Kiran Ahluwalia was born in the Punjab, in India, but moved with her family to Canada when she was 7, well after she started training in the traditional music of her region. Kiran has continued her training, both deepening it and widening it. While her 8 albums are definitely rooted in the music and dance of her homeland, she has also enriched, extended, and diversified the songs she creates, most often carrying a message of connection and compassion.

Part 2 of a birthday celebration for Si Kahn on his 80th birthday, this week with John McCutcheon and Cathy Fink, sharing streams of music and meaning that flow from Si Kahn.

As a happy birthday to Si Kahn for his 80th birthday, this week and next week we are sharing songs and stories by & about Si as performed by the hand-chosen successors to Si's work and music. Today that means we are joined by Phoebe Rees & Joe Jencks.

Idris Phillips left this world in July 2022, and we remember him today with my interview with him from December 2017, although I also interviewed him again in person, 

Andy Hanson has lots of history with making music, but has only only seriously worked on conveying his music to the world in the past 5 or so years. Having performed previously with the band WYBLUE, Andy is now principally a solo act, able to draw on his guitar, keyboards, and even saxophone.

Leslie Evers joined me for her first Song of the Soul back in 2020, just after the advent of COVID, and it was a rich occasion of musical and spiritual sharing. She has been a singer and songwriter since she was a kid, so in some ways the release of her first record in 2014 and the second one this year represents a fruition of decades of creativity and art on the folk/jazz/rock continuum.

Nick Foytik brings with him music deeply marinaded in blues, soul, and rock n' roll, something not-so-common in Wisconsin's north woods where Nick grew up. Nick has been building his chops for some 20 years, and yet it's really only the past few years when he's really launched his music career full-scale, still focused mostly in the upper Midwest. In addition to his solo gigs and those with his Nick Foytik Band, he continues to work as a guitar for hire.

Our guest is Nerissa Nields, who shares equal lead billing with her sister, Katryna, of the group known as The Nields. Their website proclaims them to be "equal parts Beatles, Cranberries and Joni Mitchell", and that description is admirably accurate and concise. It's hard to adequately capture the power of their songs and voices except to tell you that you need to brace yourself to be inspired, moved, and likely brought to tears.

Although Lee Mynett had music in her bones and heart from a tender age, she didn't start writing songs till the age of 50, sort of like what happened with Melvina Reynolds of Little Boxes fame. Lee has a passion for music and story-telling, and has played music as Magdaleena's Muse, Gypsy Maggie, and as Lee Mynett and the Root Tappers, and after decades in the South, she has returned to her native habitat of Eau Claire, WI.

Geof Morgan was a pioneer in the men's music that emerged around 1980 and which was so transformational for so many. Geof's path began in New England, matured and deepened in Nashville, and then migrated to Bellingham, Washington. His healing work continued all the while, though Geof's music lay largely dormant for decades, till about 6 years, where it sprung fully back to life. Geof released the album Morning Rising last year, with new breadth and depth.

My guest today is Kat Moore, and she's bringing us the music of the Super Saturated Sugar Strings from Anchorage, Alaska. Words fail in terms of describing the power and energy of their songs, though the phrase orchestral alternative folk-rock captures at least part of it. We're talking about band members playing multiple instruments at the same time, while the music sails and dives and soars and ambles in creative and moving ways.

In December I interviewed Chuck Brodsky about his song, On Christmas I Got Nothing, which introduced me to Chuck's wry sense of humor mixed with cultural insight, Today we'll get a full chance to explore the range of his songs, complete with tinges of Bob Dylan's tones, mixed with heart-tendering stories, irony, and inspirational vision. And let's not neglect the imprint of the stories of baseball, present on every album of the 13 albums Chuck has produced.

Though Tim Case's musical career began more than 15 years ago, it went quiescent for much of the intervening years. It has now come fully back to life. Tim says his policy for writing a song is to feel the ones that make him cry, to know they are the songs to be shared.

David Lamotte returns today for Song of the Soul. If you've listened to our previous visits with David, you'll know why we were eager to welcome him back. Through his music that is so clearly rooted, both in place, in meaning, and in Spirit, David enchants.

Down-home music is what you should expect from Jake Soha of the duo Rock Creek Song Dogs. Jake makes some banjo-spicy music with his wife, Dani Jo Soha, and they self-describe their music as “a little folk, a little rock, a little gritty with a hint of bluegrass”. You'll also find him on stage with Tim Case and Ramblin' Lou Carver. Jake Soha brews his eclectic melange in Mondovi, Wisconsin.

We interviewed Tom Paxton & John McCutcheon back before Christmas about their jointly written and performed album called Together. We're talking about an overabundance of music creation skills by two folk musicians who have released over 100 albums between them.

Ben Cook-Feltz is an Iowan boy who got lost and wondered north to the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Ben has found a stable and fertile place to grow and make music in the Twin Cities, enough so that he does that at the same time he's parenting a 4-year old.

Audra Kubat is deeply connected to the Earth, and her rootedness grows, blossoms, and sometimes weeps through her beautiful music. She is a talented multi-instrumentalist, but there is exceptional power in her voice and in her profound and moving lyrics.

Second part of Songs Beyond the Norm for the December 2023 Holidays, focused today on Christmas, but with twists both deep and heavy, and still moving toward Light.

First part of Songs Beyond the Norm for the December 2023 Holidays, with humor and humility, for Hanukkah, Solstice, & Christmas, in ways you'd never expect.

John Lynch has decades of experience in the music world, performing full-time right out of school, traveling all around the USA with the group The Memories.

John Janzen is on his way to “living the dream”, largely because he successfully planted the seeds of the dream of life as a musical artist in his young sons' hearts, and they've taken over making the dream a reality. The result is some really go-getter music makers known as The Janzen Boys.

Bryan Bielanski hails from Charlotte, North Carolina, though he's spending little enough time there as he takes his music almost everywhere in the US & in quite a few other countries as well.

Randy Sinz recently released his first personal album, This One's For You Dad, after a lifetime of performing, given that his dad pulled him onstage to perform in Randy's early teens. While he's mainly known as a bass player, and his native music genre is country, in fact he's played many instruments and numerous varieties of music.