When you take the El — that's the elevated rail line — into Philadelphia's Fishtown neighborhood, you'll pass a giant Kurt Vile mural. It was used as the cover of his 2013 album, Wakin on a Pretty Daze.
And then, it just stayed up there. It's still there now: Kurt Vile, in giant block letters, a tribute to an artist who loves the city just as much as it loves him.
And Kurt Vile really loves Philadelphia. His new album, called Philadelphia's Been Good to Me, was mostly recorded in his basement home studio. In today's session, for our Sense of Place: Philadelphia series, Vile performs songs from the record and talks about growing up in the area and playing music there for decades. We also get to Kurt's tips for driving in Philadelphia.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. Our digital producer is Miguel Perez. World Cafe's engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
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