• "the amazing barbara k. came in to our studio and sang five songs. she is absolute magic for me!"
  ~john aielli

  

  John's well-known for his broad musical tastes and is a beloved Austin institution. He has been honored many times by listeners in the Austin Chronicle's Reader's Poll: Best Radio DJ (2006), Best Morning Radio Host (1990-1992, 2001-2003), and Best Talk Radio Host (1996, 1998, and 2000).

  Visit Aielli Unleashed

Texamericana Social Hour debuts on KAXE in Northeren Minnesota

• 

  Linda Johnson of KAXE had found a discarded "Undercover-the songs of timbuk3" CD in the unwanted bin of her radio station. She picked it out, looked into it, became curious that the songs were recorded with no overdubs. She listened to it, she liked it, and she looked up the website, barbarakooyman.net. There she learned of Sparrows Wheel, the philanthropic record company, and wanted an interview with Barbara. Linda became informed of Texamericana, that now any artist or label can help to create a new stream of donations for community stations. She became excited.

  Linda asked which artists were consigned and if KAXE had any of the CDs already in their library. Sure enough, some of the CDs were already there. She wanted to feature them on Sunday morning. Barbara told her about the concept for the Texamericana Social Hour, a one hour radio show of music from artists who support nonprofit radio. She would be the first DJ to program a show that features music available in Texamericana.

  Sara Hickman, Gurf Morlix, Greezy Wheels, Kane Welch & Kaplan, David Olney, Ruthie Foster, Carrie Rodriguez and Barbara Kooyman are the artists whose music was featured on the very first Texamericana Social Hour on Sunday morning, July 15, 2007, in Northern Minnesota. Thank you Linda Johnson and KAXE. And thank you to all the artists and labels in Texamericana.

Grassroots Radio Conference

• 

  Barbara K, Richard Bowden and John Jordan had a blast at the GRC12 in Lowell, MA on June 21-24, 2007. As Instruments for Peace, they presented a workshop: "The Role of Music in Community Activism". As Texamericana, they presented the workshop: "Ask Not What Radio Can Do For You, Ask What You Can Do For Radio." As Ghosts & Sparrows, they presented a concert at the "Taste of Culture" event on the campus of the University of Massachusetts.

  The early morning meditations with Laotian Monks set the tone of harmony for the conference. But the late night dorm room partys for the radio participants provided the best opportunity for sharing of visions, both musical and social.

KUT 90.5 Live Performance at Noon

• 

  KUT's John Aielli interviewed Barbara Kooyman as well as hosted a live musical performance by Barbara with violinist Richard Bowden.

  They spoke of simplicity and depth, life and death, and all things Texamericana.

  Excerpted here are Barbara's thoughts on Texamericana along with the live performance of The Most Dangerous Man segued into John Schaefer's Lament. To hear the interview and the performance in it's entirety, please visit KUT at http://kut.org/items/show/7977

Free Lunch and Electronic Voting Machine Hacking Demonstration

• Austin, Texas State Capitol, Rm. E2.002, Legislative Conference Room
  Thursday, April 5th Noon CST - 1:30 pm. http://voterescue.org/

  HB 3894: Bill for Hand Counted Paper Ballots Introduced!

  

  Photo by Bill Giebitz

  VoteRescue in Austin, Texas is proud to announce the submission of HB 3894 by Texas Rep. Lon Burnam of Tarrant County. HB 3894 calls for hand-counted paper ballots and the elimination of electronic voting systems for our elections in Texas.

  On Thursday April 5th VoteRescue will serve lunch to our Texas elected officials and their legislative aides at the Texas State Capitol. Bruce O'Dell, an award-winning software designer specializing in software security for American Express, General Motors, and other Fortune 100 companies, will discuss the acute security issues with electronic voting in Texas and present a video of a hacking of real Diebold electronic voting equipment (a vendor used in Texas).

  All Texas Representatives, Senators, and their Legislative Staff have been personally invited. The media is welcome to attend. There will be three repeat presentations: Noon - 12:30pm; 12:30pm - 1pm; and 1pm - 1:30 pm.

  "Electronic Voting Systems have become one armed bandits of democracy. HB 3894 - Bill for Hand Counted Paper Ballots - is a milestone in restoring public trust in the democratic process on which our country was founded. I am happy to be a volunteer for VoteRescue."
  --Barbara Kooyman

  For more information, please visit http://voterescue.org/

Austin Peace Festival

• On Monday, September 11th, Barbara will participate in an evening of music hosted by Instruments for Peace at Cafe Caffeine, 909 W. Mary Street, Austin, TX. "Redemption Songs" is the theme of the event. Many musicians, songwriters and poets will be performing. Music begins at 6:00pm and continues throughout the night.

  Barbara Kooyman, along with Richard Bowden, organizer of Instruments For Peace, and Thom the World Poet, will be performing together at the second annual Austin Peace Festival, Sunday September 10th at the Austin CIty Hall Plaza. Barbara met Thom through Richard when she participated in an Instruments for Peace Mother's Day event. The three recently performed together for the first time and were asked to contribute music to the Austin Peace Festival. Their performance kicks off the Festival at 11:00am.

  Code Pink Austin
  Instruments For Peace

GRASSROOTS RADIO CONFERENCE 11

• 

  July 27-30, 2006, Madison, Wisconsin

  The Grassroots Radio Conference is an annual gathering of folks from grassroots, volunteer-powered, community radio stations to connect, learn new skills and discuss critical issues.

  This year's conference is the latest gathering of the Grassroots Radio Coalition, a loose group of many stations and people that have a history of building a movement for social change, justice and democracy through media that reflects these values. The Coalition is committed to building community, serving underserved groups, challenging listeners, expanding cultural experience, providing community access to the airwaves, and airing diverse programming.

  The Grassroots Radio Conference will incorporate diversity discussions into every workshop by weaving issues of diversity into the overall fabric of the conference and its workshops. This effort will help conference-goers bring diversity issues back to their stations as part of their overall projects of producing grassroots radio.

  Barbara Kooyman, Executive Director of Texamericana, will attend the Conference to introduce radio representatives to Texamericana's goals of creating additional funding for non-profit stations through the encouragement of musical and cultural diversity.

  For more information on the Grassroots Radio Conference, please visit http://www.grassrootsradio.info/

  For more information on Texamericana, please visit http://texamericana.org

Center for Media and Democracy Reception

• Bring your appetite for great conversation about the Center for Media and Democracy's work busting Fake TV News, corporate and government spin, green-washing, pro-war propaganda, and other outrages. You'll hear about exciting new CMD programs including our No Fake News campaign and our soon-to-be-launched Congresspedia project. Sheldon and John Stauber will talk about their newest book out this fall: The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies and the Mess in Iraq.

  The suggested donation is $50 per person or couple. Please RSVP by April 18th via email to judith@prwatch.org, or by phone at 608-260-9713

  This reception is graciously co-hosted by CMD friends Nicholas Carlin, Mike Kappus, Barbara Kooyman, Laura Livoti, Jerry Mander, and Monica Moore.

Barbara Kooyman featured in March 2006 Austin Monthly

• Originally published in the March 2006 edition of Austin Monthly.

  RADIO ACTIVE Austin Musician Making Money for NonProfit Stations BARBARA KOOYMAN HAS MADE IT HER MISSION TO KEEP PUBLIC RADIO ALIVE. The 22-year Austin resident was nominated for a Grammy in 1986 with her band Timbuk3 for the song "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades." Now she's trying to ensure other people's music is heard on free airwaves for years to come. Kooyman launched Sparrows Wheel in October as a philanthropic record company that gives 100 percent of its profits -- $5 for each album sold -- to a public radio station of the purchaser's choice anywhere around the country. She says she hopes to show that music should always come before business. "The voice of the individual community is precious as a voice of freedom," says Kooyman. "I consider community-sponsored radio stations to represent our collective voice of freedom." Sparrows Wheel is an entirely homegrown effort. Kooyman recorded acoustic versions of her former band's music in her home of Undercover: The Songs of Timbuk3, the company's first release. She did most of the promotional work from her kitchen table, stuffing envelopes and licking hundreds of stamps to solicit donations for community radio. Jeff McCord, music director for KUT (90.5FM), said the local public station appreciates her vision. "She's an artist we're already playing," says McCord, "She's not doing it just to get on the air. She's doing it to make the world a better place, to be simple. That's one thing we love about her." BETH BOND

Happy New Year

• End-of-year praise for UNDERCOVER:
  • Top 10 albums of 2005, Larry Monroe, KUT 90.5 FM Austin
  • #1, Texas Top Tens, Margaret Moser, The Austin Chronicle

For Immediate Release: Timbuk3 Co-founder to Be Spotlighted on KUT 90.5 FM Austin's Eklektikos

• Singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and founding member of Timbuk3, Barbara Kooyman will be the guest for a live performance Tuesday on Eklektikos. Her new record, Undercover, revisits some of Timbuk3's insightful and wry material in an intimate fashion.

For Immediate Release: Timbuk3 Co-founder to Be Spotlighted on Air America's The Laura Flanders Show

• Barbara Kooyman, former member of the Grammy nominated band Timbuk3, best known for their Top 40 hit "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades", will be the featured guest on Air America's The Laura Flanders Show November 12th, from 8:00-9:00pm CST.

  The Laura Flanders Show cuts through the news and events of the week to find out how the actions of our politicians affect us and asks what we can do to make a change. Past guests include Hugh Masekela, Danny Glover, Jimmy Breslin, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Isabel Allende, Eve Ensler, Nile Rodgers and Angelique Kidjo. Laura's book BUSHWOMEN; Tales of a Cynical Species was a New York Times Bestseller.

  While on the show, Barbara will discuss her vision of how to impede the crisis facing public radio stations across the nation. With the government threatening to slash funding, Barbara is using her talents as an established artist/producer/engineer, along with a philanthropic nature, to aid the needs of public radio. SparrowsWheel.org and ProtectTheVoiceofFreedom.org, two organizations founded by Barbara, are bringing together the talents of people who love music to offer an alternative source of funding for the public radio stations that are vital to our collective voice of freedom.

  The show will be broadcast nationwide. To find out if your local radio station broadcasts The Laura Flanders Show on The Air America Network, please visit http://www.airamericaradio.com/stations. For more information on how Barbara aims to help fund public radio please visit http://www.sparrowswheel.org and http://www.protectthevoiceoffreedom.org.

  For more information, or to schedule an interview with Barbara, please contact Harold F. Eggers, Jr. at Eggers Music and Literary Office, 512-385-3670 or e-mail harold@sparrowswheel.org.