Will Allison
LISTEN (Running time: 14:17. 13.0 MB)
CHRISTOPHER PURDY INTERVIEWS WILL ALLSION
Will Allison’s new novel “What You Have Left” has been lauded by the New York Times and is a Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers choice and a Border’s Original Voices choice for 2007. His short stories have been published in Cincinnati Review, Interview and Glimmer Train. Born in South Carolina, Will Allison holds the MFA degree from the Ohio State University’s Creative Writing program, where his teachers included Lee K. Abbott and Michelle Herman. He is at work on a new novel for the Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. See www.willallison.com
Praise for “What You Have Left”:
“The moving account tells of a South Carolina family struggling to survive despite a mother’s death, a father’s abandonment and a grandfather’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease—and a host of risky behaviors by others left behind.”
–Columbus Dispatch, 6/26/07
“Tender, smart and efficiently told…Raw boned, heartfelt prose.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 3/1/07
“A remarkable, understated novel…Allison has a precocious knack for detail…and for plain, old fashioned storytelling.”
–Entertainment Weekly (an EW pick) 6/8/07
Categories: Purdy · interview
LISTEN (Running time: 11:34. 10.5 MB)
CHRISTOPHER PURDY INTERVIEWS NATHAN GUNN
Baritone Nathan Gunn’s new CD, ‘Just Before Sunrise,’ is a collection
of standards by Jimmy Van Heusen, Tom Waits, and Billy Joel, combined with new songs by Ben Moore,Gene Scheer, and Sting. It’s a winner, neither full classical nor pop, nor crossover, but a new expansion of American song.
Nathan Gunn has been a leading artist with the Metropolitan Opera since 1995; he sang Papageno in Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ in the Met’s first HD cinema presentations beamed into movie theaters worldwide. He returns to the Met in New York and in the movie theatres next season for Mercutio in Gounod’s ‘Romeo et Juliette.’
‘Just Before Sunrise’ is published by SONY Classical and hits the
stores on August 7th. We spoke on the phone from his hotel in New York on August 2, 2007.
–Christopher Purdy
‘Thanks’ as always to Eric French
Categories: Purdy · interview
Kaye Ballard
Recorded June 1, 2007
LISTEN (Running time: 36:56. 33.7 MB)
CHRISTOPHER PURDY WITH KAYE BALLARD
Eric French, the indispensable engineer who helps me with these interviews, said to me the other day: “Dude. What’s up with all the death and politico stuff?” And I realized that we’ve been heavy on grief counselors and amnesty advocates and death penalty opponents and the wonderful but serious conversationst hat go with those subjects.
Then a new book caught my eye in the library, “How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years” by Kaye Ballard. Born in Cleveland eighty-one years ago, Kaye Ballard (Caterina Ballotta) has done TV series (The Mothers in Law, The Doris Day Show), Broadway (The Golden Apple; Carnival; Molly; Nunsense) Vegas, clubs, pictures, you name it. She talks about her life in show business going back to her days with Spike Jones and His Band in the 1940s, and mentions her big break at Columbus’s Club Gloria. We’ll hear about her famous friends with whom she worked: Bette Davis, Desi Arnaz, Fred Ebb, Doris Day, Marc Blitzstein, Lenny Bruce, Jimmy Durante, and Lucille Ball among them, and she reminds us of great entertainers forgotten today: people such as Billy DeWolfe and Virginia Graham .
If you love showbiz you’ll love this conversation. If you don’t love showbiz, get over yourself, listen anyway and find How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years.
With thanks as always to Eric French!
Categories: Audio · interview
