Gina Chavez sings for us and talks Pope Francis, her mission work with young women in El Salvador, and the Internet-era music scene.
Gina Chavez in the studios of KOOP-FM in Austin, Texas, Friday, January 10, 2014. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.
Austin Music Award-winning singer-songwriter Gina Chavez was our guest on Rag Radio Friday, January 10, 2014. She joined us in discussion and performed live on the show.
Rag Radio is a weekly syndicated radio program produced and hosted by long-time alternative journalist and Rag Blog editor Thorne Dreyer and recorded at the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, a cooperatively-run all-volunteer community radio station in Austin, Texas.
Listen to or download the podcast of our January 10, 2014, Rag Radio interview with Gina Chavez here:
The Austin American-Statesman called singer-songwriter Chavez “a true Austin music treasure — angelic vocals and a devilish treat on guitar.” Her new album, to be released in February, is called UP.ROOTED.
In addition to discussing her music and her career, Gina Chavez talks about her formative experiences doing mission work in El Salvador, her long-time same-sex relationship, and issues such as the effects of NAFTA on Mexican farmers, and Pope Francis and the increased social justice focus of the Catholic Church.
Singer-songwriter Gina Chavez with Rag Radio’s Tracey Schulz, left, and Thorne Dreyer. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.
Gina Chavez is known for her impressive multi-instrumental performances and a unique sound inspired by cumbia, bossa nova, vintage pop, reggaeton, and other genres. She won the 2012-13 Austin Music Award for Best Latin Traditional Artist, did two tours in Japan as the Official City of Austin Music Ambassador, and won praise from NPR’s All Songs Considered and Alt.Latino where she was featured as one of eight “New Latin Artists at SXSW.”
Gina is also a social activist. She spent eight months doing mission work in El Salvador where she established Niña Arriba, a college scholarship fund for girls she lived with in a gang-dominated part of San Salvador. Southern Living Magazine named Chavez one of 11 “southern iconic women who have left a beautiful footprint across the South.”
Rag Radio is hosted and produced by Rag Blog editor Thorne Dreyer, a pioneer of the Sixties underground press movement. Dreyer was a founding editor of the original Rag, published in Austin from 1966-1977. Tracey Schulz is the show’s engineer and co-producer.
Rag Radio has aired since September 2009 on KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer cooperatively-run community radio station in Austin, Texas. Rag Radio is broadcast live every Friday from 2-3 p.m. (CST) on KOOP and is rebroadcast and streamed on Sundays at 10 a.m. (EST) on WFTE, 90.3-FM in Mt. Cobb, PA, and 105.7-FM in Scranton, PA. Rag Radio is also aired and streamed on KPFT-HD3 90.1 — Pacifica radio in Houston — on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. (CST).
The show is streamed live on the web and, after broadcast, all Rag Radio shows are posted as podcasts at the Internet Archive.
Rag Radio is produced in association with The Rag Blog, a progressive Internet newsmagazine, and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.
Rag Radio can be contacted at ragradio@koop.org.
Coming up on Rag Radio:
THIS FRIDAY, January 24, 2014: Music journalist Margaret Moser, director of the prestigious Austin Music Awards.
Friday, January 31, 2014: Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen, author of Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot.
