All Over Albany

My Exit: Christopher Lane

It's Monday -- time to add to your music collection, or at least connect over music you already love, on WEXT's My Exit. Once a week Exit 97.7 gives an hour of airtime over to a listener to share some of their favorite music.

Details on this week's DJ and some of his favorites, both national and local...

Who?
I am Christopher Lane (@chrislane). By day, I teach second grade at Monument Elementary in Bennington, Vermont. But I'm also a local musician and people may have heard me play guitar or bass with Hill Hollow Band, ROMP (currently on hiatus) or tophenjamin (a mandolin/guitar duo with my brother Ben). Please come check out tophenjamin in person when we play on May 31 at the Ale House in Troy. I also sit in with The Nellies from time to time. I just bought a house in Eagle Mills and I grew up in Pittstown, New York.

How would you describe your taste in music?
My favorite kind of music is the kind that, when heard, causes me to grin and nod my head in agreement.

A few songs from Christopher's show
The songs in my show are not tied together in any sort of thematic way. It really is just a bunch of tunes I feel deserve some radio attention:

"Ghumba Zumba" by Billy Martin's Wicked Knee.
Folks know Billy as the Martin in Medeski, Martin and Wood. Wicked Knee is his brass band and features Steven Bernstein (Sexmob, Levon Helm), Curtis Fowlkes, and Marcus Rojas (the best tuba player on the planet).

"Bag-a-day Habit" by Peter Prince and Moonboot Lover
This song was recorded at Greg Bell's annual Bellstock by my brother Wayne Lane, Jr. in 1998. How Peter Prince is not a world famous rock star yet continues to baffle me on a daily basis.

"You Must be a Lion" by Marco Benevento
I first saw Marco play at Revolution Hall in Troy when he was doing the duo thing with Joe Russo. I've seen him maybe 20 times since then and every time it's a blast. Each time he plays at Red Square in Albany he hints that he might do a month-long residency there (he lives in Saugerties). Hopefully that happens one day.

"Sugar Walkin'" by Liam Lynch
Sifl and Olly was a hilarious late night sock puppet show on MTV in the 90s and it was my introduction to Liam Lynch. Since then he's been connected with a lot of great art and worked with some of my favorite artists (George Martin, tenacious d). This track is from his record fake songs.

"Crawlin'" by Brian Thomas/Alex Lee-Clark Big Band
Alex Lee-Clark is an amazing musician and composer and a fantastic human. He also happens to be my girlfriend's brother. He's from the Capital Region (Bennington) but now resides in Boston. The big band is releasing their latest record super hero dance party track by track and "Crawlin'" was the first track (with art work from the guys at Troy Cloth & Paper). I highly encourage everyone to check out the entire album!

You can hear Christopher's My Exit show Monday night at 11pm on 97.7, Saturday at 8 am, or at exit977.org.

Here's how to schedule your own My Exit show on WEXT.