Ann Delisi's Essential Conversations

In this rare 1994 interview with folk singer Ted Hawkins – recorded one year before his death – Ann Delisi speaks with Hawkins about going from busking on Venice Beach to getting a major label record deal, and appreciating the past to look forward to the future.

Husband and wife duo Ida Mae (Chris Turpin and Stephanie Jean Ward) join Ann Delisi to talk about their blues influences, relocating to the U.S. from London, and their 2019 album “Chasing Lights,” recorded at Real World Studios.

Joshua Henry has been in every one of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway musicals, starting with In the Heights (2008), and including his role as Aaron Burr in the first U.S. tour of Hamilton (2016). Henry talked with Ann Delisi about his career, and his new EP, Guarantee.

Nearly 20 years ago, Robert Stiles discovered 29 unknown works by virtuosic bassist and composer Serge Koussevitzky. Now, Stiles is the Principal Librarian for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where he puts his knowledge of music history and U.S. copyright law to work. Stiles spoke with Ann Delisi about his early career, discovering Koussevitzky's works, and gives a behind-the-scenes look at how orchestra find and obtain the music for their performances.

Gregory Porter is an accomplished singer and songwriter, but he didn’t do it on his own. In this episode of Essential Conversations, Ann Delisi talks with Porter about how his brother and mother were foundational in his career, which includes two Grammy wins for Best Jazz Vocal Album (Liquid Spirit, 2014; Take Me to the Alley, 2017). Plus, Don Was tells the story of how signing Gregory Porter was his first act as president of Blue Note Records.

Al Sutton talks with Ann Delisi about his award-winning career as a music producer. They talk about Sutton’s creative process working with some of rock music’s top talent at Rust Belt Studios, including Greta Van Fleet and Kid Rock. Sutton also tells the story of the “Wolfbox,” a key component of the Motown sound.

British blues rocker Joanne Shaw Taylor spoke with Ann Delisi about being discovered by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, performing alongside Paul McCartney and Elton John, idolizing Stevie Ray Vaughn, and moving to Detroit from the United Kingdom.

Prolific musician and activist Ani DiFranco joins Ann Delisi to talk about her new single, “Do or Die,” how activism and social movements have defined her career, and why she chose to shave her head (again).

In this rare 1994 interview, Ann Delisi talks with avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson about her decades-long career as a performance artist, her love/hate relationship with technology, writing a retrospective on her career, and getting out of creative ruts.

Jeff Mills is one of the pioneers of electronic music. He talked with Ann Delisi about co-founding The Underground Resistance in Detroit, the early days of radio, and the challenges of working with Classical musicians.

John Sinclair co-founded the White Panthers, managed the MC5, and was at the center of a landmark 1972 wiretapping case that went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. Sinclair joined Ann Delisi to talk about his revolutionary life and work in Detroit as an artist and activist.

The War and Treaty are a vocal powerhouse with a story as moving as their music. The husband/wife duo spoke with Ann Delisi about how they met, writing music while deployed in Iraq, and playing Saddam Hussein’s piano. Blue Note Records president Don Was also joins the conversation and remembers the first time he heard them sing.

Since his tragic death in 1997, Jeff Buckley's music and legacy has only increased in popularity. Those who worked with him remember an incredibly talented, charismatic artist. In this episode, Ann Delisi talks with former WDET staffers about the day in 1994 that Buckley and his band performed live at WDET, and what it took to get him there.

Billy Mann has worked with pop heavyweights like Carole King, P!nk, Cher, and Ricky Martin. In this episode of Essential Conversations, Ann Delisi talks with Mann about his longstanding songwriting relationship with P!nk, working with iconic musicians, and the bets big record companies make on new talent.

Adam White co-wrote this book with Barney Ales, who was Berry Gordy’s partner at Motown Records. While Berry handled the artistic and creative side of Motown, Barney Ales made sure the records got played on the radio, that they were distributed to the buying public and that Motown got paid.

Emery King recalls covering the Carter and Reagan Administrations as the NBC White House Correspondent, how race played a role in the trajectory of his career and moving to Detroit to cover local news.

Episode Description In December of 2015, Frank Sinatra would have turned 100 years. His daughter, Tina Sinatra, talked with Ann Delisi about her famous father. TinaSinatra

These 3 Detroiters sat down in front of an audience to talk with Ann Delisi about music and sports at the Shinola Hotel in Detroit to benefit the Kirk Gibson Foundation for Parkinson’s

In October of 2016, Ann Delisi talked with Iggy Pop & Jim Jarmusch in front of an audience at the Detroit Film Theater following the premiere screening of the film “Gimme Danger” about The Stooges.

Ann Delisi talks with Billy Davis about his friendship with James Brown, his history working with Hank Ballard and the Midnighters and meeting an unknown aspiring guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, who learned not only guitar playing techniques, but some of his signature stage moves, from Billy Davis.

Ann Delisi continues her conversation with NPR Political Correspondent, Don Gonyea who talks about what it’s like to be a reporter at a Trump rally, covering Barack Obama when he spoke to 250,000 people in Berlin, being at The White House on 9/11 and the phone conversation he had with his wife that day.

Ann Delisi talks with her longtime friend and colleague, Don Gonyea, about getting the call to cover The White House for NPR, the protocol for the daily press briefings, the logistics of being in the press corps on Air Force One and covering President Donald Trump.

Ann Delisi continues her conversation with Prince’s longtime audio engineer and Berklee College of Music Professor, Susan Rogers. In Part Two, they discuss the two musicians whose tour support he anonymously paid to keep their careers going, how he created his own competition and when she realized it was time to leave.

Ann Delisi talks with Prince’s longtime audio engineer and Berklee College of Music Professor, Susan Rogers, about meeting him for the first time, the song she loved that he made her erase and the rehearsals for the Purple Rain Tour

Saxophonist Dave McMurray recalls his work with fellow musician and producer, Don Was, working with The Rolling Stones and his Blue Note Records debut album “Music Is Life”

Radio DJ and Programmer, Mike Halloran, talks about getting on the radio at WDET in Detroit, legendary Detroit DJ The Electrifying Mojo, discovering The Violent Femmes and seeing Bjork wearing an Underground Resistance jacket in Stockholm

Internationally acclaimed conductor, Leonard Slatkin, takes the listener inside the world of Classical Music and explains what exactly it is that a conductor does.

Dynamic Detroit singer and prolific songwriter, Jax Anderson, talks with Ann Delisi about making her own instruments as a kid and the beginnings of her band, Flint Eastwood.

Songwriter Allee Willis talks about working with Earth Wind and Fire, her time with Bob Dylan and James Brown and the “September.”

Barrett Strong tells Ann Delisi the history behind Motown hit songs “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Money (That’s What I Want).”

Mr. Porter gets introspective about his life and his work, and reveals his Top 10 Hip Hop Songs.

Ann Delisi talks with Don Was about producing, his kids, Iggy Pop and why he won’t write a book.

In 2018, Ann Delisi sat down with Official White House Photographer for the Obama Administration, Pete Souza, in which they talked about his access to sensitive information, his favorite day in the White House and the night they caught Osama Bin Laden.

Jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding talked with Ann Delisi when they performed together at the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2018. They talk about teaching, performing and being jazz artists.

Wayne Kramer talks Ann Delisi about his memoir “The Hard Stuff”, how the MC5 began, the genius of lead singer Rob Tyner and their legendary album “Kick Out the Jams."

In 2017, Ann Delisi sat down with journalist, actor and humorist, Mo Rocca at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. They talked about writing for kids, U.S. Presidents, The Daily Show and how differently Jon Stewart would have dealt with Donald Trump

For decades, Detroit radio host, Ann Delisi, has been talking with people whose creative spirit drives them. With some Midwest charm, she talks with everyone from White House Photographer Pete Souza to Journalist/ Actor Mo Rocca to Jazz Artists Esperanza Spalding and Terri Lyne Carrington.