Planning a morning program starts the afternoon before the show. I review new music in the office while working on other tasks and research the next day's musical choices. As I listen to a disc, I immediately think of other music to go with it. As I dug in to this morning's premiere A Way With Words by singer Karen Marguth, I tried to come up with music to complement this very distinctive session for today's show.
"A Way With Words" is distinctive not only for Karen's lovely voice and innate phrasing sense, but also for the material. She covers songs by Carroll Coates, a composer and lyricist worthy of far greater recognition. Thus, not just any songwriter's work would stand up to this material. Throwing the topic out on Facebook, the suggestions poured in for Madeleine Peyroux, Blossom Dearie, Lady Sunshine, Billie Holiday and others. Pairing these great songwriters and singers up with my original inspiration to play Abbey Lincoln and Nina Simone, we came up with a great morning of original music for Women's History Month. To listeners whose requests I did not get in - worry not - we'll do another day of great singers next week doing cool covers and your suggestions will get in then. Thank you for listening today.
