A very SPECIAL show indeed. Its an anniversary and a wedding weekend - from personal ones to KDRT celebrating its 16TH.
A gratitude in song for weddings and anniversaries. Weddings are all about creating a homebase for you and those closest to you. Anniversaries celebrate the base that has been established. Listen to what Listening Lyrics has for you this week. Enjoy
Check out the attached playlist for song details.
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Estelle California is a singer/songwriter born in France. She started playing the piano when she was 5 and went on to study saxophone. Later, she was formally trained in opera. Her current life is a far cry from her childhood in France, where she suffered physical and mental abuse, and lived in an environment where she saw many people being discriminated against.
Estelle is a passionate artist, musician, writer, and activist dedicated to shining the light of resilience and bringing forth social healing throughout the world. Her single "Black is the True Light" has garnered significant media attention and resonated with people all over the globe. |
Covid-19, hurricanes, fires, racial unrest, a polarized country -- yes, we are living in biblical times. So take an hour and listen to the sounds musicians have been giving us to carry on.
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
— Lyndon B. Johnson
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Born in Davis, Korean-American cellist Eunghee Cho earned second prize and the special award for Outstanding Chinese New Piece Performance at the Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin, China. He is principal cellist of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of the Mellon Music Festival in Davis, and serves on the faculties of Middlesex Community College and Derby Academy.
He has been invited to perform at such international festivals as La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Taos School of Music, Festival International d’Echternach, and Rencontres Franco Américaines de Musique Chambre. He is enrolled in New England Conservatory’s Doctor of Musical Arts Program under the guidance of distinguished pedagogue Laurence Lesser. (Photo by Chris Kitchen, used with permission of the Heifetz International Music Institute)
From Pieter: If you enjoyed this program, please hit the like button on the Listening Lyrics Facebook page. If you're interested in appearing on the show, hit me up at promotions@kdrt.org
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"Americana" is alive and well thanks to Jason McNiff, who hails from the coast of Southern England. Jason also introduced us to Sarah Gillispie, and we ended the interview playing one of her songs.
British troubadour Jason McNiff has made five albums which people call folk, or Americana, or alt country. There is an Englishness in his guitar playing, however, and you might think of Bert Jansch or Wizz Jones meeting John Prine & Townes Van Zandt. “McNiff’s quiet, intimate, fragile-sounding vocals draw you into his world," wrote Time Out in London, "an almost timeless place through which he drifts, a romantic loner, a dreamer, at home with the blues.” He is often touted as one of the UK’s most overlooked musical treasures, as a songwriter and fingerpicker.
His album April Cruel (Fledg’ling) was nominated for best album in the alt country category at the Independent Music Awards in 2011. A double CD anthology, Rain Dries Your Eyes, was issued in 2017. A new record made during lockdown will be coming soon.
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Kat Gallardo, known as “katgrüvs,” is riding the new wave of modern fingerstyle guitarists. A self-taught artist with a solid sense of time and rhythm, she discovers new ways to nurture her passion for percussive fingerstyle guitar arrangement and composition.
The name “katgrüvs” captures her innate feel for “grüv” and pocket, a trait steeped in years of playing in jazz, funk, and rock ensembles. A graduate from the University of California, Davis in Mechanical Engineering, she aspires to marry her lifelong passion for music with creative engineering. |
Jacob Swedlow is a talented and beautiful human being. In a far-ranging interview he shares with us his music, and how Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter storm affected him -- all of it influencing his own being and his creativity.
The best I can do is let Jacob talk a little about himself:
"My name is Jacob Swedlow, and I am a drummer, composer, vibraphonist, and teacher from Sacramento. After being exposed to Black American music at a young age, I have developed a deep passion for the history, culture, and innovation of the music, as well as the urge to play it! After my first few professional performances, I realized that this was the path for me.
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Lillian Frances is a sonic collager hailing from Davis, CA. She was a Polly Pocket in a past life, and draws inspiration from the creative nature of children. While crafting her music, Frances isn’t bothered by genre, or motivated to create in a particular style. One minute she leads you through a poppy, textured dream-land, the next you tumble into sparse, trappy beats as Lillian glides effortlessly between English and Spanish.
Her unique alt-pop style has been compared to Lorde, Sylvan Esso, and Billie Eilish. On June 5, she will hand over the keys to Moonrise Queendom, her debut album. |
Niall Woods (AKA Nylophone), who hails from Wicklow, Ireland, painstakingly tweaks his songs on a modest recording set-up at home before passing them on to a pro to have live drums mixed in and a few bells and whistles added. You can hear the influence of '60s artists such as The Beach Boys and Del Shannon in the neatly arranged bittersweet tunes that always clock in under 4 minutes, but more modern influences make the final result sound more akin to Ariel Pink. Nylophone's music typically features trickling guitar parts and layers of synth with catchy melancholic vocals on top. Bright melodies are contrasted with darker themes, or vice versa. Nylophone can also be found on Spotify and Facebook.
From Pieter: If you enjoyed this program, please hit the like button on the Listening Lyrics Facebook page. If you're interested in appearing on the show, hit me up at promotions@kdrt.org.
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In this episode we interview two singer/songwriters, and talk about how the Covid-19 isolation and BLM have influenced their writing.
Nancy Northrup can be found at nancynorthrup.com
Karen Stockton can be found on YouTube
A big thanks to Preacher Cleveland for taking the mic last week in honor of Juneteenth. Listen to the show here
From Pieter: This episode was recorded in my home studio, using a MacBook Air, Bose QuietComfort 15 headphones, Yedi BLUE microphone, Zoom (for the interview), Garageband, and iMovie (to process the MP4 Zoom file to an audio MP3 file).
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