Tag Archives: Joan Baez

Episode 492. Mommie Dearest, One Year Later

September 23, 2026African American Singers, Broadway, Comic Relief, Forgotten Divas, Full-Figured Baroque, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Johann Sebastian Bach, Listeners' Favorites, Needle Drop, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Renata Scotto, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, SpiritualsAlfred de Musset, Alfred Newman, Ángel de Saavedra, Bernie Toorish, Bruno Balz, Carl Boberg, Carmen Dragon, Carmen Miranda, Cecil Sharp, Christfried Bickenbach, Clifton Bingham, Daniel Chorzempa, Edgar, Edwin Greene, Eileen Farrell, Ein deutsches Requiem, Eleanor Steber, Elly Ameling, Erika Köth, Eve Queler, Ferdinando Fontana, Francesco Maria Piave, Frederick Weatherly, Gabriel Faure, George Cory, George Frideric Handel, George Mzlloy, George Szell, Gerald Moore, Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Haven Gillespie, Henriette Louise von Haym, Howard Barlow, Igor Gorin, Irving Berlin, J. Fred Coots, Jean Fournet, Joan Baez, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Jacob Niles, John Shirley-Quirk, Johnnie Ray, Johnny Mercer, Kenneth Spencer, La forza del destino, Leigh Harline, Leo Robin, Leontyne Price, Lloyd Arriola, Mabel Mercer, Manfred Hübler, Michelangelo Veltri, Ned Washington, Neville Marriner, Norman Luboff, Odetta, Pinocchio, Renata Scotto, Shirley Verrett, Stuart K. Hine, Sy Mann, The Four Lads, The Holmes Brothers, The Wizard of Oz, Tom Krause, Tom Lehrer, Wilhelm Schüchter, Yip Harburgcountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:36:34 — 102.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

Today is the one-year anniversary of my dear mother’s death. Yesterday, in preparing for my own private commemoration, I remembered that almost exactly a year ago, just two days after she died, I recorded the narration for a memorial episode in her honor that at the time I never published. Listening to the raw material for that episode, I realized that today would be the perfect time to publish that episode. I assumed that I would be so choked up with grief that I would not even be able to organize my thoughts, but I think I did a pretty good job of commemorating her in a way that only I could. As I remark, though my mother and I had a sometimes conflicted relationship because of her religious beliefs and conservative politics, we also shared the preternatural bond that mothers sometimes share with their children when they perceive the presence of a kindred spirit. For in spite of all the mutual head-butting in which we partook over the years, we were kindred spirits. And we both had to work extremely hard to keep those channels of love and respect open when, according to all our opposing vantage points, we should have been in enmity. This episode was wrung out of me just as the wave of my grief was cresting, but it’s so much better for that. I supplement my anecdotes and memories with a lot of music, from many different performers: everyone and everything from Bach to Johnnie Ray to “I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb” to Joan Baez to Mabel Mercer to Tom Lehrer to “Danny Boy” to the Brahms Deutsches Requiem and back again. I’m not sure that, after a year as an orphan (what the Germans would call a Vollwaise, , I would have the perspective to delve into my memories in the same way. Please give this episode a listen; maybe it will help you put certain things in perspective as well.

Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

Episode 362. No More Slavery Chains

May 26, 2025African American Singers, Black History Month 2025, Broadway, Canadian Singers, Crossover, Great Baritones, Great Contraltos, In Memoriam, Mezzo Madness, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Protest Songs, Queer Pride, Singers in Old Age, Singers of Color, Spirituals, Twentieth Century Music, Young SingersAbe Meeropol, Alfred Hayes, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Burt Bacharach, Cher, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, David Crosby, Don’t Bother Me I Can’t Cope, Donny Hathaway, Earl Robinson, Eryn Allen Kane, George Floyd, Graham Nash, Hans Bradtke, Jay Landers, Joan Baez, Joe Hill, John LaTouche, John Shanks, Jonas Myrin, Keedron Bryant, Leonard De Paur, Mahalia Jackson, Marc Blitzstein, Marlene Dietrich, Martin Luther King Jr., Micki Grant, Nathanael Shilkret, Neil Young, Nina Simone, Odetta, Paul Robeson, Paul Simon, Pete Seeger, Prince, Shareeduh McGee, Shirley Verrett, Stephen Stills, The Cradle Will Rock, Woody Guthriecountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13:31 — 85.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

Five years ago, I awoke to the horrifying news of the murder of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis Police Department. I had been working on cobbling together an episode on French Glamour, which quickly gave way instead to an impromptu episode of protest music through the ages which remains one of the Countermelody episodes of which I am most proud. Yesterday was the five-year commemoration of that horrific event, which sparked worldwide protests and which, for a while, seemed as if it might lead to systemic change. Five years later, we find ourselves in a true global nightmare. Almost everything that has changed has been for the worse, but my feelings about the system that has produced such calamity remains exactly the same as it has always been. For that reason, I am republishing that episode from five long years ago, in which I sought to “defer to those on the front lines to speak of their own experience and truth” in a program of protest music from the early twentieth century to the recent past. Nina Simone’s song of rage “Mississippi Goddam” was a guiding force as I put the episode together, but we hear from a wide range of singers, from Donny Hathaway, Micki Grant, Pete Seeger, Mahalia Jackson, Odetta, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, to Joan Baez, Cher, Barbra Streisand, Paul Robeson, and Marlene Dietrich. If you don’t want to hear a political program, for goddess’s sake, keep away, but if you do want to be infuriated, engaged, and ultimately uplifted, please listen in.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

Episode 38. Something in the Air

June 7, 2020African American Singers, Pop Icons, Protest SongsAry Barroso, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Caiphus Semenya, Curtis Mayfield, David Crosby, Dawn Upshaw, Duke Ellington, Flaherty and Ahrens Ragtime, Frederica von Stade, Harry Belafonte, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez, John Adams, Joséphine Baker, Kurt Weill, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, Letta Mbulu, Lynn Ahrens, Mahalia Jackson, Marc Blitzstein, Marin Mazzie, Marvin Gaye, Mercedes Sosa, Milton Nascimento, Miriam Makeba, Nanci Griffith, Nina Simone, Paul Kantner, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Rosemary Clooney, Salif Keita, Sam Cooke, Silvio Rodríguez, Stephen Flaherty, Stephen Foster, Thunderclap Newman, Tracy Chapman, Víctor Jara, Violeta Parra, Youssou N’Dourcountermelody

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:50:20 — 125.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

This week I continue our exploration of the movement for social justice as expressed in song. This constitutes not just the fight in the United States for racial and class equity but also the worldwide struggle against imperialism, focusing in particular on African and South American singing freedom fighters, including Miriam Makeba, Salif Keita, Youssou N’Dour, Letta Mbulu, Mercedes Sosa, Milton Nascimento, and Víctor Jara. Other artists heard include Marvin Gaye, Leontyne Price, Nanci Griffith, Frederica von Stade, Nina Simone, David Crosby, Pete Seeger, Marin Mazzie, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jefferson Airplane, Sam Cooke, Joséphine Baker, Joan Baez, Tracy Chapman, Thunderclap Newman (whose song lends the episode its title), Harry Belafonte, Dawn Upshaw, Phil Ochs, Rosemary Clooney, Curtis Mayfield, and Mahalia Jackson, as well as number of present-day troubadors. Composers represented include Kurt Weill, Duke Ellington, John Adams, Silvio Rodríguez, Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Stephen Foster, Violeta Parra, Flaherty and Ahrens, Ary Barroso, and Caiphus Semenya. I address the spectrum of emotions that persons of conscience are experiencing right now, including despair, rage, anger, struggle, ending with faith, hope, and resolve. Don’t miss this episode!

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great classical and opera singers of the past and present with the help of guests from the classical music field: singers, conductors, composers, coaches, agents, and voice teachers. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. Please visit the Countermelody website (www.countermelodypodcast.com) for additional content. And please head to our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/countermelody to pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford.