Playlist for LiveTalksLA event with Colum McCann and his new book, Transatlantic

For Live Talks LA, the speaker series my boyfriend produces, I’ve taken to compiling playlists of music to fill the venue before the event.  

For tonight’s author, whose latest book spans not just continents but eras, this was a fun challenge–one made easier by references to various songs throughout the book.

Here’s what you’ll hear if you come to the William Turner gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica tonight…before you hear red-hot author Colum McCann being quizzed by the LA Times’ literary goddess Carolyn Kellogg.

Harlem Rag by Donna Coleman

We Shall Overcome by The Boys Choir of Harlem

Ireland by Bela Fleck

Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick

Frederick Douglass by Flo, El Guapo and Big Mello

John Harmann/Rule Brittania by Metropolitan Wind Symphony

Let the Great World Spin by Joe Hurley

Lorena by Blaine Sprouse

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin

Transatlantic by Bleu Screen

Transatlantic by Quantic