This is a beautifully-produced portrait of a problem and the people going through it. Well-chosen voices, expertly-paced storytelling. I've purchased this to use on NEXT, the new regional news program from the New England News Collaborative.

Ken's work is funny. Not "hit-you-over-the-head-funny" but that's why I like it. A lot.

A dry read plus a dry sense of humor plus briskly paced editing plus some pitch-challenged singing equals three minutes I think most listeners would like just about anytime. A midday news magazine needs "The Sounds of Lunch."

Please listen to this, and use it as "gateway listening" to discover his excellent magazine show "The Lumberyard."

It's like a poetry DJ show - Ken & Aaron simply spinning some thoughtful and compelling spoken-word pieces.

What makes it work is the pacing, and the readers themselves. Polished performers presenting short pieces in a straightforward manner. Each one grabs you in its own way.

The music pieces have the same energy, and really work in context. I urge you to give it a listen.

WNPR will be broadcasting this episode of The Lumberyard on April 2, as part of our program Essential Radio - we're pairing it with Wordshakers, the Hearing Voices Special.

1. Sally's debut piece, Growth is strange and very beautiful.

2. Her website, sohosally.com is full of clever and cool cut & paste cartoons. Go there. This is clearly a very creative producer.

3. The title of this piece, "I Would Love You Even if You had a Colostomy Bag" is just too good to pass up.

Here's the deal, though. I don't agree with the production choices here. This could be an interesting piece, and deal with the issues of STDs, stigma, and fairy tale dreams as it promises to...but it would need some work.

First of all, perhaps through choice or technique, the music enters the story entirely too loud. In fact, I find it a bit upsetting to listen to (perhaps that's the intent).

My quibble is more with the focus of the piece, though. The interview feels as though it is basically about a young woman's experience with STD and stigma - and the "fairy tale" concept is tacked on by including "The Sound of Music." I didn't get the sense that the woman interviewed would have bought into the whole concept at all.

I urge people to listen to this piece, and tell me that I'm wrong. This particular health topic is never reported on in the media, and so I commend the producer for the effort. I think a remix and edit might produce another interesting story.

I mean, clearly it's not the only influence on this interesting and well-produced half hour...but it's right there all the time. I'm a bit skeptical. Is everyone's personal story ready for exposure on the airwaves as long as there's music in the background? I dunno. These I find interesting.

The stories roll along for a bit until I'm able to grab hold of the characters and their stories...but I don't think that's a bad thing in narrative radio.

Good work here...I hope to use it on WNPR.

I was pretty scared by the description and host lead of this piece - I thought the it was going to be about the culture clash of backwoods guys doing hip-hop. Ugh. But not only is the piece not about that, it addresses that question directly in the story - and cleverly blows up the assumption. This piece works because we get to (if only briefly) go inside the group's music-making process, which I usually find infinitely more interesting than "personal" stories about artists any day. Plus, I always love to be surprised by something, and my big surprise here was the "craft" displayed by both the producer and the band itself. Nice stuff.

We used this piece on WNPR's Morning Edition a few weeks ago. We loved it for it's unusual approach to music reporting (at least in the context of what we usually hear on M.E.). With pieces like this, and the "Musicians in Their Own Words" series, it seems like the non-narrated music documentary has become a standard production technique. Which is, I think a good thing (as long as it doesn't supplant other ways to present music on a news show). Of course, we also love the producer's taste, which provides lovely balance to this and other pieces we've heard. Knowing nothing about this group going in, I was surprised when the second half of the piece has them singing more popular-sounding english-language music. It's (at first) a bit disappointing to hear - then grows on you by the end.

One big suggestion, though: This piece was uploaded with very little additional information about the group, about the music, about context for the piece. If it included a brief suggested host intro/outro, and some links to find out more about this music, it would be much easier for stations to air.

I was out yesterday doing some reporting on a pretty standard-issue news story. I did a bunch of five-minute interviews with people, and I was frustrated and surprised that I just couldn't get anyone to open up...you know, really tell me anything. "Joey" just made me believe in the power of the five-minute interview again.

It is raw, and not for everyone's air...but I gotta say, honesty makes such good radio. And "Joey" brought that out in his subject. Kudos.