‘HARLEM EXPRESS’ GIVES KSBR SOUL

Pop Quiz: Is it possible to find ethnically rich American roots music like gospel, New Orleans R&B;, zydeco and Southern soul on Orange County radio?

Surprise answer: Yes, thanks to “Harlem Express,” an airwave freshener conducted by Ryan Williams each Sunday from 6 to 7 p.m. on Saddleback College’s non-commercial station KSBR (88.5 FM).

“I call it a roots-oriented, black American music show,” Williams, 27, explained. “I play a potpourri of different styles that are blues and gospel-related.”

But this isn’t another well-intentioned but one-dimensional college radio “roots” show that simply strings together various chestnuts without much insight into the music or its evolution.

Williams, who lives in El Toro, is familiar with that kind of program and its pitfalls. “There are some blues shows I don’t even listen to, that I get tired of listening to,” Williams said, sitting in an office at Leisure World where he works in the service department.

“I hear that same three-chord, straight-ahead gut-bucket blues, song after song, and I get tired of it. Much as I like the roots of that music, you have to change, you have to play a variety (of styles), show the different aspects of it. You have to keep it modern and fresh.”

Williams certainly appears to practice--or program--what he preaches. Last Sunday’s show, for instance, started with a selection by gospel group extraordinaire the Dixie Hummingbirds and closed with “Tramp” by veteran bluesman-turned-R&B-belter; Lowell Fulson.

In between, the “Harlem Express” traveled over considerable ground, stopping at widely familiar names, both new and old (Robert Cray, Sam Cooke) and less familiar ones, new and old (Buckwheat Zydeco, the blues team of Robert Jr. Lockwood and Johnny Shines).

You aren’t likely to hear this kind of music, this expertly assembled, elsewhere on local airwaves. Williams brings the zeal of a fan and the knowledge of a historian to programming “Harlem Express.”

While the links between various genres and various artists is sometimes implied musically, they are often discussed explicitly--if briefly--when Williams back-announces the songs. (He also brings to the show the understated presence of someone not overly fond of the microphone.)

“I’m kind of a shy person, so I’m not a real strong personality on the air. I don’t really like to talk a lot,” said Williams, who typically interjects commentary after every three songs.

“If I was less shy, I would probably talk every two songs--but just a little bit. I don’t want to go on and on about a group. I like to throw in maybe the most important, enlightening thing about that group.”

Working from a black history calendar, he also mentions a few noteworthy dates for the coming week. Generally, though--to paraphrase rock station slogans--it’s less schmooze, more gospel and blues.

And while he’s pretty adamant that virtually everything about “Harlem Express” has at least some connection to traditional blues or gospel, he also tries to maintain a 50-50 ratio of old to new music. And he’s not completely averse to occasionally including a song that’s more catchy than rootsy.

“I don’t mind if (a song ) is a little pop-oriented because it does keep the show modern, it does keep it current,” he said. “I want to attract young listeners. I don’t want it to sound like some scratchy thing from the ‘40s.”

A native of Indiana, Williams says his first significant musical memory was of a Ray Charles record he heard at age 5. His more recent history covers nearly as much ground as the music on “Harlem Express”:

He attended Indiana University for two years; worked with handicapped children in the special education field; backpacked throughout Europe; lived on the East Coast doing odd jobs, including working “on the back end of a fish truck, scaling fish and helping a guy sell fish--just whatever came along.”

He settled in Orange County in 1984. (He lived here briefly in 1980, after driving out from Indiana on a motorcycle. “Pretty bumpy,” he said of the ride.) He wanted to resume his schooling, but wasn’t sure where to concentrate his attention. He decided on radio and enrolled at Saddleback College, taking night classes while working days at Leisure World.

Last December, Williams passed the audition for an on-air shift and in January began holding down a weekly slot on Friday mornings. Almost immediately, though, he entertained the idea of being host for one of KSBR’s so-called “specialty shows.” He submitted four proposals for what eventually became “Harlem Express.” (The show, which premiered in May, will move to a later time slot at the end of August.)

“The first proposal I turned in was for a pure black gospel show,” he said. “I thought that would be real unique. . . . For each proposal, I changed the format a little bit. But the whole time I kept the black gospel in there because I felt that could really be the cornerstone of my show.”

And so it is. “Harlem Express” generally opens with a gospel tune, and two or three others are sprinkled throughout the rest of the hour. Connecting those dots is a veritable hodgepodge of music and information as likely to educate as to entertain. That’s no accident, either.

“Mostly,” Williams said, “I try to have the show as enriching as possible.”

LIVE ACTION: Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald will play the Pacific Amphitheatre on Oct. 11. Tickets go on sale Monday. . . . Tickets go on sale Sunday for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sept. 27 performance at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. . . . Former Orange County singer-songwriter Jeff Pearson, now living and working in Nashville, returns to his home turf for shows Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 at the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana.