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Marc Cohn, James McMurtry In The 'Musician's Spotlight'

Courtesy of Marc Cohn / James McMurtry

From the Musician’s Spotlight archives: a pair of programs featuring Marc Cohn and James McMurtry, each of which won a Montana Broadcasters Association’s E.B. Craney Award for best non-commercial radio program.
In 1991, Cleveland pianist-singer-songwriter Marc Cohn emerged from out of nowhere with "Walking in Memphis," a song that climbed to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned him a Grammy the following year. Since then, Cohn's "emotionally stirring compositions, deeply personal yet universal, and easy, husky voice [have] earned him a devoted following and a reputation as a musician’s musician." Somehow, getting shot in the head in 2005 only sharpened his focus.

Never one to hold back his opinion - musically, politically or otherwise - there’s rarely a dull moment in a conversation with James McMurtry ("America's fiercest singer-songwriter" - CNN). John Floridis and McMurtry talk about his 25-year career, live performance, his family storytelling pedigree, and his first studio release after a six-year gap, "Complicated Game."

(Broadcast: Musician's Spotlight,  11/19/19. Listen on the radio Tuesdays, 7 p.m., or via podcast.)

John Floridis, the host and producer of Musician's Spotlight, has been with Montana Public Radio since 1997. He has interviewed over 200 musicians during that time. He is also an independent recording and performing artist in his own right and a former registered music therapist.
Beth Anne Austein has been spinning tunes on the air (The Folk Show, Dancing With Tradition, Freeforms), as well as recording, editing and mixing audio for Montana Public Radio and Montana PBS, since the Clinton Administration. She’s jockeyed faders or "fixed it in post” for The Plant Detective; Listeners Bookstall; Fieldnotes; Musicians Spotlight; The Write Question; Storycorps; Selected Shorts; Bill Raoul’s music series; orchestral and chamber concerts; lecture series; news interviews; and outside producers’ programs about topics ranging from philosophy to ticks.
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