Station Archive

Sylvie Simmons writes about music, and plays music. She's an award-winning rock journalist - one of the very few women included among the predominantly male rock writing elite - and a best-selling author whose books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Her most recent books are last year's Face It: Debbie Harry and, in 2012, the definitive Leonard Cohen biography. She has also written books on Johnny Cash, Serge Gainsbourg and Neil Young.

After four decades of writing about music and musicians, Sylvie did the near-impossible and crossed over to being a singer-songwriter herself, accompanying her original songs on a ukulele. Signing a record deal in 2014, she released her debut, Sylvie, which the UK Guardian called "one of the most beautiful albums of the year."

Each October, the Davis Cemetery District & Arboretum holds a marvelous Dia de los Muertos celebration. Can you think of a more fitting setting for our local adaptation of this beautiful celebration of life and death that originated in Mexico, and today is celebrated all over Central America and here in the U.S.? Despite COVID, the celebration is on, and we'll hear from Executive Director Jessica Smithers how it's been adapted for this year. We'll also learn about some of the other unique features of this suprising local resource.