Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook: Time Machines

MICHAEL FEINSTEIN'S AMERICAN SONGBOOK returns for a second season with three new episodes that take viewers on a musical journey across America and through time. This season the acclaimed musician and five-time Grammy®-nominated vocalist goes broader and deeper in his ongoing quest to celebrate and preserve classic 20th century popular song.

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Credit: Courtesy of Playboy Enterprises

Above: Cabaret icon Bobby Short, at age 35 in 1960, on the set of "Playboy's Penthouse," the syndicated television program created by Hugh Hefner that featured his favorite musicians and broke the racial boundaries of the era by mingling white and black performers and "guests" in what appeared to be Hef's apartment.

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Credit: Courtesy of Playboy Enterprises

Above: Hugh Hefner on the set of his syndicated TV show "Playboy's Penthouse" which presented his favorite entertainers in a setting that appeared to be a private party in his apartment.

“I don’t know if it’s some sort of karmic thing that I am supposed to be given all of these recordings and pieces of music to preserve,” Feinstein says in the show,“but it’s clear that for whatever reason, it is also my responsibility to share it and get it out there.”

“Time Machines” explores how technology has preserved — and altered — the way we think about the great songs and singers of the past.

On a coast-to-coast tour with stops in New York, Palm Springs, Kansas City, upstate New York and even the storied Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, Michael Feinstein introduces viewers to soundies (the original music videos), the historic building where “jam sessions” were born (and still hosts after-hours gigs) and an eclectic array of performers and collectors who help keep the music alive, including avid collector and music-lover Hugh Hefner, who shares rare footage of cabaret legend Bobby Short, and the British crooner Al Bowlly.

Michael Feinstein is on Facebook, and you can follow @MichaelFeinstei on Twitter.