This week for What Where When-sday, we feature a local music festival centered on the holiday season’s iconic Handel’s MESSIAH. The Music City Oratorio Festival is a 2-day event: Saturday has sessions to learn about the music from scholars and artists, followed by a concert. Sunday is a sing-a-long that’s open to the public.

The festival is hosted by Early Music City and Christ Church Cathedral. WPLN Afternoon Host LaTonya Turner talked with organizer and classical artist, Patrick Dailey.

Music Citizens Episode 5 goes inside the highest stakes job in the industry - A&R. Through the lens and life of A&R lifer Kim Buie, we get to see that this glamorous job is mostly about losing. Missing out on artists who become superstars (her near-miss tale of N.W.A. is amazing), knowing that the majority of albums you help shepherd into the world will flop and being the person who has to say no to a musician’s lifelong dream. Buie explains what’s kept her going through all that, what shaped her tastes and how her approach differs from the way most major labels are approaching talent acquisition in the TikTok era.

·         Jason Moon Wilkins — Host
·         Justin Barney — Reporter, Producer
·         Kim Buie — A&R legend
·         Pete Ganbarg — A&R Executive
·         Ben Folds— Musician
·         Aaron Lee Tasjan - Musician

This episode was produced by Justin Barney, Emily Siner and Jason Moon Wilkins. Mixing and Mastering by Michael Pollard. Scoring by Jay Ragsdale. Special thanks to Tony Gonzalez, Jewly Hight, Tasha A.F. Lemley, Carly Butler, Stephanie O’Byrne, and everyone who helped.

Institutional support from Tennessee Arts Commission, Metro Arts Thrive and First Horizon Foundation. Follow WNXP on social platforms as @WNXPNashville

Music Citizens Episode 5 goes inside the highest stakes job in the industry - A&R. Through the lens and life of A&R lifer Kim Buie, we get to see that this glamorous job is mostly about losing. Missing out on artists who become superstars (her near-miss tale of N.W.A. is amazing), knowing that the majority of albums you help shepherd into the world will flop and being the person who has to say no to a musician’s lifelong dream.

Buie explains what’s kept her going through all that, what shaped her tastes and how her approach differs from the way most major labels are approaching talent acquisition in the TikTok era.

The alt/indie rock band Momma is co-fronted by singers, songwriters and guitarists Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman, who sat down to chat with WNXP between a couple legs touring the country this year. In the spring, the band's fourth album, 'Welcome to My Blue Sky," was released to critical acclaim.

We are officially in the holiday season and this week for What Where When-sday, we feature the Alex Murphy Trio presents Charlie Brown Thanksgiving happening at Rudy’s Jazz Room. Although this event isn’t until November 23rd and 26th, their previous Halloween show, The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown sold out. Murphy will bring A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by Vince Guaraldi to life in an evening of soulful, swinging jazz that captures the heart of this Peanuts classic. Murphy, who performs regularly and teaches at the Nashville Jazz Workshop, describes Guaraldi’s work and how it influenced him.

Dystopian fiction has dominated screens and pages for a while now but a Nashville-based artist may have just crafted the first dystopian emo album. In some ways it sounds like what if the band Pinegrove made a soundtrack for a Hollywood doomsday epic with big choruses and a deeply personal backstory. 

Ok, maybe that’s a little reductionist, but it approaches some of the underlying sounds and themes presented on The Soft Apocalypse, the debut album by Henry J. Star. That's the artist name of Devin J. Badgett, originally from Knoxville, who says this truly is a concept album about the end of the world told through the lens of three characters. During his Sonic Cathedral interview with WNXP, Devin shared the stories behind the songs, the intense process of bringing this album to life and how he faces hard truths through music.

this week What Where When-sday, we feature Muse of the Macabre happening at Faeker’s Theater. Music City Muse is a Nashville-based arts platform connecting music, film, and visual art to highlight the creative side of the city that exists outside traditional genres. The event will be part film, part concert, part art installation with the goal of celebrating Nashville’s creative culture.

William Edmondson was the first African American artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1937. He was a self-taught limestone carver who carved tombstones and garden ornaments at his workshop, which sat outside of his house in Edgehill. Although he had no intention of being a career artist, he became a trailblazer.

For the last 20 years the site where he had worked and lived has been used as a neighborhood park in South Nashville’s Edgehill neighborhood. William Edmondson Homesite Park and Gardens formed in 2018 when the city tried to sell the property and their mission is to foster a creative, vibrant, and safe public space for all of Nashville to enjoy. The fourth annual William Edmondson Arts and Culture Fest (We Fest) happening this Saturday is a free, family friendly event looks bring to the forefront the importance of William Edmondson and his work. 

Ahead of their show in Nashville, Alex Kapranos stopped by the WNXP Studio to talk to Jude Mason about Human Fear, the community-building power of radio and the joys of stumbling across your new favorite band. 

Indianapolis band Wishy, co-founded by high school friends Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites, burst through with debut LP 'Triple Seven' in 2024 followed quickly by the 'Planet Popstar' EP this year. They talked On The Record with WNXP at Kilby Block Party festival in Utah in May and will return to Nashville for a show on November 10.