Radio Something — Music

 A free-ranging mix of music new and old, moving from Iris DeMent and Bruce Cockburn through reggae, cumbia, psychedelic Beatles interpretations, blues, hip-hop, French pop, and other uncategorizable pleasures. Along the way: Jah Wobble, Josephine Foster, Sabina Sciubba, Mudcat, De La Soul, and recent music from Jesca Hoop—including the achingly beautiful harmonies of the “The Lost Sky,” recorded in a new stripped-down, acoustic version.During the show, I mentioned a particularly wonderful live version with Jesca Hoop, Aoife O'Donovan, Sarah Jarosz, and Chris Thile, recorded during a performance of A Prairie Home Companion [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3xhLJmNb5o].

In this afternoon’s Radio Something, I will be celebrating the sounds of summer music festivals from around the world (Including headliners Greentea Peng, Ganavya, Madé Kuti, Ana Lua Caiano).  In the third hour (2:20:00 to be exact), I’ll take a detour to Paris for a short set featuring the legendary “existentialist chanteuse” Juliette Gréco, whose extraordinary career spanned more than sixty years.   I recently explored Juliette Greco’s life and music after hearing her name mentioned frequently during the celebrations of Miles Davis’s centenary in late May. Their relationship is now the inspiration for the upcoming film Miles & Juliette, produced by Mick Jagger._________________________________________________________________Artist / Song / Album / LabelLaura Veirs / Flying Into Darkness / Flying Into Darkness / Raven Marching BandLaura Veirs / Drink Deep / Hello I Must Be Going / Raven Marching BandAldous Harding / One Stop / One Stop / 4ADAldous Harding / Train on the Island / Train on the Island / Flying Nun Records Donny Hathaway / Someday We'll All Be Free / Extension of a Man / Atlantic RecordsBelinda Carlisle / I Feel Free / Heaven on Earth (30th Anniversary Edition) / Geffen*Jon Batiste / FREEDOM / WE ARE / Verve The Nields / Tyrants Always Fall / Tyrants Always Fall / The NieldsVance Gilbert / (They Long To Be) Close To You / The Mother of Trouble / Disismye MusicSusan Werner / Dreams/Jung / Dreams/Jung / Sleeve Dog Records Ganavya / Would Be Better / Would Be Better / LEITERGanavya / Indo Blue / Aikyam: Onnu / yāttiraiGreentea Peng / Jimtastic Blues / MAN MADE / AMF RecordsGreentea Peng / Make Noise / MAN MADE / AMF Records Mádé Kuti / Take It All In Before The Lights Go Out / Chapter 1: Where Does Happiness Come From? / Mádé KutiMádé Kuti / Wait And See / Wait And See / Mádé KutiDerya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek / Direne Direne / Direne Direne / Big Crown RecordsDerya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek / Cool Hand / Cool Hand / Big Crown Records Ana Lua Caiano / Manjericão - Live / Manjericão (Live) / Glitterbeat RecordsAna Lua Caiano / Se Dançar É Só Depois / Se Dançar É Só Depois / Chinfrim DiscosMariaa Siga / Boukanack - Sensor Club Live Session / Boukanack (Sensor Club Live Session) / MADE IN AFRICA Mavis Staples / Beautiful Strangers / Beautiful Strangers / Anti/EpitaphBrother Wallace / No God In This Town / Electric Love / ATOTaj Mahal / You Put The Whammy On Me / Time / Resonatin' Records Juliette Gréco / Rue des Blancs Manteaux / La belle vie / Rym musiqueJuliette Gréco / Déshabillez-moi / Tubes Chanson Française / Universal Music Division Decca Records FranceJuliette Gréco / Sous le ciel de Paris / Blue / Puzzle Productions Greentea Peng / Meditation / MAN MADE / AMF Records

This May 2026 edition of Radio Something was a passages-of-life show. After eight years of living on a boat on a river (the Quinnipiac, to be exact), I'm leaving this chapter of life behind to help care for my elderly mother. Ever since I first moved onto the boat, I've wanted to do a river show — about tides, movement, memory, crossings, change, and the currents that carry us through our lives. Today felt like the right day.

This show was conceived on a bright spring morning, driving along Ridge Road and Skiff Street in Hamden and North Haven. I don't thank I've ever seen so much forsythia in full bloom—in the early morning sunlight—plus daffodils, tulip magnolia trees, and cherry blossoms. I feel like the yellow is still seared onto my eyeballs.  Artist — Song — Release — LabelJonathan Richman — Le Printemps Des Amoreux Est Venue — Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild — Vapor P&D Jolie Holland — Springtime Can Kill You — Springtime Can Kill You — Anti/Epitaph Teddy Bear Radio — Latte & Forsythia — Springtime Relaxing Jazz Playlist — SIWORKMUSIC Vassell Meka — Flowers Dub — The Full Spectrum — Legacy Mekas Muzik Simon & Garfunkel — April Come She Will — Sounds Of Silence — SMEParaskevas Grekis — Avril - Hasaposervikos Dance — Greece-Grece/The Best Of Greek Music — Arcade Music Paris Rickie Lee Jones — Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most — Pop Pop — Geffen Lou & Peter Berryman — Forsythia — The Pink One — CORNBELT Pokey LaFarge — Daffodil Blues — Riverboat Soul — Free Dirt Records Cedric Burnside — Pretty Flowers — Pretty Flowers — Single Lock Records John Fahey — When The Springtime Comes Again — Death Chants, Breakdowns And Military Waltzes — Fantasy RecordsVeda Hille — This Spring/Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most — Little Volcano — Veda Hille Beaten By Them — Spring Bird — Kinder Machines — Logicpole Cœur De Pirate — Printemps — Cœur De Pirate — Wrasse Records Ron Sexsmith — Spring of the Following Year — Hermitage — WM Canada Kaia Kater — Sun to Sun — Sorrow Bound — Kingswood Records David Kuncicky — (Nothing But) Flowers — (Nothing But) Flowers — David KuncickyParis Combo — Avril — Attraction — Universal Music Division Polydor Emilíana Torrini — Miss Flower — Miss Flower — Groenland Records Bruce Cockburn — April In Memphis — Crowing Ignites — True North Records Jacqueline Taieb — Le printemps à Paris — Femmes de Paris, Vol. 1 — Silva Screen RecordsPierolalune — Poisson d'avril — Au clair de l'année — Montagne et Musique De Dannan — The Flowers of Spring — The Best Of DeDannan — Shanachie Nkemjika — Forsythia — Forsythia — Nkemjika Ferre Gola — Poisson d'avril — QQJD, Vol. 3 — Ferre GolaJoanna Newsom — Sprout and The Bean — Sprout and The Bean — Drag City Records Angel Olsen — Spring — All Mirrors — Jagjaguwar A Hawk And A Hacksaw — The Sparrow — The Way The Wind Blows — The Leaf Label Glenn Jones — Forsythia — Vade Mecum — Thrill Jockey Nina Simone — Wild Is The Wind — The Best Of Nina Simone 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection — Verve ReissuesErin McKeown — They Say It's Spring — Sing You Sinners — TVP Records Mila Drumke Band — I Think the Spring — Radiate — Little Pro Records Young Iranian female voices — Song of Spring and Hope — Songs in the Mist — Kirkelig Kulturverksted Tom Waits — You Can Never Hold Back Spring — Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards — Anti/Epitaph Djivan Gasparyan — Lovely Spring — Moon Shines At Night — All Saints Records Claudia Schmidt — Fanfare For Forsythia — Out of the Dark — New Rounder Talking Heads — (Nothing But) Flowers — Naked — Parlophone UKJolie Holland — First Sign of Spring — Wine Dark Sea — Anti/Epitaph Frank Kimbrough — Forsythia — Rumors — Palmetto Records

During my February 11, 2026, show, I paid tribute to WPKN’s dear friend and longtime programmer, Pete Stewart. He was one of the true craftsmen of freeform radio—thoughtful, intuitive, and quietly brilliant—and one of the gentlest souls to ever walk through the doors at WPKN.For many years, Pete’s van carried a bumper sticker that read, “Obey gravity, it’s the law.” It made me smile every single time I passed it. Somehow, it felt perfectly Pete.PlaylistCathy Kreger / Can't Find My Way Home / Grand Central Waltz / Passing Tone Music Traffic / Dear Mr. Fantasy / 60s Psychedelic Rock / Universal Music India Pvt Ltd. Penguin Cafe Orchestra / Music For A Found Harmonium / Preludes, Airs And Yodels (A Penguin Cafe Primer) / Universal Music Mose Allison / I Live the Life I Love / Live 1978 / Liberation HallTerrance Simien's Krewe De Monifique / Tomber Amour Encore (Fell in Love Again) / Ancestral Grooves / Music Matters Records Sam Cooke / Twistin' The Night Away - Live / One Night Stand - Sam Cooke Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 / SME Ry Cooder / Little Sister / Bop Till You Drop / Warner Catalog and O/H Shakey Graves / The Perfect Parts / And The War Came / Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. Shawn Colvin / You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Live at the Bottom Line, NYC, NY - August 1993) / Cover Girl / ColumbiaJake Blount / Once There Was No Sun / Once There Was No Sun / Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Norah Jones / Black Hole Sun - Live / ‘Til We Meet Again (Live) / Blue Note (BLU) Lucinda Williams / Big Red Sun Blues / Lucinda Williams (Deluxe) / Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd.Norma Tanega / Walkin' My Cat Named Dog / Hippies: 60's & 70's Classics / Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group Nina Simone / Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter / The Essential Nina Simone / RCA/BMG Heritage Thomas Dolby / The Toad Lickers (feat. Imogen Heap) / A Map Of The Floating City / Non-Wea/Other Talking Heads / (Nothing But) Flowers / Naked / Parlophone UKYoung Dubliners / The Rocky Road To Dublin / St. Patrick's Day Party Jam! / MBO - The Music Business Organisation A/S Mimi And Richard Farina / Bold Marauder / Reflections In A Crystal Wind / Vanguard J.J. Cale / Anyway The Wind Blows / Forever Man / Reprise Bettye LaVette / Don't Get Me Started / LaVette! / Jay-Vee Inc.Keb' Mo' / Put a Woman in Charge (feat. Rosanne Cash) / Put a Woman in Charge (feat. Rosanne Cash) / Concord Records Charlie Musselwhite / Chan Chan (Charlie's Blues) / Continental Drifter / Virgin Catalog (V81) Taj Mahal / Hooray Hooray / Hooray Hooray / Nonesuch Toshi Reagon / Happy And Satisfied / Righteous Ones / Razor & TieGil Scott-Heron / Winter In America / The Bottle / Prestige Elite USA Jack Hardy / Winter Sunlight / Noir / Jack Hardy Miles Davis / Blue In Green / aboutJAZZ / Universal Music Division Decca Records France Lui Collins / Baptism of Fire / Baptism of Fire / Molly Gamblin MusicTerrance Simien's Krewe De Monifique / Caribbean Second Line / Ancestral Grooves / Music Matters Records Traffic / Dear Mr. Fantasy / 60s Psychedelic Rock / Universal Music India Pvt Ltd. Chris Smither / Hey, Hey, Hey / Chris Smither Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop ... /  Chick Corea & Bela Fleck / Bemsha Swing / Remembrance / Béla Fleck Productions