The singer and pianist has a new CD titled "Sing It" on Rounder Records. It features her with Tracey Nelson and Irma Thomas. She has been compared with Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Dr. John, Leon Russell, and, Jerry Lee Lewis. She's been called the bayou queen of the piano. Her latest solo album came out last year on Rounder. "Let Me Play With Your Poodle." The concert was recorded in September in Austin, Texas as a benefit for the public radio station KUT.
British blue-eyed soul singer Nick Lowe played London's pub scene in the '70s in the band Brinsley Schwarz, produced five albums for Elvis Costello, and played with Ry Cooder and Jon Hiatt in Little Village. Now he's back with a solo album, his ninth, called At My Age, and he joins Terry Gross for an interview and an in-studio performance.
Drummer and drum historian Max Weinberg. For over a decade, Weinberg was the drummer for Bruce Springstein's E Street Band. Now he leads the 7-piece band on Late Night With Conan O'Brien on NBC. Weinberg co-authored The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1984). Now, he has produced and annotated a three-volume compilation of music performed by his favorite rock 'n roll drummers of the 50's, 60's and 70's. (Max Weinberg Presents: Let There Be Drums, Vols. 1-3. on the Rhino label.
Shanghai-born author, Anchee Min. She grew up in China during the last years of Mao's Cultural Revolution. In her memoir, "Red Azalea" (Pantheon), Min recounts her experiences as an 11-year old leader in her school's Little Red Guard, then as a laborer at a work camp where she became the secret lover of her female commander. When Madam Mao began her reform of China's film industry, Min was chosen from 20,000 candidates to become a screen actress because she had a face that was thought to represent the working class.
Actor Brian Dennehy who won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Willy Loman in the current Broadway production of "Death of a Salesman." Mr. Dennehy recently starred in the television movies "Shadow of a Doubt" and "Jack Reed: A Search for Justice." He is perhaps best known for his work in feature films, which include Presumed Innocent, Best Seller, Twice in a Lifetime, F/X, Cocoon, Silverado, Gorky Park, First Blood, Never Cry Wolf, and Peter Greenaway’s Belly of an Architect.
Dr. Walter Lear is the founder and co-chair of the National Gay Health Coalition, the former state Health Commissioner, for Southeast Pennsylvania and the president and founder of the Institute of Social Medicine and Community Health in West Philadelphia. Dr. Nick Ifft is the secretary of Philadelphia Health Professionals for Human Rights (an organization of gay and lesbian physicians and dentists), the coordinator of the Philadelphia A.I.D.S. Task Force, and a general practitioner at South East Health Center in Philadelphia. The doctors join the show to discuss A.I.D.S.
(Rebroadcast from Nov. 5, 2002.) Worden was director of the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. She died on Aug. 2 at the age of 57, from a brief illness. She turned the little-known medical museum into a museum with a worldwide reputation. The museum was founded in the 19th century. It originated with the collection of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter who gathered unique specimens for teaching purposes. It exhibits medical deformities, pathologies and medical anomalies, like the horned woman, the man with the giant colon, deformed fetuses and a plaster cast of the Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker.
Rock historian Ed Ward looks at some of the early integrated doo-wop groups. He says unlike today's white acts which appropriate black styles, those early groups truly mixed black and white performers and black and white musical styles.
Anthropologist Elliot Liebow. He is the author of the classic 1967 study "Tally's Corner," a look at African-American street corner life. The bestseller was Liebow's doctoral dissertation, and it's still used by many college students. His new work, the first he's published in over twenty years, is called "Tell Them Who I Am: The Lives of Homeless Women."(Free Press/Macmillan). He investigates the patterns and routines of homeless women around Washington, D.C.
Comic Andrea Martin. She was an original member of the Canadian SCTV comedy troupe and one of its brightest stars for seven years. Her co-stars included John Candy, Eugene Levy and Martin Short. Martin brought to life the neurotic talk show host Libby Wolfson, cleaning lady Pirini Scleroso, and, perhaps her best known character, the TV station manager Edith Prickley. Martin recently starred in her own cable TV comedy special on the Showtime channel.
From the South African production of the opera Carmen, and Yiimimangaliso: The Mysteries, an opera based on the medieval Chester Mystery plays: Music Director Charles Hazlewood and Singers Sandile Kamle and Pauline Malefane. The operas were staged in Londons West End to rave reviews. They are currently making their American premiere at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina that runs May 24-June 9. (www.spoletousa.org). Hazlewood went to South Africa and auditioned over a thousand performers for Carmen.
Journalist Ernest Volkman. He and co-author John Cummings' new book "Goombata: The Improbable Rise and Fall of John Gotti and His Gang," chronicles the history of the mofia godfather once proclaimed the "Teflon Don." Since 1986, when Gotti took over the leadership of the Gambino crime family, he's been acquitted in three criminal trials. The latest was an assault and conspiracy trial in New York, in which he was acquitted February 9, 1990.
With his wide leaps between long tones and a sometimes generous use of space, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith nods occasionally to 20th-century European concert music. But he's also one of the modern improvisers most grounded in African-American vernaculars; he's the stepson of Mississippi bluesman Alex Wallace, and he played for a spell in Little Milton's blues band. Smith's projects are all over the map, but often have this much in common with the blues: the byplay between a strong voice — his horn, in this case — and percussive strings.
Nelson George is a music writer who is the author of the best-selling "The Michael Jackson Story," and the black music editor for Billboard magazine. His latest book, "Where Did Our Love Go?," is a history of the black-owned company Motown Records. Motown employed a stable of writers, producers, singers, and studio musicians who created what became known as "the Motown sound." This soul sound appealed to both black and white audiences. George argues that that the company's move from Detroit to Los Angeles caused it to lose its sound.
Actor and now author Bill Murray. He's co-written the new book "Cinderella Story : My Life in Golf." with George Peper. Cinderella Story is really two books. The first is a string of anecdotes about Murray's club-wielding adventures with a number of celebrities including: Jack Nicklaus, John Denver, Clint Eastwood, and Hunter Thompson. The book is also an autobiography of a kid who started out caddying for 60 cents a half-hour with his brothers.
Journalists Lou Michel (“Meh-SHELL”) and Dan Herbeck are staff writers for the Buffalo News. The two have collaborated on the new book “American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & the Oklahoma City Bombing” (ReganBooks). MICHEL lived twenty minutes away from the McVeigh’s father, and over time he developed a relationship with the elder McVeigh which in turn helped him gain access to his son. Michel and Herbeck conducted nearly 80 hours of interviews with Timothy McVeigh.
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Martha Raddatz has been to Iraq 12 times since the American invasion. She has a new book about a battle that was a turning point in the war, an April 2004 fight in Baghdad's Sadr City. Raddatz says it was then that American troops realized they were facing an insurgency.
The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family is about the soldiers who fought that battle, and their families. One of the soldiers in the battle was Casey Sheehan, the son of antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan.
Film critic for the Wall Street Journal, Julie Salamon. She's just written a new book about the making of the film, "The Bonfire of the Vanities." The book is "The Devil's Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood," (published by Houghton Mifflin). The movie, based on the Tom Wolfe novel of the same name, was directed by Brian DePalma and was eagerly anticipated but turned out to be a critical and financial bomb. Salamon followed the entire film making process from casting to editing.
The 37-year old musician is a former member of the New York bands Last Roundup and the Shams. Her latest album is "Amy Rigby: Diary of a Mod Housewife." Rigby says a mod housewife is "woman being dragged kicking and screaming into adulthood." She also says her favorite subjects for songwriting are: "making a living, having a family, and trying to keep a sense of humor about it all." Most of her album is produced by Elliot Easton, guitarist for the Cars.
