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This week, Joe is featuring Pianist Oscar Peterson from his 1982 Pablo Records recording titled “Nigerian Marketplace.”

Puddingstone Music of Newport is the subject of this week's program with Clemens Teufel, pianist and Executive Director. We talk about what has been happening with the organization as well as the concerts on August 14th and 21st and other events taking place this season. For more information, you can go to www.puddingstonemusic.org

This month, This Old Tree Doug introduces us to Kongeegen, or the 1,500-year-old “King’s Oak,” deep inside a forest called Jægerspris Nordskov in Denmark. The tree is named after 19th-century King Frederik VII, who owned a nearby castle with his wife, the Countess Danner. It is a national treasure and one of northern Europe’s oldest living oak trees.  

Getting there meant a two-mile hike through the woods with guests Anders Jensen of the Danish Tree Association and forest historian Helle Serup of The Green Museum. They tell the biological story of Kongeegen, and how Denmark sees its forests. 

But there is also a love story - a tangled affair between the unconventional Frederik, the Countess Danner (aka Louise Rasmussen), and a wealthy newspaper publisher named Carl Berling. The Countess's own love letters embellish this true story from her point of view - scandal, romance, and all  - and how it led them to seek shelter from the rain under this ancient oak.

Guests

Anders Jensen

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References

Music

Special thanks

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This Old Tree podcast is a sponsored project of the New England Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture. To support This Old Tree and New England ISA, click here.

We want to hear about the favorite tree in your life! To submit a ~4 or 5 minute  audio story for consideration for an upcoming episode of "Tree Story Shorts" on This Old Tree, record the story on your phone’s voice memo app and email to: [email protected]

This episode was written in part at LitArts RI, a community organization and co-working space that supports Rhode Island's creators.

This week, Joe is featuring Composer/Arranger Michael Gibbs from his 1974 Act Records recording, titled “Big Music.”

Compass Hardware in Charlestown, RI, is the subject of this week's program with Skip Graf, General Manager. We talk about his role in this over 60-year-old, locally owned institution. It’s an amazing story of what originally started as a store that mostly sold coal to what has become a very diversified establishment. For more information, you can go to www.compasshardware.com

This week, Joe is featuring Pianist Chick Corea from his 2000 Stretch Records recording titled “Solo Piano: Standards (Part Two).”

Theatre By The Sea's third production of the 2026 season, Titanic, the Musical, is the subject of this week's program with Kevin Hill, Director, and Karen Kessler, General Manager. We talk about the musical and listen to some of the very interesting songs from the show that runs July 23rd to August 15th. For more information, you can call (401) 782-8587 or go to www.theatrebythesea.com

Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce has a conversation with New York Times Bestselling author Annabel Monaghan about her new book, Dolly All The Time

Author Bio:

Annabel is the New York Times bestselling and Library Reads Hall of Fame author of Dolly All The Time, It’s A Love Story, Summer Romance, Same Time Next Summer and Nora Goes Off Script, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 

She is also the author of two novels for young adults, A Girl Named Digit and Double Digit, as well as Does This Volvo Make My Butt Look Big?, a collection of essays based on her column that appeared on the Huffington Post, The Week and The Rye Record. She has a BA in English from Duke University and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. She hosts an author series called Friends with Words and spent several years on the novel writing faculty at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in Florida and Connecticut with her family. Her novels have been translated into 23 languages.

Book Summary:

A romance about a single mother who’s offered a Pretty Woman-type deal that’s too good to refuse.

Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Wickford, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.

So when she comes across Stewart Wickford—annoyingly handsome scion of the Wickford family—with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and swinging on the porch, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now?

For more information about Katherine Center, visit AnnabelMonaghan.com, and for more on Deborah Goodrich Royce and her new release, Best Boy, along with information about the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com

This week Joe is featuring Guitarist Jim Robitaille from his 2026, Whaling City Sound Records recording, titled “Sonic.”

Block Island’s Mary D. Fund is the subject of this week's program, featuring Marguerite Donnelly, Executive Director. We talk about her life on the Island, how the Fund got started, where it is today, and the major event coming up on July 18th...The 62nd Annual A Cappella Festival and listen to some of the music that will be presented. For more information, visit the Mary D Fund on Facebook.