Photo: #Kim and Quillan Roe of the Roe Family Singers are participating in Minnesota Public Radio's Songs from Scratch songwriting project.

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Songs From Scratch

There's something magical about a great song, whether it's Stravinsky or Springsteen. But where do great songs come from? How do they go from words and melodies to something more? To find out, we gave three local bands two weeks to take one set of lyrics and put it to music.

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Songs From Scratch

Songs from Scratch: What's this all about?


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Minnesota Public Radio has a new project that explores the creative process, and you have a chance to participate.

We want to find out what happens when you ask a bunch of people to each compose a song using the same lyrics. We're calling it "Songs from Scratch."

We asked poet Stephen Burt to provide the lyrics. Then, we asked some professional musicians to write a song based on those lyrics. The Owls, Matt Wilson, and the Roe Family Singers are all contributing a song.

We'd also like to hear your songs. MPR's Cathy Wurzer talked with two of the project producers, Larissa Anderson and Sanden Totten, about how it will work.

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