The Kingston Coffee House #34 : Failure to Communicate
Mike Stevenson | The Kingston Coffee House | June 30, 2026
On tonight’s edition of The Kingston Coffee House, we’ll play selections from Beck’s recent release “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime,” as well as the new collaboration from opera singer Renée Fleming and banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, called “The Fiddle and the Drum.”
Along the way, we’ll also hear classic folk music from Dave Van Ronk, Linda Thompson, Bob Dylan and Don Reeder.
We begin the show with music from Stuart Rosenberg’s 196t film Cool Hand Luke about a nonconformist convict in an early 1950s Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system. Acclaimed film composer Lalo Schifrin wrote the score to the film.
Archived audio is available for 2 weeks after the original airdate
“What We Got Here Is ‘Failure to Communicate'”
– Lalo Schifrin “Main Theme” from Cool Hand Luke
– Dialogue Strother Martin, Paul Newman from Cool Hand Luke
– Paul Newman “Plastic Jesus” (E Rush.G Cromarty) from Cool Hand Luke
– Don Reeder “Stay Down Man” Every Which Way, 2020
– Avett Brothers “A Closer Walk With Thee” Music from The American Epic Sessions, 2017
– Lalo Schifrin “Plastic Jesus” / “Final Theme” from Cool Hand Luke
Happy Birthday, Dave Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002)
– One Of These Days” (Mose Allison) No Dirty Names, 1966
– “Keep It Clean” (trad) No Dirty Names, 1966
– “Bout a Spoonful” (Gary Davis) No Dirty Names, 1966
– “Old Man’s Song” No Dirty Names, 1966
– “In the Pines” (trad) Gambler’s Blues, 1965
Sympathy / Your Coffee is a Disaster
– Leon Russell & New Grass Revival “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (Jagger, Richard)
– M Ward “Sympathy for the Stones” single, 2026
– Beck “True Love Will Find You in the End” (Daniel Johnson) Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime 2026
– Karen Dalton “Katie Cruel” (trad) In My Own Time, 1971
– Beth Orton “Otherside” title track, 2026
– Goat Rodeo “Your Coffee is a Disaster” Not Our First Goat Rodeo 2020
Soprano Renée Fleming and banjo player Béla Fleck have recorded an album together that celebrates Appalachian folk music, The Fiddle and the Drum.
From The Fiddle and the Drum, 2026:
– Renée Fleming, Bela Fleck “The Fiddle and the Drum” (featuring Jerry Douglas)
– Renée Fleming, Bela Fleck “The Scarlet Tide” (featuring Vince Gill)
– Renée Fleming, Bela Fleck “In the Pines” (featuring Dolly Parton)
– Renée Fleming, Bela Fleck “Scarlet Ribbons”
From Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde, 1968
– Rainy Day Women #12 and #35″
– “Pledging My Time”
– “Visions of Johanna”
– “One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)”
– “I Want You”
From Beck’s Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime, 2026
– “Your Cheatin’ Heart” (Hank Williams)
– “I Only Have Eyes For You” (Harry Warren/Al Dubin)
– “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (H Peretti, L Creatore, G Weiss)
– “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Somehow” (James Warren)
This Week’s Folk Listings
– The Whelks “Plastic Jesus” LIVE at Myrtle, 2026
– The Whelks “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” (Dylan) LIVE at Myrtle, 2026
– Dan and Peggy Reeder “Clean Elvis” Live
– Dan and Peggy Reeder “Angel from Montgomery” (J Prine) Live
From Linda Thompson’s Fashionably Late 2002
– “Dear Mary” (L. Thompson and T. Thompson)
– “Evona Darling” (Lal Waterson)
– “Miss Murray”(L. Thompson and T. Thompson)
– “All I See” (T. Thompson)
Goodnight
Elvis “If I Can Dream” (Walter Earl Brown) from 1968 Comeback Special
Goat Rodeo “Gamba Sonata #1, Movement 4 (JS Bach)
NOTES and LINKS
– While Lalo Schifrin wrote the film’s Oscar-nominated musical score to Cool Hand Luke, it is the Wrecking Crew session player Tommy Tedesco on guitar. The banjo is likely played by Art Rosenbaum
– Cool Hand Luke was directed by Stuart Rosenberg (not Arthur Penn as I misstated on the show. )
– The exact author and composer of the gospel hymn “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” remain unknown. It is believed to have originated as an African-American spiritual during the 19th century. The song is memorably performed by actor Harry Dean Stanton in the film Cool Hand Luke
-On the day The Fiddle and the Drum was released (May 29), a court ruled that Donald Trump’s name must be removed from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C and all branding of the performing arts complex founded as a living memorial to a slain president. The judge also temporarily blocked the president’s planned two-year closure of the site for “renovations.”
– The renowned ensemble Goat Rodeo consists of Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Chris Thile (mandolin), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), and Edgar Meyer (bass).
– “In The Pines”, aka “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”, “My Girl”, “Hey Girl”, or “Black Girl”, is a traditional American folk song dating back to at least the 1870s. The song originated in the Southern Appalachia.