SongWriter: Keith Rosson + Antje Duvekot

SongWriter is a podcast of stories and “answer songs” featuring David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Joyce Carol Oates, Mary Gauthier, Amanda Shires, and Michael Ian Black.

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Keith Rosson is an author and a visual artist. Along with the artwork for his own books, he has produced album covers for Green Day and the Goo Goo Dolls. Keith is also legally blind. 

“It lends a certain quality to my work that may look stylistic, but is more a limitation,” Keith says. “I certainly haven’t let my visual impairment infringe upon my visual art.”

In the upcoming episode of SongWriter, Keith reads his short story, “Forgive Me This.” The story is about a young man’s journey back to his hometown after learning his father is in the hospital. The main character is broke, exhausted, and emotionally dissociated.

“All my characters are inherently ruined in some way,” Keith says.

Keith chose songwriter Antje Duvekot to write a song in response to his story, as he is a longtime fan. Antje considers herself to be a “confessional” songwriter, self-deprecatingly describing her songs as “diary entries set to music.”

“I was raised on singer-songwriters that just put it all out there,” Antje says. “It’s very vulnerable.”

A songwriter who prefers to write from a personal perspective might conceivably have difficulty writing a song in response to another person’s story, but Keith’s story felt very familiar to Antje.

“This story…hit in the bullseye of what I love to write about, and what I love to think about,” Antje says. “I feel the fit was amazing, so much so that it kind of blew my mind.”

Antje wrote a song called “Lottery Ticket,” about her own difficult homecomings.

Ben Arthur is the creator and host of SongWriter. He’s @MyHeart on Twitter, and his newest song is “If You Need Me.”

A Troublesome Cat: Bruce Holsinger + The Golden Hours – SongWriter turns stories into songs

At a live performance at The Guild in Charlottesville, Virginia, bestselling novelist and professor Bruce Holsinger reads a short story he wrote about a troublesome cat. Dr. Jennifer McQuiston speaks about the connections between animal welfare and human flourishing, her time at CDC, and her current work as a veterinarian. Super group The Golden Hours (which combines Lowland Hum and David Wax Museum) performs a brand new song in response called "One More Photo," and talks about developing their mission and sound.Chapters:02:42Bruce reads "River Cat"28:06Dr. McQuiston talks about her work 48:30"One More Photo" by The Golden HoursSongWriterPodcast.comInstagram.com/SongWriterPodcastFacebook.com/SongWriterPodcastTikTok.com/@SongWriterPodcastYouTube.com/@SongwriterPodcastSongWriter is a music and songwriting podcast that turns stories into songs. Host Ben Arthur invites writers, poets, and musicians to share a story or poem, then pairs it with an original song written in response. Along the way, the show explores the creative process through intimate conversations and performances. Guests have included Questlove, Susan Orlean, David Gilmour, Joyce Carol Oates, David Sedaris, and George Saunders. Distributed by PRX, SongWriter also appears on the syndicated radio program Acoustic Café and in Paste Magazine. Learn more at SongWriterPodcast.com. Season seven is made possible by a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation

1. A Troublesome Cat: Bruce Holsinger + The Golden Hours 52:49
2. Ali Selim + Carla Kihlstedt 51:21
3. Forgiveness in Rio: Maria Rezende + Pedro Mann 33:53
4. Unicorn-Level Positivity: Helen Cho + Alison Mosshart (The Kills) 40:39
5. Caregiving and Reconciliation: Silas Howard + Dorian Wood 46:33