By mail, by ballot box, by pulling a lever or pushing a button on November 3rd, Americans will exercise their democratic right to vote for President, Senators, Congresspeople and, in many local elections, for legislators and judges to mosquito control officers and dogcatchers. It’s a big one folks! So we’ve created a soundtrack in words and music to get you to the polls. With jazz and gospel takes on American anthems; cool versions of civil rights songs like “If I Had a Hammer” and “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”; blues treatments warning “Be Careful How You Vote!”; a soul variation on “This Land is Your Land”; and songs about revolution… and restraint. It’s time to face the music and vote!

Singer Songwriter Dan Penn is the master behind so many well-loved R&B songs, from James and Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet” to Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” and Alex Chilton and the Box Tops’ “Cry Like a Baby,” and many more. We’ll talk with him about his prolific catalog of songs, plus stories behind the scenes at Fame Records in Muscle Shoals and American Recordings in Memphis, and scoring his very first with a rockabilly Conway Twitty. Then, from Houston’s Fifth Ward, Blues singer Trudy Lynn who got her start as a high schooler singing with Albert Collins and Archie Bell and the Drells before going on to her own career in blues and R&B.