Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Catching Up With Citizen Cope

I asked Clarence Greenwood what his 8-year-old daughter thought of his job as a professional musician. He said, "When she was really young, she asked one of her mom's friends why do people stop her daddy?" The joys of parenthood.

It's one of many things that's kept Greenwood, better known by his stage name, Citizen Cope, busy over the last seven years. That's the last time he released an album, 2012's One Lovely Day.

Cope has always done things his own way, like abandoning major labels in 2010 to found Rainwater Recordings. His latest release is the curiously-titled Heroin and Helicopters and yes, he'll explain the meaning behind that name. The album contains Cope's signature mix of blues, soul and roots music, along with socially conscious lyrics. We start with a perfect example, a recording of "Justice." Hear it all 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.