In this bonus holiday episode of *Dolly Parton's America*, host Jad shares additional music collected during the making of the series as a token of appreciation for listeners. The episode opens with a brief, casual exchange about cold hands before introducing two featured performers. First, Nora Brown, a remarkably talented 14-year-old musician, is recorded at St. Augustine Church in Brooklyn, where she plays a fretless banjo. She discusses her musical journey, starting with ukulele lessons at age six from a teacher named Shlomo Pesco, and later transitioning to banjo after his passing. She performs "The Very Day I'm Gone," a song by the late ballad singer 80 Gram, which she first heard on an album by the duet Anna and Elizabeth. The episode then shifts to Amethyst Kia, who performs her original song "Fire Water" at the Willow Tree Coffee House in Johnson City, Tennessee, with recording support from James Napoli and Terry Dozier. The hosts express gratitude to Justin Hiltner for connecting them to both artists, and to Sam Gleaves for his research on a mining song featured earlier. They remind listeners to visit the website for more information about the performers and announce that the final episode of the series will be released in one week, closing with warm holiday wishes to the audience.
Hey, how are your hands?
They're a little cold, but I can, I'll, I'll. Hey everybody, it's Jad, Dolly Parton's America.
We are currently editing the final episode of the series.
It will drop a week from today.
In the meantime, I want to wish you all a very happy holidays.
And as a holiday offering,
in a token of our appreciation for listening to the series, spreading the word,
I want to share with you a little more music that we gathered along the way.
I mean, we were super lucky on this project.
We got to work with some incredible musicians who performed some Dolly songs for us,
shared with us some of their own work.
In this bonus EP, you're going to hear two different performers,
singer-songwriters, starting with the musician Nora Brown.
This is, it's a fretless banjo.
Okay.
Nora is a very wise, very old soul who is actually only 14 years old,
already well-educated.
Well-established in the old-time music scene, already has an album.
We'll link to it from our website.
We recorded her at this beautiful church in Brooklyn called St. Augustine Church.
Really big, domed ceilings.
And we sat sort of right in front of the altar.
And she got out her banjo and played us a song.
How did you even learn to play this?
Well, I started with this man named Shlomo Pesco.
Okay.
And he was based out of Brooklyn.
And he started teaching me old-time music when I was six,
but not on the banjo, on the ukulele.
Oh, wow.
And then he passed away, and then I started learning banjo from him.
I just began to learn the banjo before he died,
but I didn't really get much time learning from him.
So then I started learning from some other people around.
Wow.
The song she played for us is called The Very Day I'm Gone,
which was written by the late ballad singer 80 Gram.
Nora first heard it off an album of 80 Gram songs,
performed on that record by the duet Anna and Elizabeth.
Here's Nora's version.
I just can't stop playing the song.
Thank you.
♪ Pants and stairs are the only crowns I've ever gneed
♪ So in the dark I find the answers that I need
♪ City lights are the only stars I ever see
♪ How many nights until I finally can breathe
♪ How many spirits does it take to lift a spirit
♪ I don't know, I don't know
♪ Cause I bought every spirit and I'm still laying here
♪ Crying on the floor, on the floor
♪ So can you just leave me be
♪ Being drenched in fire water won't save me
♪
Half a psychopath of filth
♪ Please, can you just leave
♪ Can you just leave
♪ Can you just leave
♪ Me be
That was Amethyst Kia performing the song Fire Water
at the Willow Tree Coffee House in Johnson City.
Thanks to Terry Dozier for lending us that space to record in
and thank you to James Napoli for recording.
And thanks to Justin Hiltner,
bluegrass player from our first bonus EP
who really connected us to Nora and Amethyst.
And thanks also to Sam Gleaves for doing the research
and performing that mining song.
Really bringing it to light for all of us.
You can find out more about Amethyst and Nora
on our website, dollypartonsamerica.org.
We will be back in one week
with the final episode.
In the meantime, happy holidays, everybody.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
This is a bonus holiday episode from the podcast "Dolly Parton's America," hosted by Jad, featuring extra music recorded during the series.
The episode showcases two singer-songwriters
Nora Brown plays "The Very Day I'm Gone," a song written by late ballad singer 80 Gram, which she learned from an album by the duet Anna and Elizabeth.
Amethyst Kia performs "Fire Water" at the Willow Tree Coffee House in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The episode credits contributors like Justin Hiltner, who connected the team to the performers, and Sam Gleaves for research on a mining song.
The final episode of the series is set to be released one week after this bonus episode, and the hosts wish listeners happy holidays.
Summary:
In this bonus holiday episode of *Dolly Parton's America*, host Jad shares additional music collected during the making of the series as a token of appreciation for listeners. The episode opens with a brief, casual exchange about cold hands before introducing two featured performers. First, Nora Brown, a remarkably talented 14-year-old musician, is recorded at St.
Augustine Church in Brooklyn, where she plays a fretless banjo. She discusses her musical journey, starting with ukulele lessons at age six from a teacher named Shlomo Pesco, and later transitioning to banjo after his passing. She performs "The Very Day I'm Gone," a song by the late ballad singer 80 Gram, which she first heard on an album by the duet Anna and Elizabeth.
The episode then shifts to Amethyst Kia, who performs her original song "Fire Water" at the Willow Tree Coffee House in Johnson City, Tennessee, with recording support from James Napoli and Terry Dozier. The hosts express gratitude to Justin Hiltner for connecting them to both artists, and to Sam Gleaves for his research on a mining song featured earlier. They remind listeners to visit the website for more information about the performers and announce that the final episode of the series will be released in one week, closing with warm holiday wishes to the audience.
FAQs
The bonus EP features additional music gathered during the making of Dolly Parton's America, including performances by Nora Brown and Amethyst Kia.
Nora Brown is a 14-year-old fretless banjo player and singer-songwriter, well-established in the old-time music scene, who performed a song called 'The Very Day I'm Gone'.
Amethyst Kia performed the song 'Fire Water' at the Willow Tree Coffee House in Johnson City.
Nora Brown was recorded at St. Augustine Church in Brooklyn, a beautiful church with big, domed ceilings.
She started learning old-time music on the ukulele at age six from Shlomo Pesco, then began learning banjo from him before he passed away, and continued with others.
The final episode will be released one week from the date of the transcription.
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