SHEROES

Laetitia Tamko - the multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer who records and performs as Vagabon - joins Carmel Holt to discuss her newest album, Sorry I Haven't Called, how grief and love and heartbreak informed the process in a somewhat surprising way, and three albums in, discovering how much she enjoys collaborating after years of doing everything on her own.

Rhiannon Giddens returns to SHEROES exactly three years since host, producer, and creator Carmel Holt launched the show as a syndicated radio hour for public radio (November 17, 2020) with her as its very first featured interview guest. As SHEROES Radio celebrates its third anniversary, Carmel welcomes the multi-Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, artist, composer, author, and activist Rhiannon Giddens back to discuss her third solo outing You're The One, a week following its Grammy nominations for Best Americana Album and a second for Best American Roots Performance for a song from that album, making her a 10-time Grammy nominee. In this wide-ranging conversation, Rhiannon reflects on the non-linear path taken from opera student at Oberlin to becoming a Pulitzer Prize-winning opera composer, what all the accolades and awards mean to her, and the importance of being a good ancestor in all she does.

Singer, songwriter, producer, and author, Margo Price joins Carmel Holt to discuss her newly expanded fourth album Strays / Strays II, which overlapped with writing and publishing her 2022 memoir, Maybe We'll Make It. A proud feminist, Margo talks about the journey thus far, the realities of being someone that refuses to conform, staying true to her artistic muse, and speaking out. She also shares what was behind her decision to quit drinking and the new chapter it has opened up for her.

Our newest episode coincides with the release of Sucker, Jilian Medford's fourth album as IAN SWEET. Jilian sits down for an in-depth conversation with Carmel Holt to discuss why this album is so significant, and represents a triumphant arrival, and a return. Persevering through the disillusionment and discouragement she encountered in her college music program, loss of confidence due to controlling bandmates, a band breakup, and mental health crisis, Jilian Medford has found her way back to the freedom, joy, and confidence she once had as a child, while now embodying the wisdom of all she has endured as a woman.

Taja Cheek aka L'Rain joins host Carmel Holt this week to discuss her brilliant, genre-bending, and multiverse of a third album, I Killed Your Dog, which saw Taja contemplating definitions / redefinitions of womanhood and femininity. An in-depth look at Taja's journey thus far reveals an artist who has always been an intrepid explorer of musical worlds: from her classical training on piano, cello, and recorder as a child, to crate digging through her father's record collection, to teaching herself bass so that she could play bands and join the ranks of a burgeoning Brooklyn scene of rock, DIY, experimental, and noise, then taking a self-determined path that led her out of the racist and sexist environment of her college music program to throwing shows and working as music director of her college radio station, where Taja would go even deeper into music discovery and gathering the seeds of her future musical self as L'Rain.

Singer/songwriter/poet Jamila Woods sits down with host Carmel Holt to discuss Water Made Us, her third solo album and first since 2019's critically-hailed conceptual album Legacy! Legacy! While that last album saw the Chicago native researching and writing about some of her SHEROES and heroes, Water Made Us was born of introspection and gathered wisdom from more immediate teachers in Jamila's life - her therapist, her family, her friends, her astrologer, and her tarot practice.

Fifteen years and now six albums into her career, British-born, Paris-based, Kate Stables aka This Is The Kit sits down with host Carmel Holt to discuss her brilliant latest album, Careful of Your Keepers, reflections on her journey thus far, early lessons learned from her SHERO Ani DiFranco, and the many facets of the irritating yet necessary question: what's it like to be a woman in music? Her answers are poignant and at times hilarious.

It's October 6th and tomorrow is exactly one year since Alvvays released their third album Blue Rev, a career high-water mark for the Toronto-based group. With only a couple months remaining in 2022, the lightning speed with which it was unanimously named one of the best of the year - in many cases taking the number one spot on those lists, or top three - was thrilling to witness. 2023 brought Alvvays their second Juno Award for the album, and their third consecutive Polaris Prize shortlist. So it makes good sense that this is an anniversary well worth celebrating, as the band plans to do, including a special vinyl reissue of Blue Rev on the way (details coming soon). Molly Rankin, the co-founder, frontwoman, songwriter, guitarist, and producer for the band, sits down with host Carmel Holt to talk about the milestone album, the journey thus far, and an honest look at what all their well-earned success means.

A decade after self-releasing her third LP, An Unwavering Band of Light, the singer, hit songwriter, and hit podcast host (Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure, The eX-Files), Jenny Owen Youngs recently returned to release her gorgeous new album of "Jennysongs" Avalanche. In this episode, she sits down with host Carmel Holt for a fascinating conversation about her journey thus far, what the highly productive past ten years between albums has taught her, and traces the pivotal moment when everything opened up in her career and songwriting back to when she opened up publicly about her queer identity.

When Rissi Palmer released her debut single "Country Girl" in 2007, she became the first black woman in 20 years to have a song on the Billboard Hot Country chart in 20 years. Little did she know that a decade and a half later, she would use her platform and experience in Nashville to be a champion for people of color in that space. Now the host of Color Me Country with Rissi Palmer on Apple Music, a CMT correspondent, among many other things Rissi is involved in, she has just put out a three-song EP aptly titled Still Here, and joins Carmel Holt for an in-depth conversation about her journey, the state of diversity and inclusion in Nashville, and the necessity of what she calls "ego death".