On All Songs Considered this week, we hear two songs by familiar musicians, one stripped down to his essence and one in a brand new context. Ryan Adams is at his best live, playing solo acoustic hits, with lots of comical chatter. The prolific singer and songwriter has a massive live album coming out with 42 songs recorded at Carnegie Hall. From that collection, we've got Adams' rock anthem "New York, New York," slowed waaaay down for solo piano (along with his seemingly random oratory on the film Terminator 2). The intense folk duo The Civil Wars broke up intensely around the release of its second album; that group's Joy Williams just announced her first solo album, and offers up a single, "Woman (Oh Mama)," that introduces a fresh pop sound.
Also on thee show, Jamie xx, founder of the deeply meditative pop band The xx, serves up club beats on a new cut from his debut solo album In Colour. We also have a quartet of discoveries: Eskimeaux, of Brooklyn art collective The Epoch, a colorful new single by Canadian songwriter Gianna Lauren infectious pop track from Midwest rockers Twinsmith and Florida songwriter Christopher Paul Stelling brings his incredible finger picking from the road to the studio.
But first, we give one last nod to the South By Southwest music festivals' biggest legacy: head colds.
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