Kentuckiana Sounds

They’re four-and-a-half feet tall, their wingspans can reach up to seven feet, and their raucous call can be heard from two-and-a-half miles away. Every year, thousands of sandhill cranes stop through Kentucky and Indiana on their way from Florida to the upper Midwest and Canada. To hear the full recording, explore the sound map, or submit a sound visit https://wfpl.org/sounds or www.kentuckianaso...

Auctioneer-in-training, musician, and square dance caller Alex Udis recorded the 2018 World Championship Dainty Contest that takes place just down the street from his home. The contest is a meeting place for friends old and new, and a test of skills for competitors 45 and older. Just make sure you don’t miss your turn when the announcer calls your name! To hear the full recording, explore the soun...

Biking through downtown one night, Kentuckiana Sounds curator Aaron Rosenblum heard something odd while stopped at a red light. A chorus of katydids and crickets in the bushes and trees seemed to be engaged in a dialogue with the synthetic bird calls of the audible crosswalks signals that aid visually impaired pedestrians. Did the insects register the sound of the signals? Were they responding to...

Musician and former railroad engineer John Paul Wright lives where Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue meet. That’s where he captured the eerie, once-a-month coincidence of the noon bells of St. Brigid’s Catholic Church tolling at the same time as the monthly test of the Jefferson County civil defense siren system. Both sounds are significant for Wright, and tied to meaningful memories. To hear the f...

Kentuckiana Sounds curator Aaron Rosenblum shares a recording made on a country road outside of New Albany, Indiana on a late spring evening. The surroundings are a mix of forest, field, and meadow, and an evening chorus of birds, insects, and amphibians brings Aaron back to his childhood in upstate New York. To hear the full recording, explore the sound map, or submit a sound visit www.wfpl.org/s...

Take an audio trip around our region. On each episode, we listen to a field recording from the Kentuckiana Sounds map, and hear from the contributor who made it. Produced by Louisville Public Media, and Kentuckiana Sounds. _