The Whirlybird Compound

The Whirlybird Compound Not a place — an underground movement. Folks highly motivated by fun, music, stories, and keeping the fire lit.

06/23/2026

Y’all — WBRD FIELD REPORT
(Can’t remember what number we’re at…)

1044.18 on the WBRD Dial — Nicky Butler Talks About What the Hell Is Coming Out of THE STORY MACHINE

We thought we were creating a survey.

Instead, we seem to have created a rather unusual Story Machine.

The Gathering Places Project began with a simple question:

What gathering place changed your life?

What came back were not simple answers.

People began remembering mentors, friendships, music camps, coffee shops, festivals, kitchen tables, chance encounters, and the unexpected moments that quietly altered the course of their lives.

The survey didn’t just collect information.

It triggered remembering.

Now Nicky Butler has spent some time studying the machine and has a few observations of his own.

Because sometimes the most interesting thing about a machine is not what goes into it.

It’s what comes out.

Listen to Nicky’s report:
https://wbrd.org/1044-18-the-story-machine/

WBRD 1008 AM — Radio for the Restless Spirit
The Story Machine is Listening, Y'all...

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK_OMUlPhvpRVmSlYVm_by_Xk2fAODV0sDYHETG1IaDxs7Eg/viewform?usp=headerY'all, we ...
06/16/2026

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK_OMUlPhvpRVmSlYVm_by_Xk2fAODV0sDYHETG1IaDxs7Eg/viewform?usp=header

Y'all, we have received 17 responses so far.

One thing that has surprised us is how few people talk about buildings.

Instead they talk about mentors, friendships, opportunities, traditions, and finding their tribe.

It turns out gathering places may be less about location and more about relationships.

We’d love to hear your story.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK_OMUlPhvpRVmSlYVm_by_Xk2fAODV0sDYHETG1IaDxs7Eg/viewform?usp=header

Survey Link:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK_OMUlPhvpRVmSlYVm_by_Xk2fAODV0sDYHETG1IaDxs7Eg/viewform?usp=head...
06/15/2026

Survey Link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK_OMUlPhvpRVmSlYVm_by_Xk2fAODV0sDYHETG1IaDxs7Eg/viewform?usp=header

The Gathering Places Project

Mapping the Constellations of Living Culture

Friends,

For more than twenty years, Christy Leichty and I have had the privilege of welcoming musicians, artists, storytellers, educators, culture bearers, and community builders to The Whirlybird in South Louisiana.

Along the way, we’ve become increasingly interested in a simple question:

What gathering places have shaped our lives?

Places like Fiddle Tunes, Clifftop, Blackpot, Festival Acadiens, the Savoy Music Center, workshops, dance halls, folk schools, church gatherings, camps, jam sessions, and countless others where music, stories, traditions, friendships, and beneficial accidents continue to flourish.

As part of The Whirlybird Project and WBRD (Radio for the Restless Spirit), we’re beginning The Gathering Places Project—an effort to identify and celebrate the places where culture continues to be learned, shared, and renewed.

We’re starting with a short 3–5 minute survey.

We hope you’ll take a few minutes to tell us about the gathering places that have had the greatest impact on your life.

And if this project speaks to you, please share it with others who have traveled these roads as well.

⭐ Every gathering place is a star.

⭐ Every friendship is a pathway.

⭐ Together they form a constellation through which culture travels.

Survey Link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK_OMUlPhvpRVmSlYVm_by_Xk2fAODV0sDYHETG1IaDxs7Eg/viewform?usp=header

Keep the fire lit.

— Jim Phillips & Christy Leichty
The Whirlybird Project
WBRD – Radio for the Restless Spirit
Home of the Beneficial Accident

Y'all - WBRD Field Report @ frequency 1044.45A tale told by Nicky Butler beside a campfire somewhere in the Atchafalaya ...
06/05/2026

Y'all - WBRD Field Report @ frequency 1044.45

A tale told by Nicky Butler beside a campfire somewhere in the Atchafalaya Basin

Now I ain’t sayin’ Pop Squally and the Loupgarou saved New Orleans from a vampire lawyer convention… I’m just sayin’ nobody’s seen those lawyers since Mardi Gras. And that seems worth mentionin’...

Continued on WBRD - 1044.45 on your ghost radio dial
https://wbrd.org/1044-field-reports/

05/28/2026

Y’all. 🍀 FRIDAY NIGHT, May 29th (that’s tomorrow) — GERRY O’CONNOR at THE WHIRLYBIRD 🎻

Well now… it appears Irish weather will be moving through The Bird this Friday night.

Which means we may need a few extra volunteers around the WB Fiddle Bar - before, during and after the fiddle and guitar start summoning ancient emotional conditions nobody can fully explain.

Doors at 6pm.
(Bar & Mama’s Shrimp Sliders)

Music at 7pm.
Gerry O’Connor & John Penzien

We can always use a few kind souls to be prepared to volunteer - Y’all - the WB Fiddle Bar… The Irish spirit… think about it

We all know by now Whirlybird nights don’t run on money nearly as much as they run on participation.

So if you love music, community, organized confusion, and the occasional porch-side philosophical emergency brought on by Irish fiddle tunes… come help us keep the signal strong.

Message Jim if you’d like to volunteer.

WBRD —
Voice of The Whirlybird
Ghost radio and folk cinema for folks wanderin’ the In-Between.

Y'all - VOLUNTEERS FOR SUNDAY @ THE BIRDHorace Trahan & The Ossun ExpressJohn Zant’s Pop-Up Gourmet KitchenThe Whirlybir...
05/07/2026

Y'all - VOLUNTEERS FOR SUNDAY @ THE BIRD
Horace Trahan & The Ossun Express
John Zant’s Pop-Up Gourmet Kitchen
The Whirlybird Fiddle Bar

Now listen…. A place like The Bird don’t run on electricity alone.

It runs on people draggin’ ice chests, sweepin’ floors, fryin’ onions, haulin’ fiddles, wipin’ tables, tellin’ stories, pointin’ strangers toward the bathroom, dancin’ when they oughta be workin’, and workin’ when they’d rather be dancin’.

That’s the real machinery.

Truth is, we learned a long time ago—from folks like Marc and Ann Savoy—that culture don’t stay alive ‘cause somebody put it in a museum case.

It stays alive ‘cause people keep showin’ up.

Showin’ up to cook.
Showin’ up to teach.
Showin’ up to play.
Showin’ up to listen.
Showin’ up to help.

That’s what we’re tryin’ to do out here at The Whirlybird and through WBRD.

Not manufacture culture.
Not flatten it into “content.”

Just cultivate the conditions where good things naturally happen:
music spillin’ outta corners,
kids learnin’ tunes,
old stories resurfacin’,
people laughin’ too loud,
somebody two-steppin’ with a stranger,
and everybody goin’ home carryin’ a little more than they came with.

So if you feel like helpin’ us hold the room together this Sunday for Horace, Ossun Express, John Zant’s kitchen, and the Fiddle Bar…

we’d sure love the help.

Because around here…

the goal ain’t simply preservation.

The goal is participation.

Y'all - It's The Motherload of Mothers Day Parties:
05/05/2026

Y'all - It's The Motherload of Mothers Day Parties:

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