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Mike Farris On World Cafe

Mike Farris
Sebastian Smith
/
Courtesy of the artist
Mike Farris

Mike Farris is unflinchingly optimistic. You can read it on his Twitter, hear it in his music and feel it in conversation when you talk with him. He can even have a laugh about the name of the band he played in during his 20s while signed to Atlantic Records, The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies.

Mike's enjoyed a solo career since leaving the Wheelies back in the early 2000s, focusing on his music, spirituality, sobriety and family life. Farris' 2014 album, Shine For All The People, was the first-ever recipient of the Best Roots/Gospel Album Grammy in 2015. On 2018's Silver and Stone, Farris writes a love letter to his wife with a collection of originals and covers that are deeply soulful and definitely uplifting.

In this session, Farris talks about the album, why he wrote a song for Mavis Staples and covered Sam Cooke. It starts off with a live recording of "Snap Your Fingers." Hear the complete session in the player.

Copyright 2019 XPN

Since 2017, John Myers has been the producer of NPR's World Cafe, which is produced by WXPN at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Previously he spent about eight years working on the other side of Philly at WHYY as a producer on the staff of Fresh Air with Terry Gross. John was also a member of the team of public radio veterans recruited to develop original programming for Audible and has worked extensively as a freelance producer. His portfolio includes work for the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, The Association for Public Art and the radio documentary, Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio. He's taught radio production to preschoolers and college students and, in the late 90's, spent a couple of years traveling around the country as a roadie for the rock band Huffamoose.