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Briston Maroney Is Writing Powerful Rock Songs With Grit And Heart

Briston Maroney came into our studio with green-tinged curly long hair and a plaid flannel shirt — looking way more Kurt Cobain than Carrie Underwood. I had to double check my notes before asking him about his experience auditioning for American Idol when he was still in high school.

Briston has lived in lots of places, including Knoxville, Los Angeles and Nashville, where, like lots of our guests who have spent time in Nashville, he has a story about John Prine at the grocery store. He's young but he has lived a lot of life — before he was even legally allowed to drink, he went to rehab — and he wears all that experience in a way that really makes you want to root for him and his dreams.

Briston came in with his bandmates, Jack and Noah, to perform songs from his latest EP which came out in May, Indiana, and from his 2018 EP, Carnival. Hear it all in the player.

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Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.
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.