Chris Silver, former member of bluegrass band Stoney Lonesome, and now frontman for The Chris Silver Band, says he spends many of his waking hours listening to a broad range of music. Lately, he's been pretty fixated on jazz…in particular, Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing.”

MPR’s Chris Roberts presents Open Ears, an ongoing series of audio features that explores how contemporary musicians' listening habits shape their music-making. Each installment features a Twin Cities musician talking about a favorite piece of music from a genre outside his or her own. The series taps musicians' wide-ranging tastes and deep musical knowledge as it explores the surprising and revealing influences that affect today's sounds.