This Post has Nothing to Do with Food or Physics

photo from WikiCommons

One of my regular sources of music, aside from my sister and dad, is NPR music. There is a strong 30-something-year-old-white-guys-with-beards-and-shaggy-hair-singing-really-deep-songs indie streak to what they play*, but they also manage to showcase a wide variety of music, from afro-pop to opera. Some of their best content comes from the concerts they stream from festivals such as South By South West and small venues covered by their member stations. Recently, they broadcast the entire Newport Folk Festival and archived the performances on their website. I would like to recommend listening to Mavis Staples, civil rights gospel diva. This woman, with her timeless, incredible voice and her sparkling personality, performed regularly for Martin Luther King, was proposed to by Bob Dylan, and sang one of the theme songs to the Obama campaign. She was a guest on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and had everyone laughing at her jokes and amazed at her life story. It's also a recommended listen!

*Full Disclosure: I like some of those bands, but only in moderation, with the exception of the Decemberists. Hazards of Love, which NPR broadcast in its entirety from SXSW, routinely goes on repeat in my iTunes player.