The Pipes Magazine Radio Show – Episode 1
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Kevin Godbee - Sep 20, 2012
- 0 min read
We are pleased to bring you the debut of The Pipes Magazine Radio Show starring Brian Levine. In this first show, Brian will tell you a little bit about himself so you will get to know who your host is. He has A LOT of experience with pipes and tobacco, and some pretty interesting stories and opinions. He will also talk about pipe shows and pipe clubs, and play some music from a local New Orleans band he heard while visiting "The Big Easy". Finally, he will share the epic fiasco of trying to smoke his pipe while on a cruise ship that was supposed to allow smoking.
We hope you enjoy our premiere 45-minute show produced just for you—the pipe smoker and collector. The following link will launch a pop-up player. Alternatively, you can listen on iTunes.
[Disclaimer: This premiere episode will have absolutely no collector’s value on eBay in the future.]
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If the pop-up player doesn’t launch, try the AUDIO MP3 button below.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 541! We have a pipe personalities packed show tonight. We’ve been running two different series with two different prominent pipe collectors and authors. We have “Inside Fred’s Head” with Fred Hanna. He is the author of the book, “The Perfect Smoke”, and known for collecting straight grain pipes. The other series is a follow-up to Fred, “Rich Responds” with Rich Esserman. Rich has penned innumerous articles about pipes and tobacco for several publications, and he is known for collecting quite large pipes. We’ll be featuring the final remnants of those two series all in this show. As if that’s not enough, at the top of the show our segment will feature pipe artisan Jeff Gracik with another installment of “Ask the Pipemaker”. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
Via Press Release – JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI – January 18, 2023 – For the past ten years, Jon David Cole, owner and operator of The Country Squire Tobacconist, and Beau York, founder of the podcasting company PODASTERY, have been delighting pipe smokers worldwide with their weekly podcast Country Squire Radio. Long time listeners have enjoyed uninterrupted weekly content from the podcast including the celebrated pipe tobacco focused series such as TOBACCO TALK, PIPE CULTURE, SQUIRE SELECT whiskey and pipe tobacco pairings, and PIPE SMOKING 101 as well as the newer series geared to bring the spirit of conversations had over a bowl of premium pipe tobacco amongst good friends such as HALF BOWL HISTORY, FROM THE LIBRARY, and FATHER TO FATHER. As they approach the 500th episode this year, Cole and York have decided the time has come to bring the show to its conclusion with a live recording at The Country Squire in Jackson, Mississippi. “The amount of content for and by the Pipe Community is higher than ever before with newer pipe podcasts, instagramers, youtubers and more” Cole said. “We have enjoyed our tenure representing and at times shepherding a section of the community, but it’s time to increase the spotlight to this next generation of content creators.” Cole and York have often taken cues from their listening audience who, over the years, have made several trips to the famed Country Squire Tobacconist shop in Jackson, MS. This practice has been dubbed a PIPE PILGRIMAGE by fans of the show who have visited the shop that inspired many hours of listening pleasure. “We want to finish strong,” York said. “There is certainly no better way to do this than inviting all of our listeners, who are able to make the trip, to the Country Squire for the grand finale of the show in a Pipe Pilgrimage like no other!” York explained, “we’ll have music, share stories, and record the final episode of Country Squire Radio together, all while enjoying a one of a kind Pipe Tobacco and BBQ pairing of epic proportions.” The Country Squire Radio Finale will be held at the Country Squire, Tobacconist in Jackson, MS Saturday, March 4th. Tickets are on sale today at The Country Squire Tobacconist (thecountrysquireonline.com) For more information, visit CountrySquireRadio.com or listen to the latest podcast “Episode 490: The Time Has Come” from Country Squire Radio (Country Squire Radio on Apple Podcasts)
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 540! Our featured interview tonight is with Pete Prevost. Pete is a pipe maker and the President of the BriarWorks pipe factory in Columbia Tennessee. BriarWorks is a a pipe maker co-op with several other pipe makers, including Todd Johnson, who co-founded it with Pete. Brian and Pete will be talking about that as well as the up-coming 2023 Muletown Pipe Show which is held at BriarWorks. In a past life, Pete was the guitar player in the band Sanctus Real. Our music segment will feature one of their Grammy-nominated songs. At the top of the show, Brian will give us his comparisons between three different vintages of Sutliff’s Kringle Flake tobacco from the last three years. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 539! Our featured interview tonight is with Matthew McCranie. Matthew is the third generation from McCranie’s pipe and tobacco shop in Charlotte, NC. Matthew tells us of the founding of McCranie’s by his grandfather in 1979. There’s a fun Florida connection including inspiration from Edward’s Pipe & Tobacco in Tampa, and some streets named McCranie in Lakeland. We’ll also hear about McCranie’s long-running, highly popular tobaccos, and how things have evolved from the early days. At the top of the show, Brian will give us a recap of his pipe trading from the Chicago and Columbus pipe shows. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
It’s far from a closely-held secret that for years I’ve had a bit of a love affair with the old, Celebrated Bengal Slices. I fondly recall my first experience with it in the late 1970s when, on one of my almost daily visits to Drucquer & Sons, a fresh shipment had just arrived. There it was, in its beautiful gloss black, red and gold livery, dramatically standing out from its peers, calling attention to itself from its perch on the shelf behind the counter. “What’s that, in the black tin?” I asked Ken, who had become something of a tobacco mentor to me. “The Bengal Slices? It’s great stuff,” he said, pulling a tin from the shelf and handing it to me, explaining that it was a Latakia mixture with a difference. The ribbons were pressed in blocks and sliced, so it had to be broken up to prepare it for smoking. “You have to pack it lightly, or it’ll clog the pipe and become impossible to smoke when it expands. It’s got a little bit of scent added to it.” That last bit nearly put me off it; I was still recoiling from early experiences with heavily perfumed, goopy, pouched tobaccos that smelled better than they smoked. But curiosity, as it too often does, had its way with me, and I couldn’t resist the singular beauty of that tin. I bought it, dropped it into my satchel, and off I went. Later that day, I popped the lid and was instantly captivated. The perfect slices, standing at attention in a tight array, dark and mysterious, almost glistening with the same hues as the tin’s lid — black, red and golden. The aroma was rich and bold, ripe with Latakia, orientals and virginias. The scent Ken had mentioned, which I’d taken as a warning, wasn’t at all overbearing, but rather soft and seductive, beautifully integrated with the tobaccos’ natural aromas. It transformed what was basically a “typical” Latakia mixture into something that seemed more luxurious, even opulent. Though still fairly new to smoking flakes at the time, and certainly inexperienced, I had developed a bit of understanding of them. These were different, though — thicker, more robust looking. I gently removed one from the tin, placed it in my palm, and began teasing it apart. It took little encouragement for it to crumble into small fragments. As I filled my bowl, Ken’s counsel about packing forgotten (more likely arrogantly ignored), I looked forward to the first taste of my new treasure. Disaster! The charring light almost went okay, promising something good to come, but the tobacco soon went out, and stubbornly refused to light. Trying to get an ember going was the equivalent to a futile attempt to set fire to a brick of asbestos. Frustrated, I dumped the bowl, and started again, this time heeding Ken’s advice, allowing gravity to do the work. Much better. Even at first light, it was transcendent. The richness of the tobaccos, pressed and fermented in cakes, already set it apart from its ribbon-cut peers, but that scent! Soft and diaphanous, it didn’t clash with the flavor of the tobacco, but somehow enhanced it, bringing another layer, greater dimension to what was already something pretty special, and it remained throughout the bowl, never shouting, but whispering its presence. I was immediately smitten. The next time I was in the shop, I bought three more tins, something I would continue to do periodically through the years. At the time, I thought this was a truly unique tobacco, the only thing of its kind, but I would find out years later that it wasn’t the first, or the only, and that its story was both interesting and infused with dram of controversy. And, as it turns out, the fires of that controversy ultimately forged this tobacco into what became something so very, very special. The Celebrated Bengal Slices was originally made by Sobranie House exclusively for James B. Russell (JBR), and first found its way to market around September of 1977. But, as early as the mid- to late-1960s, Sobranie were making a similar product for Joe Zieve’s Smoker’s Haven in Columbus, OH. Joe wanted to bring something unique to the market, something that hadn’t been done before, so he had Sobranie, who were already making the Haven’s renown Our Best Blend for him, press the ribbons, age the blend in cakes, and cut the cakes into slices. This was different from the more traditional form of flake tobacco, made from whole leaf strips, and resulted in a product Joe called Krumble Kake. It was his intention that this tobacco be compact, like a plug, yet easier than a flake to prepare for smoking. It was a hit, becoming one of the shop’s most successful blends for decades to follow. The controversy finds us in the late 1970s, when JBR contracted Sobranie to make something similar for them. Apparently, it was a little too similar to Krumble Kake for Joe’s liking, and from what I’ve heard, his reaction was predictably cinematic, possibly going as far as threatening to discontinue his relationship with Sobranie over the apparent infraction, so JBR and Sobranie were forced to change the recipe. Whether or not the leaf formulation was changed is unknown, but the changes certainly resulted in that elusive scent joining the party. The Celebrated Bengal Slices was born. (Interestingly, JBR did not register the trademark until March, 1979, though the blend did appear in their catalogue in 1978.) When Sobranie shuttered in 1980, licensing the production of their blends to Gallaher’s, both Bengal Slices and Krumble Kake, being proprietary products, were not transitioned to the new manufacturer. Production of Krumble Kake and the other Smoker’s Haven blends moved to G.F. Germain on Jersey, while Bengal Slices was transferred to Manchester Tobacco Company, where it was produced until 1991, then making its final move to Denmark’s A&C Peterson. For whatever reason, the Danish product didn’t hold my affection like […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 538! Our featured interview tonight is with Rich Esserman. This is our third episode with, “Rich Responds” where we go back to a previous discussion with Fred Hanna, and Rich gives his take. Both Rich and Fred are prominent pipe collectors, researchers and writers on pipes and tobacco for several decades. They are both well-known and well-respected in the pipe enthusiast community. We’ll see where Rich agrees with Fred, and where he has his own take on different aspects of pipes and tobacco. At the top of the show Brian will talk about how to build up your tobacco cellar and what to do in the meantime. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
no show
Anything that starts with Ozzy has to be good!
I added a player into the page that will work.
Reload the page and look for the play button below the link.
where`s the play button?
Little button that says Audio MP3 just above the iTunes link
Thanks for the help, Kevin. I`m sort of slow tonight. Looking forward to the show.
Brian, Hi there, nice clear radio show. Now listening 🙂
The Radio Show was worth the wait!
Running down the road with my laptop streaming the show!!!!!! Love it!!!!
Excellent !! Great idea !!
Got started a little late, but enjoying the show… Thank’s Kevin and Brian
Nice Show,Looking forward to future programs. Nice Job Brian,Kevin.
Ozzy Rocks!!! Awesome intro!!
Will have to download later. Work computer is obsolete.
Simply priceless but how do we download it for permanent posterity?
Got it on now.
FYI … I aint gots Itoons so how do ya download it?
Excellent show!!!! Will definitely enjoy listening to future episodes during my evening pipe experience!
I enjoyed the show.
Download it here.
[code]http://pipesmagazine.com/wp-content/2012/radio-show/09-2012/01/pipes-magazine-radio-show-01.mp3[/code]
What was your favorite part, Patty? The song from the band in New Orleans? 😉
Wow Brian, you sure covered a lot of material in a very short time. Look forward to future shows and new topics. Your “complaint” section at the end was very entertaining too. Keep up the good work.
Great show Brian!
I suggest some weekly tobacco trivia.
The over the top entire lengh of a CD song was my favorite! I can hardly wait to download that exciting part again!
Great suggestion on the tobacco trivia Patty! Ha! I knew you loved that song.
The host was fun, cool, and laid-back!
Good Night fellow Pipe Smokers! I’ll be sure to be tuned in next Thursday at 8:00pm
great show. More More More. Enjoyed listening to it while I was working in the shop and enjoying a few bowls.
Good show!
Nice job Brian! Great segment on the pipe shows. I attended my first show this year at Columbus. Certainly won’t be my last. Hope to catch up with you at Chicago next year. I’ll be listening next week.
I enjoyed the show Brian is a very entertaining host.
I just got a chance to listen and I enjoyed the show a lot. I am new to pipe making, but this is my second go round at smoking them. I smoked cheep tobacco in the navy 25 years ago. I quit soon after I got out. I decided to pick it back up last year and I saw a pipe kit from Tinsky and the bug bit me. Now I am on an intense learning quest. I am looking forward to listening and learning. Keep up the good work you have a pleasant voice goes good with a quite smoke after the kids go to bed!(I am a single dad of 2 little ones my days are chaos)
Sitting on my deck, listening and smoking a bowl. Very funny, informative & interesting. Like the idea of some pipe trivia in each show. Well done.
Brian, good show. I enjoyed it very much. I look forward to your next show.
Thanks.
Great show!Congrats!Quite enjoyed it but, I would suggest a “noise gate” for the “tape hiss”.Granted I do love the analog warmth, but the “hiss” takes away from the professionalism put into the recording.Not to criticize as it may have been unnoticed while being live.It’s just that I personally could hear it since I do recording myself.Great show overall and can’t wait for next week.
Great show, loved the music, lots of usefull info. Thanks.
Hey thank you I had a great time and plan to tune in again .
Bravo!
Awesome show! I really like hearing about his history in the pipe world. Kevin you definitely chose the right person!
I’m glad you guys enjoyed the first show. I thought it came out pretty good, especially for the first attempt. Just wait for the future shows. They will be even better as we get more practice at this. Thanks for listening, and tune in again next Thursday at 8pm eastern, please.
Nice job, Kevin and Brian. Good start, look forward to the evolution of the show. — Sandy
Good show last night, helped me forget I was living in a small city south of Texas and I was somewhere else with other pipe smokers. Cheers!
That was a great show, really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next cast!
Brian,
I have sent to all the TAPS Pipe Club members, in Raleigh N.C,notice of your excellent
radio program.Loved the format,humor and the content.Looking forward to the next installment.Happy smoking!
Great job guys!!! Brian, the Brigham Klondike #619 that I picked up in Chicago last May is smoking like a dream!! The perfect VA pipe!!!
Brian….Enjoyed the first show…..bought back memories of talking to you at shows when you worked for PS…..Good luck and I will see you in St.Louis…
Larry V. from the former “Moore’s Tobacco Shop” Danville, IL.
Good show! Subscribed on iTunes
We need a archive link that will contain all the broadcasts so we can download them to a desktop or notebook in MP3 format.
Brian was fantastic! I’m hoping he will tell us more about himself in upcoming shows. As I recall, he told me that his parents were hippies and he was brought up in a commune at various times, and, while he is close to his parents, he rebelled by embracing the world of tobacco. If that’s true, we’d love to hear more. For those of you who have not met Brian, he truly is a great guy.
This was just a wonderful first show!! It will be great to see how this show develops over time. Highly Recommended.
I really enjoyed the show I sure hope you stick with you did an outstanding job oldd boy.
An auspicious beginning Brian. Interesting hearing your bona fides. With your varied background you should make an excellent host.
Loved the show, can’t wait for future installments!
I thought that was absolutely amazing. I loved to humor and the info that was involved. I will certaintly be tuning in next week to listen. Great job and loved the Greg Pease joke.
Great show Brian! I listened to the podcast and you can count me as a regular! Bravo!
A terrific show, Brian. I enjoyed all aspects of the program, including the “rant” on your cruise experience. I read yesterday of a new farpotshket British study that tested a very small number of folk, and came up with the “possibility” that second-hand smoke affects memory! What next? However, I can’t remember where I read it, or how many people were tested. Perhaps I should avoid smokers. I’m sure it has nothing to do with me being in my late sixties. Perhaps a rant on these knuckle-head “scientific” studies. Now, where the hell are my glasses?
Really enjoyed your show! Entertaining. Keep up the good work!
Great show Brian. Next episode, let us know when and where the new tobaccos you will carry will be avaiable.
Excellent show. Great information and style. What was the best was the Cruise ship information. Brian, I agree with you and I will never go on those cruise ships. They apparently do not want us and I do want to be where I am not wanted. They would rather have a bunch of drunk, overweight, cigarette smoking customers. Well too bad for them.
Great show, Brian! I really enjoyed it. Had a feeling it would be good, knowing you, and sure enough… Looking forward to more!
Great show. I’m a loyal briar pipe man. Can you convince me to buy a meershaum?
Just got done listening to the radio show and really liked it! Had alot of great info and insight. I have to admit, I have been involved with the youtube pipe community and to be honest i’m pretty burnt out with it!! You can only watch so many videos with a guy doing a YABO and lighting a pipe.
Keep up the great job and look forward to next week….Joe
Fun, lively and down to earth. Great host and subject. Thank you PM!
I thought this was a wonderful, relaxing show with good humor and attitude. Keep up the good work! I felt the cruise ship rant ran a little too long — though Brian’s narrative style kept it interesting. I enjoyed the whole show so much I don’t know where the time went.
.
I second Patty’s suggestion for a weekly trivia segment. It’s interesting, and probably no coincidence that 4noggins was one of the e-mag’s pioneer sponsors, and here they are again stepping-up to support this unique format. Hmmm, I think I’ll place an order for a big batch of their Prairie Wind blend.
Excellent Show Brian! Enjoyed the Industry “insider” info. and humor. Would like to hear more of your dealings with Dunhill,Stokkebye etc., and other fun “war stories” you might be willing to share…
Great Job! The time flew by quickly – Can’t wait for more!
Ejoyed the first episode have not heard 2nd yet o but I will this weekend!
fun radio show, thanks!
fr dave
Nice show. I felt a little sting when you mentioned YouTube presenters not having good information. I understand you weren’t making a sweeping statement, but I still winced a bit.
Cheers.
Long over due. Great job!
Is there somewhere else to get other than iTunes? I was getting the previous 20 episodes via iTunes, but today, I was logged out. Now, when I lot in, I can’t download the shows unless I put in my credit card information. I don’t really use iTunes for anything else and I’m reluctant to post that info. But, I’d love to get Episode #21….