Absolute Irony

Brendan Smith - Part Two Brendan Smith my friend of 40 years, is a great guitar player and songwriter from Sonoma County Calif. He also plays electric guitar in the band Uncle Wiggly, along with John Heide, Tom Padrick, Jeff Forehan and me. In the 70’s he made a cassette of some of his songs and then for years tried to do a pro recording but could never finish. A couple years ago so he made a great CD at Zone Recording called Rough Mixes. We called it that so he didn’t have to feel like it was finished. It is really good, and You can buy it on iTunes and CDBaby. We’d love to hear from you. Check in with us at blair@zonemusic.com.

Brendan Smith - Part One Brendan Smith is a legendary underground guitar player and songwriter from Sonoma County Calif. Now, "legendary underground" is oxymoronic if not ironic, it means he is really good and not that many people know about him. I’ve known about him for 40 years, and he is my favorite songwriter. He also plays ripping electric guitar in the band Uncle Wiggly, along with John Heide, Tom Padrick, Jeff Forehan and me. In the 70’s he made a cassette of 8 of his songs and then for years tried to do a pro recording but could never finish. Finally he came to me and said please produce me, so we made a great CD called "Rough Mixes". We called it that so he didn’t have to feel like it was done. It is really really good, and you can buy it on iTunes and CDBaby.

A few years ago I did a monthly radio show on KRSH FM in Santa Rosa Ca. It was called Happy Hour and I played my favorite funny, happy, amusing, ironic and funny songs. Today I’d like to share what I think are some of the icons of amusing music. These are the giants of silliness. The masters of musical happiness.   I hope you have a very happy hour. You may notice this is a male dominated category.  I'd appreciate your suggestions for an all female Happy Hour. Absolute Irony, a collection of quirky music, comic oddities, and eclectic audio is a production of Zone Recording Studio in Cotati California. I’m Blair Hardman. We love hearing from you.  Email us at blair@zonerecording.com. Thanks

By Blair Hardman Jim Boggio was called the King of the Stomach Steinway, and the Lord of the Belly Baldwin. Keyboard magazine said he was one of the three best accordion players in the United States at the time of his death in 1996. But he was more than a great musician. He was also a comic actor in many radio and TV commercials. But mainly he loved to laugh and loved to make other people laugh. In 1997, a statue of Jim was erected in La Plaza Park in Cotati, the only life sized bronze statue of an accordionist in the world. This is a collection of his work that I assembled for his memorial in 1996. Absolute Irony is a production of Zone Recording in Cotati CA, and ZoneRecording.com. We love hearing from you.  Email us at blair@zonerecording.com. Thanks    

Ken Nordine was a huge influence on me from the first time I heard his “Word Jazz“ album when I was 16 years old. I loved his profound yet kindly voice, and his offbeat stories combined with cool jazz. I even got to interview him once in 1992 on KSRO AM, along with mega harmonica player Howard Levy. Ken was a voice-over and recording artist, best known for his series of Word Jazz albums and Word Jazz NPR radio shows. He had a deep, resonant and kindly voice. Ken has also done thousands of commercial advertisements and movie trailers. This is an interview with Ken Nordine done by Blair Hardman at KSRO AM, Santa Rosa CA, in 1992. Ken Nordine died on February 16, 2019.