Fresh Air - Cynthia Erivo Sings With 'A Bit A Smile'

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

The British actor and singer played abolitionist Harriet Tubman in Harriet, and Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha. Now she's defying gravity as Elphaba in Wicked. She spoke with Terry Gross in 2021 about some of her roles and her vocal training. Also, Ken Tucker shares his picks for great Christmas music, and David Bianculli reviews the Amazon Prime series The Sticky.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

When it came out in 1843, a Christmas carol was a sensation, and Charles Dickens became a legend. Some people would consider him the originator of Christmas or the inventor of Christmas. The past, present, and future of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Listen to Thulein wherever you get your podcasts. This is Fresh Air. I'm David Bianculli. Singer and actress Cynthia Arevo has just been nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked.

Here she is singing one of that musical's most iconic song. It's time to try defying gravity I think I'll try defying gravity And you can't pull me down Can't I make you understand You're having delusions of grandeur I'm through accepting limits Cause someone says they're so

some things I cannot change but till I try I'll never know too long I've been afraid of losing love I guess I've lost well if that's love it comes at much too high a cost It comes at much too high a cost. Arts and art by defying gravity. That's Cynthia Erivo. In 2016, after coming to the US from England,

Erivo starred in the Broadway revival of the musical The Color Purple, winning a Tony and Drama Desk Award. For her starring role as Harriet Tubman in the film Harriet, she was nominated for an Oscar and also was nominated for the movie's closing credits song, Stand Up, which she co-wrote and sang. Arrivo played Aretha Franklin in the TV miniseries Genius Aretha. She also co-starred in the HBO series The Outsider. And she released an album of songs she co-wrote

titled Chapter One, Verse One, and wrote a children's book called, Remember to Dream, Eboree. Arevo grew up in South London where her parents emigrated from Nigeria. Terry Gross spoke with Cynthia Arevo in 2021 and asked her about playing Aretha Franklin. They began with this scene

from the mini-series, Genius Aretha. This is set during Aretha Franklin. They began with this scene from the mini-series Genius Aretha. This is set during Aretha's first recording session for Atlantic Records in 1967. Arevo, as Aretha, is at the piano singing, "'I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You.'" ["I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You"] You're no good, heartbreaker You're liar and you're a cheat I don't know why I let you do these things to me My friends keep telling me that you ain't no good Oh, they don't know

And I would leave you if I could Guess I'm uptight That I'm stuck like glue Cause I ain't never I ain't no I ain't never never knew no love domain the way that I, I love you. That's Cynthia Arevo from the mini-series Genius Aretha. Cynthia Arevo, welcome to Fresh Air.

Thank you. It is such a pleasure to have you on the show. How did you start listening to Aretha Franklin? When I was a kid, and we were, so there's this radio station in the UK called Magic FM, and it plays everything. Everything from, let's say, I don't know if you know a band called Mike and the Mechanics, to The Eurythmics, to Kate Bush, to Aretha, to Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Lauryn Hill, the whole lot. And so when we were only on the way to school, my mum would always have that radio station on. And the first time I heard it, it was from there. I think the, I want to say the first thing I heard was

sisters are doing it for themselves. And then I heard, I think it was till you come back to me. So I had heard Aretha in like two different ways. One with Annie Lennox and then one on her own from two different times. And I just sort of fell in love. I didn't really know, because I didn't know who that was. And then I started asking questions and my mum told me it was Aretha Franklin.

And so I was aware of how much I loved music and that I wanted to be a singer. And I just sort of fell in love with her voice. The fact that she could do that with Annie Lennox and then that on her own just was astounding to me. Did you try to emulate her? I don't think I tried to emulate her. I just wanted to listen to everything she had and I started learning her music pretty early. Yeah.

I know you've said that when you were listening to Aretha before playing her that one of the things you were listening for is where did she breathe? Oh yeah. Why was that important? Because the breath I think tells you everything about what the person is trying to say. You know, if you look at a sentence, where the comma goes tells you what the sentence means. If I say, today I've been feeling really, really bad. But, and now I say, today I've been feeling really bad.

But I'll be alright. And now I say, today I've been feeling really... bad. But I'll be all right. Well, now I've... One is I feel ill, and one is emotionally I feel bad. Mm-hmm. You see? And so when she would breathe in different places and it would change the sentence structure, it would change the meaning of the song, another person might sing it a completely different way.

Can you sing us an example of what you mean? I use the song often to explain it because it's, one, it's a beautiful song, and two, I had to really, really dig in and learn it. And three, it just is a wonderful example of how the breath work changes. It's called Never Grow Old. I had to learn it for the Amazing Grace episode. And it goes like this. The sentence is, I have heard of a land on a faraway strand.

That's the sentence. The normal way to sing it is, I have heard of a land on a faraway strand. Right? She sings. I have heard of a land on a far, far away strand. You get the impression that it's more far away. Exactly.

The way you sang it. Exactly. Yeah. But I'll tell you it was beautiful both ways. She just has this way with music. The way she manipulates it and uses it to tell the story is really special and it's that sort of making you wait for the explanation. Because when it's a difference between moving from one note to the other really quickly, I have heard, as opposed to

I have heard of a land, you know? You met her twice backstage at the Color Purple and at the Kennedy Center. Did you feel like you were able to have a meaningful conversation with her? I think sometimes like when you meet somebody who's so important to you, you just don't know what to say.

I think that was, I was that, I didn't really know what to say, but I was also sort of disarmed by how funny she was she was so like jovial she joked that when I first met her she sang the last sentence of my big song back at me and so I almost fell over because Aretha Franklin is singing and I'm here back at me and I just I didn't know what to do I think I just laughed I was like oh my god and I remember her saying you can sing sing I was like oh my my God, this is nuts. It just, you know, I don't know if I needed anything more meaningful than that, to be honest, because if the Queen of Soul can remember you as the person who can sing, well, wonderful.

She was brought up in the church, and she was brought up singing gospel in the church, on tours through the South south and in her father's church and so when she started singing R&B it was so church-influenced and I'm wondering about if you grew up churched at all in England and if so what the music was like. I did grow up in church, but different because I'm Roman Catholic is what I was raised on and then, but I was a bit of a rebel so when I was in church it was a lot of like Christian hymns and I wanted more because I was sort of, I was listening to gospel music, and I was learning about gospel singers,

and I was learning about that sound, and I wanted to hear it in my own church. So one of the churches, we moved to East London from South London, and that church had a choir. So I remember they asked if I could join the choir, and so I did, and then somehow I managed to end up being like one of the conductors of the choir. And I would just like sneak gospel songs in from time to time, and just have them like sing a couple gospel songs.

Consequently, I got into trouble for it and they were like, you can't sing those songs in here anymore. And I never understood why because I felt like all music that was for the same reason was equal and was meaningful. Was the objection to the gospel music, the lyrics of the song or the style of singing? I think it's the style of singing. I think the style of singing was where the objection came. There's a particularly straight-laced way of praising that's correct for the Catholic Church. There's a specific way that you should do it, and there's a specific thing that you can sing. There are specific songs, and anything outside of the lines is too far.

Was this a predominantly white congregation? Very much so, yes. You went to RADA, which is the Rural Academy of Dramatic Arts in England. Very famous school. You didn't know it existed when you were invited to. I did not. I did not. Was it revelatory once you got there to study acting in such a formal and probably traditional way? Yeah, just because I didn't know that that was even a possibility. When I was going through primary school or secondary school, no one was like,

you can go to drama school. No one gave me that option. So the whole thing was revelatory. Like the first year was both discovery and struggle and a half because I just like what am I doing here? And there's so many things I don't really understand. What was my strong suit was that I was a little bit different to most people. That I was one of the kids that was good at singing and we had a particularly musical year so there were a couple of other kids who could sing too and actually being able to sing was really useful and and when I started to

embrace that I sort of could see where the opportunities were. Some people were really wonderful at the classics and at Jacobi's and you know those kids that came from Eaton who had read those things were brilliant at those things but I wasn't that. My raw talent came from understanding music so when we started talking about Sondheim and learning those songs for me I was in heaven and when we started reading Seven Guitars by August Wilson, I recognized myself in those people because, well, it was a Black writer writing about Black people and I could see myself in them and those are plays I had read and there's a playwright I had

heard of and when you're passionate about acting, Shakespeare was where we all sort of like joined hands because well, we all knew Shakespeare, but now I could have a sort of a real grasp on the scope which you wrote. You know when you were talking about, Aretha you talked about the importance of where you breathe and how it can even change the meaning of a phrase. So when you were learning Sondheim's songs, I think breath is really especially important in those songs in terms of the meaning but in some of the songs in terms of having an opportunity to breathe. Because some of the songs there isn't there isn't a lot of opportunity and

those songs are really rangy you know so your breath support would be really important. Is there a song you especially loved when you started singing Sondheim? I loved being alive and I loved the Miller's Son. Have you ever heard the Miller's Son? I have. I've seen you sing it on YouTube. So if anybody wants to see it, it's there.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite songs. I just, that is one of those songs where you're like, if you don't breathe in the right place, you make it to the end of the sentence. Can you give us an example of what you mean? Oh my god, I don't even know if I can remember the lyrics. I haven't done it for such a long time. It's a wink and a wiggle and a giggle and a grass and I'll trip the light pendango. A pinch and a p- a pinch and a diggle and a giggle and a grass and I'll trip the light pandango of pinching a pinch and a diddle in the middle of what passes by it's a very short road from the pinch and the punch to the porch and the pouch and the pension it's a very short road to the 10,000th lunch and the porch and the pouch and the sigh in the

meanwhile there are mouths to be kissed before mouths to be fed and a lot in between in the meanwhile and the girl has to celebrate what passes by. Or I shall marry the mill of sun. Yeah, thank you. How did you figure out where to breathe? Did you get advice on that? Did it seem natural? I got advice. I had a really lovely teacher at RADA. It was Philip. He was wonderful, actually.

I will say that my singing teacher at RADA, we're all sort of assigned a singing teacher, most of us because we've never sung before. So we can learn about what that is and learn how to connect the singing voice and the singing breath with the singing voice and the singing breath with the speaking voice and the speaking breath. So we don't differentiate the two so far apart that we're afraid of one of them because

they're sort of one and the same. And I think that because I was already in tune with my singing voice, what Philip did with me was encourage me to try new things, try more. So he would have me singing arias from Othello. And were you comfortable singing in an operatic style or did it not matter which style you sang in as long as you did the singing? I was comfortable. Classical music was sort of a love of mine. And then when I went to drama school, my voice was already sort of ready to try that. And it's the same whilst I was doing The Color Purple, my singing teacher, Joan Lader, rather, it was wonderful.

She would give me classical music or opera to sing because she said that the best way to allow my voice to be open enough to sing what I was singing on stage was to just try something that was totally opposite to it. So you weren't taxing your voice the same way the entire time. You were just sort of opening it up and exercising it but not stressing it. Can you give us an example of how you learned to open up your voice? I'll do one of the first things I did at secondary school actually because we'd always do sort of like the end of year like choral show. show and this one year we decided to do Rata Requiem, the Rata Requiem by John Rata and I was asked to sing Pia, there's a version of Pia Yehsu

for the John Rata Requiem and it's very special. Who knows if I can still do these notes but I'll give it a go. But it would change keys. And this key change was always really difficult. And... Oh, so beautiful. Now what about that opened your voice? I guess there's a couple of things that are happening. Your breath is different. The way you place, the way you use your tongue is different, the way you place, the way you use your tongue is different, the tongue placement is different in your mouth. It's almost like even the way you use the muscles in your face, often to make those sounds that your jaw has to be slightly lowered and relaxed and often I don't know if

you, when you watch me sing you'll see that I sing often with a bit of a smile on one I'm enjoying myself but two when you smile everything else is relaxed. Cynthia Arevo speaking with Terry Gross in 2021. She is currently starring in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked. We'll hear more of their interview after a break. Also, Ken Tucker plays us some great new Christmas music. I'm David B. Inculli and this is Fresh Air. When I meet the wizard, once I prove my worth. Then I meet the wizard, what I've waited for since since birth and with all his wizard wisdom by

my looks he won't be blinded. Your mother who raised you came from Nigeria what were her dreams? Um she she surpassed a lot of her dreams. Her dream was was to be a nurse so she got that and then had to change it. I watched her sort of go, okay, I got my nursing degree and now what else do I want? I think she definitely wanted to be in the UK with her, with children. I know she wanted children. I think she wanted more children than she has but she's very happy with the two that she does. And I think that she sort of learnt after the dream of being a nurse came true that she had this sort of passion for taking care of children full stop and so she focused her studies on the cognitive health of

children and ended up becoming, there's a position in the UK called a health visitor and her job specifically is to help new mothers with children from the age of, say, one month almost to the age of three, just with like learning cognitive skills and making sure that the mother isn't suffering from postpartum, and if they are then she can help and she makes sure that the children are latching in the right way, or if there's anything going on, or if there's colic, all of those things, all the things that you would, you might panic about if you don't have any guidance. My mother is there to help you with.

That's what her job used to be. And she sort of flew with it. She got roast to the top of the ranks on that one, yeah. Was it reassuring to you to have a mother who knew what to do if something went wrong? Oh my gosh, yeah. Yeah, she's cool. It's really fun.

I realized that she's like the child whisperer. It's really fun watching her with other people's children because they don't really know how it's done. And I don't know how it's done. I feel like I've been, it feels like it's like in our genes because I end up being the same with kids and I don't really need to do very much and kids sort of are like,

oh, look, what's this interesting looking being sitting next to me? I want to know who that person is and we're off to the races. It's hilarious. I think she passed it on. Your parents separated, I think, when you were pretty young and by the time you were 16,

your father told you and your sister that he was done. Well, yeah, he told me, he told me. Oh, it was just you? Just me, he told me that he was out of our lives and I sort of had to relay the message to everyone, yeah. What was your reaction? Could you see that coming? I didn't see it coming, although in hindsight,

I probably should have seen it coming, but I didn't see it coming because what 16-year-old would. At the time, I was heartbroken, because it was in public when it happened as well, so it was just not fun. But yeah, it was deeply disappointing, deeply heartbreaking.

was deeply disappointing, deeply heartbreaking. And I think I felt bad for having to have to bring that information back to my house, to my mum and my sister. And I remember I was in the middle of a school day, so I still had to go through school. That was not fun. Did he give you an explanation? No, not really, no. No, I think he just had,

I think he was finished being a dad. And did you think that there was something about you that made him leave, or did you think like he's being mean and thoughtless and doing this and that's on him not on me? Hmm I don't know I I I I don't know if I was thinking about that. I never really compartmentalized it. I just saw someone doing something that hurt me. And I think it was just sort of as simple as that. Like someone is doing, he was doing something that he knew would hurt me,

to be mean and spiteful, but I knew that he was gonna stick to it. I knew that it wasn't like a jad that he would take back at some point. Have you spoken to him since? No. Wow. Well, actually, tell a lie,

I bumped into him randomly at a cousin's wedding. We had an awkward sort of... hello, and that was... that's it. When I was 25. I want to play another song from your new album. And this is called The Good. Do you want to say something about what you were thinking about when you wrote it? Yeah.

So when I wrote it, we had gotten to a point where I knew that we needed an up-tempo song. We needed something with like, that felt upbeat and that felt fun. But I love writing ballads. I love writing love songs. I can't help it. It's sort of, I'm sorry, I'm a mid-tempo to slow song. that felt upbeat and that felt fun. My friend who is also the EP on this album with me, he said that he had been talking to a friend of ours about the relationship that she had had with her father. She said that the relationship wasn't great all the time, but they were starting to rebuild

and that they were starting to have some really good moments. And then he passed away. And then she said, but she just wants to remember the good. And the light bulb went off and I was like, that's the song, that song. The song is about remembering the good, even when something ends, maybe not in the best of ways. Well, let's hear the song.

This is The Good from Cynthia Erivo's new album, chapter one, verse one. Hope doesn't spring from anywhere Watching the world forget to breathe Wish we could start to feel the breeze But I know there's no point in waiting for what I can see Holding my chest as all my tears fall out My mind's in a spin as all the pain pours down what can i do to make these days go by i haven't the strength to make the rain fall i just wanna remember the good good good good wanna remember the good good good good good what can i do to make these days go by That's Cynthia Erivo from her new album, Chapter One, Verse One. So this is kind of a personal question in terms of that it has personal meaning for

me. So you're five foot one, Harriet Tubman who you portrayed was even shorter and I'm not quite five feet. So as a short person I'm wondering if you think it's had much of an impact on your life or your career to be short? I don't know because I never I mean the thing is a lot of people don't realize I am as short as I am. I did not realize it. I was reading about you and I was like really? I mean I spend a lot of my time in heels but like often when I'm with other people they're also like dressed up or in their heels and so when I'm

standing next to them they're like oh my goodness you're really small. I think there have been times often that people assume that because you're small, you are weak, or because you're small, sometimes people, they often decide that because you're small, you're also childlike, which sometimes is really strange, because you have to sort of correct people and let them understand, well, actually,

I'm a fully grown adult, I just happen to be small. So my understanding of what you are saying or what anyone else is saying is just the same. What about chairs? Do you find it's hard to find a chair that fits? Yes, like chairs that are high enough to get to tables and stuff. Well, you know, chairs are like too deep

and often too high. The legs are swinging off the ground. Right, exactly. Yeah, that's a thing. So you end up having to like perch to the edge of the seat so your feet can touch the ground or... Podiums? Podiums are hilarious because sometimes you're always so like,

you know what, today I'm just going to swallow my pride and ask them for a little step so I can reach the podium and feel like I'm in normal height and reach this thing so I'm not having to tiptoe ever so slightly or wear, you know, 15-inch heels. That is sort of like, it's that, you have to take the good with the bad with it, definitely. Stalls, high chairs are really sometimes quite difficult. Because if you're singing and you want to sit, you're often on a stool, so you have to try and make sure that the stool is not too high for you to sit on. And so I always make the compromise with whatever dress I'm wearing or whatever clothes, because if they cover my feet, you can't see how far my feet are from the ground.

If the stool is too high, you have't see how far my feet are from the ground. Yeah. And if the stool's too high, you have to kind of shimmy onto it. Shimmy onto it, yeah. Because you can't reach that high. Your behind doesn't reach that high. It's like making little jumps to get there. And then slide down. Oh my goodness.

Cynthia Arrevo, it's been so delightful to talk with you. Thank you so much for doing this. And just thank you for your work. to talk with you. Thank you so much for doing this and just thank you for your work. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. This has been so much fun. You are wonderful. So thank you.

Cynthia Erivo recorded in 2021. She's currently starring in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Wicked. The first half of the two-part adaptation opened November 22nd and already has earned more than $300 million in American ticket sales. Coming up, I'll review the new prime video series The Sticky, which brings the sensibility of the TV series Fargo to Canada's syrup industry.

This is Fresh Air. This is Fresh Air. I'm TV critic David Bianculli. The Sticky is a new TV series starring Margot Martindale inspired by the biggest crime in Canadian history, the theft of a massive amount of government-stored maple syrup. This new six-part prime video miniseries, all of which is streaming now, tells that story, but more whimsically than faithfully.

Don't think of The Sticky as a fact-based Canadian crime story. Think of it more like the movie Fargo, where half the fun is enjoying the snow-covered scenery and the somewhat cartoonish characters. And though the series creators of The Sticky, Brian Donovan and Ed Harrow, don't mind the French-Canadian accents for laughs the way Fargo played with those Minnesota draws. The loose connection with the truth is exactly the same. The Fargo movie and TV series stated at the start that they were based on a true story, but they were lying, because why not?

The opening disclaimer in the sticky is just as playful, but much more honest. It says, this is absolutely not the true story of the great Canadian maple syrup heist. In that real life robbery, $18 million worth of maple syrup reserves were stolen with the theft discovered in 2012. In this six part version for TV, the heist is planned by a trio of unlikely co-conspirators. There's Remy, a local security guard,

the only security guard at the place where local syrup is stockpiled. Mike is a low-level mobster visiting from Chicago. And Ruth is a local farmer who taps her trees for sap each year, but whose land is about to be sold out from under her. All three of these people have grudges to settle. The security guard against the syrup federation that treats him poorly, the gangster against the mob family that takes him for granted, and the farmer whose property is being targeted by the head of the syrup association,

even though her husband is in the hospital in a coma. Remy, the security guard, hatches a plan to steal some syrup. He tells the mobster, who tries to enlist Ruth because of her knowledge of the trade. Mike is played by Chris Diamantopoulos. Guillaume Sear plays Remy, and Margot Martindale plays Ruth. You need this.

So hear him out. Remy. You'll need this. So hear him out. Remi. So here's my system. It took some thinking, but it's pretty sweet. In the dark of night, I sneak a barrel out each month. The norwolf sells us a syrup to his guy, one province over. We just have to do that a lot of times and then we get rich. Easy peasy, boom. Boom.

Boom. Boom what? Boom. One barrel, that's your plan? A million dollars, three ways, that's what you want. Yeah. Let's see. Okay, that's what you want. Yeah. Let's see. Okay, I thought about it for four seconds.

Listen to this. The association has a barrel set price at $2,489. We sell to Ham and Eggers in Ottawa, they're gonna screw us. We go 2K on the black market. Now that means, you know what that means? That means you two bozos have to pinch 500 barrels at night in a week.

That's not just Tom. That's stupid. They're gonna notice 500 barrels missing. Once the three agree to work together, the real fun begins. Outside factors and unexpected antagonists keep gumming up the works. And these three very different characters react differently to almost everything, including one another.

Ruth is the brains of the outfit. Remy knows almost nothing, and Mike certainly knows nothing about the production methods of maple syrup, which he demonstrates in a conversation with them during a cramped truck ride. Six weeks? You wait all year long for a lousy six weeks to tap syrup? Sap. What? She said sap. Four to six weeks to collect the tree's sap, then we turn the sap to syrup.

It's not just syrup in the trees? No. Wow. No, that would be amazing. Okay, but we're stealing the syrup, right? We're not stealing sap. Of course not. A sap... How do you not know this?

Because no one does, Ruth. No one except sap farmers. They're not called sap farmers. The point is, sugaring season's almost over. Margot Martindale, who was so enjoyable to watch on both Justified and The Americans, has a blast with this leading role. Her major co-stars, including Geeta Miller and Suzanne Clamont as a pair of investigators on their trail, are all Canadian actors,

and all add to the mix here. But the secret ingredient, and the reason to make this a must-watch TV series, is an eventual substantial guest star appearance by an American, Jamie Lee Curtis. She arrives late, but makes as big an impact as she did substantial guest star appearance by an American, Jamie Lee Curtis. She arrives late, but makes as big an impact as she did in her Emmy-winning guest stint on The Bear or as the tax auditor in Everything Everywhere All at Once. It's such a blast to see Curtis and Martindale swing for the fences with their portrayals,

and both of them hit it out of the park. The entire company of actors is strong, and the French versions of American pop songs on the soundtrack are a delight. The best part of all is that while the sticky is loaded with wonderful characters, performances, music and surprises, it's not at all overly sentimental. Which is good. The last thing you'd want from a TV show about a maple syrup heist is for it to be too sappy. Coming up, we hear some new Christmas songs. This is Fresh Air. Each year the holiday season brings new Christmas music, and rock critic Ken Tucker has been listening to it all to select the songs he's enjoyed the most. This year's picks include new holiday albums by Ben Folds and the country group Little Big Town,

as well as a duet from a very famous pop star and a very famous football player. Here's Ben Folds with his new song, The Bell That Couldn't Jingle. couldn't jingle. There are two ways to go when recording Christmas music, devout or irreverent. By devout, I don't mean somberly religious as much as I mean sincere and respectful. Few pop performers do devout sincerity more assiduously than Ben Folds, whose earnest tone is ideal for holiday songs. Folds has a new album called Slayer, as in Christmas Slay, though I'm sure given his puckish sense of humor, he meant the title to echo the name of the thrash metal band Slayer,

spelled differently, and authors of albums such as Rain in Blood. Ben Folds, by contrast, wants to rain in heaven, blessed to sing his new would-be Christmas standard called Christmas Time Rhyme. Christmas morning in the back of the old family fort With my feet dangling wondering when they might grow to the floor Pumpkin pie wrapped in foil And gifts wrapped in newspaper

Ringing the bell of my grandmother's door All the memories that the season stored Hey! The sentimentality that is inherent in much country music gives it an ideal base upon which to build holiday music, and the four-member country act, Little Big Town, has now created The Christmas Record, a straightforward title for a briskly sung collection that mixes standards with original material such as their single, Glow. Let it be Christmas. Let's shine that shimmer deep inside of you. Find that magic. Let the light in you show. Let it go. Let it glow. Let it glow. One of the little things that we do is we make sure that we're not just going to be

the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same.

We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same.

We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. We're going to be the same. Go, let it blow, let it blow One of Little Big Town's Better Choices of Country covers is their version of a song I wish more people listened to at this time of year, Merle Haggard's lovely song, If We Make It Through December. If we make it through December Everything's gonna be alright, I know It's the coldest time of winter And I shiver when I see the falling snow If we make it through December

God plans to be in a warmer town called Summertime Maybe even California If we make it through December, we'll be fine. My final selection of new Christmas music is a duet between a very famous pop star and a very famous football player. No, no, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have not cut their version of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I'm talking about Travis' brother Jason Kelce and his duet with Stevie Nicks doing Ron Sexsmith's beautiful holiday

song, Maybe This Christmas. This year love will appear deeper than ever before And maybe forgiveness will ask us to call someone we love Someone we've lost for reasons we can't quite recall We can't quite recall Maybe this Christmas Maybe the be an open door Maybe the stars that shone before Will shine once more That surprisingly effective Kelsey Stevie duet is part of an album called A Philly Special Christmas Party, a Philadelphia Eagles charity fundraiser.

Thinking back to the start of this review, all of my new examples are devout, not irreverent. Maybe next year someone will come up with a new novelty Christmas hit, but as it stands, this year is well served by some very soothing music. Rock critic Ken Tucker reviewed new Christmas music from Ben Folds, Little Big Town, and Jason Kelcey and Stevie Nicks singing a duet on a Philly special Christmas party. On Monday's show, actor and comic Ronnie Chang. He was brought to The Daily Show by Trevor Noah and became a field correspondent.

Now he's one of the rotating correspondents who anchor the show. He co-stars in the new series, Interior Chinatatown and was in the film Crazy Rich Asians. He has a new Netflix comedy special. I hope you can join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at NPR Fresh Air. Fresh Air. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our senior producer today is Roberta Sharrock. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham with additional engineering support by Joyce Lieberman, Julian Hertzfeld and Diana Martinez.

Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Anne-Marie Baldonado, Sam Brigger, Lauren Krenzel, Theresa Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Challener, Susan Yacundi, and Anna Baumann. Our digital media producer is Molly C. V. Nesper. For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I'm David Bianculli.