Wednesday, July 16: We’ll hear from Jackson Browne’s 1973 album For Everyman, a record featuring appearances from Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, Joni Mitchell and David Crosby. It also marks the first collaboration between Browne and multi-instrumentalist David Lindley. The two have collaborated off and on since 1973, including on the live album Love Is Strange, which we’ll also hear from.
Thursday, July 17: Listen for selections from Terms of My Surrender the new album by July featured artist John Hiatt. It’s the Indiana native’s 22nd and finds him performing songs that are driven by acoustic guitars. Plus selections from Jackson Browne’s 1977 album Running On Empty, a record that features a number of live tracks but was also recorded in hotel rooms and on Browne’s tour bus throughout 1977. Browne’s joined by a band of legendary session musicians on the recording including bassist Lee Sklar and drummer Russ Kunkel who would serve as James Taylor’s rhythm section throughout the 1970s and more recently have performed with Lyle Lovett.
Friday, July 18: In 1964 Johnny Cash released one of his most controversial recordings, the album Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian. It was controversial for several reasons, namely that many in Nashville felt that Cash had become too intellectual for country music and because of its subject matter. The lack of support he received from his record label and radio angered Cash to the point that he wrote a public letter to the music industry challenging the integrity of its record company executives and disc jockeys. The record features a number of songs written by late folk singer Peter La Farge and is in fact considered one of Cash’s folk—not country—albums. The record was recently re-recorded by a cast of contemporary musicians including Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, and Milk Carton Kids and will be available next month.
Saturday, July 19: World Peace Is None of Your Business is the 10th studio album from former Smiths frontman Morrissey and the singer’s first since 2009. We’ll hear selections from it as well as from the self-titled debut by Kansas duo El Cuco. We'll also remember guitar legend Johnny Winter, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 70. We'll hear Winter as a solo artist and in collaboration with his brother, Edgar, as well as Muddy Waters.
Monday, July 21: Upside Out! is the new EP from OK Go and a teaser for the group’s upcoming full-length album Hungry Ghosts, which is due this fall. We’ll hear from that record as well as from Ten, the new album by Break of Reality. The album follows the group’s 2012 release Covers on which the band performed songs from System of a Down, Metallica, and Bach. This new recording finds the classically-influenced rock outfit appealing to fans of both Nine Inch Nails and Kronos Quartet.
Tuesday, July 22: Steven Wilson is an acclaimed British producer and member of the progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. Cover Version is Wilson’s latest release, featuring his take on songs originally recorded by Alanis Morrisette, ABBA, Prince, The Cure, Momus, and Donovan. We’ll also hear selections from Blackfield, a musical project Wilson formed with acclaimed Israeli pop star Aviv Geffen. The pair have been recording and releasing music together since 2001, though the unlikely collaboration was only supposed to span one release.
Wednesday, July 23: Released in 1974 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is considered one of the most influential progressive rock albums of the 1970s. With lyrics featuring surreal images influenced in part by Jungian psychology and music that in many ways predicts Genesis’ future as a pop band, Lamb could have just as easily become a film. (And it very nearly did.) It marked the final Genesis album to feature vocals from Peter Gabriel and the start of a three-way partnership between drummer Phil Collins, bassist Mike Rutherford, and keyboardist Tony Banks. We’ll hear from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway as well as from Peter Gabriel’s 1983 concert recording Plays Live.