Thanks to friend of the blog Frank Saverio for tipping me off to this one!
“Radio Nowhere” took on new resonance during the pandemic of 2020-21.
At the height of quarantine and pre-vaccine social distancing, it seemed like we were all isolated from one another. The pandemic didn’t care if you were famous or anonymous; we all experienced it together.
Actress Ashley Johnson and writer-singer Brian W. Foster felt it, too. Foster had taken a shine to “Radio Nowhere” long before, covering it in his performances and posting an (out of tune) mic-check of it to his Tumblr in 2018.
He never got around to posting a complete cover, though… at least not solo.
But last March, back in the earliest, scariest days of the pandemic, Foster and Johnson (who have been engaged since 2018) recorded a version of “Radio Nowhere” together, under the name The Wild Years.
It’s great, but fair warning: it may shred you. It certainly did me.
The Wild Years’ version of “Radio Nowhere” is no anthem. It’s poignant, plaintive, lonely, and it takes me immediately back to those frightening times.
A great cover is more than just a great performance–it reveals something new and fresh about a song you thought you knew inside and out. The Wild Years check both boxes with their cover of “Radio Nowhere” — it’s both lovely and revelatory.
The same Ashley Johnson who got her start on Growing Pains and voiced the female lead in The Last of Us. and Blind Spot?
Yep!