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From 'Slingshot' To SXSW: Public Radio Favorites Head To Austin

At just 20 years old, Jade Bird sounds like a seasoned Nashville veteran.
Shervin Lainez
/
Courtesy of the artist
At just 20 years old, Jade Bird sounds like a seasoned Nashville veteran.

Last year, NPR Music and NPR member stations across the country launched a new series called Slingshot designed to boost the careers of up-and-coming public radio favorites. Since the beginning of 2018, 22 new Slingshot artists have been announced. Many of them are about to head to Austin, Texas, for next week's South By Southwest Music Festival. To preview the big event, here are a few artist recommendations from the Slingshot series.

Haley Heynderickx

Haley Heynderickx.
Alessandra Leimer / Courtesy of the artist
/
Courtesy of the artist
Haley Heynderickx.

"Oom Sha La La"

Not just any singer-songwriter, Heynderickx takes her nervy and ambitious songs down circuitous, unexpected paths. "Oom Sh La La" starts with a murmur and builds to a scream.

Download "Oom Sha La La" via NPR Music's Austin 100 Mixtape until March 31.

Jade Bird

Jade Bird.
Kate Moross / Courtesy of the artist
/
Courtesy of the artist
Jade Bird.

"Good Woman"

She sounds like a Nashville veteran, but in reality, she's a U.K. singer who's not yet old enough to drink legally in the U.S. "Good Woman" is a rip-roaring blast.

Download "Good Woman" via NPR Music's Austin 100 Mixtape until March 31.

Liz Brasher

Liz Brasher.
/ Courtesy of the artist
/
Courtesy of the artist
Liz Brasher.

"Body Of Mine"

Brasher's voice seems to come from many places and eras at once, from early soul and girl groups to modern pop.

Download "Body Of Mine" via NPR Music's Austin 100 Mixtape until March 31.

Hear the full conversation with NPR's Don Gonyea at the audio link.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
You're most likely to find NPR's Don Gonyea on the road, in some battleground state looking for voters to sit with him at the local lunch spot, the VFW or union hall, at a campaign rally, or at their kitchen tables to tell him what's on their minds. Through countless such conversations over the course of the year, he gets a ground-level view of American elections. Gonyea is NPR's National Political Correspondent, a position he has held since 2010. His reports can be heard on all NPR News programs and at NPR.org. To hear his sound-rich stories is akin to riding in the passenger seat of his rental car, traveling through Iowa or South Carolina or Michigan or wherever, right along with him.
Suraya Mohamed is a three-time Peabody Award-winning producer, sound designer and editor. She currently serves as the project manager for Jazz Night In America and is a contributing producer on the Alt.Latino podcast. She also produces NPR's holiday specials package, including Tinsel Tales, Hanukkah Lights, Toast Of The Nation, Pink Martini's Joy To The World: A Holiday Spectacular and most recently Hamilton: A Story Of US. You'll also find her work on the Tiny Desk series as either a producer or engineer.