SHEROES

Now that we are officially halfway through 2024, the first wave of "Best Albums of 2024 (so far)" lists are here. So this week, host Carmel Holt brings back one of her favorite episodes of the year so far, in conversation with one of her favorite artists discussing her then-new album that is now newly anointed as one of the best of the year by critics (and was immediately put on our own). The album is Brittany Howard's sophomore solo album, What Now, and Carmel sat down with Brittany back in February when it first was released to talk about what is her most free and fully realized work thus far.

Singer and guitarist Teresa Williams joins Carmel Holt to talk about her new album with husband and musical partner, guitarist/songwriter/producer Larry Campbell, All This Time. Teresa shares her journey from growing up in the deep South where "things don't change much", to chasing her dreams of being an actress and singer in New York City, meeting her future husband, Larry Campbell, and after years of being apart while Larry was touring with Bob Dylan, finally getting to join forces in Levon Helm's band. Now with four albums together as Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Teresa reflects how music was what brought them together, and has remained the glue that has kept their love alive for nearly four decades.

Bridget Kearney and Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive return to SHEROES to discuss their brand new album, Good Together. Now twenty years in, their eighth album simultaneously highlights the unity and togetherness of this extraordinary band with their most collaborative collection to date, with songs that are intended to bring audiences together in "joyful rebellion".

In this episode of SHEROES, host Carmel Holt welcomes fellow public radio SHERO and music critic Ann Powers to discuss her latest book, Traveling: On The Path of Joni Mitchell, her nearly decade-long journey writing it, her own story building a 30-year career, and the evolution of her relationship to Joni as an artist, and to her music.

Host Carmel Holt takes SHEROES on the road to Brandi Carlile's Mothership Weekend in Miramar Beach, Florida. Through conversations with Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, S.G. Goodman, and Brandi's co-curators and festival organizers, Topeka, we continue the ongoing conversation and inquiry into lack of inclusion on festival lineups (see last week's episode with Book More Women), discussion about touring artists who are mothers and how to make working conditions better for them, and what queer identity and visibility means in both music spaces and to the artists themselves.

The popular Instagram account Book More Women began tracking the statistical data for gender inclusivity on U.S. music festival lineups in 2018, and has grown to a following of over 16k over the last six years. The account has become hailed by the likes of Brandi Carlile, who says that founding her own festival (Girls Just Wanna Weekend) was directly inspired by seeing the data that Book More Women posts. The identity of the woman who runs this account and handles the hefty task of tracking this data has mostly been a mystery, and it took us five years to finally convince Abbey Carbonneau to join us for a SHEROES interview. In this not to miss conversation we learn about the methodology and inspiration behind Book More Women, and find out a bit about the passionate music fan that has single-handedly built it from the ground up, completely on a volunteer basis.

Colorado-born and Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Jobi Riccio released her critically-hailed debut album Whiplash last September and has just been nominated for her first Americana Music Award as Emerging Artist of the Year. She sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss the path she has been on since her early teens as a guitarist, the crucial mentorship and influence she has received from artists like Sarah Jarosz, her experience as a student at Berklee College of Music, and how she has finally learned to take up the space she deserves.

Australian singer-songwriter Grace Cummings joins Carmel Holt this week to talk about her stunner of a third album, Ramona, and her journey thus far. A self-taught guitarist who is also an actor, Grace was encouraged by a fellow musician friend to share her mighty voice on stage, and though at first reluctant, she discovered a love for performing and music that quickly landed her a U.S. record deal, and a newfound musical soulmate in producer Jonathan Wilson, who produced her new album.

Guitarist Gabriela Quintero joins Carmel Holt to discuss the latest Rodrigo y Gabriela album, In Between Thoughts... A New World, their sixth studio release and first since their 2019 Grammy-winning album Mettavolution. Gabriela takes us back to her earliest days of teaching herself to play guitar, discovering her love of rock and metal bands, and the chance meeting at fifteen with Rodrigo Sanchez that would eventually lead to forming their metal-influenced acoustic duo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and traveling around the world to playing some of the biggest stages.

Guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, activist, and founder of She Shreds Media, Fabi Reyna joins Carmel Holt to discuss Malegría, her full length debut as Reyna Tropical - now a solo project she initially started as a duo in 2016 with producer and dj Sumo Diaz in 2016, who passed away in 2022. Fabi shares her journey from picking up the guitar at age nine, to learning about activism through music at Girls Rock Camp as a teen, touring in femme and queer bands, founding She Shreds Magazine (the world's first and only magazine focused on women and gender nonconforming guitarists and bassists), and the journey she has been on since meeting Sumo of writing and singing with new purpose and connectedness to ancestral roots, land, queer love, and self-love.

Sarah Jarosz joins us on SHEROES and reflects on her journey thus far, including starting her career in her teens and early 20’s, the importance of joining forces with Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Watkins to form I’m With Her, and how her new album, Polaroid Lovers, her seventh studio release, finds her both breaking new ground by deciding to invite co-writers to work with for the first time, while simultaneously bringing her full circle to her early days when the world had crowned her a bluegrass prodigy and she had just barely graduated high school.

Bridget Kearney returns to SHEROES to celebrate the release of her new solo album Comeback Kid. Best known as a founding member of Lake Street Dive, the bassist, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist and host Carmel Holt discuss Bridget's multi-faceted journey thus far - from discovering her love of songwriting and the bass as a child in her native Iowa City, to her pursuit of jazz at New England Conservatory where Lake Street Dive was formed, to her travels and recordings in Ghana with one of her many side projects, to teaching a course in songwriting at Princeton University and the magic of sharing her love of music with others.

Alynda Segarra returns to SHEROES to discuss their critically-hailed new Hurray For The Riff Raff album The Past Is Still Alive, their journey that is documented in these memoir-style songs, and how the songs and recording of the album took on a whole new meaning following the sudden passing of their father.

This week Laura Lee Ochoa, best known as the bassist and founding member of Khruangbin, sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss Khruangbin's brand new album, A LA SALA - or, to the living room - and shares her journey from her own childhood living room that inspired the title. From her pursuit of visual art, to picking up the bass and starting the band, the role of her alter ego Leezy and how that is evolving, and integrating her newest role as a mother into her life as a touring musician with her chosen family of Khruangbin. 

It's Sheryl Crow week on SHEROES! The iconic singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, activist, Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Famer, and all-around SHERO joins Carmel Holt to celebrate the release of her 12th album, Evolution, which both sees her more inspired than ever, and handing over production duties for the first time since her debut. Sheryl shares her reflections on a four-decade career, her insights on where we have seen progress for women in the music industry and where we still have work to do, the crucial piece of advice that Chrissie Hynde gave her when she was still coming up in the business, and the questions she has about where feminism fits into the music industry.

On this episode, Carmel Holt welcomes back singer-songwriter Aoife O'Donovan to SHEROES to celebrate the release of her fourth solo album, All My Friends: a timely and ambitious new collection of songs whose origins began with a commissioned work for the Orlando Philharmonic to honor of the centennial of the 19th amendment and inspired by one of the central figures in the women's suffrage movement, Carrie Chapman Catt.

On this week's episode, host Carmel Holt welcomes one of her SHEROES, Kim Krans (creator of The Wild Unknown tarot decks) to the podcast to celebrate and discuss her journey back to music, as she has recently released her first solo album MIRRORMIRROR - her first recorded music in a decade. Kim was part of an indie band in the mid-late 2000's called Family Band, whose star was on the rise when Kim created her first hand-drawn tarot deck, The Wild Unknown. In this moving conversation, Kim shares how her career unfolded, finding her way back to recording music again, and the importance of sharing your artistic gifts with the world.

This week we’re thrilled to bring you a special edition of SHEROES recorded live in front of an audience at On Air Fest - an annual podcast festival at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn. Our very special guest this year was nine time Grammy winning singer, songwriter, pianist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Norah Jones, who has just released her ninth studio album Visions on Blue Note Records, and is preparing to head out on tour starting in May. With tequilas in hand, Norah and I chatted about the new album, her fantastic podcast called Norah Jones Is Playing Along, and much more.

UK singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Amber Bain aka The Japanese House sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss her newest album, In The End It Always Does, her journey from getting her first instrument (a ukelele) at three years old to getting signed to the 1975's record label Dirty Hit, the transformative experience she had working with Chloe Kraemer as her producer, and why she wants to work almost exclusively with women and queer people.

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Madi Diaz has been hard at work building her music career since dropping out of Berklee back in 2007, and self-releasing her debut, Skin and Bones. 2021 ended up being her year. A record deal with Anti- Records and her critically hailed fifth full length effort, History Of A Feeling, got a much bigger wheel in motion than ever before, including finding a fan in one Harry Styles, who invited Madi to join him on tour to open some of his shows, and join his band. Now after standing on some of the biggest stages in the world with one of its biggest pop stars, Madi Diaz has returned with her sixth full length album, with a title that perfectly sums up finding the courage to fall in love again, and sticking it out in the music industry. It's called Weird Faith, and just before she released the album, Madi stopped by SHEROES to chat with host Carmel Holt about the new album, her journey, and perspectives she’s gained along the way.

Sleater-Kinney is one of the most influential and revered indie rock bands of the last three decades, and just returned with their eleventh album, Little Rope. The co-founders, guitarists, vocalists, and songwriters Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein (with a guest appearance by Carrie's dog) join Carmel Holt in conversation to discuss the intense emotional landscape the songs for the album journeyed through, finding a new perspective and a renewed commitment to Sleater-Kinney, and their perspectives on feminism and intersectionality.

The visionary and Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Brittany Howard joins Carmel Holt in conversation to take an in-depth look at her brand new album What Now, her second solo outing and follow up to 2019's Jaime.

Los Angeles singer-songwriter-guitarist Clementine Creevy sits down with Carmel Holt to talk about her fourth Cherry Glazerr album, I Don't Want You Anymore. Already a decade into a career that started after uploading songs to Soundcloud while she was still in high school, Clem reflects on her journey thus far, and taking more ownership of her work than ever before.

With the Grammy's just over a week away, host Carmel Holt welcomes back the extraordinary multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, poet, and activist Allison Russell, who is up for four Grammy's this year for her second solo album, The Returner, making her an eight-time nominee in three short years. Allison's career spans over two decades, and over a dozen albums recorded with her bands Po' Girl, Birds of Chicago, and Our Native Daughters - her collaborative project with Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, and Leyla McCalla. But it was Outside Child, Allison Russell’s critically acclaimed, and four-time Grammy-nominated 2021 solo debut, that set off what has been a whirlwind three years of awards, accolades, touring, headlining Newport Folk Festival, collaborating, activism, and building what she calls “the Rainbow Coalition”. In today's conversation, Allison reflects on the last couple of years, discusses what awards mean to her, and shares the story of making The Returner as a second chapter of a trilogy: Outside Child was a chronicle of her escape from childhood abuse and trauma, to finding healing, love and chosen family in art, music, and community, and The Returner is the next chapter: a celebration of survivor’s joy.

Mary Lattimore is an experimental and improvisatory harpist, composer, recording artist, collaborator, and in-demand session player for some of the most revered names in indie rock. Recently back with her fifth full length album, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, Mary Lattimore joins Carmel Holt to talk about using her compositions to channel and hold on to memories, feelings, and places, what made her finally feel like an expert in something, and how getting fired from a job not only inspired a new song on the album, but then led to working with a founding member of one of her favorite bands of all time, The Cure.

The U.K. singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Marika Hackman is back today with her fifth full-length album and first of original material in four years, called Big Sigh - what she both calls the hardest album she has ever made, and her favorite thus far. She joins host Carmel Holt to talk about the genesis of Big Sigh, finally finding the confidence to take production credit, and what her journey of the past eleven years as a career musician has been like.

A lot has happened since March of 2023 when the singer, songwriter, producer, and musician Caroline Rose released their brilliant third studio album, The Art of Forgetting. In addition to critical praise from NPR, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and Under the Radar, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Recording Package category - a big deal for Caroline Rose, who was the visionary and creative director behind the cover. They also announced their biggest tour yet, which kicks off in March of this year. We celebrate by revisiting our interview, and giving away a 10 pairs of tickets to her nationwide tour. (details at sheroesradio.com)

One reviewer said of Corinne Bailey Rae's new album, Black Rainbows: "It sounds like a departure, but feels like a renaissance." In this episode, Corinne Bailey Rae discusses how industry expectations and massive success had begun to infiltrate her own creativity, and how meeting Chicago artist Theaster Gates, and visiting his Stony Island Arts Bank propelled Corinne Bailey Rae into a transformative period of songwriting and the multidisciplinary project now known as Black Rainbows, and how allowing herself to remove all preconceived notions of her persona ultimately becoming the most fully expressed representation of who she is as an artist and a woman.

A fascinating conversation with the multi-hyphenate artist Dessa, who sits down with host Carmel Holt to talk about a wide range of topics including the evolution of her career, her thoughts on image and feminism, what drives her to create, how and why she integrates art and science in her work, and her latest creation - the new full length album, Bury The Lede.

The iconic Rosanne Cash joins Carmel Holt this week to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her landmark album, The Wheel. A unique and deeply significant album anniversary that doubles as a romantic one for its co-producers, Rosanne Cash and her now-husband and creative partner, John Leventhal, as well as a watershed moment in Rosanne's life and now 45-year career.

Laetitia Tamko - the multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer who records and performs as Vagabon - joins Carmel Holt to discuss her newest album, Sorry I Haven't Called, how grief and love and heartbreak informed the process in a somewhat surprising way, and three albums in, discovering how much she enjoys collaborating after years of doing everything on her own.

Rhiannon Giddens returns to SHEROES exactly three years since host, producer, and creator Carmel Holt launched the show as a syndicated radio hour for public radio (November 17, 2020) with her as its very first featured interview guest. As SHEROES Radio celebrates its third anniversary, Carmel welcomes the multi-Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, artist, composer, author, and activist Rhiannon Giddens back to discuss her third solo outing You're The One, a week following its Grammy nominations for Best Americana Album and a second for Best American Roots Performance for a song from that album, making her a 10-time Grammy nominee. In this wide-ranging conversation, Rhiannon reflects on the non-linear path taken from opera student at Oberlin to becoming a Pulitzer Prize-winning opera composer, what all the accolades and awards mean to her, and the importance of being a good ancestor in all she does.

Singer, songwriter, producer, and author, Margo Price joins Carmel Holt to discuss her newly expanded fourth album Strays / Strays II, which overlapped with writing and publishing her 2022 memoir, Maybe We'll Make It. A proud feminist, Margo talks about the journey thus far, the realities of being someone that refuses to conform, staying true to her artistic muse, and speaking out. She also shares what was behind her decision to quit drinking and the new chapter it has opened up for her.

Our newest episode coincides with the release of Sucker, Jilian Medford's fourth album as IAN SWEET. Jilian sits down for an in-depth conversation with Carmel Holt to discuss why this album is so significant, and represents a triumphant arrival, and a return. Persevering through the disillusionment and discouragement she encountered in her college music program, loss of confidence due to controlling bandmates, a band breakup, and mental health crisis, Jilian Medford has found her way back to the freedom, joy, and confidence she once had as a child, while now embodying the wisdom of all she has endured as a woman.

Taja Cheek aka L'Rain joins host Carmel Holt this week to discuss her brilliant, genre-bending, and multiverse of a third album, I Killed Your Dog, which saw Taja contemplating definitions / redefinitions of womanhood and femininity. An in-depth look at Taja's journey thus far reveals an artist who has always been an intrepid explorer of musical worlds: from her classical training on piano, cello, and recorder as a child, to crate digging through her father's record collection, to teaching herself bass so that she could play bands and join the ranks of a burgeoning Brooklyn scene of rock, DIY, experimental, and noise, then taking a self-determined path that led her out of the racist and sexist environment of her college music program to throwing shows and working as music director of her college radio station, where Taja would go even deeper into music discovery and gathering the seeds of her future musical self as L'Rain.

Singer/songwriter/poet Jamila Woods sits down with host Carmel Holt to discuss Water Made Us, her third solo album and first since 2019's critically-hailed conceptual album Legacy! Legacy! While that last album saw the Chicago native researching and writing about some of her SHEROES and heroes, Water Made Us was born of introspection and gathered wisdom from more immediate teachers in Jamila's life - her therapist, her family, her friends, her astrologer, and her tarot practice.

Fifteen years and now six albums into her career, British-born, Paris-based, Kate Stables aka This Is The Kit sits down with host Carmel Holt to discuss her brilliant latest album, Careful of Your Keepers, reflections on her journey thus far, early lessons learned from her SHERO Ani DiFranco, and the many facets of the irritating yet necessary question: what's it like to be a woman in music? Her answers are poignant and at times hilarious.

It's October 6th and tomorrow is exactly one year since Alvvays released their third album Blue Rev, a career high-water mark for the Toronto-based group. With only a couple months remaining in 2022, the lightning speed with which it was unanimously named one of the best of the year - in many cases taking the number one spot on those lists, or top three - was thrilling to witness. 2023 brought Alvvays their second Juno Award for the album, and their third consecutive Polaris Prize shortlist. So it makes good sense that this is an anniversary well worth celebrating, as the band plans to do, including a special vinyl reissue of Blue Rev on the way (details coming soon). Molly Rankin, the co-founder, frontwoman, songwriter, guitarist, and producer for the band, sits down with host Carmel Holt to talk about the milestone album, the journey thus far, and an honest look at what all their well-earned success means.

A decade after self-releasing her third LP, An Unwavering Band of Light, the singer, hit songwriter, and hit podcast host (Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure, The eX-Files), Jenny Owen Youngs recently returned to release her gorgeous new album of "Jennysongs" Avalanche. In this episode, she sits down with host Carmel Holt for a fascinating conversation about her journey thus far, what the highly productive past ten years between albums has taught her, and traces the pivotal moment when everything opened up in her career and songwriting back to when she opened up publicly about her queer identity.

When Rissi Palmer released her debut single "Country Girl" in 2007, she became the first black woman in 20 years to have a song on the Billboard Hot Country chart in 20 years. Little did she know that a decade and a half later, she would use her platform and experience in Nashville to be a champion for people of color in that space. Now the host of Color Me Country with Rissi Palmer on Apple Music, a CMT correspondent, among many other things Rissi is involved in, she has just put out a three-song EP aptly titled Still Here, and joins Carmel Holt for an in-depth conversation about her journey, the state of diversity and inclusion in Nashville, and the necessity of what she calls "ego death". 

A companion episode to Romy's recent visit to SHEROES during Pride Month on the heels of announcing her debut album Mid Air, Romy Madley Croft, who is best known as one-third of The xx, returns to SHEROES to celebrate the release of the album and reflect on the journey thus far as a solo artist with Carmel Holt.

Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and vocalist Grace Potter has been making records since she was nineteen years old. Two under her own name, then four more between 2005 and 2012 with her massively successful band Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. In 2015 she began releasing albums as a solo artist once more, but with a full band mentality. Her third outing following the Nocturnals chapter is called Mother Road - both a callout to what Steinbeck called Route 66, and the road she has taken as a mother. In this in depth interview, Grace sits down with host Carmel Holt to talk about the journey she has taken to arrive at her most fully realized project to date.

Montreal-born, Toronto-based artist and producer Debby Friday came up in the rave and club scene, and was a DJ before deciding she wanted to make music of her own. In five short years, Debby Friday has released two self-produced EP's, and co-produced her 2023 full length debut Good Luck, which is shortlisted for the Polaris Prize. Just a few weeks away from the award ceremony, host Carmel Holt sits down with Debby to discuss her journey thus far, and the new album.

Alicia Bognanno is a triple threat: artist, producer, and engineer. Recording and performing under the moniker Bully for the past decade, she has historically done everything herself. But her fourth album, Lucky For You, marks a new chapter in her career with lots of firsts - sharing production duties (with Nashville producer JT Daly), inviting an outside voice to sing on a couple tracks (Sophie Allison aka Soccer Mommy) - and with a supportive and trusted team of her management and label now in place, she is no longer carrying the weight of it all on her own. Alicia Bognanno sits down with host Carmel Holt to talk about how all of this led to making her best album to date, how sobriety has made her work more focused and present than ever, and the importance of her "whisper network" of female peers having each others backs.

Brandy Clark is an eleven-time Grammy-nominated songwriter and artist, who became a Tony Award-nominated Broadway composer earlier this year for the musical Shucked. Her recently released self-titled fourth album was produced by Brandi Carlile, and in a year that also marks the 10th anniversary of her debut 12 Stories, Brandy Clark reflects on the journey that led her to sharing her most vulnerable work to date.

SHEROES returned to Newport Folk Festival this year with special guest Neko Case, who just released the vinyl edition of her career-spanning retrospective, Wild Creatures, and discusses her many current writing projects : music for a Broadway musical, songs for a new album, a book, and her ongoing Substack, Entering The Lung. She and Carmel Holt also talk in depth about her relationship with her audience, the influence of the Indigo Girls, and the importance of queer/BIPOC/women's spaces. 

Thirty years into her illustrious career, which included pioneering the "folktronica" sound of her early albums in the mid 90's, Beth Orton released one of her best albums to date last year. She joins Carmel Holt to discuss the critically acclaimed Weather Alive, finding her agency in midlife as a producer, and how the success of her eighth album gave her hope.

Bethany Cosentino sat down with Carmel Holt back in May on the day her solo debut Natural Disaster was announced. It was her first interview about the SHERO's Journey that led to breaking away from Best Coast to record this album, and now that the album release day is finally here, you're invited to take a deep dive with Bethany and Carmel discussing the complexities of being a musician who wants to be a mom, the roots of Bethany's feminism, and finally finding confidence in her voice as a singer and solo artist.

A universally revered SHERO of indie rock, the Canadian singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer Feist joins Carmel Holt for a fascinating conversation about the intersection of her art, motherhood, grief, and recent experimentation with communal, interactive performance. The aptly titled sixth album and show, Multitudes, shows once again just how eternally artful and visionary Feist's work is, and reflective of the changing nature of time. 

Imposter syndrome is super common amongst womxn and nonbinary artists, especially when it comes to taking the reins in the recording studio. What we will learn today is that even when you grow up knowing that music is in your DNA and is a possible career path for you and/or your innate talent and passion gets you into one of the best music schools in the country, that doesn’t necessarily spare you from struggles with self confidence, or escaping the challenges of navigating music’s male dominated spaces and industry. Madison McFerrin was born in 1992, the daughter of Grammy-winning vocalist and songwriter Bobby McFerrin, and granddaughter of Robert McFerrin, Sr., the first black man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, this singer, songwriter and producer first put out a pair of independently released, a-cappella-based EP’s called Finding Foundations Vol. I in 2016, Vol II in 2018, and then began to flesh out her sound on the 2019 EP You + I, a collaboration with her brother, musician/producer Taylor McFerrin. In today’s conversation, we’ll hear how Madison overcame her own imposter syndrome, took the production reins, and made her most fully realized album to date, I Hope You Can Forgive Me.

Singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and visual artist Hannah Hooper co-founded the band Grouplove with her husband Christian Zucconi fourteen years ago, and rarely does interviews alone. But on the heels of releasing the band's sixth album, I Want It All Right Now, Hannah sits down with Carmel Holt for an in-depth conversation about the journey from solitary visual artist to a catsuit-wearing band leader, singing on some of the world's largest stages.

Singer, songwriter, guitarist, Indigo De Souza returns to SHEROES to talk with Carmel Holt about her new album All Of This Will End, and the necessary changes she made in her personal and professional life over the last couple years, resulting in her most confident work to date.

Our Pride Month series SHEROES & QUEEROES comes to a close with an in-depth conversation and look back at ani difranco's iconic and most commercially successful eighth studio album, 1998's Little Plastic Castle. The 25th anniversary reissue has arrived, and with it, many reflections on that chapter of ani's career. Ani holds nothing back in openly discussing the complexities of that time, as many of her queer fans expressed feelings of betrayal when their SHERO/QUEERO ani difranco married a man (gasp!), and her anti-capitalist fans called her a sellout for producing what was her most polished studio album to date and all the media attention that came with it. Yet, its massive success and magazine cover stories was a major accomplishment for this openly bisexual woman who had blazed trails in every way, including building her career from the ground up as a 100% independent artist who started one of the very first female owned, "queer happy" record labels in 1990, Righteous Babe Records. And while, haters gonna hate, there were countless young women and queer folx who finally found their SHERO, felt seen, and found inspiration and empowerment by witnessing ani's against-all-odds success.

As part of SHEROES Pride Month series, SHEROES & QUEEROES, Carmel Holt sits down with acclaimed singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and eleven-time Grammy nominee, Meshell Ndegeocello, who has just released her 13th album, The Omnichord Real Book.

Romy Madley Croft of The xx has just announced her solo debut album, Mid Air (out September 8), and Carmel Holt invited Romy to take part in her month-long celebration of Pride by joining her for a special SHEROES & QUEEROES Pride Hour, that features a playlist curated by Romy, a peek at the new album, and in depth conversation about the journey that led her here.

Arlo Parks was raised in West London, and while still a teenager, released her first single in 2018 and caught the attention of the BBC. Soon a pair of EP’s arrived in 2019 - Super Sad Generation, followed by the EP Sophie. The accolades and press was nearly immediate. Arlo Parks was longlisted as a Breakthrough Act of 2020, and before the end of that year, she was gracing the cover of NME, and won the AIM Independent Music Award for One to Watch. When we last had Arlo Parks on SHEROES, she had just released her hotly anticipated full length debut, Collapsed In Sunbeams, and as predicted, the album catapulted her career - receiving not only critical acclaim but some of the biggest awards and nominations of the industry, winning the coveted Mercury Prize for Album of the Year, three BRIT Award nominations and one win for Best New Artist, and two Grammy nominations. Keep in mind this all happened during some of the worst times of the pandemic, when touring had pretty much come to a standstill. Fast forward to the present - May 2023, and Arlo Parks is back with a brand new album called My Soft Machine. And this time she is a big star. I caught up with her a few weeks prior to release, and now that it is here, we celebrate its arrival by welcoming back Arlo Parks as this week’s SHERO in the Spotlight.

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Julia Bailen is one third of the NYC power pop trio BAILEN with her elder twin brothers, David and Daniel. On the heels of releasing the second full length BAILEN album, Tired Hearts, Julia sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss her journey to discovering the empowering stability that her instrument and"owning it" brings her, the democratic process of making records with her brothers, and working through some of the negative effects and thought patterns caused by our ageist and sexist music industry. Julia started playing guitar when she was just 7 years old, taught by her father. While the elder twin siblings began playing in bands, Julia was exploring musical theater, and started writing songs. Soon enough, Daniel and David decided to start their own project, The Bailen Brothers, but a desire to create bigger harmonies created the opportunity for Julia to join, and BAILEN was born, which features not just gorgeous harmonies, but dynamic, tight arrangements and a collaborative chemistry only siblings could have. Julia on lead guitar and vocals, David on drums and vocals, and Daniel on bass, synth, and vocals. This year marks a decade since their first live show together, the first of hundreds of shows before they landed their record deal with Fantasy Records, and released the trio’s first album Thrilled to Be Here, in the spring of 2019. Now BAILEN is back with their fantastic follow up, Tired Hearts, and Julia Bailen joins us as this week’s SHERO in the Spotlight.

This week, we bring you a very special edition of the show, featuring a SHERO of SHEROES. Also known as the Duchess of Coolsville, she is an unparalleled, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, musician, interpreter of songs, and author. She is the one and only Rickie Lee Jones, and she’s just put out her 15th studio album, Pieces of Treasure. The album is her first devoted entirely to the Great American Songbook, and while this seven-time Grammy nominated artist has always woven jazz and pop sounds and covers into her work, one could say this album is nearly a lifetime in the making. Several of the songs on Pieces of Treasure harken back to Rickie Lee Jones’ childhood and songs she learned from her father. It also sees Rickie reuniting with producer Russ Titelman who co-produced her 1979 landmark platinum-selling self-titled debut, which garnered Rickie her first four Grammy nominations and first win as Best New Artist in 1980, and her 1981 critically hailed follow up, Pirates, which went gold, and ranked 49th on NPR's 2017 list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women. Pieces of Treasure captures this full circle moment, encompassing four decades of friendship, the culmination of Rickie Lee Jones’ trailblazing career thus far, and is the perfect follow up to her acclaimed 2021 memoir, Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of An American Troubadour. Just like life, the album holds both humor and deep emotion, and a sense of ever present love of all kinds. There can be no doubt that Rickie Lee Jones is an icon, and her voice and her timing is as astonishing as ever. And as you’ll hear in this interview, recorded back in April just days before Pieces of Treasure was released, she is still paving the way for us all.

The Icelandic band Of Monsters & Men exploded onto the scene in 2010, instantly becoming an internationally known band with their multi-platinum-selling debut, My Head Is An Animal, but the seeds of this band were planted during their front woman's teen years. Nanna got her first guitar at 13 and immediately began writing songs. Within a few years she was performing as a solo act under the moniker Songbird, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. A move to the city of Reykjavik gave her the opportunity to connect with and recruit musicians for that project, that would eventually become her bandmates in Of Monsters & Men. While the band continued to have huge success over the ensuing decade, and released two more albums, Nanna never stopped writing songs that she kept for herself. In this episode, Nanna joins Carmel Holt to talk about finally finding the time and space to write, record, and produce her solo debut album, How To Start A Garden.

A small village in Armenia might be an unlikely place for a future Eurovision contestant and global TikTok star to be discovered but that is exactly what happened for this week's guest, singer-songwriter-producer, Rosa Linn. With a series of massively successful singles already out, and a major record deal with Columbia Records, Rosa Linn's star is rising fast. She joins Carmel Holt in conversation to share her story.

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader Shana Cleveland cut her teeth in Chicago before heading to the Pacific Northwest which is where she would form the psychedelic surf-rock band La Luz in Seattle a decade ago as their lead guitarist and songwriter. Meanwhile Shana also was fronting a folkier band called The Sandcastles as a vehicle for her other passion - acoustic fingerpicking - and couple years after releasing La Luz’s 2013 full length debut, It’s Alive, Shana put out her solo debut as Shana Cleveland and The Sandcastles, Oh Man, Cover the Ground, followed by 2019’s Night of the Worm Moon, under her own name. La Luz has since put out three more albums - most recently their critically hailed 2021 self titled album, but in January 2022 Shana was diagnosed with breast cancer, and their tour was cut short. Now just over a year later, Shana Cleveland has returned with a gorgeous new solo album called Manzanita, inspired by the nature of her new home surroundings in California, and her first pregnancy and birth of her son. 

Cellist/multi-instrumentalist/composer/producer/singer/songwriter Lucinda Chua sits down with host Carmel Holt to talk about the themes of returning to her self and her cultural identity on her beautiful self-produced and engineered full length debut, Yian.

On the heels of releasing what is already a critically hailed debut album, Sabrina Teitelbaum aka Blondshell sits down for an in-depth conversation with Carmel Holt about freeing herself from trying to fit the mold of a female pop star, internalized misogyny, and how she imagines herself 40 to 50 years into her career.

While Katie Melua came up through the BRIT School in London, famously attended by fellow pop icons Adele and Amy Winehouse, she was born far away across the Black Sea in Georgia, and spent her early childhood in the former Soviet Union. In the aftermath of the Georgian civil war she moved with her family to Belfast, Ireland, before settling in London, and as you will hear her tell us, her family always believed that this move would mean big things for Katie. It turned out, they were right. Fast forward two decades and nine albums on, Katie Melua remains one of the top artists in the U.K. and Europe. And while success has not always been easy on her, Katie has recently found love and welcomed her first child, documenting her newfound happiness merging with her longtime success on her ninth album, Love & Money.

In today's conversation, you’ll hear about what happened when singer, songwriter, producer, and musician Caroline Rose wrote songs as if no one would hear them, which would call to mind memories of writing their first songs as a teenager. Simultaneously grappling with the recent memories of lost love, and a family member losing their memory, during the isolating times of the pandemic, Caroline Rose created their most personal and exceptional album to date, titled The Art of Forgetting. A piece of art, that embodies the art of letting go.

Not only is this week's guest a fantastic songwriter and performer, she is a genuine outlaw country SHERO, a rebellious tough girl with a tender heart, and, as she dubbed herself on her last record in 2017, a Highway Queen who has logged countless miles as a touring musician, while running several businesses at once. She is a woman who suffers no fools, but with a smile. On this new episode of SHEROES, we meet the many sides of Nashville singer-songwriter-entrepreneur Nikki Lane, as she sits down with Carmel Holt to talk about her fourth and most personal album, Denim and Diamonds. Hear how Nikki finally found the sound she had been striving for, reflecting on the roads that got her here, even when some of those roads got dark.

Singer Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive, and the duo Rachael & Vilray, joins Carmel Holt to talk about the new Rachael & Vilray album I Love A Love Song!, what pregancy and planning for new motherhood as a musician has been like, and changes she would like to see for women and nonbinary people in the music industry.

Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, poet, and author, Valerie June sits down with Carmel Holt live in conversation at the annual podcast festival, On Air Fest: Brooklyn. They discuss Valerie's hard-won success, the spiritual practices that have carried her through, and the many questions that she has when it comes to equality in the music industry. Two decades into her already illustrious career, Valerie June continues to forge an incredibly inspiring, not to mention prolific, path, and a message of joyful resistance, courageous dreaming, and compassionate love. 

Polymath Margaret Sohn sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss their visionary full length debut as Miss Grit, Follow The Cyborg, the importance of making technology cute, and the ongoing challenges of communicating and collaborating in male dominated spaces. 

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Katherine Paul (KP) sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss her third album as Black Belt Eagle Scout called The Land, The Water, The Sky, moving back home to ancestral lands, and the need to lean into the things that ground her.

This episode takes a detour from the usual SHEROES artist interview to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the O.G. feminist lifestyle and culture publication, BUST Magazine. Founded in 1993 by three women in New York City, BUST started as a ‘zine, made of stapled pages and a passion for their cause: to make feminism cool again. Now a quarterly magazine, BUST has kept going despite financial challenges along the way - and a world which still favors hyper-sexualized images of women on magazine covers and advertisers that sell unattainable standards of youth and beauty. BUST proudly continues to feature news, entertainment, music, lifestyle, and fashion from a feminist perspective, and 30 years on, we need it more than ever. Listen in as SHEROES host Carmel Holt sits down with BUST's co-founder and creative director, Laurie Henzel to talk about BUST through their three decades, and the ever evolving world of feminism.

Southern singer-songwriter H.C. McEntire joins Carmel Holt to discuss her newest solo album, Every Acre, and how her exploration into the deeper meanings and complexities of home and land ownership connected with her own journey with grief, loss, love and relationships. 

Our new episode drops the same day as our guest's anticipated sophomore album, Honey. Singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist Samia joins Carmel Holt to talk about how the new album connects with her first (the critically-hailed debut, The Baby), how spending time in Sylvan Esso's universe has inspired her, and learning quickly how to avoid toxic people and sexism in music spaces, instead focusing on surrounding herself with the right team. 

On the heels of releasing their sophomore album, and Kill Rock Stars debut, Back Home, UK black feminist punk trio Big Joanie join Carmel Holt for a thought-provoking conversation about their journey as musicians pushing back against the lack of intersectionality in punk and the music industry for the past decade, and the ongoing double bind of an industry that is simultaneously trying to diversify music spaces and falling prey to tokenism. 

The Brooklyn-based trio Say She She joins Carmel Holt in conversation to discuss their debut album Prism, the importance of using their voices for positive change, and how uplifting women (and each other) has impacted their creativity for the better. 

Natalie Mering aka Weyes Blood sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss her critically-hailed new album, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, Mering's fifth studio effort; as well as her thoughts on feminism, sexism in the music business, and how her outlook has shifted on both.

The multi-Latin Grammy and Grammy award winning Puerto Rican songwriter, singer, and composer Ileana Cabra aka iLe, joins Carmel Holt to discuss her third album Nacarile, the feminist themes of her music, and the importance of speaking out.

For the past decade, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and producer Kanene Pipkin has been a founding member of Americana trio The Lone Bellow. She'll tell you that she rarely does interviews on her own, and isn't used to talking about herself. But on this episode of SHEROES, she joins Carmel Holt for an in-depth conversation that reveals what that decade has been like for her, as she navigated motherhood and being a touring musician, and the sometimes lonely life of being woman in the male dominated industry of music.

At 16 years old, Danielle Ponder was given her first guitar and that same year her brother was sent to prison. These two events would chart the course of the rest of her life. After two decades working as a public defender and activist, while moonlighting as a touring musician, Danielle Ponder finally took the leap to devote herself entirely to music, and word of her talent and inspiring story has spread like wildfire. In this not to miss episode, Danielle joins Carmel Holt to share her extraordinary journey and discuss her stunning debut album Some of Us Are Brave.

With a fanbase of millions and a decade-long career behind her, Malaysian singer/songwriter/producer Yuna has become an internationally known artist on her own terms, staying true to her identity as a Muslim Southeast Asian woman who wears the hijab. Carmel Holt sits down with Yuna to talk about her 5th full length album Y5, and the journey that led her here. 

Following the heartbreaking loss of Mimi Parker of Low who passed away due to ovarian cancer on November 5th, 2022, SHEROES host Carmel Holt took to social media to gather song requests and remembrances from fans, collaborators, and fellow musicians, reached out to Minnesota radio hosts for guest DJ spots, and spoke to Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, who produced Low's 2013 album The Invisible Way. The result is a moving two-hour communal tribute to Mimi, that includes an encore presentation of her SHEROES interview from January 2022, where she had first revealed her cancer diagnosis to the public.

**Special thanks to Low and Sub Pop Records for granting permission to release this radio episode as a podcast, with full songs intact.

The multi-Grammy winning and internationally acclaimed Mexican artist Natalia Lafourcade joins Carmel Holt to discuss her first album of original material in seven years, De Todas las Flores. Natalia Lafourcade hails from the Mexican state of Veracruz. She is the daughter of two musicians, and grew up studying and playing several instruments, including piano, flute, saxophone, singing and guitar. Natalia joined her first band while still in high school, a pop music group called Twist, but came into her own within a few years, releasing her 2002 self titled debut - a combo of latin, pop, and bossa nova, which earned Natalia her first Latin Grammy award as best new artist. Over the past two decades, Natalia has gone on to win 13 Latin Grammys, and two Grammy awards, has been nominated nearly three times that number between the two awards, and has become one of the most successful singers to emerge from Latin America, earning international acclaim. Across her nine albums, Natalia evolved her sound from original songs rooted in pop, rock, latin rhythm, and bossa nova, to, in recent years, exploring more traditional music and songs of Mexico and Latin america. Now, twenty years after her debut, and seven since her last album of all original material, Natalia Lafourcade is back with her tenth studio release, De Todas las Flores - or, Of All the Flowers, which sees her stepping into a new realm of her sound and her songcraft with a new group of players including guitarist Marc Ribot, and Fiona Apple’s bassist Sebastien Steinberg.

Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and producer Courtney Marie Andrews sits down with Carmel Holt on the heels of releasing her eighth album, Loose Future, to both discuss her newest work, and share the journey that led her here. From growing up as a latchkey kid in Phoenix, Arizona, raised by a single mom, her grandmother, and surrounded by a family of women, to founding her first band in her early teens as a feminist punk rocker, to hitting the road by age 17 to pursue music. We learn how her sound has evolved, and how she has learned to navigate a still male-dominated music industry.

Tegan and Sara return to SHEROES, this time as the featured guests, joining Carmel Holt to discuss their 10th studio album Crybaby, and what this chapter in the Tegan and Sara story is all about. They go deep about Sara's newest role as mom to a newborn, and the new questions it raises about what the future looks like, lessons learned from the pandemic pause in touring, and the importance of swinging big to pave the way for women and LQBTQ voices in music.

An in-depth conversation with the multi-talented Maya Hawke - currently best known as an actress (Stranger Things, Do Revenge) but who is quickly becoming as beloved as a musician and songwriter. Maya sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss her second album Moss, and how her hunger for life manifests in her boundless creative energy. A brilliant young woman who won the gene-pool lottery as the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, Maya opens up about how wonderful, yet complicated, the life of a professional family can be, how it is to walk through the world in her "girl body", and how she freely approaches her gender presentation as play.

Award-winning and Grammy-nominated blues, soul and Americana singer Shemekia Copeland joins Carmel Holt to discuss her 11th album, Done Come Too Far, and the SHERO's journey she's been on since her teens when she first took the stage to open for her father, the Texas-bluesman Johnny Copeland. Nearly 25 years into her career, Shemekia has always used music to confront tough issues, especially for women, and her latest album completes a trilogy of albums addressing issues like racism, xenophobia, and gun violence, alongside messages of hope and lighthearted humor.

As we celebrate the release of Cool It Down, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' fifth, and first album in nine years, Carmel Holt welcomes the iconic front-woman, songwriter, and vocalist Karen O for an in-depth, SHEROES conversation. While talking about the joy and inspiration behind the new album, Karen opens up about the struggles she's had in the (still) male dominated world of rock to be taken seriously as an artist and writer, the ways she has carved out a space for herself, and the life-affirming effect of seeing more and more Asian American and Pacific Islander women emerge as forces in indie rock.

On this episode of SHEROES, Amy Ray sits down with Carmel Holt in Nashville on the day between receiving an Americana Music Award with Indigo Girls and the release of her 10th solo album, If It All Goes South. Listen in as they discuss her journey as a queer feminist musician and the importance of intersectional feminism, the role that her solo work has had to play for her creative expression, aging as a woman, and the song Amy wrote for their mutual friend and radio SHERO, the late Rita Houston.

On this special episode of SHEROES, host Carmel Holt bring Tegan and Sara together with their SHERO Ani DiFranco for the very first time to discuss her landmark live album Living In Clip, which celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year.

As a long time fan of the band Low, Carmel Holt realized that she hadn't heard many (or perhaps any?) interviews that focused on drummer, singer, and songwriter Mimi Parker. When they sat down together for an interview back in January of this year, Carmel couldn’t have anticipated how important and rare this conversation would be. In addition to hearing about her nearly three decade journey with Low, the band she co-founded and has been in with her husband Alan Sparhawk since 1993, and the new high water mark of their latest album - 2021’s Hey What - what Mimi Parker opens up and shares with us in this very special SHEROES interview was something she had not yet discussed publicly. And as their U.S. tour starts back up in less than a month, it’s an amazing time to hear this SHERO’S journey.

Bonnie Raitt is a living legend. A Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, and multi-Grammy winning artist who just won a Lifetime Achievement Award this year, she is not only one of the greatest guitarists of our time, she is an incredible singer who brings as much passion to interpreting others songs as she does to her own. A lifelong activist and environmentalist, Bonnie is an artist who works overtime at giving back and giving voice to the causes she believes in, and all while overseeing her own Redwing Records label, and maintaining a busy tour schedule which has been back in full swing since she released her latest album Just Like That.... It was from the road that I caught up with Bonnie to chat about the new album and got her thoughts on sexism and ageism in the music industry, and her personal experiences.

In the midst of what’s been a crazy busy weekend for Amelia Meath, being here with the A’s on Friday, her record label Psychic Hotline’s showcase on Saturday, and a TON of collaborations, she made some time to sit down with Carmel ahead of Sylvan Esso’s performance Sunday afternoon - which you may have heard, was a surprise live unveiling of Sylvan Esso's new album No Rules Sandy which drops August 12th!! Hear Amelia talk about the new album, the new label, and charting a path forward that puts art and equality first, ahead of commerce.

The last time Natalie Merchant was at Newport Folk Festival was in 2000, and today Carmel sat down with Natalie on Newport Folk Festival's Foundation Stage, to discuss where her career continues to take her. She revealed plans for a new album (or two), aging in the music business, and what it was like when she first started her career with 10,000 Maniacs.

On this SHEROES Heart episode, Arooj Aftab talks about the difficulty of not only being a woman in the music industry, but existing in a patriarchy. Arooj shares her discovery that “recognition buys you a voice”, and how important it is to build a team that you can trust. She tells us how she has endured through misogyny and discrimination, and she and Carmel discuss how her background in production and audio engineering ended up playing a crucial role in creating her Grammy-winning third album, Vulture Prince.

On this first SHEROES Heart episode, hear Angel Olsen discuss gender, the “different styles of patriarchy,” equality, and what it’s like being an AFAB, queer musician in today’s world. Fresh off the release of her sixth album Big Time, Angel gets deep about coming out, as well as navigating expectations men have when working with womxn, the challenges of being the boss, the internalized systems she is dismantling, and “learning to be straight up.”