Highway 89

The tale of our guests today begins, perhaps, in a home in which the father, a painter, exchanged some of his paintings for musical instruments. His sons, soon to be a harpist, a fiddler, and a guitarist, grew up to be Kirkmount, a Celtic band that, when the boys were still very young, kept up a rigorous schedule performing at festivals and in concert halls, making recordings, and they even won A Prairie Home Companion's "Talent from Towns Under Two Thousand" contest. Two of those brothers, Harpist Alex Bigney and fiddler Sam Bigney join us in the studio for an hour of medleys featuring traditional tunes and original pieces.

Songs featured: Late Summer Aire, Home on the Columbia, Homecoming, Jerry's Jigs, Rosey's Waltz, Wandering.

Anton Nel enjoys a remarkable and multifaceted career that has taken him to North and South America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa. Following an auspicious debut at the age of twelve with Beethoven’s C Major Concerto after only two years of study, the Johannesburg native captured first prizes in all the major South African competitions while still in his teens, toured his native country extensively and became a well-known radio and television personality.

As recitalist he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Collection in New York, at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, Davies Hall in San Francisco, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Eager to pursue dual careers in teaching and performing he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin in his early twenties, followed by professorships at the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Michigan, where he was chairman of the piano department. In September 2000, Anton Nel was appointed as the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor of Piano and Chamber music at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches an international class of students and now heads the Division of Keyboard Studies. For the past two years he has been presenting a series of masterclasses in piano and chamber music at the Manhattan School of Music in New York as Visiting Professor, and also teaches regularly at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. He is a Steinway artist.

Repertoire: HANDEL Air and Variations from Suite No. 5 "Harmonious Blacksmith"; DEBUSSY Suite Bergamasque (Prelude, Menuet, Clair de lune, Passepied); SCHUMANN Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26, Mvt. 1 "Allegro"; SIBELIUS Romance in D-Flat, Op. 24, No. 9; BEETHOVEN Sonata in C major, Op. 53 "Waldstein", Mvt. 1 - Allegro con brio.

The New Time Ensemble plays traditional Irish tunes on unconventional instruments with porch-jamming earthiness. Leslie Ann Harrison (flutes), Frederic Pouille (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Liz Davis Maxfield (cello) met while studying music at the University of Limerick in Ireland. They recorded an album “A Year in Ireland” at the end of their studies and have toured in Ireland, Scotland, England and the United States.

Singer/Songwriter Paul Jacobsen has performed with Sheryl Crow, the Jayhawks, John Hiatt, and many others. He’s been a finalist in both the Telluride Bluegrass Troubadour and Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriter contests, is a regular member of The Lower Lights, and has release 2 solo albums with one on the way.

Tonight he plays all original music, including multiple tracks from his yet-unreleased new album, and chats with host Steven Kapp Perry about twins, Neil Young benefit concerts, and spontaneous Wyoming meteor showers.

Songs featured: Two Headed Heart, Some Amazing Grace, Western Skies, You're the Song, The Same Night's Waiting for us All, Muslin Dress, and Time.

From the Sawtooth mountains of Stanley, Idaho to downtown Nashville, Tennessee to the city limits of Austin Texas, Micky and the Motorcars spend 200 days a year jamming in every nook of the nation. They've released 7 full-length records so far, their latest of which is "Hearts from Above."

Micky and the Motorcars is normally a five-man group, but today we got a special unplugged three-man performance. Tour bus malfunctions can't keep the music down! Brothers Micky and Gary Braun and guitarist Dustin "Sunshine" Shaefer perform acoustic versions of some of the band's top hits, including the title track from their newest album.

Host: Steven Kapp Perry

Songs featured: "Hearts from Above," "Carolina Morning," "Long Road to Nowhere," "Led Me the Wrong Way," "Long and Lonely Highway," "Fall Apart," "Casino."

We didn’t make Camille Nelson bring all of the instruments she plays into the studio today, which is a good thing – there may not have been room for them all. Camille Nelson is a classically trained artist whose new album, "Lead Me Home," can be found near the top of a number of different Billboard charts.

For Camille, studying violin at age 6 was the doorway through which she stepped to develop a close relationship with the guitar, and then piano, banjo, mandolin, and more. All of that have given her the ability to experiment with classical, folk, pop, and new age sounds, and all of those influences have found a comfortable home in her recordings. She has distinguished herself as an athlete, a public speaker, an educator, an author, and more.

Camille has lived in South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and she speaks German and Italian fluently. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Utah and her Ph.D. from Gonzaga University. She currently teaches MBA courses in management, communication, and leadership. She is also the sister of Steven Sharp Nelson, the cellist in The Piano Guys.

Songs Featured: Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art, Be Thou My Vision, Be Still My Soul, Israel Israel God Is Calling, Come Come Ye Saints, Lead Me Home, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Count Your Many Blessings.

Ben Reneer is a singer-songwriter from Alpine, Utah. According to the man himself, Ben “is determined to tell stories in the best way he knows how: through the universal language of music.”

Songs featured: Off My Mind, Emma, I Should Be Getting More Sleep, 25 Years (What's it Gonna Take?), Orange Avenue, Senseless, Swallow, Songbird

Susan Facer and Jerry Steichen became good friends when they performed on Broadway together in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Susan was singing the lead, Christine Daae, and Jerry was conducting. But when the show ended their paths diverged and they lost contact. A decade later they serendipitously bumped into each other in the Salt Lake airport. Susan was moving to Utah from New Jersey and Jerry had become Principal Pops Conductor of Utah Symphony. Today they perform Broadway tunes together including “Think of Me” from Phantom for the grand finale!

Eric Glissmeyer chats with Susan about stage mishaps, touring with her young family and landing the big role. He also chats with Jerry Steichen about his Oklahoma roots and current projects.

When Debra Fotheringham was a kid, the music from her father’s collection of jazz albums filled up the house, and filled up Debra’s heart. With a heart full of jazz, it’s no wonder that art began to make its way out of her heart and into the world. Debra began to make her mark as a fiction writer, getting invited to writers’ conferences even as a first grader. In Junior High, she discovered the versatility of the acoustic guitar and the rhythms of hand percussion. Marrying her love of writing with her love of making music on those instruments, Debra has been a staple in not only the songwriting scene, but also as a key contributor to the albums of other songwriters in one of the most vibrant independent songwriting communities in the country.

Debra's first homemade CD sold more than a thousand copies from the merch tables at local shows, and her 2007 self-titled album and her 2010 EP, “Time,” are respected and loved by fans and fellow musicians alike. Audiences have seen her most often on stage as a part of the hymn-singing supergroup The Lower Lights, as well as the frontwoman for the Americana cover act the Blue Heart Revue. 2017 marks the release of another Debra Fotheringham album, called “The Darkness and the Sun.”

Songs featured: White Bird, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Darkness and the Sun, Sometimes the Wolf, Drive Across the Desert, Dan's Song, Summer Rain, Odd-Shaped Pieces, Winter That Will Never Come

Together they're sometimes a duo, and sometimes the're a 5-piece band, but Morgan Snow and John Davis are always called "Triggers and Slips". Morgan recently summed up what they do when he tweeted: "I write original songs and sing my guts out when necessary"! Currently split between Nashville (Morgan) and Utah (John) they're back together to play the Utah Arts festival and other concerts.

Today Morgan is on acoustic guitar, harmonica and lead vocals while John takes acoustic guitar, dobro, lap steel and back-up vocals.

Songs featured: Modern Age, 4 Letters, Erastus, Stars, Phoebe Snow, Come Down, Future Variations.