I didn’t find out until after I taped this week’s program that Loretta Lynn, who died last week, also claimed part Cherokee heritage. But it all fit in on a special edition of Capital Radio hailing only the second official Indigenous People’s Day, on which we played songs by and for native peoples as well as a few saying by to Christopher Columbus, who once ruled this Monday holiday in October.

There was also time to salute the birthdays of Thelonious Monk, born this day in 1917, Ivory Joe Hunter (1914), songwriter Vernon Duke (1903), Kirsty MacColl (1959) and a couple for John Prine (1949), whose death of Covid at 73 seems fresh but came at the beginning of the pandemic. Also, some birthday candles for Julia Sweeney, who turns 63 today, David Lee Roth, 68; and Midge Ure, 69.

And a few songs Elvis Costello co-wrote with Loretta Lynn, the possible Cherokee. Here’s a link to the whole show (in two parts). The playlist follows: