Field Report On World Cafe

Field Report's new album, Summertime Songs, was recorded before 2016's election, but frontman Chris Porterfield says he's still thought a lot between then and now about how his work fits into the current social and political atmosphere in the U.S. "In the lead-up to putting this record out, I struggled with whether the world needed another white man's record right now," he says.

You'll want to hear what brought him to that point. His session on World Cafe reflects on some lighter moments as well — like the time a planned Grateful Dead cover turned disastrous during a set at South by Southwest: "I had the lyrics all printed off. ... I had it, like in my bones. I was ready to go. Get on stage — dead air. It just left my mind." Hear more of those stories, and a live performance, at the audio link.

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