Country music may be back in the saddle on the New York dial with Nash FM. But here at Soundcheck, country music was always in the saddle. Here are some of our favorite in-studio performances, from Laura Cantrell, The Devil Makes Three, Darrell Scott and more.

For this New Sounds, composer and founder of the new music group Newspeak, David T. Little, joins John Schaefer to present selections from his hour-long multimedia one-man opera, “Soldier Songs.” The work is in three acts, which explore the perceptions of war throughout the character’s life; Youth – where war is a game, Warrior - where war is reality, and Elder - which is more of a philosophical approach to war.  Games are at the heart of the work, as evidenced by the accompanying visuals - realistic-looking video game imagery by an animator.

Have 7,513 hours to spare? That’s about how long it would take you to listen through to the entire digital holdings of the Macaulay Library archive of natural sounds.

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Battle of the Boroughs - it's all about the sound. 

Be a part of making someone's dream come true tonight! Fourteen bands will compete, but only one can go on to represent Brooklyn in the Ultimate Battle on June 21. 

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Singer/songwriter/thumb piano aficionado Katie Mullins plays Union Hall Friday night. Download the track "Spring."

In the ballad, told countless times over more than a century, the railroad worker John Henry wins a race against a new steam-powered drill, but the victory is Pyrrhic: he collapses, saying “Give me a cool drink of water before I die.” “Did he win? Did he lose?,” wonders novelist Colson Whitehead ...

Dig your cowboy boots out of the closet -- New York City recently got its first commercial country music station in almost two decades. Earlier this week, we hosted an hour-long Parallel Play, listening to Nash FM 94.7 and chatting about it online with country music neophyte A.J. Jacobs and country music expert Jessie Scott. (You can check out our archived chat here.)

Today, our chat participants rehash our 60 minutes of listening -- discussing high and low points, lyrical trends and the prominence of pop-country crossover on the station. Plus, we hear from listeners about what they want to hear on the station. 

Check out a playlist of some of what we heard in our hour-long listen to Nash FM -- and tell us what you'd like to hear on the station below. 

The powerful soul singer Trixie Whitley brings songs from her triumphant debut album, Fourth Corner, live to the studio. Watch a video of her performance of the song 'Gradual Return.'

The British post-punk band Joy Division existed for less than three years. But its influence on music over the last thirty-odd years has been enormous. Now, Peter Hook, who played bass in both bands, is telling his part of the tale. He joins us with a new book called Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division.

With Schoolhouse Rock turning 40 this month, Soundcheck contributor reflects on the lasting impact and charm of the beloved children's cartoon. Have you used lessons learned from Schoolhouse Rock in your everyday life? 

Butch Morris, who died this past Tuesday at 65, was a cornetist and conductor, best known for developing a musical vocabulary that he called “Conduction.”  The term meant conducted improvisation, where Butch would shape the music through a series of gestures, and both audience and ensemble could watch the performance unfold as they listened.  It is not the type of musical experience that radio is good at capturing, unfortunately; it really is one of those “you had to be there” things.   But we did give it a try, once, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Chef Eddie Huang and rapper Heems, formerly of the hip hop group Das Racist join us for a conversation about food and hip hop.