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America's Awesome Kids
West Virginia’s children ages 8-10 have the opportunity to “tell their stories” as part of the America’s Awesome Kids project. A partnership between WVPB and WGBH in Boston.
Writer Sheila McEntee has been observing nature for most of her life, especially birds. She’s published essays about her experiences in Stonecrop Review, Woods Reader and Wonderful West Virginia magazine. Several of these essays have been collected for McEntee’s first book. It’s titled, "Soul Friend: And Other Love Notes to the Natural World." Bill Lynch spoke with McEntee about writing and developing an interest in nature.
I discovered The Bird and The Bee through a covers site, and heard their version of the Roth-era Van Halen classic “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love.”
I was smitten.
I love the irony, humor, disposition of musical elements of a good cover song, but this was something else: this was a true tribute. This was love.
But first, we must step back in time.
It’s no hyperbole to say that in 1978, Van Halen’s self-titled debut album split the rock world in two. Eddie Van Halen was the most prodigious and game-changing electric guitarist since our beloved Jimi Hendrix. It was like hearing a jet plane take off and leaving all the copycats, who were to follow in their wake, as mere shadows of the VH craftmanship of chops, songwriting with great hooks and charisma.
Enter The Bird and the Bee forty one years later. (NB: Inara was ten years old when “1984” was released and thought Panama was about the Panama Canal. The videos she saw were “both terrifying and exciting.” Check longer interview.)
Formed in 2005, when Greg Kurstin was hired to assist with her first solo album, All Rise, they “just clicked over musical interests” and “we wrote a couple of songs together and maybe we’ll see if somebody else wants to play them.” The rest, as it said, is history.
The Bird and the Bee will be featured on this week’s Eclectopia radio program. Listen to Eclectopia on WVPB Radio Fridays at 10 pm, with an encore Saturdays at 11 pm.
inara_george_extended_interview_eclectopia.mp3
Broadcast interview with Inara George from December 2016, plus bonus Q&As about Panama, Hot For Teacher, Beck and other good stuff.
Inara, DLR, and Greg at a special invitation-only DLR show. Follow them on Instagram.
On this week's premiere broadcast of Mountain Stage, host Kathy Mattea welcomes Jeff Tweedy, The War and Treaty, Johnnyswim, and Olivia Ellen Lloyd. Recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV.
WVPB recently hosted a pair of musicians from West Virginia University (WVU) to come perform live in-studio during Classical Music with Matt Jackfert. Albert Houde, associate horn professor at WVU and principal horn with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra (WVSO), and Sun Jung Lee, collaborative pianist at WVU, serenaded our Wednesday afternoon with a live performance of Reimaginings by Frank Gulino.
