It was so inspiring to have this conversation with  the multi-talented singer-songwriter and pianist Vienna Teng . 

In this episode we’re featuring  the band Few of a Kind’s new album, a beautiful collaboration with Vienna, Brandon Ridenour, Ben Russell, Yousif Sheronick, and Andrew Gutauskas. Vienna takes us inside their creative process with excerpts from each track.  She also  reflects on what truly makes a great song, how her identity evolved with parenthood, and how she has connected with audiences through her climate action workshops. Vienna also shared insights into two other brilliant recent projects, her unique album We’ve Got You and  “The Riversitter” after Dave Eggers’ “The Museum of Rain”.

You’ll hear the charming story of how she actually found her stage name, some  highlights including opening for Joan Baez, performing on the Late Show with David Letterman and especially what it felt like to return to touring and recording after a ten-year hiatus after working in environmental sustainability. 

You can watch the video  on my YouTube  or listen to the podcast, and I’ve also linked the transcript.

Jean Rohe is an acclaimed song-writer and singer, as well as a devoted  mentor, working with incarcerated song-writers,as well as at the New School and privately. She writes powerful narrative songs, and is widely known for her National Anthem:  Arise! Arise! an aspirational alternative which has been performed extensively across the US. She shared with me her perspectives on love, grief, identity, community and creativity.   One of her beautiful collaborations is the wonderful album Beautalina with the band Eureka Shoes, with Skye Soto Steele,  Charlie Burnham and Rashaan Carter. We are featuring music from that project as well as with  Robinson & Rohe. Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube or listen to the podcast on all the podcast platforms, and I’ve also linked the transcript.