It's been 20 years that Northern Spirit Radio has been broadcasting, and to celebrate that milestone we've set up a John McCutcheon concert event both streaming online and right here in-person, in Eau Claire, WI, on Sunday October 5^th, 2025, starting at 6:30 pm Central Time. Get more info and tickets on the NorthernSpiritRadio.org website. I've interviewed John several times, including live at a Quaker gathering at Grinnell College in Iowa on July 4^th, 2019.

(From left to right: Annie Patterson, Wendi Bourne, Lauren Janson)

Today is the second time we'll have Jim Phillips with us, and this is kind of a new-and-improved-music of Jim Phillips, with significant overlap of songs from the last time, but with dramatically enhanced versions of some of his tunes.

Last December, at the suggestion of Flamy Grant, I interviewed Sadie Gustafson-Zook, a winner of the Kerrville Folk Festival and New Leaf songwriting contests, so you know that she's among the shining lights of today's rising folk stars. Given my delight at getting to know Sadie and her music, it's astounding and lamentable that I promptly mislaid her recording, and I only recently brought it to light.

We welcome back Kora Feder, who was with us back in April of 2019, a year before COVID so radically altered the world. In the interim period, Kora migrated to a few different states, gradually incubating songs, until she released here new album, Some Kind of Truth, this past spring. She's been a fan & favorite at the Kerrville Folk Festival & the Strawberry Music Festival, among others, where she so eloquently shares her heart's truth.

MG Bailey joins us today for SOS. MG is not only a One Man Band, playing simultaneously with hands and feet, while singing, he's a not-in-anyone's box kind of man. Authenticity & creativity mix fruitfully in MG's music, with ideas, stories, and images that stretch us out of our conventional expectations & storylines.

Steve Hazell is an inspiration for all of us, for both the quality and depth of his songs. In his youth Steve performed with Wolverine Willy and the Blues Toads, but now he's mostly, but not always, a solo act. Interestingly, the best way to get Steve's music is to email Steve.

Autumn Sky Hall is an amazing and astounding - and young - folk/Americana singer/songwriter hailing from Sacramento, CA, complete with an enchanting & versatile voice, dancing guitar fingers, and emotionally compelling lyrics. Autumn pours her inner experience and growth through her songs so that to hear her is to know her and the human condition better.

Today for Song of the Soul we head to England for a visit with Hilary James. A couple weeks back we had a wonderful time with her partner, Simon James, with some of his songs including Hilary's beautiful voice and singing. Hilary's love of music is wide, and while much of it was part of the English folk club scene of the 1960s and 70s, her musical palate definitely included blues and other forms that we less commonly think of as folk music in the US.

We're headed to England today for a visit with Simon Mayor. Unlike in the US where mandolin is a common instrument in many areas, it is a less common and less-vaunted source of fine music in England, except in the hands of Simon Mayor and a handful of other Brits.