August 2002

Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are one of the top selling country artists of all time. Will Hermes, a senior contributing writer for Spin magazine, says their first CD in three years, Home, has a less commercial sound than their other offerings, but still may be one of the best pop CDs of the year. (4:00)

Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews
In ancient Persia, Jews survived persecution, assimilation, forced conversion, a golden age -- and eventually a diaspora. Tuesday on All Things Considered, guest host Jacki Lyden talks with the editor of the book Esther's Children. It's described as a history, anthology and scrapbook of the Jewish experience in Iran. (The book is published by the Jewish Publication Society; June 2002) (7:30)

Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews is published by Jewish Publication Society; June 2002.

The New Rabbi: A Congregation Searches for Its Leader
Robert talks with Stephen Fried, author of The New Rabbi: A Congregation Searches for Its Leader. The book is about a Philadelphia Jewish congregation which had to replace its rabbi after he had served for thirty years. The selection process revealed many of the generational rifts that exist in a congregation of any denomination and how complicated spiritual leadership is these days. (7:30)

Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime
Robert talks with Eliot Cohen, author of Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime. Cohen's book has made it onto President Bush's summer reading list. (4:30)

Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime was published by Free Press, June 20, 2002.

Pam Tillis
Host Brian Naylor talks with Pam Tillis about her new album -- a tribute to her father, country legend Mel Tillis. The album is called It's All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis. (Sony, ASIN: B00006FN8G) (14:00)

Sept. 11 Music
Bruce Springsteen's new Sept. 11-inspired album, The Rising, is riding high in the charts. Host Brian Naylor talks to New York Times music critic Jon Pareles about other popular music inspired by the attacks. (8:00)

Cellarful of Motown
John Ydstie talks with Harry Weinger about a new collection of 40 unreleased songs from the heyday of Motown records. Motown was about the most sucessful label in the 1960's and one of the reasons for that was that they had a quality control team that determined what would make it to vinyl and what went to the storage bins. Many of the songs that weren't released were pretty good, some incredible. Weinger, prompted by a soul movement in the north of England, went through the vaults and found some historic and incredible tunes. The CD is called, A Cellarful of Motown on Motown/Universal Records. (12:30)

The Trojan Women
Eleni Karaindrou is one of Greece's greatest living composers. Her newest work is a musical interpretation of The Trojan Women, Euripides's tragedy about the barbarism of war. Reviewer Banning Eyre has a review of the music which is now available on CD. (4:30)

The CD is on ECM Records - #472139, ASIN: B000062X72.

Future of Jazz
Charles de Ledesma reviews the CD Future Sounds of Jazz, Volume 8. It's part of a series from Compost Records that features the merging of electronica and jazz. Charles says there is a new generation listening to jazz, raised on hip-hop, rock, house music and world music. These musicians are fusing all of this together into a new sound that many critics are calling "nu jazz." It's fun, challenging, and many think it's where the sound of jazz is headed. (4:00)

Suba
Music critic Tom Moon reviews a new CD called Suba: Tributo. Suba was a Serbian-born musician and composer who died in 1999. He had moved to Brazil and became one of that country's most prominent producers. Suba created a popular mix of jazz, bossa nova and hip-hop. Now, in tribute to Suba, musicians from all over the world have come together on one album, remixing and creating new compositions. (4:14)

Suba: Tributo is available on Six Degrees Records. Ziriguiboom/Six Degrees 657036 1068-2.

Heatwave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
Host Cheryl Corley talk with Eric Klinenberg about the 1995 Chicago heatwave. 739 people died during a one week period that July. Klinenberg says it wasn't only the heat that killed people, but also a breakdown in what he calls the social ecology of Chicago. Klinenberg's new book is called Heatwave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. (8:40)

(University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-44321-3)

The Portable Promised Land
Host Cheryl Corley talks to novelist Toure about his latest creation, The Portable Promised Land. It's a collection of stories, spoofs, lists and folk tales about African-American life in the mythical Soul City. (8:00)

(Little Brown & Company; ISBN: 0316666432)

RockFour
David Greenberger reviews a band from Israel called RockFour. The group has scrapped the Hebrew lyrics for English on their first American release. Their sound is inspired from 1960's British and American bands such as the Beatles and the Byrds. (4:00)

The album is called Another Beginning by RockFour and is on Rainbow Quartz Records. More information about RockFour is available online at http://www.rockfour.com/index.php.

Into the Buzzsaw
Margot Adler talks with Kristina Borjesson, editor of Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press (Prometheus Books, March 2002). She talks about the collection of essays by investigative reporters describing the obstacles they often face from their own news organizations. (8:00)

Flatlanders
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock -- accomplished solo country musicians -- started out as The Flatlanders. They recorded one album together thirty years ago. Now, they have another, a sort of Flatlanders reunion. It's called Now Again. Meredith Ochs has a review. (5:00)

Now Again is on New West Records; ASIN: B000065V9X

Prague
Pour a shot of plum brandy and join host Madeleine Brand and author Arthur Phillips as they talk about nostalgia, the yearning for history, and other topics suitable for a Budapest sidewalk cafe. Phillips is the author of the new novel, Prague.

(Prague is published by Random House; ISBN: 0375507876) (8:00)

Koop
Michelle Mercer reviews a new CD by the duo Koop. The group is from Sweden, though they sound at times that they are Brazilian, or from the 1960s or perhaps even Japanese. Their music is stolen from both these sources but what they do with those sources is truly a new blend of what Mercer calls "Ikea Soul." (3:45)

The CD is Waltz for Koop by Koop on Jazzanova Compost Records.

Music of Life
Russian novelist Andrei Makine lives in France, writes his fiction in French, and has won two of his adopted country's major literary prizes. His latest work to be translated into English is a novel called, Music of a Life. Alan Cheuse has a review. (2:00)

How To Lose Friends & Alienate People
Margot Adler talks with Toby Young about his memoir How To Lose Friends & Alienate People. In it, Young talks about his days as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He describes how it was his dream to come to New York and charm the literati and the celebrities, but failed miserably. (8:00)

How To Lose Friends & Alienate People is published by DaCapo Press, July 2002.

Muzikizum
Charles de Ledesma reviews Muzikizum by the British electronica trio called X-Press-2. It's an homage to the dance floor, with fun tunes like "Smoke Machine." The hit single from the album is called "Lazy," which features the distinctive voice of David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame. (3:45)

The Music of A.R. Rahman
The music of A.R. Rahman is some of the most popular in India. It's a mix of traditional Indian and modern pop. Andrew Lloyd Webber commissioned Rahman's music to use in his new musical, Bombay Dreams. Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers has a profile. (5:45)

Summer Songs
Susan Stamberg talks with music critics Tom Moon and Will Hermes about what makes a true summer song. They start by listening to an old favorite of Susan's, a wistful, sweet song from 1976. And then we hear the latest hit by Nelly, "Hot in Herre," which celebrates summer heat with a call to get naked. Moon and Hermes say summer songs celebrate either love or partying. We also hear songs from Sheryl Crow, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Beach Boys. (8:00)

The songs heard in this interview are: "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight," by England Dan and John Ford Coley, from a CD called Super Hits of the 70's: Volume 18 on Rhino Records. "Hot in Herre" by Nelly, from the CD Nellyville, on Universal. "Soak up the Sun," by Sheryl Crow, from the CD C'mon C'mon, on A&M records. "Universally Speaking" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from the CD By The Way on Warner Brothers records "Wouldn't it Be Nice," by the Beach Boys, from the CD Pet Sounds on Reprise Records. "Planet Rock," by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force, from the CD Planet Rock: The Album, on the Tommy Boy label.

Flight 93
Robert Siegel talks with Jere Longman, author of Among the Heroes: United Flight 93 and the Passengers and Crew Who Fought Back. Longman talks about his book, which reconstructs what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, when United Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. After hijackers took over the plane, passengers called relatives on their cell phones and declared their intention to fight back against the hijackers. Interviews with family members of the passengers reveal what most likely happened next. (8:00)

The book is published by Harper Collins, July, 2002.