SHEROES

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, a...

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 visi...

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 transformati...

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, c...

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...

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 controlli...

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,...

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 lif...

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 a...

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 Alv...

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 produ...

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 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...

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 sit...

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 A...

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 vulnerabl...

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 a...

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...

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 re...

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...