How Americana helped mainstream country find ...

Ten years ago, Maggie Rogers was a senior at NYU, scrambling to finish a song for a music production class she was close to failing. The guest critic that week happened to be Pharrell Williams. She played him "Alaska," a track she'd written in about fifteen minutes. It is a bit o ...  Show more

Train is the kind of band that some people love to hate. Songs like "Meet Virginia" and "Hey Soul Sister" gave the band huge hits, and no small amount of snark. And then there's "Drops of Jupiter." Released in 2001, the song is almost impossible not to love, no matter how many ly ...  Show more

Elton John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin wrote so many great songs over the years that it was impossible to pick a single one for Strong Songs. So, why not do two? Kirk dives into a pair of classics by the storied songwriting duo, talking about Elton's chameleon-like voice, h ...

Winter, spring, summer, or fall... all you have to do is call, and Strong Songs will be there with an in-depth analysis of one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century.

This episode takes a deep dive into Carole King's ever enduring, much-covered tribute t ...

It takes an extremely strong song to top the charts three separate times in three separate decades, but "I Will Always Love You" is just such a song. Written and recorded (twice) by Dolly Parton and then re-recorded in show-stopping fashion by Whitney Houston, the ballad has m ...

This mix has been on my SoundCloud account for a while now, so here's something a little different: 
A deliberate visit to something far more vocal house driven, Summer House 2 starts with a chilled take on some huge singalong h ...