"Natchez to New York" by Olu Dara from Jan 1, 1989, is featured today. It's one of those quiet evenings on the front porch in Natchez, Mississippi. Just crickets, the distant sound of a few cars, and a bluesy song for harmonica and guitar—as sweet as the sugar shack it talks about. But there's trouble ahead as Neville, a down-home juke-joint man and Diana, who pursues a career at New York's Metropolitan Opera, collide. In Neville's words: "Good Lord woman, send Madam Butterfly back to bed. What's left to eat? I can't stand no opera on no empty stomach." They sing and fight and sing and fight until eventually, they go together—from Nachez to New York. An improvisational work in a fixed form! Commissioned by New American Radio.