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NPR News

The All Songs Considered SXSW Preview, 2017

NPR | By Robin Hilton,
Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
Published March 13, 2017 at 9:30 AM EDT
Clockwise from upper left: Bishop Briggs, Tunde Olaniran, Charlie Cunningham, Pavvla, Phoebe Bridgers, Trapo
Courtesy of the artists
Clockwise from upper left: Bishop Briggs, Tunde Olaniran, Charlie Cunningham, Pavvla, Phoebe Bridgers, Trapo

For music lovers, South By Southwest can feel like Christmas, Mardi Gras, Spring Break and March Madness rolled into one. Spread out over five days and nights in Austin, Texas, it's a thrilling and exhausting musical endurance challenge, with fans often seeing upwards of 100 shows before the week is through. This week on All Songs Considered, hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are joined by NPR Music's Stephen Thompson to share and discuss some of the artists they're most excited to see and hear as this year's festival kicks off.

To suss out this year's discoveries Bob, Robin and Stephen listened to more than 1,500 songs by acts playing SXSW 2017 — which makes the 15 songs featured in this episode the literal one percent that they are most excited to bring to a larger audience.

For NPR Music's full coverage of SXSW 2017, visit this page — and keep an eye on our social media. To get you started: here's Bob, Robin and Stephen on Twitter, plus Bob on Instagram, where he posts photos of many of the shows he sees. We'll be down and around all week with more updates, announcements, South X Lullabies, in-the-moment exclamations of joy, and bleary-eyed late-night dispatches from the All Songs Considered team.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR News
Robin Hilton
Robin Hilton is the Senior Podcast Producer for NPR Music and hosts the New Music Friday episodes of All Songs Considered. He is also a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose original scores have appeared in podcasts, films, radio programs and other works. He arranged and performed the theme for NPR's Weekend All Things Considered and composed and performed its elections coverage theme. You can hear more of his music here.
Bob Boilen
In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.
Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a host, writer and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist and guest host on All Songs Considered. Thompson also co-hosts the daily NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created with NPR's Linda Holmes in 2010. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)