Whenever skies

Look gray to me

And troubles begin to brew

Whenever the winter When troubles begin to brew

Whenever the winter winds become too strong,

I concentrate on you.

Hello. This is your host for today, Robbie Martin.

In the background, you were listening to the vocalizations of Nellie McKay,

who happens to be our guest today on Media Roots Radio.

Nellie and I linked up last year because of many overlapping political interests we shared.

Our passion for anti-war especially, being in a totally isolated musical bubble of experimental,

electronic music and academic wankery, I wasn't personally familiar with your body of work

before we started talking.

And when I first had the opportunity to see you perform in Oakland, I was completely blown away,

not just by how politically charged your music was, but also just how incredible of a performer you are.

Breathed-taking vocals, amazing ukulele and keyboard performance. I can't remember the last time I had seen a show

inside of a nightclub where virtually the entire audience was fully engaged with your performance,

where they were singing along with your lyrics. You're also an actress who starred in plays.

They require not just musical performances, but also some ad-libbing as well, like in the recent

Ethan Cohen play that you start in called A Play as a Poem.

It's a really rare thing to meet such a brilliant performer and artist who is also this

deeply engaged in radical politics. And I thought you

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