Welcome to this bonus episode of Sound Opinions.

I'm Jim Deregadis. My partner is Greg Kot,

and Greg, today we're excited to announce the winners of the

2024 Sound Opinions Music Prize.

That's in just a minute.

Sound opinions is supported by Goose Island

since 1988 Goose Island's been brewing beers

in the spirit of Chicago.

You can find 3.12.2, Weedale, big juicy beer hug, and so many other limited releases

at either of Goose's locations in Chicago, Goose Island Beer Company, Chicago's beer.

Beer.

We are back.

It's our second annual prize showcasing a few students who really wrote exceptional songs.

You're correct, Jim.

We're happy to shed some light on these students works.

And as always, we'd like to thank our friends at the Goldschmidt Foundation for donating

to these students and giving us this opportunity.

And Jim, we are in our bag this week because we're talking with the music prize winners.

Absolutely, Greg, and we teamed up with my colleague Gary Yerkins from Columbia College Chicago's music department

who helped compile a list of contenders and then the two of us chose the finalists from that list.

We'll be hearing from the three of them today.

So we'll go one song at a time starting with our first place music prize winner, Mary James.

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