Radio Smart Talk: Holiday Music

Radio Smart Talk for Monday, December 24:

Bluegrass singer/songwriter  Laurelyn Dossett  is known for her appearance on A Prairie Home Companion with her band Polecat Creek.   When she was commissioned to write a series of holiday songs by the North Carolina Symphony, she recruited a number of other bluegrass stars to perform the pieces with her.  

Rhiannon Giddens,  singer, songwriter and fiddle player, is a founding member of the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. Guitarist Joe Newberry picked up the 2012 International Bluegrass Music Association Award for Best Gospel Song for “Singing as We Rise.”  Mike Compton, mandolin, is a Grammy winning artist, and nominated IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year. Jason Sypher, upright bass, performs and records with Irish musicians such as Grammy winning vocalist Susan McKeown.

The entire group joins us on Radio Smart Talk for a special holiday program to talk about the music and perform a number of selections from their holiday album, The Gathering.

Also, Eric Riley, the new conductor of the Wheatland Chorale in Lancaster brings us some music from their recent Gretna Music concert. They perform a new piece written by one of the chorale members, Douglas Weaver.  And we'll hear a sample from the Tudor Choir of Seattle, known for their performance of  music in the early American shape-note tradition.

The popular local folk duo, Voxology, based in Mechanicsburg, will also be on the program performing some of their original holiday tunes live in the witf studio.

Listen to the program: