Best known for his work with Peter, Paul and Mary, he has much to say about music as a political force, but his most surprising comment was this: even when writing songs, he thinks visually, in shapes not sounds. And he has great stories about “the most feared person in Greenwich Village” and Mary … Continue reading »
Category Archives: Music
Episode 152: Laurie Anderson
Life is constructed from the stories we tell, suggests this splendid musician, film-maker (and more). “What else is there but stories?” she asks. “Well,” I reply geriatrically, “there’s the truth.” Or is there? She has a more nuanced view (or perhaps just a darker one). A conversation about myth-making, with side trips to the Venice … Continue reading »
Episode 150: Heidi Rodewald and Stew
Art often fails. Writers discard first drafts (and second, third, and fourth). Painters trash early sketches. And even when completed work enters the world, some is transcendent, but much is hopelessly earthbound. Or so I believe, but Heidi Rodewald and Stew, creators of the musical Passing Strange, demur. “I don’t think art is ever wrong,” … Continue reading »
Episode 134: Lee Ranaldo and Don Fleming
HBO’s Vinyl is gone, but its splendid soundtrack endures. “’I always seek out experts,’ said Randall Poster, one of the show’s music supervisors, who enlisted the Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo to help him build up the punk bona fides on Vinyl. Mr. Ranaldo brought on his own frequent collaborators, including studio veterans with a … Continue reading »
Episode 131: Warren Zanes
A member of the Del Fuegos, he went on to teach at NYU, work on Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison documentary, and write a biography of Tom Petty. During our conversation at the Princeton Public Library, he asserted that creative work is often the product of a miserable childhood. A counter-example offered by the audience: Leonard Nemoy, … Continue reading »
Episode 115: Melissa Manchester
Most musicians, even talented musicians, have no career at all. Hers has lasted, depending how you count, 40 years? 50 years? Or with my special math, 1000 years, dating to the middle ages. At 15, she was singing commercial jingles; while still in high school, she was a staff writer for Chappell Music. Her first hits, … Continue reading »
Episode 115: Melissa Manchester
Most musicians, even talented musicians, have no career at all. Hers has lasted, depending how you count, 40 years? 50 years? Or with my special math, 1000 years, dating to the middle ages. At 15, she was singing commercial jingles; while still in high school, she was a staff writer for Chappell Music. Her first hits, … Continue reading »
Episode 112: David Krakauer
If he is best known for klezmer music, he has only himself to blame: he plays it brilliantly, honoring its roots without making it a museum piece. And he leaps across genres, sometimes in a single work. He once recorded an album that charted top ten for Jewish music, funk, jazz and, for all … Continue reading »
Movies / Music / Nonfiction
Episode 104: Paul Williams & Tracey Jackson
He is a songwriter who’s won an Oscar, 3 Grammies and 2 Golden Globes for hits like “We’ve only Just Begun” and “Rainy Days and Mondays.” Her TV and film scripts include Confessions of a Shopaholic for Jerry Bruckheimer. They are the co-authors of Gratitude and Trust: Six Affirmations that will Change Your Life. We spoke at Glenn … Continue reading »
Episode 92: Jill Sobule
Like many people, I became a fan with I Kissed a Girl, a song that is both witty and warm, qualities that seldom coincide. At a time when the music business has squeezed out the middle, offering only massive stadium concerts or total oblivion, she’s resourcefully built a musical life — crowd-funding an album, touring with … Continue reading »
Episode 70: Emanuel Ax
Pianist Emanuel Ax was born in Ukraine and lived in Warsaw and Winnipeg before arriving in New York, where he studied at Julliard and later at Columbia, earning a BA not in music but in French. One sign of his esteem as a performer is the roster of colleagues who’ve regularly performed with him, including … Continue reading »
Episode 67: Andrew W. K.
Hard rocker and host of the Cartoon Network show “Destroy Build Destroy,” he is our first guest to have a hit record and to give a motivational speech at Yale. Best known for his songs It’s Time to Party, Party Hard and Party ‘Til You Puke, he has elevated the party from ephemeral fun to … Continue reading »