Music

In 1967, Katy Payne and her husband Roger Payne were some of the first people to hear recordings of humpback whale song — and the album they released three years later, Songs of the Humpback Whale, became the best-selling environmental album in history. Now Katy is sharing what she’s learned from 50 years of whalesong observation with a group of Canadian musicians, inviting them to learn from and collaborate with whales.

Dover-based band the Soggy Po Boys have a new album interpreting the classics of New Orleans jazz. The seven-member band has been bringing jazzy, funky tunes to audiences throughout New Hampshire and up and down the East Coast since 2012. The new album is called "All In Favor."

The band's singer, Stu Dias, sat down with All Things Considered host Peter Biello to discuss the album. 

More information on the Soggy Po Boys and their new album can be found at soggypoboys.com. 

This show aired October 27th, 2019 and again October 31st, 2019..   

Songs of madness, murder ballads galore, and some mighty fine Devil's music... hosted by NHPR Producer Emily Quirk. 

You can listen to the full show, here:

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This show features a chat with Jake Brennan, podcast host and author of Disgraceland: Musicians Getting Away with Murder and Behaving Very Badly.**

The weather is starting to cool down in New Hampshire, which makes right now a great time to hear some music that calls to mind the beach and sunshine.

Certain towns in northern New Hampshire are becoming destinations for artists. But why? And can music fuel community development and growth?  

Jason Tors thinks so. He’s the owner and artist behind the Loading Dock in Littleton. It’s an unlikely space for music. 

“I was instantly attracted to it because it was super raw, had brick walls and exposed ceilings and felt like something that I would find in New York City or Brooklyn,” said Tors of the former newspaper storeroom that now houses his business.

Concord based musician Senie Hunt will release his first studio album this weekend. The five track composition features Hunt’s impressive talents as a finger-style guitarist. Hunt frequently performs across the state, and he joined NHPR’s Peter Biello in the studio to talk about his music.

Was it your family that introduced you to this kind of music?

NHPR presents a one hour music special celebrating May Day, hosted by Producer Emily Quirk. 

We’ll examine American labor history through the lens of roots, blues, Americana, and rock genres spanning the last 100+ years.

This program aired on Friday, May 3 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, May 5 at 6 p.m.

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Musician Snatam Kaur is preparing for the most high-profile performance of her career. This Sunday, the Wilton-based recording artist will take the stage at the 61st Grammy Awards ceremony.  Kaur will perform “Darashan Maago,” a song on her latest album Beloved, which is nominated for best album in the new age category.

On Beloved, sacred Sikh mantras are set to devotional music. Kaur’s parents embraced Sikhism when she was young, and she says that greatly influenced her career as a musician.

When 24-year-old Brendan Hart was a teenager, he spent a lot of time at a skatepark his hometown of Meredith. It was (and is) a special place for him, because it’s the Glenn Hart Memorial Skatepark, built in memory of his father.

NHPR’s Peter Biello picks up the story.

The novelist Willa Cather was born in Nebraska, but composed much of her most celebrated work, including My Ántonia, in New Hampshire.

She is buried in Jaffrey, New Hampshire and that's where this weekend fans of her work will gather to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of My Ántonia.

The interlude is polished and playful.

“I have something very special coming up here. I just kind of have to set the stage .... we have a giraffe that’s going to be performing with us out here.”

The audience laughs away.

This is the opening of a song track on one of The Shaw Brothers’ records. They’re playing live at Prescott Park in Portsmouth. And if you’ve ever enjoyed a concert at the Prescott Park Arts Festival, you can just imagine the giraffe was either a prop or a set painting for a youth theater act that used the stage earlier.

Gretchen and the Pickpockets formed about six years ago while front-woman Gretchen Klempa was a student at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Since then the band has been performing in and around the Granite State, pleasing crowds with mostly upbeat funky tunes enriched with lively horn hooks.

Think bagpipes, and you likely think Scotland. But one of the world’s largest bagpipe manufacturers happens to call Nashua, New Hampshire home.

That company, however, is facing an unexpected wrinkle in its international supply chain.

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and Sy Montgomery's 30-plus year friendship began with a ferret bite. Since then, the pair of New Hampshire-based naturalists and science writers have traveled together from Costa Rica to Tanzania.  

Their new book is called Tamed and Untamed, a collection of essays from their long-time Boston Globe column of the same name.  On this episode, Sy and Liz share scientific findings and personal viewpoints that argue the line between human and animal is blurrier than you might think. 

Also in this episode: Where to look for moose in New Hampshire, and singer-songwriter Liz Longley. 

Since 1847, the Exeter Brass Band has been filling the air with horns and cymbal crashes.

The New Hampshire ensemble is one of the oldest continuously performing bands in the country. This summer, they’re back at it, doing the usual Monday night run of free concerts from the Exeter bandstand, also known as the Swasey Pavilion.

One of New Hampshire’s most eclectic music and art festivals turns 10 this year.

The Thing in the Spring kicks off Wednesday in Peterborough, and continues to grow, adding a fifth day this year.

The festival features a wide range of independent musicians. There are art displays, film screenings, and even food trucks.

On today's show:

• Civics 101: Veto
• "Crazy Bet" from producer Nate DiMeo and The Memory Palace. Listen again at PRX.org. 
• Clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh was born in Damascus, but now lives in New York, where he wakes up to bad news each day. He’s going to be performing with the Kinan Azmeh CityBand at Phillips Academy Exeter tonight at 7:00pm and at the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts tomorrow, April 19th at 6:30pm to celebrate the band's 10th season together. This is our previous conversation with Kinan and composer Kareem Roustom, recorded in 2013.

• "The Gift of Music" from Masumi Hayashi-Smith and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Listen again at PRX.org. 

On today's show:

• Last year, Virginia spoke with Katherine Towler whose book The Penny Poet of Portsmouth is now out in paperback. 
• "Friday Night Lights" from Meg Cramer and BackStory with the American History Guys. Listen to this story again at PRX.org.
• We did a final check in with R.C. Thomas who wrapped up the RPM Challenge at the end of February.
• "Whistle Register" from The World According to Sound. Listen to this story again at PRX.org. 
• The Bookshelf: Keiselim Montas and the Art of the Haiku
• "Music Never Dies" from producer Jessica Ripka. Listen to this story again at PRX.org. 

On today's show: 

• Civics 101: How to Amend the Constitution
• Voting by Remote - Listen to this story again at PRX.org
• Alex Preston joined us in the studio for an interview and a few songs
• 10-Minute Writer's Workshop: Ottessa Moshfegh

On today's show: 

• Civics 101: Calling Your Congressperson
• From Kremlin to Kremlin - Listen to this story again at PRX.org. 
• Maceo Parker at St. Anslem's Dana Center for the Performing Arts
• RPM Challenge
• Washing Machine Music - Listen to this story again at PRX.org. 

Yellowstone may be the first national park, but it was New Hampshire's White Mountains that for decades prior captured the imagination of American tourists, scientists, and artists. Today, a portrait of Mount Washington's artistic history.

Plus, from Bob Dylan to Yoko Ono, audiences have long had a fascination with the off-beat or out of tune - so why do we love some bad singers and love to hate others?

Then, America's great repository of world knowledge faces an existential predicament. In a world where information is stored in servers and googled at will, can the Library of Congress really keep up?

Today, voices of Terezin, the Nazi concentration camp used to divert attention from the final solution. We'll hear about how prisoners held under brutal conditions created art and music amid the horrors of the holocaust

Plus, what happens when a protest movement professing all-or-nothing absolutism splits in two? We'll find out how a splinter group of vegan activists toned down their goals and built a powerful machine for change.

Flagrantly unsubstantiated "facts", misrepresented news, and deliberately false memes whooped up by the partisan fringes have been fast and furious this election... And thanks to Facebook's algorithm, fake news stories continue to trend. Today, if you yell at the Facebook echo chamber to stop, does it only get louder?

Then, in a contentious election season full of bombshells, boasts, and social media driving the outrage, how do newsrooms determine what deserves attention what doesn’t?