KEXP Presents Six Degrees of Sharon Van Etten Day

Tune in this Friday, July 19th, as KEXP celebrates Six Degrees of Sharon Van Etten Day, a day of “on-the-fly” programming inspired by the musical collaborations of singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten. (Van Etten reports, “It's kind of freaking me out. Haha!”)

From 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM PT, John Richards and Kevin Cole, with support from Cheryl Waters, will program a day of music inspired by pop-culture parlor game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” At 6:00 AM, John will start his show with a song by Van Etten, and each song played thereafter will somehow link to the song played before it.

Connections can include anything from guest vocals, shared musicians, same producers, and more. None of these connections have been pre-planned, and our DJs will be thinking on their feet to come up with the next song.

Richards explains, “Every day at KEXP, we connect artists in nearly every set -- be it sound, energy, influence, style, personnel. We try to both entertain and educate at the same time. One morning, I had connected about a half-dozen artists, and thought to myself, I wonder how long you could keep doing this? I asked the same question to Kevin Cole later that day, and we agreed to find out! We feel Six Degrees of Sharon Van Etten Day really represents what KEXP is about: programming on the fly, with our listeners participating in the broadcast.”

Richards adds, “I'm most excited to see what our listeners come up with. Remember, this isn't being planned out ahead of time. There’s going to be a minute-long Ramones song, and a listener is going to send us a bill they shared with another punk band in 1977, or the producer of their debut with another seminal record. It’s really exciting to see where this will go. We have no idea!”

Listeners are strongly encouraged to send their musical suggestions via e-mail to dj@kexp.org, or on Twitter (@KEXP).