JPR Live Sessions

Now a 20-year resident of New York, Ana Egge's journey has taken her from rural North Dakota through New Mexico and Austin, Texas. Along the way, she's crafted twelve full-length albums of heartfelt folk/Americana tunes.

For Between Us, Egge made a concerted effort to expand and improve upon what she calls 'the whiteness' of her world. To do that she reached out to musicians, producers and other artists of color with an invitation to collaborate. Sometimes those were cold calls, other times emails. Egge says that most of the responses were overwhelming positive, even if not everyone was available at the time.

Between Us was also the first recording project Egge approached sober, and she says it added a new level of enjoyment and ease to the process that she hadn't experienced before.

The original connection point for the band came when lead singer/guitarist Hannah Joy and multi-instrumentalist Tim Fitz connected while working on their respective solo projects. Soon after, drummer Harry Day was added to the mix and the sound of Middle Kids quickly formed.

Their first song "Edge Of Town" immediately took off, resulting in opening tour slots with bands like The War on Drugs and Cold War Kids as well as appearances on on several US late night shows including Conan, Kimmel, and The Late, Late Show with James Corden.

Despite having a capable home studio (Joy and Fitz are married with a toddler), Middle Kids made an intentional decision to explore new sounds outside of that space and record elsewhere. Most of the songs for Today We're The Greatest were tracked in Los Angeles.

Middle Kids were the first Australian band to leave the country since the start of the pandemic, and they shared a few tunes from their new album live in our studio.

The orbits of Tim Harrington and Paul Wright have been intersecting since before high school (Paul was childhood friends with Tim's older brother), but it was after Tim graduated college in 2010 that the two combined forces and Tall Heights was born.

Through the pandemic, the duo (along with their growing families) shared a house, and that quarantine bubble proximity led to many nights of songwriting and music creation. Their new album Juniors, due out in January, is the result of that chaotic environment. "We translated the global and personal tumult into our songwriting, and we worked on it every day," says Wright. That period of creativity led to the tracking of 26 tunes, from which the album's final selections were chosen.

When Paula Cole last joined us (during the pandemic), she treated us to some wonderful performances she'd just recorded with her regular touring band, and during our conversation, we hoped that Cole's fall tour would come together and bring her to the Pacific Northwest with enough time to stop by and visit us.

Luckily, the clouds parted and she was able to sit down at our Steinway (her only radio session of 2021!) to share are few songs that hold special meaning. We also talked her approach to live performing, and a look ahead to her next record.

Paul Thorn didn't intend to be a musician, but the strength of his original songs (which he'd been playing weekly for folks at a pizza joint) caught the attention of Miles Copeland who, at the time, was managing Sting and The Police. That connection led to a publishing deal and recording contract, which then led to an opening slot on Sting's tour, performing to crowds of over 10,000 people every night.

Thorn's new album Never Too Late To Call is his first collection of original material in almost seven years. During that time, Thorn's drinking had started spiraling to the point where his productivity was stunted. Now sober (six months as we talked), Thorn's new songs face his own demons head on, but also shed light on the importance of reaching out and reconnecting with to the circle of loved ones around you. A couple of those people, Thorn's wife and daughter, make cameos on the album.

When you hear of a songwriter penning tunes for the likes of Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, and Rascal Flatts, you might have some insight as to an artistic leaning. But then throw names like Meat Loaf, Christina Aguilera and Michael Franti into the mix and you get a sense of the true depth of talent that is Sean McConnell.

McConnell has been releasing his own records for two decades, but it's been the last few where his music has taken off. On his newest, called A Horrible Beautiful Dream, some of those many admirers make guest appearances. The Wood Brothers, Natalie Hemby, Dan Tyminski, and Audra Mae all happened by McConnell's recording studio and ended up on the record.

During the pandemic, McConnell's schedule stayed busy, as he produced a half dozen albums for other artists in addition to his own. Juggling the schedule between work family was complicated, but just requires a bit of extra communication.

During our session, Sean treated us some fantastic solo versions of songs from the new album. (Note: Sean's second song "Nothing Anymore" contains an unedited F-bomb here on the web version.)

Daniel and Lauren Goans first combined their voices and creative talents in 2013 as Lowland Hum. Daniel had been making music as a solo artist, and Lauren kind of eased into it slowly after a background in visual arts - first adding some harmonies to one of Daniel's songs...then a second...and a third. The duo was born.

Now married and living in Charlottesville, the pair joined us from their home studio on release day for At Home, their new album of original music. They played us a couple a couple of songs from the new record, as well as a beautiful version of Gabriel's "That Voice Again."

Radin started out as mostly a visual artist, but after acquiring a guitar and learning a handful of chords, his first song bubbled out. Due to a fortuitous friend connection, it ended up being picked up and used by the popular TV show Scrubs. Once the episode aired, the network's website crashed from the traffic load of people looking for more information on the musician.

Since those early days, Radin has now sold over a million record, generated more than a billion streams, and landed more than 150 film, television, and commercial syncs. He doesn't know what that magic ingredient is that causes the massive level of interest. He's just happy to put out songs that people enjoy, saying "Usually when I try to write a song, I'm not very good at it. I feel like I'm better when I just live my live and a song comes out."

His latest release The Ghost And The Wall is out now on Nettwerk Records

Monheit was just 22 when she released her debut album Never Never Land. The singer had been highly touted out of college, finishing runner-up in the prestigious Thelonious Monk vocal jazz competition in 1998.

Over the ensuing nearly twenty years, Monheit has solidified her status as an impeccable interpreter of the Great American Songbook, combining her love for traditional straight-ahead jazz and the more cinematic songs from theatre and stage.

Now independently recording for Club44 Records, Monheit's latest effort (her 12th full-length) Come What May is another stellar collection.

She joined us to talk about the ups and downs of being a jazz singer in the United States in this crazy time, her love for Ella Fitzgerald and Judy Garland, and to offer up some advice for the next generation of jazz singers.

After more than a year delay, Mipso was finally able to hit the road for an album release tour for their self-titled Rounder Records debut.

With the group's members now living in different parts of the country (Sharp in Brooklyn, Robinson in Salt Lake City, Terrell and Rodenbough in Durham, NC), the time apart has definitely been beneficial for the band. Since getting back together over the summer to prepare for the tour, the connection between members is stronger than ever, with a renewed spirit and energy.

They've been navigating the new atmosphere of touring as best as possible. Shows in Coos Bay and Sacramento were cancelled along the way, making our live session the exclusive Mipso show for all of southern Oregon and northern California. And, in an effort to try and keep band members and support staff healthy for the rest of the tour, Mipso chose JPR as their only radio station visit.

For the first time, we had their entire full-band concert setup for the session.