FRESH AIR
Carol Muske-Dukes has written three novels and seven collections of poetry, been a National Book Award finalist and received a Guggenheim fellowship. Her latest novel is Channeling Mark Twain, which fellow author Mary Karr describes as “a riveting story about women in prison, with language that scorches the page and characters you won’t be able to live without.” PLUS, British singer-songwriter Bryan
Ferry is probably best known as the frontman for Roxy Music, the experimental synth-pop band he founded in 1971. But over the years, in between his Roxy music, he’s recorded albums devoted to songwriters he admires. The latest? It’s called Dylanesque.
RADIO TIMES
Rebroadcast of our interview with Seth Lerer author of Inventing English: A Portable History of The Language. Lerer is a professor of Humanities at Stanford University. LISTEN
THE WORLD CAFEIt’s hard to quantify Paul McCartney‘s impact on music history: The former Beatle has written some of pop music’s most indelible songs, both alone and with John Lennon, and become a knighted icon. He’s listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history, with massive popularity in The Beatles, with Wings and as a solo artist. In recent years, McCartney has attracted massive press attention in his personal life, but his musical output has also been notable: He dabbled in classical music with 2006’s Ecce Cor Meum and recently signed with Starbucks’ Hear Music label, which released his new album, Memory Almost Full. Written and recorded around McCartney’s 64th birthday, the album often concerns itself with aging and mortality, but never loses the singer’s sense of big-hearted optimism or his ear for infectious melodies.