Call & Response

“Sometimes the best thing to do is to listen and to not speak. Listening is where you're going to grow.” In this second episode of our mid-season special taped live at Newport Folk Festival, Adia catches up with her longtime friend, collaborator, and country music star Margo Price. Adia and Margo discuss how Margo has come to embody a radical honesty; both in her music and speaking out on what needs to change in the Nashville music scene. They talk about Margo’s love of Tina Turner and what it means to give credit to Black artists.

“Americana and roots music has become too complacent. What we need now is to shake ourselves from feeling comfortable and start looking at the world around us.” We’re back for a mid-season special series recorded live at Newport Folk Festival, and in this episode, Adia sits down with Newport’s Director, Jay Sweet to dig into the Black roots of folk music. The two explore how Newport can serve as a platform for uncomfortable conversations so that it can grow and evolve with the expanding landscape of folk music, and what the festival’s return means for the artists and audiences it calls family.

In the last episode of this season of Call & Response, Adia sits down with GRAMMY award winning singer and song-writer Brandi Carlile. In her recent memoir, Broken Horses, Carlile guides readers on a journey through the history of her many selves. She has collaborated with Elton John, dueted with Dolly Parton and churned out powerful songs about queer love and motherhood. But in this conversation, Adia and Brandi talk through how personal challenges can actually become the greatest teachers. And in this week’s playlist, we’re listening to women who’re paving the way for the future of country music in Nashville. For the playlist of songs curated for this week's episode, visit www.mixcloud.com/sonos.

The blues can’t be defined by a set of chord progressions. It’s a philosophy, it is catharsis, it is taking something painful, and turning it into art. In this episode, Adia sits down with blues scholar and poet Caroline Randall Williams. Together they redefine the blues, and talk about what American culture can learn from its music. For the playlist of songs curated for this episode visit http://bit.ly/cr-carolinewilliams.

“How does the South inform my music? How do I describe the sound that your bare feet make when they pat the cool, packed red dust under them?” In her music and her writing, Brittany Howard has tapped something elusive: the feeling of the south. It’s contradictions, it’s pain, and its beauty. In this episode, Adia sits down with rock legend and longtime lead singer of the Alabama Shakes Brittany Howard to talk about getting down to the feelings below her lyrics, being unapologetic about where you come from, and who you are. Brittany asked Adia to make a playlist for this episode with her mom, Miss Jackie, so that’s exactly what we did. As always, you can hear the music that accompanies this show on Sonos Radio and Mixcloud, and we hope you will. This one’s a real treat. Visit www.mixcloud.com/sonos for the playlist curated for this week's episode.

Author Kiese Laymon recently got into a twitter dust up about the eternal question, Outkast v. The Beatles. He wrote, “Beatles stole southern Black and added it to British white. Outkast stole Mars and added it to southern urban Black. Outkast wins.” After reading more of what Kiese had to say about the appropriation of Black southern music, Adia knew she needed to bring him on the show. Their conversation unfolds over how Outkast created new space for southern hip hop, what Adia learned from watching the Derek Chauvin trial, and what hip hop itself can learn from the blues. For the playlist of songs curated for this week's episode, head over to www.mixcloud.com/sonos

Remember the show Gullah Gullah Island on Nickelodeon from the 90’s? The colorful worlds, songs and stories inspired by the Gullah Geechee culture were created by Adia’s family friend and the show’s creator, Natalie Daise. Spirit to spirit, Natalie and Adia connect over what it means to use stories and songs to more fully step into your own truth. They talk about moving from south to north and back again, and the importance of southern Black folks returning to the dirt, to seeds, and the land.

For a playlist of songs curated for this week's episode, http://bit.ly/cr-natalie

/ Music in This Week's Playlist /

Queen Quet and De Gullah Cunnekshun, "Kneebone"

Our Native Daughters, "Blood and Bones"

Jessie Mae Hemphill, "Black Cat Bone"

Bessie Jones, "Sometimes"

Yasmin Williams, "Jarabi"

Precious Bryant, "You Don't Want Me No More"

Ibeyi, "River"

Bessie Jones, "Steal Up, My Young Lady"

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, "The Homeless Wanderer"

Nina Simone, "Four Women"

Kamasi Washington is a bonafide jazz icon and visionary who embodies the idea of music making as a communal act: collaborating with folks from across the music industry and infusing his free ranging Angeleno jazz into rock, rap and beyond. You've likely seen his name in the liner notes of your favorite artists’ work from Kendrick Lamar to St. Vincent and Snoop Dogg. In this episode, Adia sits down with Kamasi to talk about his musical upbringing, creating in an unpredictable world, and the transcendent power of Black art. For a playlist of songs curated for this week's episode, visit http://bit.ly/cr-kamasi

/Music in This Week's Playlist/

Nina Simone, “Sinnerman”

Kamasi Washington, “Hub-Tones”

Joshua Asante, “Everybody Gets Used”

Sun Ra, “Honeysuckle Rose”

Beyonce, “Formation”

Kendrick Lamar, “King Kunta”

St. Vincent, “Pills”

Henry Mancini, “The Pink Panther Theme”

Jamila Woods carries a lineage in her music— artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin filter into her song lyrics. She channels their voices in her critically acclaimed album, LEGACY! LEGACY! not speaking for them, but instead, singing through them. On this week’s Call and Response, Adia sits down with Jamila to talk about how they each draw strength from the artists who’ve come before them, and using these pandemic times to recenter home, rest and stillness in the creative process. For the playlist of songs curated for this episode, visit http://bit.ly/cr-jamila

“Nostalgia is a killer of truth” says roots musician Rhiannon Giddens. “Musically, what I try to do is just tell as much truth as I can.” In the first episode of Call & Response, Adia sinks into conversation with Rhiannon, and together, they trace the lineage of the banjo from the Caribbean to the Carolinas and question the whitewashing of American folk and blues music. Plus, hear a playlist made by Adia of artists who’ve used their music to reframe the sound of the south. Head over to http://bit.ly/cr-rhiannon to hear the playlist.