Search results for

A profile of Tracy Nelson, the great blues and gospel singer - and the former leader of the San Francisco sixties band - Mother Earth. Her most famous song she authored "Down So Low." Nelson has a new album out called I FEEL SO GOOD - and while Nelson says she doesn't give a hoot about success - her new album has been doing well. Susan Armistead visited Nelson at her home in the woods outside Nashville and filed this profile. (8:30) [The album is I FEEL SO GOOD / ROUNDER RECORDS] (IN S

Liane Hansen speaks with folk singer Geoff Muldaur about his new cd, Password (on Hightone Records). The singer was in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in the 60's and was married to Maria Muldaur -- while Maria went on to her own successful solo career, Muldaur dropped off the radar for years, but recently started recording again. Muldaur also plays a selection on guitar in our studio. (17:48) {NOTE: Geoff Muldaur's new CD, Password, is available through Hightone Records, catalog # 8125}

Scott Aiges reviews the new CD from The Blind Boys of Alabama, called Spirit of the Century. All of the band members are in their 70s, and got their name when they started singing together at the Talledega Institute for the Blind in 1939. They have always sung in the traditional jubilee style -- hymns, spirituals and other Christian music -- with tight harmonies and little if any accompaniment. The new CD puts a fresh new spin on old-time religious music. (5:00) Spirit of the Century by the Blind Boys of Alabama is on Realworld records, catalog # 70876-15319-2-3.

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, aka the folk-parody band Flight of the Conchords, hail from New Zealand and were named best alternative-comedy act at the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Now they're starring in an HBO series called, yes, Flight of the Conchords — which is, yes, about two transplanted New Zealanders living in New York City's Lower East side. It launches Sunday.

Michael Hearst, a founder of the band One Ring Zero, put out his Songs for Ice Cream Trucks CD mostly for fun. But he's been getting calls from ice-cream truck drivers who want to use them. Some of the instruments you'll hear on the collection include glockenspiel, electronic chord organ, melodica and theremin.

Host Noah Adams talks to Eef Barzelay, singer and songwriter for the band Clem Snide. He and his colleagues were contacted by the producers of the NBC television show Ed to write a new theme song. Barzelay talks about three different songs he quickly wrote, plays them for us, and talks about how writing for a group of producers relies on so many unseen forces. He says it was hard to read people's minds, and sometimes what he thought was a perfect verse or chorus was outright rejected by the show.

Tom Verlaine's rock band Television came of age alongside peers like the Talking Heads and Patti Smith. But for years, Verlaine has been an elusive presence on the music scene — his recent release of two CDs is his first public work in 14 years.

For 60 years people living in Northwest Tennessee have been able to hear a radio program called Swap Shop. The format of the show is simple, harkening back to the days when radio was a predominently local medium. Listeners call or write in to buy or sell items, ranging from household items to farmyard implements. Producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister heard the program, and as part of an occasional series, they asked musician Kurt Wagner and his band Lambchop to use the show as inspiration for an original song.

Country music's Rose Maddox, who at age 11 embarked on a decades-long singing career, has died. Maddox became a big hit after World War II, touring with her four brothers. Their band was called, Maddox Brothers and Rose. She won a Grammy in 1996 for her CD, $35 And A Dream. Maddox died yesterday of kidney failure. She was 71 years old. NPR's Linda Wertheimer has this remembrance.

Southern Culture on the Skids brings the trailer park into your living room -- that is, unless your living room is already in a trailer park. NPR's John Ydstie speaks with members of the rock group about a new CD, Mojo Box.