Episode # 14 - Castaway: Ceci Gilson

As Ceci's career transcended time and distance she spent 10 years as a self-made blues expert – hosting a three-hour weekly show at WMUA at UMASS in Amherst, which she called “Tuesday’s Just As Bad”.  Simultaneously, she edited and published a monthly newsletter called “Lucille’s Bluesletter.” It was the dawn of desktop publishing and she distributed (via snail mail) the newsletter nationally and funded it through advertising revenues. This opportunity married her passion for writing with an excuse to write off travel expenses and gain press credentials to music conventions and festivals around the country – The New Orleans Jazz Fest, South by Southwest, The WC Handy Awards in Memphis, Chicago Blues Festival, Long Beach Blues Fest in California, etc.  Throughout the course of her journeys Ceci shared her passion for music with her cohorts and acquaintances; a staff of fellow blues and music fanatics while having the chance to meet and interview luminaries in the music world such as BB King, Jerry Wexler, Clifford Antone, Hammond Scott, Dr. John, Koko Taylor, and many more.

Professionally, Ceci says she was fortunate to transition from a theater promoter into music when she landed a job as publicist and daytime manager at the Iron Horse Music Hall in the cultural mecca of Northampton, MA.  The venue presented live national bands seven nights a week. She had a crash course learning about the contemporary giants of jazz, folk, Celtic, world, and a few other genres she had little experience in.  Although The Iron Horse Music Hall only had 180 seats, some of her most memorable moments in the mid-90s were shows with John Entwistle, The Tragically Hip, Dick Dale, Branford Marsalis, Michael Brecker with Pat Metheny and Jack DeJohnette, the young Medeski Martin & Wood, Moe in their early days, Blondie in her Diva reincarnation, and a gazillion others.  (Sadly she acclaims the show with Uncle Tupelo got cancelled.)

In the mid-90s, Ceci left the prodigious music life she had built for herself to move to Maine to marry and have babies. This resulted in a seven-year hiatus from radio and active music life – although she did some freelance publicity for the Iron Horse from her temporary home in Michigan. (One of my finest long-distance moments there was selling out a 6-performance run in a 2,000-seat theater of The Vagina Monologues with special guest star Dar Williams.)

Seven years later, Ceci’s new love was the sound of the mandolin and that high lonesome sound of Appalachian and mountain gospel music. Anytime she heard a mandolin or a banjo kick off a tune, she stopped and listened.

Today, Ceci hosts “Kitchen Party” on WMPG Radio and has for nearly five years.  She says, “I am following my pattern of learning while I listen & DJ, running through the stacks and building my shows on the fly, segue by segue.  The MPG listeners are extraordinarily gracious, calling with praise, corrections, and suggestions. Thankfully they excuse my worst mistakes!”