Susan Alcorn spent years playing her pedal-steel guitar in country bands across Texas. But she has also taken the instrument into less typical territory, applying its sinuous tones to jazz, free improvisation, tango, and her personal blend of all of the above.In this episode, she recalls her seminal encounters with 20th-century composition, free jazz, and a steel-player’s steel player.

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Ian MacKaye has exerted a profound influence on music over the past 35 years. He pioneered hardcore punk with Minor Threat. He expanded the possibilities of punk with Fugazi. And he co-founded seminal Washington, DC, indie label Dischord Records. For this episode of Essential Tremors, he sat down for a wide-ranging conversation about his history, the influence of dub, and how music is like a room.

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Wendel Patrick is a Baltimore-based jazz and classical pianist, as well as a sought after hip-hop producer, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Institute, and a sound documentarian. He's also the co-founder of the monthly Baltimore Boom-Bap Society and a co-creator of WYPR's award-winning ----Out of the Blocks---- podcast. The three songs that changed him range from seminal hip-hop, to a genre-challenging instrumental, to a soul stirring rendition of a Leonard Bernstein classic by one of the most important performers of the 20th century.

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Essential Tremors talks to musicians and other creative people about the music that shaped them. In the debut episode, hosts Matt Byars and Lee Gardner speak with Jana Hunter, singer, guitarist, and songwriter for Baltimore indie-pop band Lower Dens. Turns out the melancholy in the band's mercurial sound has its roots in Jana's experiences with the music of the Smiths, but also Vivaldi and a certain '70s AM hit.

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A preview of the new monthly podcast from Matt Byars, Lee Gardner and WYPR in Baltimore. A show in which musicians and other creators talk about the songs that shaped who they are.

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