Makaela Joy is a delightful mix of whimsical and heartfelt, doing her own thing while drawing on inspiration of great women writers/singers of decades past. She can deliver "La Vie en Rose" beautifully, emote a hymn like "In The Garden," or convey her grief about her brother's passing through her "Apples," all with perfect tone and intention. Makaela is a self-described quiet/shy girl, though you'll have every reason to request that she not remain quiet as you hear her music.

Last December, at the suggestion of Flamy Grant, I interviewed Sadie Gustafson-Zook, a winner of the Kerrville Folk Festival and New Leaf songwriting contests, so you know that she's among the shining lights of today's rising folk stars. Given my delight at getting to know Sadie and her music, it's astounding and lamentable that I promptly mislaid her recording, and I only recently brought it to light.

We welcome back Kora Feder, who was with us back in April of 2019, a year before COVID so radically altered the world. In the interim period, Kora migrated to a few different states, gradually incubating songs, until she released here new album, Some Kind of Truth, this past spring. She's been a fan & favorite at the Kerrville Folk Festival & the Strawberry Music Festival, among others, where she so eloquently shares her heart's truth.

Sage Leary has a gift & a passion for music that blossomed early and impressively, such that he released his first album of all-original music at the age of 14, his second at 16. He can rock it, he can blues it, and he can definitely acoustic Americana it. Raised in the outdoors and the woods, his music touches the Earth but reaches celestial heights, powered by a visible and almost symbiotic communion between Sage and his guitar, enhanced by his looping, vocal, and beat-boxing skills.

Despite having spent 6 years in Nashville, Kirsten Manville's true home is in the Boston area of MA. Raised with important influences from old-time, classical, folk, & rock music, country music has been foremost in Kirsten's heart since she was 8.

MG Bailey joins us today for SOS. MG is not only a One Man Band, playing simultaneously with hands and feet, while singing, he's a not-in-anyone's box kind of man. Authenticity & creativity mix fruitfully in MG's music, with ideas, stories, and images that stretch us out of our conventional expectations & storylines.

6 songs from 6 finalists in the Songs for Social Change 2021 contest, sponsored by the Renaissance Artists and Writers Association, founded by Ananda Marga, presented by one of the judges, Arun/Ed Glassman.

Today's Song of the Soul guest brings us a special gift today in the form of the mountain dulcimer, too little heard from current music scenes. Heidi Muller's first instrument was the guitar, she's become a special friend, performer, & teacher, of the dulcimer. Heidi has lived East Coast and West Coast, she been great-big-city urban, and tiny village in the country rural, but through it all, her music has kept flowing, now in partnership with Bob Webb. Heidi & Bob live in rural Northeast Oregon.

I first interviewed Tim Case early in 2024, after the release of his Great Big Moon EP, a reemergence of his music after more than a decade on the back-burner, but then he turned right around and released his new album, House of Mirrors, just recently.

We've had Annie Patterson as a guest many times on NSR programs, but today we're going full-spectrum on Annie. She's known by many as a folk singer and the co-creator of the group singing songbooks, Rise Up Singing and Rise Again, but she also performs a variety of music genres like swing, blues, soul, gospel and more with groups like Dear Ella and Girls from Mars, and others.