JPR Live Sessions

After nearly a decade in the string band The Stray Birds, Maya De Vitry took a step back from music for a time, getting a job outside of the music world and processing all of the emotions and stresses from that chapter of life.

On her new album Violet Light, De Vitry has focused on being the songwriter who creates the environment where other musicians can bring their skills and creative personalities to the table. By the time the album was done, more than a dozen different configurations of musicians had been assembles for the various tracks.

De Vitry has also grown into the freedom afforded a solo performer, with each performance allowed to interpret songs in a slightly different way.

After eight albums as Whetherman and countless miles on the road, the lifestyle of itinerant musician started to catch up with Nicholas Edward Williams. At a show in Cleveland he hit the wall, walked off stage, and spent the next year taking stock of his life, his interests, and his talents.

A chance opportunity to work in gave him the break he needed, and a chance opportunity to work in Costa Rica provided an environment that allowed Williams to figure out a different and more sustainable way of pursuing music.

What sprung to life with cultivation of a seed that had been planted years earlier - old time folk and other music that Williams felt needed to be more widely known as enjoyed. Leaving the Whetherman moniker behind, Williams started out on a new journey as singer, songwriter, and music preservationist. His performances combined songs and the stories of the songs, equal parts entertainment and education.

The success of the new venture (both internal and external) has led to a couple of traditional records released under his own name including his latest Folk Songs For Old Times' Sake, and a podcast called American Songcatcher.

He joined us from home to share a few songs and stories.

Tony Furtado made his first instrument - a banjo - as a 6th grade school project. That pie tin, rubber band and stick led to a lifelong love of the instrument. As he played more, he got better. Much, much better. Being better led to even more enjoyment of the banjo.

Now, more than 30 years into a lauded award-winning career, the slide guitar and banjo virtuoso has returned to his first love with the new album called Decembering. Less a 'folk' album and more of a deep exploration of all of the styles of music banjo can occupy, Decembering was made in isolation with a remote team of stellar partners: Luke Price, Tristan Clarridge, Toddd Sickafoose, Rob Berger, Mike Marshall, Matt Flinner, Scott Amendola and more.

During our session, we talked about the history of the instrument, Furtado's successful sculpture series, and how he's forging ahead as a musician staring down yet another rash of concert cancellations due to the pandemic.

After nearly 60 years in the music business (artist, songwriter, publisher, label owner, foundation creator), Janis Ian says she's ready for a week off.

The multiple Grammy award-winner feels like her new album is her best. The collection of songs allowed her to say some things that she hadn't been able to full express before, and showcases many of her old friends like Vince Gill and Diane Schuur.

She spoke at length with JPR's Eric Teel about how life changed after her early radio hit "At Seventeen," and how her perspective on success has changed over the ensuing decades.

She also treated us to a few tunes from her goodbye album.

Over the last decade, Schneiderman has been busy creating music and releasing records with Dirty Martini (which morphed and became Swan Sovereign), and working on a musical based on a story she discovered about human trafficking. She's also been busy raising her son.

With the musical (and shows, and tours) on hold for the time being, Schneiderman found time to re-focus on her solo career. She'd been sitting on a handful of songs, had some new ideas she wanted to explore, and entered the studio for the first time as both artist and producer of her own album. Her intent was a more acoustic-leaning folk album. Crossfire is not that at all, Rather, it showcases the many facets of Schneiderman's musical history throughout the tracks.

She joined us from her home in Portland with the help of her husband Tony Furtado to share a few tunes from the new album.

Back in the summer, Dennen joined us via Zoom to talk about the release of his new album See The World, and the talk was a look ahead at what was hopefully going to be the reopening of venues and the reestablishment of touring. Fast forward to early 2022, and we're still talking about how to approach shows where everyone feels safe and artists can thrive.

This was his first time visiting our new studio, and he took the opportunity to play us a few tunes from the new record.

For roughly a decade, the band now known as the RT's were known as the Rad Trads. Described as an era of 'bar band' music - the kind of horn-fueled, jazz influenced, high energy party music you might expect to enjoy with friends...and drinks.

But for the RT's, Patrick Sargent (vocals, saxophone, keys); Michael Harlen (bass, vocals); Alden Harris-McCoy (guitar, vocals); Michael Fatum (trumpet, vocals) and Jamie Eblen (drums, vocals), 2021 led to a realization that the group's sound really didn't match that earlier generation was no longer a great match for their maturing creative vision. A discovery that 'Rad Trad' had taken on a political connotation also didn't sit well with the group.

And so...a metamorphosis. To the RT's. They joined us live in the studio to share some cool acoustic arrangements of tunes from their new album, and even incorporated the use of our own Dave Jackson's acoustic guitar!

It took a few years for Shires to step out as a singer after making her name as a sideperson and in-demand fiddler. Through the years, she has toured and recorded with notable artists including John Prine, Billy Joe Shaver, Todd Snider, Shovels and Rope, Gregg Allman, Justin Townes Earle, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, and more.

She's released five albums, the most recent being 2018’s To The Sunset, and as a member of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Shires won a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album for the band’s The Nashville Sound in 2018.

In 2019, Shires formed country supergroup The Highwomen alongside Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, and Natalie Hemby, and Shires hope to pick up the post-pandemic pieces and get rolling with more Highwomen content in the year ahead.

We talked about her own holiday traditions, the sentiment she tried to capture on the new album For Christmas, and her creative "Santamanda Christmas Hotline. Fans can call 1-833-FOR-XMAS to hear a pre-recorded greeting from the Shires encouraging them to leave a message about how they're feeling about the holidays.

When Bruce Cockburn entered music school at Berklee, his course of study was actually jazz composition. It didn't take long for him to realize that while he had (and still has) affinity for that kind of music, it wasn't the path for him. Instead, he joined a few bands and started writing music for them. But it wasn't long before his catalog of songs and individual voice found its way out and Cockburn flew solo.

Fifty years, 13 Juno awards, and a couple of Hall of Fame inductions later, Cockburn has released a new album aptly titled Greatest Hits 1970-2020. It's a collection of all of the songs Cockburn "released as singles" over the years.

He joined us in the studio to talk about the album and which songs from his catalog he still performs regularly. He also played us a few choice tunes written at different periods of his illustrious songwriting career.

Aoife O'Donovan has long been a JPR favorite. From her time with Crooked Still, to the Grammy-winning I'm With Her (with Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz) to the wonderful Bull Frogs Croon song cycle she crafted and performed with Jeremy Kittel and Teddy Abrams, O'Donovan's talent and interest in a wide variety of projects has always been front and center in her work.

Over the last two years, she released a cover version of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, singles with Kris Drever and Donovan Woods, wrote a song cycle called America, Come (based on the lives, letters and speeches of Carrie Chapman Catt and Woodrow Wilson) and wrote and recorded Age Of Apathy, her third full-length solo album due out in January 2022. And oh by the way, she's also raising a young daughter and ramped up her baking skills (her specialty is a brown butter Nutella banana bread!) during the forced time at home caused by the pandemic.

She took time out of a very busy schedule to join us from her home in Florida and play us a few tunes from the new album.