'Morning Blues' plays local on Sunday

Marc Rines (left) and Karen Stanley (right), members of the local band Ashbrook Haynes, with WZLX DJ Carter Alan. (NANCY RINES)

Before Carter Alan goes global, he's going local. Although plans are in the works to stream the WZLX-FM (100.7) blues DJ's programming from the station's website at wzlx.com, this Sunday Alan is homing in on Boston. In celebration of the ninth anniversary of his 9 a.m.-noon "Sunday Morning Blues," Alan will forego his usual roster of classic British and American bands - acts like Cream, the Allman Brothers, and Canned Heat - to focus on local artists.

"I want to support and give back to the people who made this show happen," says Alan, who also handles the weekday 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. slot for the classic-rock station. To do that, for one Sunday he'll be playing only area artists. "Everyone from Aerosmith and James Montgomery to Liz Lannon," he says.

Alan credits local interest with helping the show expand from its original two hours to its current three. And, noting that the economy has made it particularly hard for working bands, he wants to give New England acts some attention. "It'll be a lot of new artists," says Alan, who also hosted a blues show during his 19-year tenure at sister station WBCN-FM (104.1). As he plans for the 30 to 40 songs that will fill this Sunday's show, he tosses out names of up-and-coming artists like Danielle Miraglia, Ashbrook Haynes, and Evan Goodreau as well as more established blues musicians, such as Ronnie Earl and Duke Robillard. "There'll be some new faces," he says, "and we'll throw in an Aerosmith tune and a Geils tune."

This special show was supposed to coincide with the launch of WZLX's blues stream. For about four months now, Alan explains, the station has used its second high-definition channel, WZLX HD2, as a full-time blues "station" called Mojo Radio, with its resident blues DJ handling the programming. Although the mechanics couldn't quite be worked out in time, this channel will be available online, to listeners around the world, by the end of September. "That's a pretty amazing legacy for something that just started as a niche idea," says Alan.

When the Mojo Radio stream goes live, Alan says he'll be adding more variety to its programming. That will certainly mean putting more local tunes to the mix. "So much of the music that comes out of this town here holds up to the national stuff," he says.

The one unifying principle will be that most of the blues both online and on "Sunday Morning Blues" will continue to be electric. "The original premise of the show was to take your person who likes 'ZLX, your classic-rock listener, and take them one step over," says Alan. That means rock-sounding blues, with electric guitars, and a good amount of blues-based rock, with artists like the Rolling Stones taking their place next to Muddy Waters and B.B. King. And while blues purists may object, other experts say this rock-oriented sound is a legitimate way to play the blues.

"Carter does a marvelous job," says fellow blues DJ Holly Harris. For 15 years, Harris hosted "Blues on Sunday" on WBOS-FM (92.9) and now programs a 24/7 Internet blues station at www.ultimateblues.com. "Electric blues is great for Carter's show and it's a nice focus. We're a plugged-in world."