Playlist: Women's History Month: Music Specials
Compiled By: PRX Editors
Music for March and beyond.
Also check out our Women's History Month Editors' Picks under 49:00 and Hour Specials.
New in 2023
Some RESPECT for Aretha
From Paul Ingles | 59:00
Aretha Franklin's over 6 decade career is recalled by music documentarian Paul Ingles and a panel of music writers and commentators.
- Playing
- Some RESPECT for Aretha
- From
- Paul Ingles
Aretha Franklin's over 6 decade career is recalled by music documentarian Paul Ingles and a panel of music writers and commentators in the wake of Aretha's August 2018 passing at the age of 76.
Featured in the program are 20 of Aretha's legendary performances and commentary from Ann Powers of NPR Music, Writer and educator Rob Bowman, writer Ashley Kahn, writer and musician John Kruth, and public radio host Gwen Thompkins.
Mavis Staples
From Sound Opinions | Part of the Sound Opinions Specials series | 54:00
As a member of her family group The Staple Singers and as a solo artist, Mavis Staples has used her huge voice to power the Civil Rights Movement and inspire generations. Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot revisit their intimate discussion of her life and career in celebration of the gospel and soul legend.
- Playing
- Mavis Staples
- From
- Sound Opinions
As a member of her family group The Staple Singers and as a solo artist, Mavis Staples has used her huge voice to power the Civil Rights Movement and inspire generations. Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot revisit their intimate discussion of her life and career in celebration of the gospel and soul legend.
Classic Specials
Her Music/Her Story
From Louisville Public Media | 01:58:29
Women at the top of the field in classical music pay tribute to the women who have inspired them. Luminaries like multiple Grammy Award winner JoAnn Falletta, BBC Proms soloist Jamie Barton, The Marvels composer Laura Karpman, and many more introduce music by composers like Florence Price, Clara Schumann, Lucija Garuta, as well as performances from Isatah Kanneh-Mason, Marian Anderson, and even Ella Fitzgerald.
- Playing
- Her Music/Her Story
- From
- Louisville Public Media
Women at the top of the field in classical music pay tribute to the women who have inspired them. Luminaries like multiple Grammy Award winner JoAnn Falletta, BBC Proms soloist Jamie Barton, The Marvels composer Laura Karpman, and many more introduce music by composers like Florence Price, Clara Schumann, Lucija Garuta, as well as performances from Isatah Kanneh-Mason, Marian Anderson, and even Ella Fitzgerald.
Carole King's Tapestry at 50: An Appreciation
From Paul Ingles | 59:00
Hour-long radio program produced by top public radio music documentary producer Paul Ingles that offers a deep dive celebration of the 1971 Carole King masterpiece on its half-century anniversary (February10, 2021). Top music writers and scholars give their intimate reflections on the album, and its place in music history.
- Playing
- Carole King's Tapestry at 50: An Appreciation
- From
- Paul Ingles
Two hour-long radio program produced by top public radio music documentary producer Paul Ingles that offers a deep dive celebration of the 1971 Carole King masterpiece on its half-century anniversary (February10, 2021). Top music writers and scholars give their intimate reflections on the album, and its place in music history.
Featured commentators are Ann Powers of NPR Music, music critic Holly Gleason, Beverly Keel - Dean of the Music and Entertainment Department at Middle Tennessee State University, Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone Magazine and American Songwriter editor Paul Zollo. Carole King is heard also from a 2012 archival interview.
PLAYLIST: (coming soon)
The Emergence of Joni Mitchell
From Paul Ingles | 01:58:58
Two-hour or one-hour exploration of the seminal work of heralded songwriter Joni Mitchell. Over 50 Mitchell songs are featured in the recommended two-hour version. Special guests include music writers Ann Powers, Anthony DeCurtis, Paul Zollo, Lydia Hutchinson and Holly George-Warren. Also featured are musicians Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplansky and others.
- Playing
- The Emergence of Joni Mitchell
- From
- Paul Ingles
"The Emergence of Joni Mitchell," is a two-hour examination of one of the most heralded songwriters of her time. In this third installment of his series on the seminal work of important figures in popular music, Ingles and his guests explore how Joni Mitchell crafted her artistry and connected with audiences over four decades. Mitchell put the experience of being a woman and being human on artful display through her blatantly honest and confessional lyrics, innovative open guitar tunings and jazz-inflected vocals. The program focuses on Mitchell's key releases to illuminate the musicianship of the woman "Rolling Stone" called "one of rock's most daring and uncompromising innovators." By mixing Mitchell's music from these pivotal moments with informed commentary from musicians, fans, music critics and archival interviews with Mitchell herself, "The Emergence of Joni Mitchell" articulates what music lovers have found so compelling about this thoughtful and innovative writer and performer. Over 50 Mitchell songs are featured. Special guests include music writers Ann Powers, Anthony DeCurtis, Paul Zollo, Lydia Hutchinson and Holly George-Warren. Also featured are musicians Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplansky and others.
The two hour version is adaptable to a newscast necessary clock.
Talk Music With Me: Bonnie Raitt (2012 Interview)
From Paul Ingles | Part of the Talk Music With Me series | 59:00
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and multiple Grammy winner Bonnie Raitt talks with Paul Ingles about her life and career in this extended interview.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and multiple Grammy winner Bonnie Raitt talks with Paul Ingles about her life and career in this extended interview. The interview was excerpted for Paul's 2012 program THE EMERGENCE OF BONNIE RAITT. This presentation focuses on the Raitt interview alone with music excerpts sprinkled in. Bonnie talks about her early influences, her early days as a 20-something blues phenom, her brush with addiction and obscurity, then her rise back to the top with a string of Grammy awards and commercial success.
Songlist:
Love Sneaking Up on You (excerpt)
Women Be Wise (excerpt)
Give it Up or Let Me Go (excerpt)
Under the Falling Sky (excerpt)
Love Has No Pride (excerpt)
Angel From Montgomery (excerpt)
BREAK MUSIC - Give it Up of Let Me Go (excerpt #2)
Used to Rule the World (excerpt)
Right Down The Line (excerpt)
Million Miles (excerpt)
Not Cause I Wanted To (excerpt)
BREAK MUSIC - Fool's Game (excerpt)
Thing Called Love (excerpt)
God Only Knows (excerpt)
Gypsy in Me (full song in 59:00) (excerpt in 54:00)
WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts
From The Kitchen Sisters | Part of the Lost & Found Sound series | 58:40
The story of the first all-girl radio station in the nation
- Playing
- WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts
- From
- The Kitchen Sisters
WHER, the first all-girl radio station in the nation, went on the air in Memphis on October 29, 1955. It was the brainchild of sound legend Sam Phillips, who created the groundbreaking format with money he raised from selling Elvis Presley's Sun Studios contract.
Women almost exclusively ran WHER. On the air they read the news, interviewed local celebrities, and spun popular records. Behind the scenes they sold and created commercials, produced and directed programming and sat at the station's control boards.
Bette Midler
From South Carolina Public Radio | Part of the Song Travels with Michael Feinstein News Friendly Version series | 53:00
Singer, actress, and comedian Bette Midler is Feinstein’s guest for an hour of pure radio fun. Midler unpacks stories and favorite tunes from her record collection –from Louis Jordan to vintage Hawaiian music to Destiny’s Child. Feinstein presents her with “I’ll Be There,” a song written for Midler by the legendary songwriting team Marilyn and Alan Bergman.
- Playing
- Bette Midler
- From
- South Carolina Public Radio
Song Travels is a one-hour series distributed by NPR and hosted by the renowned "Ambassador of the Great American Songbook," Michael Feinstein. As host and artistic director, Feinstein uncovers the intimate journey singers and songs take with one another, each changing the other through the course of a lifetime. For Feinstein, American music is really a travelogue, with art that exists only because it has traveled through artists' lives, generations, and passions:
"In this series, we talk about songs, How important they are in our lives, how they've changed our lives and how sometimes they make life worth living."
-Michael Feinstein
Feinstein welcomes a new guest each week to explore the genre of American Popular Song, examining how these great songs have evolved through the years, changing with each interpretation and artist.
Each program features an even mix of ½ insightful conversation to ½ in-studio or recorded musical performances of guests and Feinstein.
Shelby Lynne
From South Carolina Public Radio | Part of the Song Travels with Michael Feinstein News Friendly Version series | 53:00
Singer/songwriter Shelby Lynne has carved her own path as a respected independent artist. After years in Nashville she relocated to California, where the Grammy-winning artist continues to earn high praise with each new album. Lynne performs her own tunes and teams up with host Feinstein on “Gee Baby Ain’t I Good to You.”
- Playing
- Shelby Lynne
- From
- South Carolina Public Radio
Song Travels is a one-hour series distributed by NPR and hosted by the renowned "Ambassador of the Great American Songbook," Michael Feinstein. As host and artistic director, Feinstein uncovers the intimate journey singers and songs take with one another, each changing the other through the course of a lifetime. For Feinstein, American music is really a travelogue, with art that exists only because it has traveled through artists' lives, generations, and passions:
"In this series, we talk about songs, How important they are in our lives, how they've changed our lives and how sometimes they make life worth living."
-Michael Feinstein
Feinstein welcomes a new guest each week to explore the genre of American Popular Song, examining how these great songs have evolved through the years, changing with each interpretation and artist.
Each program features an even mix of ½ insightful conversation to ½ in-studio or recorded musical performances of guests and Feinstein.
"Mother Tongue: Monologues from The Middle Passage to Today's Justice Movement"
From Dred-Scott Keyes | 58:04
The Mother Tongue Monologues present Black women telling it like it is, with all its' truths, brazen acts, shouts and silent revolutions, from slavery to civil rights, from welfare rights to Hip Hop Wars.
The Mother Tongue Monologues present Black women as concrete cultural beings...living, loving, suffering, rejoicing, working, struggling and achieving in the context of a definite cultural community. The monologues focus on the lives they live and make for themselves within families, communities and the historical narrativethat make their lives and your lives, meaningful. Black women telling it like it is, with all its' truths, brazen acts, shouts and silent revolutions, from slavery to civil rights, from welfare rights to Hip Hop Wars.
Shorter Music-Focused Pieces
Kathleen Hanna: from Bikini Kill to Le Tigre
From David Schulman | Part of the Musicians in their own words series | 04:40
Original riot grrrl Kathleen Hanna remembers the DIY feminist punk scene she catalyzed in 1992 with Bikini Kill. (The band's first EP was re-released Nov 20, 2012, in 20th-anniversay vinyl). And she talks about how her musical energy takes new form in her current, much poppier band, Le Tigre.
DIY!