World Cafe

R.E.M. is everywhere in Athens, Georgia. They played at the 40-Watt Club, had their music spun on the University of Georgia’s radio station WUOG, and named their album, Automatic for the People, after a local cafe’s sign, all while inspiring whole generations of Athens musicians in their wake. For our Sense of Place: Athens series, we’re revisiting our 2022 conversation with R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. That’s on the next World Cafe.

University of Georgia’s student run radio station WUOG was the very first station that played R.E.M. back in 1980. These days, they’re still seeking out and spinning the best new music that Athens, Georgia has to offer. Visit WUOG as we kick off our Sense of Place: Athens series, on the next World Cafe.

Two years ago, Shannon and the Clams lead singer Shannon Shaw lost her fiancé in a car crash, just months before they were to be married. The band’s new album, written in his memory, grapples with the loss and finds healing in the aftermath. Titled The Moon Is In The Wrong Place, it is the band’s most focused and raw production to date. On the next World Cafe, Shannon and the Clams join us to perform a set of songs from the album.

The Black Keys have been on a tear, releasing four albums in under half a decade. Their latest, Ohio Players, is a blast. Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach wanted to recreate the energy of their early records and invited some friends along, including Beck who co-wrote several songs on the album, and Oasis’s Noel Gallagher, who’d never written with another band before. Patrick and Dan join World Cafe to talk about a “back-to-fun” approach, and to share live performances from this year’s South by Southwest.

Mark Knopfler has been obsessed with making music since he was a teenager, and on his tenth solo album, One Deep River, he still is. Mark discusses the determination it takes to make it as a musician, the brotherhood that comes from playing in bands, and looks back on early days with Dire Straits and playing for Bob Dylan, next time on World Cafe.

It’s been nearly a decade since Sturgill Simpson released his breakthrough album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. On the next World Cafe, hear an interview and performance recorded in 2014 just before Simpson was named the Emerging Artist of the Year at the Americana Music Awards. He reveals that the record’s success came as a huge surprise – he originally thought it would be the last album he would ever make.