Accessibility links
John Wesley Harding John Wesley Harding artist page: interviews, features and/or performances archived at NPR Music

John Wesley Harding

Wesley Stace On Mountain Stage

Wesley Stace. Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage hide caption

toggle caption
Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage

Mountain Stage

Wesley Stace On Mountain Stage

Stace is better known to some as John Wesley Harding, the name under which he released 17 albums. The veteran musician and writer performs more recent material with the Mountain Stage band.

Wesley Stace On Mountain Stage

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/303770810/304139854" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
John Wesley Harding: The Musical Side Of A Split Personality

John Wesley Harding's latest album is called The Sound of His Own Voice. Allison Michael Orenstein/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption
Allison Michael Orenstein/Courtesy of the artist

Music Interviews

John Wesley Harding: The Musical Side Of A Split Personality

The acclaimed singer-songwriter is also a best-selling novelist. Harding's latest album, The Sound of His Own Voice, is guided by his desire to make his contrasting impulses work together.

John Wesley Harding: The Musical Side Of A Split Personality

Listen · 10:57
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/142001407/142053645" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Song Of The Day

John Wesley Harding: Anthem Of An Also-Ran

Clever but not cloying, "Top of the Bottom" documents a pop singer's rise, rapid decline and resurrection to a more mundane new beginning. Harding tells a funny and gripping story about the margins of pop music, while providing a surprisingly convincing look at how and where dreams of stardom often end.

'Top of the Bottom' by John Wesley Harding

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/101611351/101611262" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

World Cafe

John Wesley Harding: Man Of Many Callings

XPN

For the folk-pop songwriter who borrows his stage name from the 1967 Bob Dylan album, cleverly pointed lyrics and biting humor come as no surprise. As sharp as ever after a five-year hiatus, Harding has released Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, the result of a new found musical freedom.

John Wesley Harding: Man Of Many Callings

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/102042707/102039709" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Concerts

M. Ward And John Wesley Harding In Concert

XPN

In recent years, singer, songwriter and guitarist M. Ward has become an indie-pop superstar, releasing a string of critically adored albums, as well as high-profile collaborations with the likes of Jenny Lewis, Cat Power, Bright Eyes and My Morning Jacket. Hear Ward perform live in concert from WXPN in Philadelphia, with opener John Wesley Harding. Each performs six songs.

M. Ward And John Wesley Harding In Concert

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/100891262/100926753" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music Interviews

'Misfortune': A Songwriter's Novel Debut

Wesley Stace's first novel, Misfortune, started its life as a song. That's because the author is known first and foremost as singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding. Stace tells Scott Simon about the book and his music.

'Misfortune': A Songwriter's Novel Debut

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4717516/4717550" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Browse archive or search npr.org