Southern Songs and Stories

If there’s one thing in music that practically everyone knows something about, it’s living legend Dolly Parton. And if there’s one thing in music that few people know anything about, it’s how film soundtracks are made. Both of these are a given; like the sun rising and setting, there is music in movies, and there is the transcendent career of Dolly.

Music so often gives you more than you bargained for. Talk to anyone with an interest in music, and it will lead to discovery. You find out about great artists you did not know about; you trace whole branches of the tree of song. To discover Mac Arnold is to realize that not only does his branch of the song tree have much more substance to it than you might have expected, but also that it directly touches so much more of this mythological and historic giant.

On first listen, you will quickly recognize some of the ingredients in the music of Marcus King. Blues, rock and soul jump out right away. And when you look at Marcus, it is easy to sum things up by saying that he is a young guitar phenomenon with a powerful voice and a super tight band. This is all true, but there is so much more to discover with Marcus King, and the deeper you go, the more you find out about how intricate his music can be.

From Program Director and Southern Songs and Stories Producer Joe Kendrick:

"The Deer is a band that does not fit into any one box, or any single term you might use to describe them," said WNCW Program Director Joe Kendrick. "The term “folk” comes up a lot when you hear about this Austin, Texas quintet. Descriptors like “indie folk,” “transcendental Texas folk,” and “psychotropic folk” are all floating around out there, but like so many handles we try to put on music, they are often slippery and ill suited to pick up what artists are laying down.

When talking about how things used to be two decades ago, Adam Aijala, guitarist and founding member of Yonder Mountain String Band said, “We could play a hardcore bluegrass festival, and we'd be the weird band; we could play a jam band festival and be the only band without drums.” That’s not always the case for this now five-piece group nowadays, but they still find themselves in a place where few artists stay for long: bridging the musical territories of classic bluegrass with jam and psychedelia. 

Dan Lotti once said, “For me, the whole artistic process is rooted in a sort of spiritual practice. I’m not outwardly yogic, but every single day I’m involved in a yogic practice of meditation and stretching. I think that practice inevitably breathes and inspires the music. It opens you up to a lot of different perspectives.” For Dan and his band Dangermuffin, the music they make is meant for both fun and for healing. Their songs are both for bringing community together, and for letting loose and enjoying a tight jam. Here, those jams are mostly acoustic.

From the desk of WNCW Program Director and Producer of Southern Songs and Stories, Joe Kendrick: