World Cafe

A few months ago, World Cafe went to Virginia for our Sense of Place series. Last month, you may have heard us explore Charlottesville, and starting this week, we bring you stories we collected during our trip to Richmond.

Stuck at home? Self-isolating? Quarantined? Feeling a bit (or extremely) anxious about this whole situation? Same. These days, I'm hosting World Cafe from a small apartment in Toronto. I haven't been outside in days, and I know I'm not alone.

So I made a playlist about all those feelings. On it, you'll find songs about isolation: about being alone and not leaving the house. There are songs about wondering what it's like outside now, and wondering what it will be like outside when this is over. And finally, there are songs about what to do to pass the time.

The fact that Nashville's famously bustling live music scene has temporarily gone silent — first partially interrupted by the March 3 tornadoes, then halted altogether in response to COVID-19 — makes this an opportune time to catch up with the loosies, EPs and albums that either went overlooked in the crowd of early 2020 releases or won't be getting signal boosts from now-canceled promotional performances.

This month on Heavy Rotation, hear the latest from indie-pop duo Tennis, a gospel-infused jazz standard from vibraphonist Warren Wolf, the '80s nostalgia of Green Day's newest track and more in this dynamic mix curated by NPR Public Radio Member Stations.

All songs from this month's Heavy Rotation are available to stream on Apple Music and the Spotify playlist at the bottom of this page.

All this week, World Cafe has been taking you on a tour of the Charlottesville, Va., music scene with our Sense Of Place series. Next month we'll continue our musical tour of Virginia with Sense Of Place: Richmond.

All this week we're joining you on the road from Charlottesville, Va., for our Sense Of Place series, where we bring you a deep dive into one community's music scene. And today, it doesn't get more Charlottesville than the Hackensaw Boys, who have been performing together for nearly 20 years.

It's Mardi Gras season and in North America, no celebration is more famous than the one put on by the people of New Orleans. For two weeks, local groups called Krewes organize balls, parades and dance parties. Colorful plastic beads are everywhere.

Kate Bollinger writes smart, melodic indie pop music. It makes for easy listening, but there's real insight in her lyrics. Dig deeper and you'll discover a thoughtful songwriter coming into her own.

Overcoats is a duo, but JJ Mitchell and Hana Elion's voices are so perfectly in sync that when you hear them sing together, you'd almost think it was one single voice. Their supernatural-sounding harmonies and minimalist songwriting got a lot of praise when Mitchell and Elion dropped their debut album, YOUNG, back in 2017.

With the first month of 2020 in the books, we're excited to share a fresh spectrum of sonidos alternativos from all over Latin and South America, released early in the year as an invigorating jumpstart to 2020. These new songs and their visuals are especially exceptional, going beyond the mainstream milieu and immersing further in a traditional past for evolutionary inspiration. These are unique perspectives flourishing into rich musical storytelling.

This month's installment of Heavy Rotation is full of some of January's most exciting releases and collaborations, hand-picked by NPR Public Radio Member Stations. Revive your playlists with this new mix of everything from effervescent, sticky-sweet pop to homegrown blends of soul and psych-funk.

The Lone Bellow makes music that feels like it's welcoming you in — like the band members are opening their arms wide and inviting you to join their family with sing-along choruses, the hand-clapping rhythms and melodies that somehow sound familiar even on a first listen.

For today's session, The Milk Carton Kids plays songs from its latest release, The Only Ones, while standing around one microphone.

About three years ago, Leif Vollebekk was set to release Twin Solitude, an album he thought might end up being his last. He felt like he wasn't having fun or finding an audience. But once the album came out, that all changed. Twin Solitude was critically lauded, and his shows started filling up. The record was shortlisted for his home country's prestigious Polaris Music Prize.

Nothing about the music Samantha Fish makes suggests that she's ever been shy. Bold and expressive, it shows off her considerable talent – but it took a bit of a push for Fish to get on stage for the first time.

Big Thief had a pretty remarkable 2019. The band put out two beautiful albums, U.F.O.F. in May and Two Hands in October. Paired together, these albums present a larger picture of the band at the height of its powers, thinking and performing beyond the traditional album-tour cycle.

North Carolina's M.C. Taylor, also known as Hiss Golden Messenger, is a seeker. He's someone who is looking for truth – truth from the world, and truth from himself. You can hear that in the songs on his latest album, Terms of Surrender, an album so full of truth he originally wasn't sure if he should release it at all.

The first time I heard Son Little's song "The River" back in 2014, it completely floored me. With a mix of R&B and soul, it simultaneously sounded both timeless and of the moment, much more than a simple throwback tune.