JUST PLAIN FOLKIES

At one time or another during their radio show, all three of the hosts of "Your Folk Connection" are either picking or grinning.

"Since I'm a single man, I like to tell Terry and Barney that they're henpecked," said Jim Hickam, who hosts the weekly folk music show with Terry Wright and Barney Hartline.

The radio show, which airs Saturdays at 7 p.m. on KCRU 90.9 FM, has been running for four years. Hartline and his friends said they contacted the station's manager to suggest a folk music program because none existed in the area.

"You can sometimes pick up a folk program from Carbondale if you have a really good radio and some luck," said Wright, a technician with Southwestern Bell. "The formats around Cape Girardeau are limited to top 40, country and rock. We just thought somebody ought to do a folk program."

Wright, Hartline and Hickam have been part of an impromptu folk group for years. They were part of a folksy jam session that gathered regularly on weekends at the home of David Giles, former assistant superintendent for Cape Girardeau Schools.

"Back then it was nothing to stay around and play until 2 a.m.," said Hickam, a retired elementary school teacher.

When Giles died, the jam sessions switched to Wright's home, and they end a bit earlier, usually.

"Now that we're a little older, we play until midnight," said Hartline, who owns a Cape Girardeau hardware store.

But Wright stops to correct him, saying last week's finish was closer to 1 a.m.

As the three sat in KRCU's studio recording "Your Folk Connection" this week, it was apparent this is more fun than work for them.

As Hartline introduces a song by the Ditch Lillies for his 20-minute portion of the program, he finds a link between the song's title and the subject of cryogenics.

"Can you imagine freezing as big as Jim's?" Hartline asked his on-air colleagues.

"You'd need a big refrigerator," Hickam said.

Give and take has been part of their relationship since they formed a group called the Shade Tree Folk Company in 1986, Hartline said.

The radio trio make up the core of the group, which performed with Jackson and Cape Girardeau municipal bands this week. But Hickam stresses that they chose the group's name specifically to allow a fluid movement of members in and out of performances. Those who gather at the weekend jam sessions will take up banjos, dulcimers and other instruments for performances at state parks and the various venues where Shade Tree is heard.

But the radio show belongs to Hartline, Wright and Hickam exclusively.

Each member brings his own folk music selections to recording sessions at KCRU. No one is consulted in advance, so sometimes the three will surprise each other.

"One week it might be all bluegrass," Hickam said.

Local and other folk performers are often part of "Your Folk Connection." The program allows the hosts to feature good local musicians who otherwise wouldn't have an outlet, Wright said.

When asked to define folk music, Wright is hesitant. But Hartline gives an idea.

"Generally, it is considered music that has been passed down by oral tradition," Hartline said.

The three have grown to appreciate each other's musical tastes over the years. While Hickam plays more traditional folk, Hartline offers more bluegrass. Wright said that he will play bluegrass, and Celtic, and 1960s folk.

"I particularly like Joan Baez," Wright said.

Hickam said he does, too.

Although the hosts of "Your Folk Connection" aren't exactly sure how big a following the program has, it has been well supported by public radio listeners.

"We are one of the few programs on KCRU that either meets or exceeds fund-raising goals year to year," Wright said.

Hickam and Wright said this is true, in spite of Christmas music with the voices of dogs and cats that Hartline likes to play during fund raisers.

"You can't call it folk music, because cats and dogs aren't folks," Hickam said. "We don't criticize Barney, except about this."