Wordy-Gurdy on the radio, October

For this special show, we spoke with songwriters extraordinaire Yvonne Norman and Rita Grimm (now Moak) in Bossier City, Louisiana, across the Red River from Shreveport. The music cultures of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma spill into this fertile area, ArkLaTex aka Arklatexoma, where the four states meet. It’s no wonder that filmmakers flock to its forests, bayous and waterways.

Yvonne and Rita were contracted to Fame Studios, Muscle Shoals in the years when songwriters took their songs to recording studios and hung out there, honing their creations. Fame’s founder Rick Hall coached the duo, driving home the ethos of rewriting again and again to perfect the hook.

With a catalogue comprising 600 songs, the sisters have had their work recorded by the likes of Wilson Pickett, Dobie Gray, Mac Davis and Bobbie Gentry. Songs have been covered to make international hits by artists such as Sylvia Vartan (France, ‘Thunder in the afternoon’) and even integrated into rap (‘She’s so tight’).

Thanks to host Roger Taylor, taking over the cockpit from the globetrotting Helen Jennings.

Tracks
‘Why are people like that?’, Maria Muldaur, Steady Love Sroney Plain, 3:14
‘Thunder in the afternoon’, Mac Davis
‘She’s so tight’, Wilson Pickett
‘Thunder in the afternoon,’ Bobbie Gentry

Gigs
Station Hotel goodbye, 3-8pm, Saturday, Prahran
The Moonee Valley Drifters 4-8pm, Sunday, Royal Derby, Fitzroy
MBAS PBS 106.7 FM Blues Performer of the Year Finals 5-10pm Sunday GH (Greyhound) Hotel, 1 Brighton Rd St Kilda