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Words That Sing

Words That Sing

by Clay Hipp

Music Commentary

Season 1

Episode 22: This Land is Your Land: A Tribute to Wendell Berry

Clay remembers writer, farmer, poet, and conservationist Wendell Berry through stories, personal memories, and songs about land, home, farming, community, and belonging. Featuring music from Woody Guthrie, David Mallett, Pierce Pettis (among others) this episode is a musical thank-you to a man who spent his life asking us to notice, and to protect, the irreplaceable things — the land, our fellow creatures, and the people we love.

Episode 21: Three Angelic Voices, a State of Grace

In Episode 21, Clay celebrates The Wailin’ Jennys, the Canadian-born folk-roots trio known for exquisite three-part harmonies and thoughtful songwriting. Drawing from folk, bluegrass, Celtic, pop, jazz, and blues traditions, Ruth Moody, Nicky Mehta, and Heather Masse create music that can be tender, mysterious, joyful, and deeply contemplative. Clay shares some personal favorites—including songs of love, freedom, belonging, and hope—from a group whose voices seem to meet in a state of grace.

Episode 20: Special Songs

This week, Clay presents a special mélange of songs about remarkable people and the lives they touched. We encounter a starry night, a leader and his band, an empty garden, and a blackbird learning to fly. Together, these musical portraits speak of beauty, loss, gratitude, and remembrance—and remind us what we may discover when we stop merely hearing familiar songs and begin listening to the stories within them.

Episode 19: A "Mainer" Returns Home - The Songs of David Mallett

In this episode we celebrate Maine singer-songwriter David Mallett, who left home for Nashville only to discover that the heart of his music remained in Maine. Through songs including “Garden Song,” “I Knew This Place,” and “Celebration,” we meet an artist whose deeply rooted stories speak to the whole human family.

Episode 18: A Great Day to Be Alive: The Songs of Darrell Scott

In Episode 18, Clay celebrates the songs of Darrell Scott—a masterful storyteller whose music embraces crooked roads, open hearts, family, sorrow, and hard-won joy. From intimate reflections to an irresistible closing anthem, these are songs that meet us in the fullness of being alive.

Episode 17: The Day the Music Died: Don McLean’s Songs of Memory and Loss

In Episode 17, Clay explores the enduring songs of Don McLean, beginning with the mystery, memory, and cultural sweep of “American Pie.” Through “Vincent" and lesser know selections, he reveals a songwriter equally at home with history, love, loneliness, and the passage of time.

Episode 16: The Storytelling Songs of Robin and Linda Williams

In this songwriter profile, Clay celebrates Robin and Linda Williams, the beloved Virginia folk duo whose partnership has spanned more than fifty years. Through songs of home, longing, love, loss, humor, and resilience, he explores Robin’s gift for storytelling, Linda’s luminous musicianship, and the personal history that has kept him returning to their concerts for decades. Listen closely to the lyrics: these are songs that speak from one heart directly to another.

Episode 15: Help Is On The Way

A change of pace and a dip into nostalgia: three songs each from two beloved bands whose names have faded but whose sounds haven't — Little River Band and Three Dog Night. Along the way, a memory of leaving one life for another and discovering a musical revolution already underway. Lyrics, harmony, and a little celebration to close.

Episode 14: Songs for America

Join us for another episode of Words that Sing. In this episode Clay's selections are a post-independence day reflection on the songs and words that shape his ideas of who we are and where we have been.

Episode 13: Running on Words: Jackson Browne and the Art of the Honest Song

This episode of Words That Sing, features Jackson Browne, one of the great songwriters of memory, longing, conscience, and the road. Browne’s songs have a way of sounding personal and universal at the same time — intimate enough to feel like a confession, but wide enough to hold a generation’s questions about love, loss, justice, and what it means to keep going. Clay reflects on Browne’s gift for making words sing with emotional honesty, moral seriousness, and a kind of restless beauty.

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