Folk
Fleet Foxes on Plans for a 24-Hour Song Album
Kyle Meredith With… Fleet Foxes Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Fleet Foxes mastermind Robin Pecknold speaks with Kyle Meredith about his surprise new record, Shore. Pecknold maps out the LP, revisits the long quarantine drives that aided his songwriting, and reflects on the protests in NYC. The singer-songwriter also talks controlling a person’s perception of time through his music, seeing the past without rose-colored glasses, how his grandfather’s stroke and recovery leant a focus to memory and mortality, and his plan for a 24-hour song album. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wedne...
Austin City Limits TV Season 46 Premieres with John Prine Tribute Episode: Watch
Season 46 of Austin City Limits TV premiered over the weekend with a tribute to John Prine, who died in April after contracting COVID-19. The special hour-long episode compiled highlights from the late singer-songwriter’s eight appearances on the long-running series over a span of 40 years. Entitled “The Best of John Prine”, the episode opened with a message from a modern torchbearer of Prine’s songwriting style, Jason Isbell. “If the artist’s job is to hold up a mirror to society, John Prine had the cleanest and the clearest of anyone I’ve ever known,” said Isbell, who previously participated in a livestream tribute to Prine over the summer. “Sometimes it seemed he had a window, and he would climb right through.” From there, the performances proceeded chronologically, starting with a 1978...
John Prine Performs “Sam Stone” in Previously Unaired Austin City Limits TV Clip: Watch
Austin City Limits TV returns this weekend with the launch of its 46th season. While new episodes began filming in studio sans audience earlier this month, the season premiere will actually focus on archival footage. Specifically, the episode will be a retrospective celebration of the late John Prine, featuring selections from his impressive eight ACL appearances. Spanning five decades from Prine’s first solo acoustic set in 1978 to his final one in 2018, the footage includes one previously unaired clip from 1987. It finds the country folk great singing his classic elegy for a drug addicted veteran, “Sam Stone”. Ahead of the ACL TV season premiere on October 3rd, this rare performance is being shared today. Before going into the track from his 1971 self-titled debut, Prine did what he did ...
Kathleen Edwards on Why She Left Music for Coffee
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Kathleen Edwards speaks with Kyle Meredith about Total Freedom, her first new album since 2012’s Voyager. The two discuss her need to leave music and start a coffee shop called Quitters, her barista abilities, and making foam butt cracks. The Canadian songwriter also talks about singing about her comeback within the new songs, taking inspiration from The War On Drugs for her sound, and appreciating the work that Cracker’s David Lowery is doing for copywriting. Edwards also takes us back to her early days of touring with My Morning Jacket and tells us why she keeps a Louisville Slugger beside her bed. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in whic...
The 10 Best Covers of Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush
It’s nearly impossible to overstate the artistic influence and value of Neil Young. Born in Toronto, Ontario, in November 1945, he spent his first 20 years or so digesting as much rock ‘n’ roll, country, and doo-wop as possible in the midst of living a somewhat tumultuous life (including suffering from polio, moving around a lot, and becoming a child of divorce). As with many iconic musicians, he dedicated much of his teenage years to playing in multiple fledgling bands. That is, until fate introduced him to another singer-songwriter, Stephen Stills, with whom he’d form the beloved folk-country rock troupe Buffalo Springfield in 1966. (Of course, the two would also help start the arguably even more significant Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young a few years later.) As wonderful and enduring a...
Neil Young Releases The Times EP: Stream
Neil Young has released his new live acoustic EP The Times. To ensure the best audio experience possible (as Young is wont to do), it’s only available to stream on the Neil Young Archives website or Amazon Music HD. Sign up for AMHD here or listen via the embedded player below. The seven-track collection captures the “Porch Episode” of Young’s Fireside Sessions series from back in July. That performance introduced fans to the updated version of “Lookin’ for a Leader 2020”, which reworks the lyrics to specifically target Trump and the current US political climate in 2020. The EP takes its name from another featured track: a cover of Bob Dylan’s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. The Times is rounded out by five cuts from various stages in Young’s catalog, all of which are particularly...
RNC Closes with Covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” as Fireworks Spell “Trump 2020”
Last night, Donald Trump accepted the Republican party’s nomination to be President of the United States. As the RNC came to a close, and as fireworks lit up the Washington Monument with the words “Trump 2020”, the norm-shattering display was soundtracked by two different covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” . The Canadian Cohen’s most famous song — a moving exploration of spirituality, humility, and orgasms — was first heard in a cover by Tori Kelly, in between “She’s a Grand Old Flag” and “God Bless the USA”. Minutes later, “Hallelujah” received a much-louder on-camera encore from opera singer Christopher Macchio. As Variety reports, Kelly tweeted out that she had been, “Seeing messages about my version of ‘Hallelujah,’”and added, “All i know is neither myself nor my team rec...
Neil Young Details The Times EP, Shares “The Times They Are A-Changin’” Cover: Stream
Earlier in the month, Neil Young quietly announced a new EP called The Times. Today, he’s further detailed the release, which will come exclusively to Amazon Music HD on September 18th. As predicated, The Times EP captures July’s “Porch Episode” of Young’s Fireside Sessions series. The performance featured his updated “Lookin’ for a Leader 2020”, which contains revised lyrics to match the current state of political affairs in 2020. Also included are renditions of “Ohio”, “Alabama”, “Southern Man”, “Campaigner”, and the Homegrown cut “Little Wing”. Rounding out the collection — and giving it its name — is a cover of Bob Dylan’s enduring “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. Young has released the recording via his Neil Young Archives, and you can also stream it on Amazon Music or via ...
Ani DiFranco on Capital Punishment, Working with Inmates, and the Prison Music Project
Kyle Meredith With… Ani DiFranco Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Ani DiFranco speaks with Kyle Meredith about her collaboration with the Prison Music Project on Long Time Gone. DiFranco takes us through her team up with Zoe Boekbinder, who brought in songs from inmates incarcerated within New Folsom Prison, and how it’s set to be adapted into a stage play. The legendary musician and activist also weighs in on capital punishment, citizen journalism, her hopes for Joe Biden, and the importance of voting in November’s election. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Mere...
Liza Anne on Finding Success in Therapy and Balancing Joy and Sorrow
Kyle Meredith With… Liza Anne Liza Anne speaks with Kyle Meredith about her new album, Bad Vacation, and the Instagram Live series she’s been leading called Emotional Health 2020. The Georgia-born Nashville resident discusses the crossroads of heart and politics and using 2020 as an opportunity to change for the better. She also meditates on her own success with antidepressants and therapy, balancing joy and sorrow in her writing, and how this all comes together on Bad Vacation. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Meredith digs deep into the artist’s work to find out how the music is made and where their journey is going, from legendary artists like Robert Plant, Paul...
Tim Heidecker and Weyes Blood Team For New Song “Nothing”: Stream
Tim Heidecker (photo by Heather Kaplan) and Weyes Blood (photo by Philip Cosores) Tim Heidecker has shared a new song called “Nothing”, written and performed with Weyes Blood. It’s off his upcoming guest-heavy album Fear of Death, which comes for us all on September 25th. As you might have guessed from the cheerful album title, “Nothing” answers the question: What matters in life? “Nothing! That’s what it amounts to, they say,” is how the song begins, and it only gets sunnier from there. “Black void waiting down the road for us one day/ We’re all gonna die alone/ There ain’t nobody gonna carry us home.” But in the meantime, we have gorgeous backing vocals from Weyes Blood to keep us company, because while “there ain’t no place where the angels roam,” that doesn’t mean we can’t find he...
Maya Hawke on the Importance of a Great Soundtrack
Kyle Meredith With… Maya Hawke Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Maya Hawke jumps on the line with Kyle Meredith to discuss her debut album, Blush. Hawke charts her path to what she calls “an accidental record” and shares why she finds songwriting as a way to communicate with others. She also tells us about the folk, rock, and jazz she heard around her house growing up, the biggest differences in writing poetry vs lyrics, the similarities between how she approaches songwriting and acting, and the importance of a great soundtrack. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, M...
