Episode 118

Subscribe to the ASC podcast

Listen to the entire show

All new music from folk legend Bob Dylan
Woody Guthrie covered by The Klezmatics
Country electronica from Geoff Reacher
Music for balloons from Judy Dunaway
Throat singing meets Zeppelin in Yat Kha
The sweet sound of My Brightest Diamond
The perfect world of Madeleine Peyroux

E-mail this page to a friend

Bob Dylan returns with just his third collection of all-new material since 1990's Under The Red Sky. It's as lyrically and musically inspired as some of his finest work in a career spanning more than 40 years.

Bob Dylan

CD: Modern Times
Song: "Ain't Talkin'"
Label: Columbia

Listen to "Ain't Talkin'"

Once labeled "the planet's radical Jewish roots band," The Klezmatics offer wild and playful takes on klezmer, traditional dance music of Eastern European Jews. For this album they scored original music for the lyrics of folk legend Woody Guthrie.

The Klezmatics

CD: Wonder Wheel
Song: "Mermaid Avenue"
Label: Jewish Music Group

Listen to "Mermaid Avenue"

Geoff Reacher calls his sometimes odd blend of country and artful electronica "country Brecht." In his online bio, the multi-instrumentalist says he wants his songs "to sound like now, like how now feels to me, kind of hard-boiled and calamitous and full of fearsome possibilities; and I play 'em live and loud, with guitar, beats, synth stabs, horn samples all chopped up and echoed out."

Geoff Reacher

CD: Avec Reacher C'est Plus Sur
Song: "Hidden Meaninin"
Label: Orange Twin

Listen to "Hidden Meaninin"

Judy Dunaway calls herself the mother of "balloon music." On her latest CD she blends the sounds of violin and other instruments with the sometimes screeching sounds balloons make when slowly releasing air.

Judy Dunaway

CD: Mother of Balloon Music
Song: "Etude No. 2 for Balloon and Violin"
Label: Innova

Listen to "Etude No. 2 for Balloon and Violin"

Originally featured on All Songs Considered episode 10, the Tuva throat singer Albert Kuvezin and the band Yat Kha here cover a surprising mix of songs by artists like Led Zeppelin and Joy Division, all sung in an unimaginably low voice.

Albert Kuvezin and Yat Kha

CD: Re-Covers
Song: "When the Levee Breaks"
Label: World Village

Listen to "When the Levee Breaks"

My Brightest Diamond is the work of singer Shara Worden, known in part for the angelic harmonies she lends on recordings by Sufjan Stevens. The daughter of a champion accordion player, Worden grew up listening to gospel, classical music and jazz. In college she formally studied opera.

My Brightest Diamond

CD: Bring Me the Workhorse
Song: "Something of an End"
Label: Asthmatic Kitty

Listen to "Something of an End"

Originally featured on All Songs Considered episode 71, Madeleine Peyroux has a voice strikingly similar to Billy Holiday's. For her latest CD, she covers the work Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Serge Gainsbourg and this Charlie Chaplin tune, "Smile."

Madeleine Peyroux

CD: Half the Perfect World
Song: "Smile"
Label: Rounder

Listen to "Smile"

      Copyright , NPR