Search results for

Colin Hay talks about his long career, the music and music scenes of his native Scotland and his successive home countries Australia and the US, his admiration for artists like Kasey Musgraves, Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton, about finding his way out of having been, as he puts it, too alternative for commercial labels and too commercial for alternative labels, and a lot more, including excerpts of music from Colin’s latest record, Now and the Evermore.

NPR Music remembers musicians — singers, songwriters, instrumentalists — and other visionaries we lost in 2016. Explore and celebrate their musical legacies.

Southern California R&B singer and rocker Nick Waterhouse returns with yet another winner, his 6th. It was recorded by Marc Neill in his studio in tiny Valdosta, Georgia, with a small crew not much different than the way Chess and Sun Studios sessions were made. “Many of the stories in the record come from that feeling of plasticity,” says Waterhouse. “What is memory? What is time? What is love between two human beings like in this imaginary city? It’s Cubist. A listener sees the angles of my life – and inexorably, my career – reflected in this work from all sides at once. I started thinking again about my university days, about modernist writers like Virginia Woolf, Christopher Isherwood, Hart Crane, or Ford Maddox Ford; about memory and how it betrays you; what you can see and what you can’t.”

After a dozen or so albums of theirs going back to 2001, it’s about time they released a full live album of their great material, right? Well, here’s a double-album, recorded last September in Wilmington, NC. Chief songwriters here are Graham Sharp and Aaron Burdett, with each of them shining with their talents. Hearing them live is hearing them at their absolute best. It’s no surprise to us why Rolling Stones considers them “one of the most sought-after groups in Americana, bluegrass, and indie-folk.” Our next chance to see them live will be at their upcoming Mountain Song Festival in Brevard that they host, September 6 and 7. This album, out on August 30th, was mixed in Asheville at Citizen Vinyl Studios; a video about the process is here: https://steepcanyonrangers.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-greenfield-lake

After the Flood: Songs Inspired by Hurricane Helene is a benefit compilation of local Western NC artists. 100% of the net proceeds will go to supporting local relief efforts. One year after Hurricane Helene ripped through Western NC, we are still in recovery mode. What better way to tell the story of recovery than through local music! Over 70 songs were submitted for consideration on the compilation, with 16 ultimately being selected, including Abby Bryant, Andrew Scotchie, the Hustle Souls, and Chuck Brodsky. Twelve of the sixteen songs were recorded locally at Landslide Studio in North Asheville. Info about this project can be found at https://www.experiencemusicavl.com/after-the-flood-compilation.html We’ll host some of the participants live in Studio B on Monday, October 6th!

It's time for the Mountain Song Festival and folks are gearing up for another incredible music event at one of the most popular venues in western North…

Connie Regan-Blake has captivated the hearts and imaginations of people around the globe with her powerful performances and workshops. "Two Friends and One Horse" is a folktale told in Israel about making peace.

“Storytelling is my first love, both in spoken word and on the written page, and I know better than to tamper with the essentials. Every good story requires a beginning, middle, and end, but it's more than that. To be interesting and hold our attention, a good storyteller provides variations in tone of voice appropriate gestures, and yes - eye contact”.

New Tunes at Two Monday 8/30: Sierra Ferrell – Long Time Coming