Music

Ruth, June, and Anita Pointer, who sing together as the The Pointer Sisters, used to sing mostly big band tunes with complicated harmonies. They join the show to discuss their influences and new musical direction. Their new album is "Special Things."

Holly Near is a folk musician, actress, and activist. He joins the show to discuss her life career, and politics.

Philadelphia pianist and "friend of Fresh Air" Bruce Mills joins the show to discuss his career as a blind jazz pianist and to perform an in-studio concert at Fresh Air's new studio.

John Fahey, blues guitarist, discusses his career, his record label Tacoma Records, and brings in his guitar to play a few songs in the studio.

Guitarist and composer Dave Van Ronk discusses folk music, his jazz and blues influences, and the folk scene of the 1960s.

Gambian folk musician Bai Konte discusses how he both learned and now teaches the kora, a West African 21-string lute. He performs along with his son Dembo Konte and anthropologists and musicians Marc and Susan Pevar. Filmmaker Oliver Franklin, who made a movie Bai Konte, also joins the conversation.

Sammy Cahn is a prolific lyricist who wrote countless classic songs, including for musicals and films. He explains how he hears words in melodies and shares anecdotes about his many collaborations over the years.

Anthropologist and ethnomusicolgoist Steven Feld talks about the role of music in the Kaluli tribe of Papau New Guinea.

Alvin Epstein and Martha Schlamme have teamed up to perform cabaret songs by Kurt Weill. They talk about how they came to work together, along with the difficulties of translating Weill's lyrics from the original German.

Scholar, activist and singer Bernice Reagon was a member of SNCC's Freedom Singers. She talks about the history of songs associated with the Civil Rights Movement.