Latest Show: Episode 55

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Featured: Nellie McKay

The magic hour with Wynton Marsalis
A bit of blues from The Mountain Goats
The lo-fi world of John Vanderslice
New music from Chicago's Tortoise
Rethinking the blues with Tarbox Ramblers

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Nellie McKay is just nineteen but writes music with a breadth and depth beyond her years.

Featured: Nellie McKay

CD: Get Away From Me
Song: "Sari"
Label: Sony

Listen to "Sari"

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Listen to an interview with Nellie McKay from NPR's Morning Edition.

Marsalis explains the album's's title, say that "For kids, the 'magic hour' is the one hour before they go to bed. For parents, it's the one hour after the kids go to sleep."

Wynton Marsalis

CD: The Magic Hour
Song: "Feeling of Jazz"
Label: Blue Note

Listen to "Feeling of Jazz"

There are more than 100 songs by the Mountain Goats on various compilations and label samplers, most of them recorded on a department store boombox. This collection is their 12th studio album.

The Mountain Goats

CD: We Shall All Be Healed
Song: "Letter From Belgium"
Label: 4AD

Listen to "Letter From Belgium"

John Vanderslice writes delicate and dark songs carefully crafted with creaking keyboards, buzzing guitars and plenty of distorted drums.

John Vanderslice

CD: Cellar Door
Song: "Pale Horse"
Label: Barsuk Records

Listen to "Pale Horse"

Check out our previous feature on Tortoise from All Songs Considered episode 8, from July of 2001.

Tortoise

CD: It's All Around You
Song: "Stretch (You Are All Right)"
Label: Thrill Jockey

Listen to "Stretch (You Are All Right)"


This CD will be available in April.

With tribal drums, upright bass, and slide guitar, the Tarbox Ramblers have sound that's been described as a train wreck of hillbilly gospel and blues.

Tarbox Ramblers

CD: A Fix Back East
Song: "Were You There"
Label: Rounder

Listen to "Were You There"

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