In 2019, singer-songwriter Amy Oelsner started Girls Rock Bloomington an after-school program and summer camp for girls and trans and nonbinary youth. We hear from some of the youth at Girls Rock Bloomington, and Alex Chambers talks with Amy about how she got started as a musician – hint – it involved working at a Girls Rock program. They also talk about how personal loss can lead to creative growth, what it means to be an adult, and about a band that started in Girls Rock Bloomington and recently released their first EP. They were 12 and 13 years old.
Voces Novae Breaks Out of the Chamber
Voces Novae is a Bloomington based chamber choir with a mission “to use music, and the arts generally, to explore ideas that enrich and inform our daily experience.” They do this by breaking out of the “chamber,” so to speak: performing in unexpected places, with surprising elements. Through their music they explore ideas, concepts and themes - building programs that incorporate visual elements, narration, and once they commissioned local artist Sam Bartlett to create projected “crankies” to assist with the storytelling.
Kayte Young spoke with Artistic Director, Susan Swaney and soprano and composer Abby Henkel Roman about how they invite audiences into their work, even those who may not initially be drawn to choral music.
R.E.M. Super (Cover) Group
Nice Work Host Tyler Lake caught a bit of a strange show at the Bluebird recently. A cover band fronted by the actor Michael Shannon, known for his intense performances in The Shape of Water, Boardwalk Empire, Nocturnal Animals, and if none of that is ringing a bell he played Zod, in the 2013 Superman revisit Man of Steel. He was joined by some indie rock all-stars, including Jason Narducy (Bob Mould Band, Superchunk), Jon Wurster (The Mountain Goats), John Stirratt (Wilco), Dag Juhlin, and Vijay Tellis-Nayak.
They were touring, or covering, or touring a cover?, of R.E.M.’s 1986 record Life’s Rich Pageant. Mostly playing larger cities, they made an exception to come to Bloomington, likely on account of Life’s Rich Pageant having been recorded just outside of town at John Mellencamp’s Belmont Mall Studio. Writer and critic Stephen Deusner joined Tyler in the studio to talk about that show and what it meant for him and other R.E.M. fans.
CREDITS
This episode was produced and edited by Alex Chambers. We get production help from Danny William, Holly Wilkerson, Karl Templeton, Leo Paes, Jillian Blackburn and Jonah Ballard.
Our theme music was composed and performed by Alan Davis. Additional music from Universal Production Music plus exerpts of Abby Henkel Roman's Vos Advenae, and Pepper Choplin's Walk a Mile, both performed by Voces Novae during a rehearsal in early March, 2026. The executive producer is Eric Bolstridge.