This morming -- after 13 long months of doing remote, prerecorded broadcasts, and then alternating between the studio and the phone line -- both of us are back in the studio! And man it feels great! We have new music from Keb Mo and Old Crow Medicine Show, Lau, Jon Boden, Rita Hosking and Sean Feder, Rick Shea, and much, much more from our ususal eclectic mix.

Since launching this show on March 17, 2020 I’ve interviewed just shy of 100 people representing a breadth of experiences across Yolo County. We’ve heard from elected officials ranging from Congress to school board; from Yolo County’s public health staff, and from teachers, students, and parents. I’ve interviewed artists and musicians; journalists, businesses, and nonprofit leaders. I’ve focused on the science, interviewing epidemiologists, virologists, and hospital administrators. We’ve talked about mental health, homelessness, hopelessness, and resiliency. And through it all, I’ve tried to illustrate that the pandemic has meant many things to many people, and to highlight the ways it has illuminated the holes in our safety net, and the extra burdens borne by marginalized communities. Today I’ve pulled out what I thought were particularly poignant passages from the past 13 months.

On Jan. 29, 2021, The Center for the Arts in Grass Valley hosted Rita Hosking and Sean Feder for a livestream concert. Soon after receiving the audio tracks, they, with Conrad Sisk and Steve O'Neill, released the concert as “Live from Lockdown," available as a CD or download. Their daughters, Hava Feder and Kora Feder, illustrated and designed the album cover.

Rita's father, originally from the mountains in Northern California, worked the night shift at a sawmill as a part of the area’s logging industry. Her great-grandfather, from Cornwall, England, was an underground gold miner in the region. The stories of her family and upbringing find their way into Rita’s songs on this album.

This week on "Celtic Songlines": The brilliant Scottish trio known as Talisk, the band Iona from the United Kingdom, Ímar, Solas, Levert, Fay Hield, piper Tommy Martin, and Wicked Tinkers. Tune in live on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to noon at KDRT 95.7FM, stream at kdrt.org, or subscribe to the "Celtic Songlines" podcast on Apple Podcasts.