Friday, February 25, 2011

The Mystery Train.

There is no limit to the musical knowledge of Irish broadcaster John Kelly. I have been listening to him for years now on various shows that he has done and he never fails to surprise or impress.
He currently works on a daytime show on Lyric FM called The JK Ensamble, but the greatest radio show he has ever been involved with, in my opinion was 'The Mystery Train' which ran for 8 years (1998-2006).
This was the most extraordinary mix of music you could ever find on one programme and I  personally owe a huge amount of gratitude to it for expanding my music collection.
If the word 'eclectic' could ever be used appropriately, it would fit perfectly to describe this show which featured music as diverse as John Coltrane, Kraftwerk, Patsy Cline, Bjork, Arvo Part and these are just some of the more 'mainstream' names.
Declan McManus aka Elvis Costello was a regular co-host on the show and introduced some incredible additions to the airwaves from his record collection, including the  'Ethiopiques' series of albums that opened up a huge interest in World music in Ireland.
Over the course of the 8 year or so run, the award winning 'Mystery Train' achieved a huge cult following and even became a subject of discussion and praise in the Irish senate on its demise on July 2006.
All good things come to an end but thankfully the shows dating from November 24th 2005 to July 13th 2006 are audio archived here to listen to. The final show has phone call contributions from Elvis Costello and Bono.
You will require Realplayer to listen to these shows....






http://www.rte.ie/radio/mysterytrain/index.html

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