SEPTEMBER 15, 2011: THE CRAFT OF SONG IN THE SOUTH WITH JONATHAN BYRD, CAITLIN CARY, AND MATT DOUGLAS
Jonathan Byrd, a seventh generation North Carolinian, recorded his new releaseCackalack live on a sunny afternoon in Toronto, Ontario, with no headphones, no listenbacks, no separation, and no overdubs. Having recently made WFMT Midnight Special host Rich Warren’s “50 Most Significant Songwriters of the Past 50 Years,” Jonathan approached Cackalack with the most ordinary of materials: Chicken wire. Concrete. Roofing tacks. The Outer Banks, where wild ponies still run. And 95 South, a great river of humanity that brings us rolling back south from a hard tour. Cackalack is non-fiction, in other words. Taking us to real, everyday places. Being, rather than seeming.
Caitlin Cary has played the violin and written songs since she was little, but fell into music as a life when she joined the seminal alt.country band Whiskeytown as a student at N.C. State. Since then she has made No Depression Magazine’s top 20 of the decade list with Begonias, an album of duets with Thad Cockrell and released four acclaimed solo albums. Most recently, she release an EP with her newest project, The Small Ponds.
Matt Douglas’s graduated as a contemporary music performance major from NYU and then headed to Hungary on a Fulbright scholarship as a student of folk music traditions. It was there that he first picked up a guitar and began to write songs, which led to the formation of innovative pop ensemble The Proclivities. Douglas also lends his talents to the recordings of artists such as Josh Ritter, Erin McKeown, Mark Erelli, and Laura Cortese.
Moderated by Steve Gardner.