General Foods International Coffees
Coffee House Sessions
Spring 1992
Coffee House Sessions Show 23
Alison Moyet
Dramarama
01 Pat DiNizio - Show Introduction
02 Pat DiNizio and Alison Moyet - Interview
03 Alison Moyet - It Won't Be Long
04 Pat DiNizio and Alison Moyet - Interview
05 Alison Moyet - Wishing You Were Here
06 Pat DiNizio and Alison Moyet - Interview
07 Alison Moyet - Rise
08 Pat DiNizio and Alison Moyet - Interview
09 Pat DiNizio, Rob Stevens, Dramarama Interview
10 Dramarama - Wonderamaland
11 Rob Stevens and Dramarama - Interview
12 Dramarama - Train Gone Backwards
13 Rob Stevens and Dramarama - Interview
14 Pat DiNizio - Show Outro
Coffee House Sessions Show #24
Bruce Cockburn
Sarah McLlachlan
15 Pat DiNizio - Show Intro
16 Pat DiNizio and Bruce Cockburn - Interview
17 Bruce Cockburn - Child of the Wind
18 Pat DiNizio and Bruce Cockburn - Interview
19 Bruce Cockburn - A Dream Like Mine
20 Pat DiNizio and Bruce Cockburn - Interview
21 Bruce Cockburn - Soul of a Man
22 Pat DiNizio and Bruce Cockburn - Interview
23 Pat DiNizio - Intro
24 Rob Stevens and Sarah McLachlan - Interview
25 Sarah McLachlan - Drawn To The Rhythm
26 Rob Stevens and Sarah McLachlan - Interview
27 Sarah McLachlan - The Path Of Thorns (Terms)
28 Rob Stevens and Sarah McLachlan - Interview
29 Pat DiNizio - Show Outro
30 Promo 1
31 Promo 2
32 Promo 3
Every so often I run into a syndicated radio show that I've never seen before, and this is one of them: "General Foods International Coffees Coffee House Sessions Spring 1992"
The cd has one hour of music, divided into two shows for presentation on different days, with each show hosting two artists performing 15 minutes of music and short interviews with host Pat DiNizio (or the show's producer, Rob Stevens).
I did some searching on the Internet for more information. At one point DiNizio says it's a "new season with a new sponsor," which lead me to hunt down a blurb in Billboard Magazine's Networks and Syndications column of March 23, 1991 mentioning that "SoHo Natural Sessions" is now the "Maxwell House Coffee House Sessions" ...."distributed weekly to more than 160 college radio stations, 10 times during each semester."
That explains why I didn't hear it; I wasn't listening to college radio in the early 1990s. It also helps define the rarity of the show, there were probably less than 200 copies pressed up of each show.
I found a bio of producer Robbie Stevens, which lists "The Coffee House Sessions (hosted by the late Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens, 5 seasons)". So that led to "What? Pat DiNizio is dead? Which led to, "DiNizio died in Summit, New Jersey, on December 12, 2017, at the age of 62. According to bandmates, his health declined following a series of problems that began in 2015 after a pair of falls that resulted in nerve damage that limited the use of his right hand and arm."
Yikes. I missed this news entirely. But it did not deter me, I searched on....
A search for "Soho Natural Sessions" gave me a bio of Roger Manning, "In 1990, he hosted the first season of the short-lived syndicated radio program "SoHo Natural Sessions."
So..that gives us a time frame of roughly 1990 as the Soho Natural Sessions, followed by maybe five years as "Coffee House Sessions"...which would take this show to about '95 or '96.
A quick Ebay search shows nothing for SoHo Natural Sessions, but did turn up one Coffee House Sessions CD, with Richard X Heyman, Darden Smith, Kiss of the Gypsy, and Grapes of Wrath as the musical guests. Interesting lineup...I've got a Richard X Heyman CD, but the others are new to me.
Of note: That's Clem Burke drumming for Dramarama.


