Inspired by creator and host Carmel Holt’s own 25 year career in radio, and lifetime devoted to music, SHEROES is a podcast that amplifies womxn’s voices in song and conversation. As the third production under the SHEROES name, following her syndicated public radio show SHEROES Radio, and SHEROES: Mixtape Memoir (Sonos Radio), the SHEROES podcast on Talkhouse acts as kind of creative lab, expanding to include mini-episodes that highlight the intersectional feminist heart of SHERO interviews, live tapings, roundtables and more. Carmel’s approach continues to be guided by a fierce commitment to diversity and inclusivity, showcasing a wide range of guests sharing their experiences spanning genres and generations, with a passion for amplifying new voices while recognizing and celebrating the womxn who paved the way.
For Episode 6, we continue a thread from last week as host Carmel Holt talks with three “boundary dweller” artists about their Roads To Joni. Each of our guests this week are visionaries who push beyond their comfort zone. They are producers, singers, songwriters and instrumentalists. Like Joni, they are multi-Grammy nominees and winners who do things on their own terms.
Grammy award winning artist Arooj Aftab spent her teenage years in Lahore, Pakistan listening to American folk music. She found Joni Mitchell’s Blue and from there she was “all in.” Arooj takes us through her guest DJ set that spans Joni’s earliest recordings through to her jazz-influenced and more contemporary work. She sites “Black Crow” from Joni’s 1976 album Hejira as having a powerful impact on her.
Singer-songwriter, guitarist, multi instrumentalist, producer and Grammy award winner Brittany Howard sees Joni as “someone who wouldn’t let any confines stop her from expressing herself.” We would say the same about Brittany, who has not allowed herself to be defined by genre. She has explored pop, punk, lo-fi garage, glam and folk along her sonic path to her current album, What Now.
Finally, we meet up with three time Grammy award winning artist Annie Clark aka St. Vincent for a conversation in Minneapolis/St. Paul with Carmel and public radio station The Current in front of an audience of their members. Annie says that Hejira was the portal through which she fell in love with Joni. She credits Joni for being a trailblazer who makes only the music she wants to make. She says, “she did whatever the F she wanted and people were there for it, because it was just that good.”
