Feb 24, 2021

Time for the first Q&A episode of Strong Songs year three!

On this episode, Kirk digs into the mailbag for your questions on Jack White's guitar tone, Shabaka Hutchings' sax sound, 70s kitsch jazz, concept albums, drummers learning mallet instruments, Celtic sounds, "saving" jazz, and SOPHIE. Also, a listener shares...

Feb 10, 2021

Here comes that Santa Ana wind again, blowing us right into the slightly skewed world of Steely Dan.

It was never a question whether Strong Songs would do a Steely Dan episode, it was more a question of which song to focus on. In the end, Kirk chose "Babylon Sisters," a culmination of the band's incredible 1970s run...

Jan 27, 2021

Where are we? What the hell is going on? Oh right, we're here with our podcast device, listening to an episode of Strong Songs.

On this episode, Kirk dives into Imogen Heap's one-woman choral masterwork "Hide and Seek," taking a closer look at the technologies and processes Heap used to get that bewitching sound, her...

Jan 13, 2021

Let the children lose it, let the children use it, and let all the children join in for Strong Songs year three!

Kirk kicks off the new year with a pair of classics by the great David Bowie: 1969's melancholy "Space Oddity" and 1972's triumphant "Starman." What goes up, as they say, must come down.

Written by: David...

Nov 25, 2020

As Year Two of Strong Songs draws to a close, it's time to take a look back.

SCHEDULING NOTE: Strong Songs will be off for the month of December, and will be back for Year Three at the start of January, 2021.

But before that! Let's go back, back, back in time one hundred years, to the start of 2020.

SONGS...