When he’s not hosting KALW’s daily Almanac, Kevin Vance plays an assortment of folk music on A Patchwork Quilt, usually songs that make you sad or smile or angry at the right things. So for this week’s episode, he brought some songs to make us feel some of those emotions. Listen above to hear more about the songs Kevin can’t stop listening to.
"Folk music can be like opera and Greek tragedies and have sad endings, but they do hold a mirror up to real life."
Hear all the songs in full below:
Intro song: Yasmin Williams - Sunshowers
Song 1: Rhiannon Giddens - The Ballad of Sally Anne
“Rhiannon Giddens is one of my music heroes. The album is called My Black Country, and it's the songs of Alice Randall.”
Song 2 - Joy Oladokun - If You’ve Got a Problem
“I think a lot of music comes from Africa anyway. I think a lot of what could be a white person playing a guitar is probably playing something that an African American person was playing 20, 30 years before.”
Song 3 - Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs - Fast Car (Live at the 2024 Grammy Awards)
“It's so nice to see Tracy Chapman passing on the torch of such a wonderful song of hers, like Fast Car to Luke Combs, a young country music star, and giving it a whole new life.”
Catch Kevin Vance Saturdays 5:30 p.m. on Patchwork Quilt and every morning on the daily Almanac.
