Arts & Letters Music Review, Season 6

On this episode of Arts & Letters, we celebrate the music from Season Six.

Hosted by producer Mary Ellen Kubit, this episode shares favorite and memorable music from the various episodes this year. 

As many of you know, music is at the heart of much of our storytelling, and we typically feature singers, songwriters and musicians from Arkansas and across the Mid-South. 

This episode airs Friday, August 28 at 7:00pm cdt, and Sunday, August 30 at 9:00pm cdt.

In several episodes, we commissioned original songs from our various musical contributors to enhance the storytelling. Many of these songs are yet to be released by the artists and can only be heard on the episodes.

From "They Liked My Phras'n: the Life and Music of Rose Marie McCoy":

• "Dippin' in My Business" by Rose Marie McCoy recorded in 1954. Help us nominate Rose to the US Songwriters Hall of Fame by signing the petition and #RecognizeRose!

?From "Chaucer of the Ozarks"

• "Stay More" an original song written and performed by Little Rock's Joseph Fuller. 
• “Hills & Roads” by Dawson Hollow from their 2018 album, Boy of My Youth.  This Ozark indie-folk band is comprised of Link siblings, Rachel, Ben, Kyle, Aaron and John. 

From "The Colony"

• "Superwoman Loves You" by Amyjo Savannah originally composed and written for the episode. For behind the scenes information on the various episodes that feature Amyjo's music over the last several years, visit amyjosavannah.com.

 
From "The Tradition"

• "Hands Up" by multi-media artist, Cuuk. This song was commissioned for the episode and is inspired by 2020 Pulitzer Prize winning poet Jericho Brown's renowned poem, "Bullet Points."

From "Striking A Match to America"

• Trumpter, Rodney Block performing in the A&L Studio at UA Little Rock Public Radio. Check out Rodney's full band, The Rodney Block Collective. 

From "Godzilla Mon Amour"

• "Monster Love" by Memphis' Grace Askew Shelton.  For this episode, we challenged Grace to write a love song about Godzilla, and Grace never dissapoints!  Check out her songwriting workshops Dare to Suck: A Workshop on Creative Courage at GraceAskew.com.

From "Chasing the Storm, Chasing the Wind":

• "Chasing the Storm, Chasing the Wind" by Joseph Fuller with from Robert Campbell and Michael Fuller.
• This unreleased song was commissioned for the episode based on  participant journalist Brantley Hargrove's book The Man Who Caught the Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras. For a behind the scenes look at Arts & Letters, view Fuller's Facebook Live video where you can listen to the episode with composer's commentary.
• "Head in the Clouds" by Ashtyn Barbaree puts the sunshine in this episode. The song is from her 2018 self-titled album.

?From "A Brief Pause":

•  "Lazy" by soul singer Kami Renee, from her 2019 album Sophisticated Soul.

From "Writing Geeks": 

• "Another Plane" by Adam Simon. Simon is a member of the A&L team. On this episode, he not only wrote the music inspired by Stephanie Vanderslice's book The Geek's Guide to the Writing Life, but he also produced the episode!

From "A Search for Place":

• "Birdsong" by Charlotte Taylor with the guitar stylings of Matt Stone.  Taylor wrote all of the original music based on Jenny Case’s book, "Sawbill: A Search for Place." 
• "Weightless" from Tim Anthony's Afrodesia Studio of Performing Arts, written by Baaqir Salaam with Saboor Salaam, and Braeden Miller.

For more information on each artist, just click the hyperlinks to visit their individual websites. 
Also, consider following & supporting these artists on Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, etc. Special thanks to Okey Dokey, Empielle, and Silas Hite. We featured brief excerpts of their music in this episode.

If you like the music on Arts & Letters Radio, check out our Spotify playlist that features all available songs. 

Want to share a band, book, or idea with us? Email us at artsletters@kuar.org.

Thank you to Stickyz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack for keeping music alive and well in Arkansas. And, a very special thank you to all the talented musicians, composers, singers, and songwriters who so generously shared their work with us this past season. We appreciate and value our partnership!

Generous funding for this episode was provided by the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Contact Arts & Letters Radio at artsletters@kuar.org or via phone at 501-569-8485.  Our mailing address is:  Arts & Letters Radio |  KUAR 89.1  | 5820 Asher Avenue, Suite 400  | Little Rock, AR   72204.