For 20 years Frank Dutsh (AKA François Duchesne) has been a top-notch competitor in strongman competitions, but he's turned to another discipline over the past 5 years. Having started on violin at 4 years old, adding piano after that, Frank gave a few decades to other work before coming back to music. Besides his physical strength & endurance, Frank is gifted linguistically & has written songs in 4 languages already.

Matthew French's singing & songs unlock hearts. An Ohio transplant to the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Matthew segued from a vibrant church music life to a musical passion stirred by personal trials & growth, finding deep community within the Twin Cities music scene. His voice & lyrics combine to find hope & strength out of our challenges and uplift us together.

Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Non-denominational Christian, Assembly of God

Giulia Millanta is the best Americana singer from Italy you could ever hope to encounter. She's been in the USA, in Austin, TX, for the past 10 years or so, and she seems to be producing endless riches of music, 8 albums to-date. While her talent & craft are impeccable, it is her heart-and-soul touching lyrics and voice that make her a memorable treat for all who are blessed to hear her perform.

Todd Adams (or on BlueSky) has spent most of his life sharing music with the world, including running and owning record stores, but it is only in the past 5 years that he's really dug into writing & recording his own songs. Along the way, Todd was part of the team that brought WHYS-LP Radio into existence in 2005, and he spun records there for years on his All Over the Map show.

Sometimes a really talented person can get lost in the background behind other very talented performers, and Gary Walters has certainly dealt with some of that. Gary frequently accompanies the amazing Carrie Newcomer (and others), and although Carrie gladly shares the limelight with him, it took an explicit announcement by Carrie at one of their concerts to alert me of Gary's other work, including his newest album, The COVID Sessions.

James Schattauer has a long history of music in the Twin Cities, MN, area, and though his songs are wide and deep in variety, topic, and nature, much of his music career was as a children's musician, under the name Mister Jim (here's some of his kid-centric music).

Today we introduce you to a new-ish member of the wonderful crew of musicians of the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Emily Haavik. Emily brought down to the Cities some of the fruits of her time and connections in Duluth as part of Emily and the 35s, including many years with the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival. There are a variety of flavors of music channeled through Emily's music, and lately she's fond of the title glam country.

Today for Song of the Soul we head to England for a visit with Hilary James. A couple weeks back we had a wonderful time with her partner, Simon James, with some of his songs including Hilary's beautiful voice and singing. Hilary's love of music is wide, and while much of it was part of the English folk club scene of the 1960s and 70s, her musical palate definitely included blues and other forms that we less commonly think of as folk music in the US.

Part 2 of our sampling of Kerrville New Folk winners who we've interviewed on NSR.

A different kind of Song of the Soul today, a sampling of our guests who have competed at the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Competition. We're grabbing glimpses of Kerrville alumni who we've interviewed on our show in recent years, giving you a taste of the rich talent and spirit of Kerrville artists.