Robin Hilton

Robin Hilton is the producer and co-host for the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.

In addition to his work on All Songs, Hilton produces NPR Music live concerts and festival coverage across the country, including live broadcasts and webcasts from the Bonnaroo and Sasquatch festivals, South by Southwest and the Newport Folk Festival.

Prior to joining NPR in 2000, Hilton co-founded Small Good Thing Productions, a non-profit production company for independent film, radio and music in Athens, GA.

Hilton lived and worked in Japan as a translator for the government, and taught English as a second language to junior high school students.

From 1989 to 1996, Hilton worked for NPR member stations KANU and WUGA as a senior producer and assistant news director and was a long-time contributing reporter to NPR's daily news programs All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

Hilton is a multi-instrumentalist and composer. His original scores have appeared in work from National Geographic, Center Stage and, most recently, in the documentary film Open Secret. You can hear some of his music here.

Along the way, Hilton worked as an emergency room orderly, a blackjack dealer and a fruitcake factory assembly lineman.

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All Songs Considered Blog
11:10 am
Wed August 29, 2012

Vote For The Albums Everyone Can Love, For Aug. 29

Credit iStock

Originally published on Wed October 17, 2012 10:59 am

Bob Boilen and I were out in Portland and Seattle last week on our summer listening party tour, so we didn't post a new poll of albums everyone can love. Fear not: To make up for the week off, this week we've got 40 albums for you. In the coming weeks we'll let you know which records have been doing the best and have some sort of runoff between the highest vote-getters to come up with a top ten we all can agree on (well, most of us, anyway).

Here's this week's double-size poll. Just tell us whether you love, don't love or haven't really heard each album.

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All Songs Considered Blog
4:55 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

What Was The Most Important Band Of Your College Years?

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 8:36 pm

All Songs Considered Blog
10:33 am
Mon August 20, 2012

Song Premiere: Freelance Whales, 'Spitting Image'

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 12:17 pm

It's been a couple of years since we first discovered and fell in love with the music of Freelance Whales. That was back in 2010, shortly after the group of multi-instrumentalists from Queens, N.Y. released its breathtakingly beautiful debut Weathervanes.

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Live in Concert
2:46 pm
Wed August 15, 2012

Live Friday: Dirty Projectors, With Wye Oak

Originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 8:36 pm

  • Full Audio: Dirty Projectors Live From The 9:30 Club

Few bands make music as strangely captivating - or make it as as fearlessly - as Dirty Projectors. The group's always unpredictable songs crisscross a mind-bending mix of genres and styles, with disjointed rhythms and structures, unusual melodies and harmonies that make it one of the most creative but polarizing groups of the past decade. For some it's an inspired form of high art, while others think it's just plain weird.

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All Songs Considered Blog
2:43 pm
Wed August 15, 2012

Vote For The Albums Everyone Can Love, For Aug. 15

Credit iStock

Originally published on Wed October 17, 2012 11:01 am

I guess it's not that big of a surprise, but according to last week's poll, 67 percent of you haven't heard Big Star's #1 Record. One of the nice side benefits of doing this series is that it gives people a chance to discover great albums they've never heard before, so if you're part of the 67 percent that hasn't heard Big Star, take some time to listen. You'll love it.

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All Songs Considered Blog
2:12 pm
Fri August 10, 2012

Drum Fill Friday, From S. Carey

Credit Ollie Millington / Redferns

Originally published on Fri October 19, 2012 10:03 am

This week's quiz comes from Sean Carey, the drummer for Bon Iver and a fantastic solo artist (who records and performs as S. Carey). We featured his stunningly beautiful debut album, All We Grow in our First Listen series back in 2010. Earlier this summer he released the EP Hoyas.

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All Songs Considered Blog
4:49 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

Vote For The Albums Everyone Can Love, For Aug. 8

Credit iStock

Originally published on Wed October 17, 2012 11:02 am

We started this series of polls, like so many of the things we write and think about, with a simple water cooler conversation. After learning that the entire NPR music team loved Paul Simon's Graceland, we began to wonder whether it's possible to make a top ten list of albums everyone can agree on.

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All Songs Considered Blog
1:01 pm
Tue July 31, 2012

Vote For The Albums Everyone Can Love, For July 31

Credit iStock

Originally published on Wed October 17, 2012 11:03 am

Apart from Rubber Soul by The Beatles, there weren't any big winners in last week's poll, the latest in our summer-long attempt to identify the albums we can all agree on.

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All Songs Considered Blog
10:12 am
Mon July 30, 2012

First Watch: Mirel Wagner, 'To The Bone'

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Originally published on Mon July 30, 2012 12:58 pm

A simple approach is often the most affecting. In "To The Bone," the latest video from folk and blues artist Mirel Wagner, the singer slowly rises and sinks in a black pool of water, illuminated only by the faintest light. Wagner slowly turns, falls back, and rises again before something pulls her back under. It's both a seductive and unsettling metaphor for love's darker side.

In an email, Wagner described how the video came together.

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All Songs Considered Blog
12:50 pm
Fri July 27, 2012

Drum Fill Friday, From The Antlers' Michael Lerner

Credit Andy Sheppard / Redferns

The selections in this week's drum fill quiz come from the amazing Michael Lerner, drummer for The Antlers. Somehow he found time to put this list together for us while the band was finishing up it's new EP, Undersea. I thought it was a pretty challenging quiz, but see what you think.

Drag the drum fill or intro to the album it's from. If you get it right, the song names will appear.

More Drum Fill Quizes

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