Beautiful Music In The Night

For years if you lived in Nashville you were lucky to have the soothing sounds of WAMB 1160 AM, playing glorious easy listening music from the past. But what was truly special about WAMB was their late night programming, from roughly 12 am to 5 am, dubbed ‘beautiful music in the night.’ During this time frame the station would play blocks of old reel to reel mix tapes assembled by the late Nashville radio personality Ken Bramming. Bramming had made these mixes of his own favorite late night music and as many Nashville residents can attest, these hours of soothing and sometimes eerie tunes were the perfect companion as the city slept (or didn’t if you were up listening.) 12 years ago my friend, mentor, and Lambchop bandmate Jonathan Marx let me borrow some cassettes that his partner and brilliant artist Lesley Patterson had assembled. Lesley had the incredible foresight to dub hours of these late night broadcasts direct from radio as she painted in her studio. Some years later Lesley and Jonathan let me borrow the cassettes and with my friend and producer Joe Pisapia we digitized them. Enjoy some radio ghosts of yore- the ghost of Bramming- the ghost of WAMB- the ghost of late night AM ‘old Nashville’.

Excavated and complied by William Tyler / March 2020 / USA

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