Strange Currency

Monday, September 26

American Band is the latest release from venerable American rock band Drive-By Truckers. Whereas the band has taken time to celebrate and contemplate its Southern heritage on past releases, this time the group takes a decidedly political turn with songs such as “Once They Banned Imagine” and “Sun Don’t Shine” and “Ever South.” We’ll hear selections from that recording on this episode of the show as well as music from the latest album by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.

Tuesday, September 27

Friday, September 16

Listen for music from Wilco's latest Schmilco. 

Saturday, September 17

Released in 2002, Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground became the breakthrough release for Bright Eyes. The record was also later listed as one of the best albums of the decade by a variety of critics. Listen for selections from that release as well as new music from Faun Fables.

Monday, September 19

Friday, September 9

We celebrate Otis Redding’s 75th birthday with selections from his career plus cover versions of his songs from Paul Rodgers, Etta James, Black Crowes, and Humble Pie.

Saturday, September 10

Thursday, September 1

Recorded over four days in early 1987, Bring the Family found John Hiatt in the company of Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner. The four created what became Hiatt’s breakthrough album and set the Indiana native on a three-decade path of critical acclaim and increased commercial fortunes. We’ll hear selections from that release as well as music from Carolina, the latest release by Spain.

Friday, September 2

Old Crow Medicine Show has been performing, recording and touring since the late 1990s. In that time the group has become standard bearers for a particular brand of old time music that tempers good times with deep thoughts. Co-founder Ketch Secor says that the group doesn’t take its role lightly. Spreading the gospel of social consciousness and activism through music is a kind of higher calling.

Tuesday, August 23

Like many people, Jon Regen has spent much of 2016 watching and reading the news. With accounts of violence, terrorist attacks and an increasingly divisive political climate filling his mind, the New York City-based musician sat down at his piano and began putting turning his observations about the state of the world into song.

Tuesday, August 16

Anyway You Love, We Know How You Feel is the latest release from the Chris Robinson Brotherhood. Featuring many of the soulful sounds that made Robinson’s previous band, the Black Crowes, memorable, CRB adds flourishes of psychedelic music and the sounds of late 1970s FM radio. Listen for music from that recording as well as songs from the latest by Carsie Blanton, So Ferocious. 

Wednesday, August 17

Monday, August 1

We celebrate the anniversary of George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh with selections from the concert itself as well as music from the musicians involved. 

Tuesday, August 2

Paul Gilbert has one of the most stylistically diverse discographies in rock guitar. From his time in the shred outfit Racer X to his Top 40 success with Mr. Big and beyond, Gilbert has carved path that sees him moving with ease from the guitar heavy music of the 1970s to the layered, multi-faceted world of smart singer-songwriters such as Todd Rundgren. His latest release is I Can Destroy, an album that finds the Illinois-born musician’s senses of facility and humor intact.