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Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook: Time Machines

Airs Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 12:30 p.m. on KPBS TV

Friday, February 17, 2012

Credit: Courtesy of Hudson West Productions

Above: Michael Feinstein (right) inspects a vintage jukebox owned by Hugh Hefner (left).

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.

“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.