Spirit and Roots

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Spirit and Roots

Monthly radio programme, based out of the UK, showcasing the best singer-songwriters out there - old and new. Past guests include Tom Paxton and James McMurtry.

Each episode we talk to a featured guest about their music, creative process and influences.

02/02/2025

Discovery of the week 💙 🎧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

I had the great pleasure of hearing this performed in concert earlier this week.

"Flowers lose their colour
Music is a sigh
Today I saw you make the mirror cry ..."

For me, Boo Hewerdine is up there with the best songwriters the UK has produced. He is also a lovely chap to boot! Enjoy, if you've not heard this before ⭐️

Provided to YouTube by IIP-DDSSomeone Else's Blues · Boo HewerdineUnderstudy℗ Reveal RecordsReleased on: 2022-05-27Music Publisher: Chrysalis MusicComposer,...

26/01/2025

Discovery of the week 💙 🎧 🇺🇸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This is gorgeous - Mary Chapin Carpenter teaming up with two of Scotland's finest, Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart.

"All the flights of the starlings that appear in the evening
In the din of congregation I'll take more than I'm leaving
But not the bitter or broken, not the scars or the shame
I'll leave the windows wide open, you can do the same
I'm bringing it to you, you can bring it to me
Carrying each other, we can carry"

If Mary Oliver wrote folk songs, this is what I imagine she'd sound like 🌠

“A Heart That Never Closes,” the second track from "Looking For The Thread,” is penned by Mary Chapin Carpenter. The album, the debut collaboration from Mary...

23/12/2024

Discovery of the week 💙 🎧 🇺🇸

https://youtu.be/B2w4moS3oFU?si=BbybCrwLs4mgbxut

Thanks to my friend, Nik Newark, for introducing me to this brilliant band in a recent conversation about great harmonies. These guys are bursting with so much natural musical talent it can feel like over-kill at times, but when they get the balance right ... well, just listen 🎶✨

Official video for Corner Of My Eye by The Lemon Twigs.Listen: https://lemontwigs.ffm.to/cornerofmyeye.oydDirected: Hilla Eden and Brian D'AddarioD.P: Hilla ...

15/12/2024

Discovery of the week 💙 🎧 🇺🇸

Definitely not new to the world, but it is new to my cloth ears. Thanks to Susan René for introducing me to this. The meeting of a great melody sung by a talented, sincere singer will always be a force of nature in the world.

This track is best summarised to me by one of the youtube commenters:

"It always transports me to someplace else. I don't know where, only that I don't wish to return." 🌠

The voice and artistry of Maria Callas breath new life into the aria "O mio babbino caro", from Puccini's opera Gianni Schicchi, in this entrancing illustrat...

08/12/2024

Discovery of the week 💙 🎧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n4hIc8_2do

What a find. From 'The Farewell Show' released in 2020. I think this could be one of the most perfect indie-pop songs I've ever heard.

"Pick up all the friends you can find on your way
And if you lose direction they'll be there guiding you on" ✨

https://stornoway.bandcamp.com/album/the-farewell-show-live-at-new-theatre-oxford

Get in touch! https://linktr.ee/Stornoway===============Taken from Stornoway's live album 'The Farewell Show' recorded at their joyous last gig at The New Th...

02/12/2024

Discovery of the week 💙 🎧 🇮🇪 🇬🇧

Provided to YouTube by Emubands LtdThe Stornoway Waltz / Sunday's Well (feat. Michael McGoldrick) · The McGoldrick Family · Michael McGoldrickOne For The Roa...

24/11/2024

Thank you to everyone who has support my music this week as I released a new single! It really has touched me a lot 💙

I will be continuing to post a lot more about myself over the upcoming months on my personal DR and artist page, so, in order to try and redress the balance a little, I have decided every week to share a new song or piece of music by another artist that has captured me.

Some will be contemporary, some might be from decades past - a similar format to what I used to do with my radio show Spirit and Roots. So, if you liked listening to that, then hopefully this will fill a little hole until I start the show back up again next year.

This week's discovery: Pearl & The Oysters with 'Think of Rain'. This comes from the record, 'Like Someone I Know. A Celebration Of Margo Guryan', released last week.

I'd never heard of Guryan or Pearl & The Oysters until now, but this sounds like an outtake from The Zombies' 'Odessey & Oracle' album, which can only be a good thing.

Apparently Guryan wrote it after listening to The Beach Boys 'God Only Knows' on repeat. I must try that 💙 😅

Song by Margo GuryanCover by Pearl & the OystersVideo by Juliette Pearl Daviscopyright

12/10/2024

Today's blast from the past - James, Laid (1993) 💙 🎧

Very cool backstory to this one! Produced by Brian Eno, the album's stripped-back sound was inspired by the band's recent experience opening up for Neil Young in the US.

Fontana, James' record company, was initially angered by the decision to do these Neil Young shows acoustically, rather than electric as normal, and threatened to withdraw funding for the tour. However, they changed their mind after a staff member attended a show.

Returning to the UK thusly inspired, the band started writing material for their next album. Eno remembered the album sessions fondly as "one of the highlights of his life" - no small compliment!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laid_%28album%29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0jZ8Nn-SuY

Artist: JamesAlbum: LaidSong: Sometimes (Lester Piggott)Year: 1994

30/09/2024

A true songwriting giant has fallen. RIP big man 💙🙏

From the Kris Kristofferson album 'Live from Austin, TX' available on Limited Edition Color Vinyl at Walmart.com: http://newwst.com/walmartLFATID

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Our Story

Spirit and Roots is a monthly radio show, hosted and produced by Dan Raza, broadcast on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.

We are dedicated to sharing the music of the best songwriters out there - both old and new.

Each episode features a special guest live in the studio playing us their songs and opening up about their creative process and the music that has inspired them.

Check out the trailer here: