Public Radio East serves Eastern North Carolina by providing news, fine arts, and informational programming that challenges, stimulates, educates, and entertains an intellectually curious audience.

© 2026 Public Radio East

Public Radio East
800 College Court
New Bern, NC 28562

EIN 56-1802728
Public Radio For Eastern North Carolina 89.3 WTEB New Bern 88.5 WZNB New Bern 91.5 WBJD Atlantic Beach 90.3 WKNS Kinston 89.9 W210CF Greenville
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
US

Making Sense Of A Song Called 'Widow Maker'

Brooke Waggoner's song "Widow Maker" got its name and inspiration from a friend's real-life brush with heart trouble.
Courtesy of the artist
Brooke Waggoner's song "Widow Maker" got its name and inspiration from a friend's real-life brush with heart trouble.

Musician Brooke Waggoner was on a 6 a.m. coffee run when she got a worrisome text from a friend, whose husband was apparently dealing with a life-threatening heart problem. The news gave her a shiver — and an idea.

"I don't know if it was the early morning, the kind of fumes of pre-caffeinated mind games," she says, "But that inspired the song. I went back to my studio immediately and started, started fleshing it out."

Waggoner's friend's husband survived, but the momentary scare was reborn as a dense, eerie track called "Widow Maker." She spoke to Weekend Edition Sunday about how the song came together; hear her breakdown at the audio link.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

US