Country Singers Move to the Mainstream
Last year, Ken Tucker reviewed albums by Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakum, whom he thought had the power to shake up the country music establishment. Now they are the establishment, both with new albums. Tucker says Travis gives listeners a postmodern take on traditional country; Yoakum has fashioned himself the genre's Raymond Chandler, with songs that are brooding and sometimes offensive.
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Other segments from the episode on September 15, 1988
Temptations Singer Otis Williams
The soul icon still sings with the 1960s vocal group. Williams remembers the producers who wrote and recorded the Temptations' hit songs, and how they were able to capture soul and emotion on tape. He has a new memoir, simply called Temptations.
An Immigrant's Version of America
Writer Bharati Mukherjee moved from India to the United States to study at the University of Iowa. Her stories and novels examine the nuances of immigrant life, and how people must negotiate two, often contradictory value systems.
Crossing Delancey: The Fresh Air Review
Joan Micklin Silver's film, set in New York City, is about a single woman in the publishing industry who recruits a matchmaker to find love. Film critic Stephen Schiff says it reminds him of the TV show Moonstruck, but without the motivational message.
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