Stephin Merritt

Stephin Merritt, www.stereogum.com

Stephin Merritt and the Naked American Songbook

This evening I finally got to be in a radio audience. The Naked American Songbook is a radio show produced by The Jonathan Channel, WNYC and WQXR and it is broadcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There were cards saying "applaud" and "laugh" and "silence" and a man in a red hat warmed us up before the guest came on. He was Stephin Merritt and he created some interest because he did not say very much, which made a radio show a little complicated. But he did say that for many years he spent Christmas with Rosemary Clooney. She used to spend Christmas with Ethel Merman in a mid town hotel suite with its own Christmas Tree. When Ethel Merman died Rosemary Clooney took over the suite, and the Christmas Tree, and spent every Christmas there, with Stephin Merrit, until she died in 2002. So that was unexpected.