Songfacts Podcast

She'll stack a cappella harmonies and sing about just maybe being in love with her best friend. There's nothing conventional about Maude Latour, so it's not surprising she learned music through an unconventional method. When she was in Hong Kong, the world-traveling Latour studied the Suzuki Method, an immersive program where she learned how to listen to music before learning how to read it...

Before the Sex Pistols, there was The Damned, but as Rat Scabies (Chris Millar) points out, the pioneers get the arrows, the settlers get the gold. Scabies formed The Damned in 1976 with guitarist Brian James, bass player Captain Sensible, and lead singer Dave Vanian. Their first album, released in 1977, is the punk landmark Damned Damned Damned, which as Scabies explains, took them from opening act to headliners very quickly. That year, they became the first British punk band to tour America...

Christopher Pappas comes from a musical family in Auburn, New Hampshire. After getting a taste of local celebrity by opening for his dad's band in his early teens, he knew that finding a career in performing was what he wanted to do. After establishing the act Elle Belle in 2013, he released a handful of records, always expanding on his never-ending search for new sounds. On November 13, 2020, he'll release the album Post Everything...

Eric Senich has been enamored with Van Halen since Christmas Eve 1988, when he found his brother's 5150 cassette. "When I listened to that, I was like, Wow this makes me feel something special. And so I played it right through, turned it over, and played it again. It was at that point I became a fan of rock and roll music." Eric hosts the DISCovery podcast, where he breaks down albums, artists and songs and helps you discover the incredible stories surrounding them...

Ehab Omran is already making plans for when he blows out his voice. Right now, he can hit otherworldly notes as frontman for South Of Eden, a rock band (like, a real, unhyphenated rock in the tradition of Guns N' Roses) from Columbus, Ohio. But when he can't sing in that whistle register anymore? "If I end up sounding like Johnny Cash, then it is what it is."   Previously known as Black Coffee, South Of Eden play loud and fast and have a great time doing it...

The Suzy Bogguss story starts in the small town of Aledo, Illinois, where she grew up listening to her dad's Merle Haggard 8-tracks. In 1985, she got a big break when she sang at Silver Dollar City, a Nashville amusement park that Dolly Parton turned into Dollywood the next year. With Parton's endorsement, she became a featured performer at the park and earned a record deal...

Born and raised in a Christian family in New York City, Amanda Brown was influenced mostly by gospel music until her time at the highly prestigious LaGuardia Arts High School. After a brief stint at Howard University, she decided to pursue music full time and soon found herself on tour singing backup for Alicia Keys. Three years on the road and she was ready to pave her own path...

From her time improvising at UC Berkeley, to traveling the world performing and finding her voice as a songwriter, Monique DeBose has an incredible story to share. A polymath with degrees in Spiritual Psychology and Mathematics, she earned acclaim for her one-woman show Mulatto Math: Summing Up the Race Equation in America and is a prominent speaker who has done TED Talks. DeBose has made her mark in music with songs that carry the weight of struggle and experience...

From the moon landing to the Stonewall riots, to Woodstock and Altamont, 1969 gave the world incredible highs and pivotal lows. Through it all, the most famous band in the world, The Beatles, struggled to keep it together while also putting together some of their most treasured music. In his book And in the End: The Last Days of The Beatles, author Ken McNab details this historic year for the Fab Four on a month-by-month account...

What makes a song great? Kirk Hamilton is the guy to ask. A few years ago, a friend asked him to use his vast musical knowledge to explain why Toto's "Africa" is so special, which led Kirk down a path to his Strong Songs podcast, where he deconstructs songs in glorious detail; he's covered tunes by Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, and even the Hamilton musical. We had the opportunity to speak with Kirk about his musical education and qualifications...