TROUBADOURS: CAROLE KING / JAMES TAYLOR

& THE RISE OF THE SINGER-SONGWRITER

TUESDAY, MARCH 8 @ 6:00PM & 9:00PM

The narrative begins in the ’60s, when Carole King and Gerry Goffin were writing their now-iconic songs at Manhattan’s 1650 Broadway hit factory, and James Taylor was emerging as a folksinger/songwriter. The location then shifts westward to L.A.’s Laurel Canyon, the breeding ground for the burgeoning singer-songwriter community, and to Doug Weston’s Troubadour, where the King/Taylor partnership begins to blossom and a close-knit crew of future legends — including Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Eagles, and Elton John—performs on the small stage and holds court in the bar, the epicenter of the action.

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THE RISE AND FALL OF ISLAMIC SPAIN

SATURDAY, MARCH 12 @ 7:00PM

From the days of Charlemagne to Christopher Columbus, Islamic Spain represents one of the most productive intercultural relationships in Western history down to the present day. The lemon tree, the water wheel, the astrolabe and Aristotle’s lost philosophy all arrived in Europe through Islamic Spain. Churches and temples that strongly resemble Muslim mosques, the pinnacle of Hebrew literature’s Golden Age, the roots of modern medicine and mathematics, and the transmission of Greek philosophy into Western Europe are just a few of the collaborative achievements that form the legacy of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim cultures interacting on the Iberian Peninsula over seven centuries.

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AIMEE MANN/IRON & WINE

SUNDAY, MARCH 6 @ 9:00PM

For decades, Aimee Mann has been known as one of the top songwriters in contemporary music. Mann frequently pairs the bleakest of poetry with soaring, infectious melodies for emotionally explosive tunes that have won her numerous awards and fans. With her witty lyrics critics report that “no one surpasses her as a master of poetic regret.” (All Music Guide).

The Virginia-born, Berklee School of Music-trained musician had a hit in the ’80s with her band ’til Tuesday’s debut single “Voices Carry,” but it’s her journey as a solo artist that’s ultimately gained the most attention. After 1993’s Whatever and 1995’s I’m With Stupid, her first two solo albums attracted reams of critical acclaim but few sales, Mann left the major label system behind for good.
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VARIETY

SATURDAY, MARCH 5 @ 6:00PM

Born of the vaudevillian era, TV variety programs carried the traditions of comedy, song, dance and sketch performance into America’s living room and into a new era of entertainment. This genre of television programming pushed the boundaries of social satire and challenged the pace at which shows progressed.

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HARRY CONNICK JR. IN CONCERT ON BROADWAY

FRIDAY, JUNE 15 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM

Twenty years after dazzling audiences in his first solo Broadway concert early in his career, three-time Grammy Award-winner Harry Connick, Jr. returned to the Main Stem in a roster of favorites, performed in his trademark New Orleans style.

Taped in July of 2010 at New York’s Neil Simon Theater, Harry Connick, Jr. in Concert on Broadway features Connick’s big band and a 12-piece string section, with the star on both a Steinway grand and upright honky-tonk piano. Variety raved, “Connick, in concert, packs such dynamite that those ‘Jersey Boys’ across the street seem positively sedate.”
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COLLEGE, INC.

TUESDAY, MARCH 1 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

Even in lean times, the $400 billion business of higher education is booming. Nowhere is this more true than in one of the fastest-growing — and most controversial — sectors of the industry: for-profit colleges and universities that cater to non-traditional students, often confer degrees over the Internet, and, along the way, successfully capture billions of federal financial aid dollars.

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TRIANGLE FIRE

MONDAY, MARCH 3 @ 10:00PM

It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City’s history. On March 25th, 1911, a deadly fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York’s Greenwich Village. The blaze ripped through the congested loft as petrified workers — mostly young immigrant women — desperately tried to make their way downstairs. By the time the fire burned itself out, 146 people were dead. All but 17 of the dead were women and nearly half were teenagers.

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ANY HUMAN HEART

FRIDAY, MARCH 4 @ 7:30PM & 12:30AM

FINAL EPISODE

In 1970s London, with its counter-culture and poverty, Logan is just barely surviving with the occasional freelance writing assignment and the help of his friend Ben, enduring petty humiliation at his literary agency until Gloria reenters his life. An interlude of intimate and true friendship, and the inheritance of a house in France from his old friend, Cyprien, buoy Logan and reignite a tenuous passion for life. It’s about looking ahead, Gloria tells him.

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JIMMY CARTER

MONDAY, AUGUST 15 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM

Jimmy Carter’s story is one of the greatest dramas in American politics. In 1980, he was overwhelmingly voted out of office in a humiliating defeat. Over the subsequent two decades, he became one of the most admired statesmen and humanitarians in America and the world. Jimmy Carter, part of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE’s award-winning Presidents series, traces his rapid ascent in politics, dramatic fall from grace and unexpected resurrection.

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