Music runs deep and has the power to enlighten, educate, and empower. This doesn’t have to be a didactic thing and the best of it isn’t. Great songs can do all of those things as one listens and enjoys them. It does all that at the soul level. Music is weird – and sometimes very, Read more about 6.4: Sweet Honey in the Rock – Breaths (1988)[…]
As is often the case with music, love can grow in increments. The Deeper Cuts trio touched on that in our discussion on Tom Waits’ Mule Variations album all the way back in Season Two when Shannon first saw the artist’s incendiary performance of “Chocolate Jesus” on Letterman. But even as listeners grow into a Read more about 6.1: Tom Waits – The Heart of Saturday Night (1974)[…]
Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Live Sessions – a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the live music albums that were meaningful to them, and pondering what makes a great live album. After exploring a theater and a concert hall as a setting for great live records, this time we consider Read more about The Live Sessions 3: Paul Simon – Concert in the Park (1991)[…]
In part two of our exploration of the 2015 soundtrack to the musical Hamilton, the Deeper Cuts trio continue their discussion of the resonant themes in the musical that helped Shannon become the person she wanted to be and how music can help us set our values. We also talk about what Hamilton has to Read more about 5.7: Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording (2015) (Part Two)[…]
How can art shape our very identities? How can it give us a sense of direction from the people we are to the people we want to be – shaping our very values? Shannon adopted the city of New York as her home, and many of her album selections for this show across multiple seasons Read more about 5.6: Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording (2015) (Part One)[…]
A clean slate. A new era. A dedication to a new focus. When Shannon moved to Boston’s Fenway neighborhood for graduate school, these were some of the things that characterized her life at that time. As we’ve learned by now, for every era in a music fan’s life, there is a soundtrack. Regina Spektor’s 2006 Read more about 5.2: Regina Spektor – Begin to Hope (2006)[…]
Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Soundtrack Sessions – a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the the intersection between film and music while looking at albums that were meaningful to one of them. When favourite films and favourite soundtracks converge at exactly the right time in our lives, magic happens! In Read more about The Soundtrack Sessions 2: High Fidelity (2000)[…]
A year and a half in a new city. A raffle for concert tickets. The tail-end of a slowly declining and not very healthy relationship. It was a time when Shannon realized that things were coming to a head in that phase of her life. This was Shannon’s emotional context when she went to a Read more about 4.5: Rufus Wainwright – Out of the Game (2012)[…]
Parents are good for one or two things. Sometimes, one of them is how they serve as vectors for great music; how to spot it, what to listen for, and how to form your own lifelong love for musical artistry. At a young age, Shannon’s dad helped her hone an appreciation for music by listening Read more about 4.3: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced (1967)[…]
Moving on. We all find ourselves at the end of one era of our lives and with a new one ahead of us. It can be exciting. It can be sad. It can be both at the same time. Sometimes, it happens when you’re a kid, and there’s a feeling of helplessness attached to leaving Read more about 2.7: Nanci Griffith – Flyer (1994)[…]
Sometimes an album can offer you a point of departure: that moment when suddenly – WHAM! – everything clicks and new musical vistas are in front of you. We return to a theme we discussed back in episode 7 of our first season as we talk about Shannon’s journey with Tom Waits, specifically with his 1999 Read more about 2.4: Tom Waits – Mule Variations (1999)[…]
Break-ups! Autobiography! Pop crossovers! Season 2 of Deeper Cuts kicks off with a HUGE record from the late nineties, and a formative one for Shannon to boot while she was a musically curious 14-year old. Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill consolidated the nu-soul movement as it connected with hip-hop, reggae, and other genres by the end of Read more about 2.1: Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1999)[…]
Sometimes we have to cut material from the podcast. From episode 8, we have Graeme, Rob and Shannon offering their recommendations of other classical pieces to listen to. Graeme suggests Bach’s Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers wake) and Thomas Tallis’ Spem in Alium; Rob recommends Claude Debussy’s La fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Read more about Beethoven addendum: Classical music recommendations[…]
Classical music. It’s old. It’s complex. It can be intimidating. But somehow, the best of it goes beyond mere academic appreciation and makes you feel things. This is especially true if, like our Shannon Dohar, you get to participate in it. Shannon performed Beethoven’s Mass in C as a member of a choir and this Read more about 8: Beethoven – Mass in C major[…]
Very often, we outgrow the place where we’re from. That can be one of the signs that we’ve come of age. But leaving an old familiar place and finding a home in a new one is rarely simple, especially when you’re young. That’s the subject of our discussion around The Weakerthans’ 2000 album Left and Leaving, a Read more about 4: The Weakerthans – Left and Leaving (2000)[…]
Everyone needs a role model. This is true even for those who become role models themselves later on including Shannon Dohar. At one time, Ani DiFranco’s 1995 album Not A Pretty Girl served as her template, including the cover art that informed her ideal wardrobe! Shannon, Graeme, and Rob discuss the album that explores the complexity of Read more about 2: Ani DiFranco – Not a Pretty Girl (1995)[…]