‘The fastest girl drummer in the world’: Celebrating Wisconsin’s Viola Smith
Drummer Viola Smith was a musical trailblazer and innovator. Known as "the fastest girl drummer in the world," her career ...
‘The Day The Music Died’: Buddy Holly and his final shows in Wisconsin
Buddy Holly is a rock ‘n’ roll legend. In the 1950s, he became a musical torchbearer, helping popularize the genre ...
Tubas in Wisconsin: Getting down to brass tacks
We recently received a question from Elizabeth Renner of Madison. She asked us, "Why are tubas such a prominent part ...
Musician captivates cross-cultural understanding through community non-profit Flutes at Dawn
For Kiran Vedula music has always been a way for him to meet people, to have confidence in himself and ...
Taking on an accent: Green Bay’s Carina Abrego-Koch for ‘Home Is Here’
How do you travel halfway around the world and still feel connected to home? For WPR’s Carina Abrego-Koch of Green ...
‘Not the biggest, but the very best’: Larryfest showcases bluegrass and roots music in rural Vernon County
Summer calendars in Wisconsin seem to overflow with music festivals. One of the longest-running gatherings is Larryfest, which has been ...
Wrapping up Concerts on The Square with “Home to Madison,” just off Highway 51
Picture this: you're sitting on a blanket on the Capitol Lawn in Madison. It's a warm summer evening, and you're ...
The Yiddish Tapes: Grandmother’s beautiful voice lives on
When I was a kid we always had shelves filled with blank cassettes. Sony, Memorex, TDK, we had them all. ...
‘He made the best of life’: How a family turned a tragedy into hope with nonprofit Joey’s Song
Mike Gomoll is not a rock star, but he knows how to get them to rally around a cause. "You ...
The Rebirth of Jazz Saxophonist Frank Morgan
Imagine making it as a musician not only once, but at two distinct moments in your life. That’s what happened ...
Madison’s Ricardo Gonzalez and the Cuban Salsa Band
(This story is an excerpt from the podcast, “WPR Reports: Uprooted.”) Ricardo Gonzalez was 12 years old the day the ...
Refugee in La Crosse dreams of returning to Cuba
(This story is an excerpt from the podcast, “WPR Reports: Uprooted.”) A group of musicians are jamming in their living ...
Cuban in Wisconsin: Introducing ‘WPR Reports: Uprooted’
In 1980, there was a mass exodus of Cubans who left their homes for the United States as part of ...
Farmer Explains Why You Should Sing To Cows
I have previously confessed this crime. Specifically to note, I was born to Methodists. Methodists by moral instinct rarely do ...
Remembering when The Fendermen took Stoughton to the top of the charts
What are some of your early rock ‘n’ roll memories? For Stoughton’s Bill Amundson, there’s one that happened REALLY close ...