Caption: Guitarist Michael Spriggs
Guitarist Michael Spriggs 

A Nashville Insider Steps Outside

Series: Echo Location: Soundings for New Music
From: John Diliberto
Length: 00:03:30

Michael Spriggs has been a Nashville session guitarist with the likes of Eddie Rabbitt, Dolly Parton and Faith Hill. In the 90s he began exploring his own music and now spins dreamy landscapes awash in melody, but still tinged by a bit of country twang. Michael Spriggs talks about Neurasenia, his richly melodic and deeply layered album of guitar, strings and synthesizers. Read the full description.

Spriggs_small Michael Spriggs has been a Nashville session guitarist with the likes of Eddie Rabbitt, Dolly Parton and Faith Hill.  In the 90s he began exploring his own music and now spins dreamy landscapes awash in melody, but still tinged by a bit of country twang.  Michael Spriggs talks about Neurasenia,  his richly melodic and deeply layered album of guitar, strings and synthesizers.

It's part of Echo Location: Soundings for New Music, the weekly digest from Echoes host and Peabody Award winning producer John Diliberto, exploring the latest in modern music with quick hitting interviews, music and commentary. Each edition of Echo Location features a beautifully edited music blend, that's combined with John's thoughtful insights and artists's comments to make a sound-rich journey for listeners. Each episode can stand on its own or be scheduled as a weekly or occasional series.

To hear the full audio, sign up for a free PRX account or log in.

Also in the Echo Location: Soundings for New Music series

Piece image

Kevin Keller's Ambient Chamber Music (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Ambient chamber music composer Kevin Keller's In Absentia is a study in finely calibrated emotions dealing with the disappearance and likely death of his father-in-law. ...
Piece image

Hammock: Chasing After Shadows...Living With the Ghosts (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Hammock is Nashville-based guitarists Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson. They've made their money writing country and Christian music but their hearts reside in the shoegaze ...
Piece image

International Guitar Night: Four virtuosos from Germany, Israel and America talk about a converge... (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

There are some guitarists for whom one insturment isan't enough. Brian Gore is one of them. For the past decade, he’s been realizing his ambition of a global guitar ...
Caption: The Mediaeval Baebes, Credit: Hayley Madden

Mediaeval Baebes (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

The allure is undeniable. Six talented, attractive women breathe renewed life into the rich texts of medieval songs and poetry with their hauntingly beautiful musical ...
Caption: Director Dianna Dilworth

Mellodrama: the Signature Sound of Progressive Rock (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

The Mellotron was the sound of progressive rock and space music in the 1970s. Before digital synthesizers, it was an instrument that played back the sounds of orchestras, ...
Piece image

An exotic forest of sensual grooves, ambient atmospheres and intoxicating melodies (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Ylang ylang is a flowering tree that grows in South Asia, and on his album, Ylang, Robert Rich has sculpted another exotic forest of sound, full of sensual grooves, ambient ...
Piece image

Jon Hopkins's Quaint Electronica (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

You may not know Jon Hopkins, but you’ve heard him on albums by Coldplay, Massive Attack, Imogen Heap and Brian Eno. On Coldplay’s Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, ...
Piece image

Violinist Anna Schaad's Dream Within a Dream (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Violinist Anna Schaad’s music is steeped in fantasy and inspired by her Navy pilot husband. Though heavily Celtic influenced, she takes an electronica turn on her album ...
Caption: Ian Boddy and Mark Shreeve of Arc, Credit: Kimberly Haas

English electronic duo plugs in with vintage synthesizers and heads into space (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

English electronic musicians Mark Shreeve and Ian Boddy perform in a pair of cockpits of keyboards and gear. They specialize in a sound that has roots in German space music ...
Caption: Kronos Quartet, Credit: Michael Wilson

Kronos Quartet: Four Decades of Breaking the String Quartet Rules (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

In the world of string quartets there is before and after Kronos, the ensemble that revolutionized the form, playing new music from Steve Reich to Sigur Ros. We talk with ...

Piece Description

Michael Spriggs has been a Nashville session guitarist with the likes of Eddie Rabbitt, Dolly Parton and Faith Hill.  In the 90s he began exploring his own music and now spins dreamy landscapes awash in melody, but still tinged by a bit of country twang.  Michael Spriggs talks about Neurasenia,  his richly melodic and deeply layered album of guitar, strings and synthesizers.

It's part of Echo Location: Soundings for New Music, the weekly digest from Echoes host and Peabody Award winning producer John Diliberto, exploring the latest in modern music with quick hitting interviews, music and commentary. Each edition of Echo Location features a beautifully edited music blend, that's combined with John's thoughtful insights and artists's comments to make a sound-rich journey for listeners. Each episode can stand on its own or be scheduled as a weekly or occasional series.

Broadcast History

WXPN Philadelphia, WITF Harrisburg

Transcript

:17
Hot guitar pickers hang around Nashville like grapes dangling from the vineyards of Napa Valley. Michael Spriggs is one of those grapes. He's played on sessions with Dolly Parton and Faith Hill, written tunes for Kenny Rogers and Tammy Wynette, and played for much of the 1970s with Eddie Rabbit.

Music

:20
MICHAEL SPRIGGS HAS BEEN a Nashville session guitarist and songwriter since 1971, BUT IN THe 90'S HE BEGAN EXPLORING HIS OWN MUSIC AND ten years ago he released the album, Beyond Words.

musik

MICHAEL SPRIGG'S MUSIC IS A LONG WAY FROM COUNTRY. He says that exploring his own music isn't he same as writing a Nashville tune like "Twenty Years Ago."

:17
MS: [laughs] Completely different. That’s sitting in a room with two other people, or three other people and going, “OK, here’s our title. Here’s our melody. Let’s make sure we don’t get too far away from 16th...
Read the full transcript

Timing and Cues

Incue: [sonar sound] This is an Echo Location: Soundings for New Music.

Outcue: I’m John Diliberto and this has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music.