The Come Hear NC Music Office’s support of North Carolina music and musicians furthers the five goals set out by DNCR’s strategic plan for 2025–2029: to educate with creativity and joy, strengthen local economies via culture, preserve and enhance access to cultural resources, bolster cross-DNCR collaboration and responsiveness to public need, and continue Hurricane Helene recovery and climate resilience work.
Topics Related to Shaped by Sound
Shaped by Sound is made possible through the support of the Come Hear NC Music Office (CHNCMO), a program of the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The PBS NC original series spotlights North Carolina’s thriving music scene, featuring artists working in a broad range of genres, including indie rock, rap, R&B, country, jazz, bluegrass, folk, and gospel.
Shaped by Sound is made possible through the support of the Come Hear NC Music Office (CHNCMO), a program of the North Carolina Arts Council, which is a division of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Shaped by Sound— a PBS NC original series showcasing North Carolina’s thriving music scene—is back. The second season features a bright new lineup of homegrown indie rock, rap, rhythm and blues, country, jazz, bluegrass, folk, and gospel artists.
On February 6, the premiere episode of Come Hear NC Presents: Shaped by Sound will air on PBS NC, featuring Iron & Wine. The group’s led by singer-songwriter Sam Beam, who has been gently experimenting with folk sounds since the early 2000s. Beam’s Grammy nominated songs have been featured in countless films and television shows.
Indie rock powerhouses Superchunk are up next for PBS NC's SHAPED BY SOUND, with their episode airing on Thursday, February 20th at 9:30 PM. Over the course of twelve LPs and countless EPs and singles, the band’s mapped out a sound and ethos for alt rock in North Carolina and beyond. Superchunk and Merge Records’ hooky, frenetic form of indie remains influential and vital today.
Winston-Salem’s Sonny Miles has a seemingly effortless ability to blend and mix musics. In a way that harkens back to greats like Stevie Wonder and to contemporaries like Frank Ocean, Miles beautifully weds genres (R&B, hip-hop, jazz and soul to name a few), production styles (lo-, mid- and hi-fidelity, analog and digital), and instrumentation (drum machines and acoustic guitars, live vocals and samples).
Alice Gerrard is this week’s featured artist on SHAPED BY SOUND (Thursday, 3/13). She made four records with Hazel Dickens in 1960s and ‘70s, the first two for Folkways and the second for Rounder. Now considered landmarks of old-time and bluegrass, these LPs have had the natural but distorting effect of downplaying Gerrard’s life and career post Hazel & Alice.