My bags sat on the floor waiting to be unpacked while I looked around my bedroom — the same bedroom where I’d grown up, the same bedroom I’d escaped when I went off to Bowling Green, and the same bedroom I would now live in as a college graduate trying to save up money to move out west. Nothing had changed in that room for 15years; the wallpaper that my mother had put up herself still hung on the walls, the newspaper clippings and magazine pictures tacked to the corkboard were still there, and the clown portrait that hovered over the bunk beds my brother and I had shared still looked on, unable to manage a smile. As the smell of fresh cut grass filled the air and a breeze came in through the window, I felt lost. Four years spent in pursuit of a dream seemed to have stalled while I waited out the summer. To top things off, a bad hair dye attempt had left my hair orange.

Change was in the air, though. 1992 was an election year, and the youthful governor Clinton from Arkansas had tapped into the mindset of twentysomethings like me, inspiring us all to believe that our voices really could affect the outcome in November and help shape the country for years to come. In the music world, where trends were still being made and program directors had some freedom to play the music they believed in, alternative radio stations began popping up all over, like little buds bursting through the earth. Underground would soon become the mainstream. Exactly what “alternative” meant was up in the air, giving stations the freedom to play anything that didn’t fit the mold of top 40, country or classic rock radio. In Cleveland it was WENZ, whose playlists were a collage of grunge, modern rock, folk, some electronica and several of the great ’80s college bands finally getting their due. The Replacements, Midnight Oil, early Gabriel, Pearl Jam. It was a healthy mix. One group I was pleased to receive wider exposure was the Indigo Girls, who had just released their fourth album, Rites of Passage. (more…)