressive rock, soul, folk, reggae, punk, funk, jazz, zydeco, blues, Americana, world, new age, R&B, bluegrass, swamp stomp and obscure music of the American Southland—especially that stuff which denies categorization and therefore would never get played anywhere else.  I’ve always been a radio junkie but most places I’ve lived have offered disappointing and artistically un-stimulating radio listening options.  Until now, that is.  Wow, it is nothing short of revolutionary to hear NO corporate schwag, nothing played over and over, merely great music from all genres and all eras!

                For close to four years now I have been making my contribution to this tasty gumbo via Sunday Rock Vespers, from 7-9 pm, every Sunday night. I see this as a great opportunity to introduce some significant and exhilarating sounds to my friends and neighbors.  I put a lot of thought into each show and try to include something provoking or musically unexpected each week.  The program not only takes its name and groove directly from the “Jazz Vespers” of the 1950-70’s but also from the “end of day” rituals and traditions of many cultures, whose vesper observances revered and called upon the setting sun for the blessings of tomorrow.  In that sense, each Sunday, at the setting sun, SRV plays music that is uplifting or reflective, with the purpose of refocusing energy for the week ahead.  On any given Sunday, the diversity is extreme--ranging from the Allman Brothers to John Scofield, from James McMurtry to Los Hombres Calientes, from the Meters to John Zorn; yet all are bound together as a seamless fabric by the common threads of astonishingly talented musicians, intriguing rhythms, and inspired composition.  Please tune us in.  I’m sure you’ll like most of what you hear.

Your friend,

The Right Rev. Peter “The Heater” Branum

AKA Silly Rabbi, Peter Piper, Curator of Soul & Professor Peter

Musical Affiliations:

The Henchmen, Soul Invasion, The Congregation, Silver Lake, Psychotronic Blues Unit, The Sorghum Biscuit Boys, Burns and the Sideburns, Fat Elvis, One Drop, Pretty Beat Up, Absinthe Minded,  The Morbid Carbuncle Choir

Musical Influences:

Babatunde Olatunji, Cozy Cole, Sam Meyers, Bo Didley, Otis Redding, Col. Bruce Hampton, Captain Beefheart, Bill Summers

Philosophical Influences:

Brother Dave Gardner, Lao-Tzu, Black Elk, Jesus, the Ranters, Eddie Owen Martin (St. EOM)

Peter and Friends with Randy Newman

"PROFESSOR PETER" BRANUM - AFTERNOONS