Bob Zentz Rings in the New Year on "The Midnight Special"

Honored, long-running folk radio show originates in Chicago; streams live on Internet; will be rebroadcast on XM satellite radio

December 26, 2009 -- Listeners everywhere can join Bob Zentz LIVE on New Year’s Eve, Thursday, December 31, via streaming Internet as Virginia’s folk troubadour guests on the fabled “Midnight Special.”

The broadcast takes place on the eve of Bob’s tour of the Midwest and West Coast (Chicago/San Diego/Los Angeles/Portland OR/Seattle).

Zentz will sing selections including his classic “The End of Another Year,” widely covered by other artists yet only now available on a Bob Zentz recording, the upcoming CD “Horizons.”

“The New Year’s Eve ‘Midnight Special’ is one of the most anticipated shows of our broadcast year,” says Rich Warren, host of the program for most of the last 26 years of the show’s 56-year run. Zentz will join fellow guests Christine Lavin, Megon McDonough and Chris Walz in the live portion of the program between 10 PM - 1:15 AM Central Time; the complete program runs from 8 PM-2 AM CST.

The program streams live at:
http://www.wfmt.com/main.taf?p=4,5,8

and will also be rebroadcast on “The Village” on XM satellite radio – check for times:
http://www.xmradio.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=XM/Channel/ChannelProgramList&chid=1236793144280&c=Channel

The Midnight Special has aired on Chicago’s WFMT-FM (98.7 MHz) since 1953, and took its name from the traditional song of the same name sung by Lead Belly. Following on the heels of former hosts – comedian and film director Mike Nichols, Norm Pellegrini and Ray Nordstrand – as well as various guest hosts including Tom Paxton, Warren brings “folk music and farce, show tunes and satire, madness and escape” to an audience base that has grown, with the advent of the Internet and satellite, to global proportions.

Zentz wrote “The End of Another Year” in 1995 for Norfolk’s first and only “First Night” celebration. “At the end of a year that saw the closing of our beloved music shop, ‘Ramblin’ Conrad’s,’ I thought about all of the many reasons I had to be thankful,” remembers Zentz. “This song is about those reasons, which we remember every time we are privileged to make ‘one more journey around the sun.’”

"Horizons" is a collection of fourteen songs written, arranged, or set to music by Zentz over the past forty years that will be released January 1, 2010 on Folk-Legacy Records, a label that has produced music by some of the world's best-known folk artists, including Zentz’s first two albums, one of which was lauded by Johnny Cash as "one of the finest works I've heard by any artist."

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For five decades, Bob Zentz has been at the heart of the Hampton Roads traditional music scene. The Norfolk native performs internationally yet still lives and plays in his hometown, and is active in nurturing the next generation of traditional music performers, in the belief that the future of our world depends upon our youth, and music. Information about Bob's music, life, friends, performances, and programs for all ages – elementary school to elders – is available at www.bobzentz.com

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