Add To Playlist Podcast Review

The Pitch:

A musical journey of discovery.

The Product:

Several years ago I discovered that Cerys Matthews, singer of Welsh alt rock band Catatonia, has a Sunday morning show on BBC radio. It’s a wholesome ramble of a show that marvels in the diversity and scope of music, art, and nature. It’s truly lovely.

One of my favourite elements of the show is when Cerys plays two songs back to back that are connected in some way. Sometimes the connective tissue is a bassline or a drum beat, sometimes it’s a lyric, sometimes it’s just the ‘feeling’ of the song. “That should be a whole show” I thought to myself, moving on with my life, UNTIL Add To Playlist was suggested to me.

Here, fully formed and with lots of episodes, is a whole show dedicated to creating playlists full of songs that have various musical webs linking them. Cerys is joined by Jeffrey Boakye, a self-described author, broadcaster, educator and occasional journalist, who adds — among many other things — the black British perspective, and with it, many rich layers of history, musical and otherwise.

Jeffrey and Cerys are joined by guests from the world of music on each episode, and the enthusiastic discussions of music are often accompanied by impromptu instrumental moments and singalongs. All…