BGS 5+5: Teddy Thompson

Artist: Teddy Thompson
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Latest album: Heartbreaker Please
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Ted, Abudharr

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, January 2016. It was for the great Celtic Connections Festival and it was just one of those magic gigs. I have a lot of family from there, and also Glasgow audiences are just the best. At once erudite and rowdy. Good times.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Movies. I’m a film buff. I subscribe to The Criterion Channel and that has made my lockdown a lot easier! I like to be immersed in another world and a good movie gives me that feeling. Really I think I’m an escapist, but escaping into someone else’s world can make you see your own differently. Songwriters are always looking for an angle.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

Playing at the school talent show, known as JFP, at Bedales when I was 14. As a somewhat awkward kid, lacking in self-confidence, it was a powerful feeling to be applauded on stage. After that, girls looked at me differently.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I like to smoke a cigarette right before I go on. Can’t be good for the throat, but there you go. I used to like to get shitfaced after the show, but now I don’t do that. I’ve aged out of the post-show party scene.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Sam Cooke and chicken.


Photo credit: Gary Waldman

LISTEN: Zoe Guigueno, “Shoreward”

Artist: Zoe Guigueno
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Shoreward”
Album: Secret Admirer
Release Date: June 5, 2020

In Their Words: “This song is about nature stopping us in our tracks; it’s about not taking our resources or way of life for granted. Taylor Ashton wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music — originally it was a commissioned piece for his grandparents, about the fishing industry in Newfoundland. In the current global situation, however, we can ask the same questions: Do we push forward, or do we wait out the storm that forced our boats shoreward?” — Zoe Guigueno


Photo credit: Josh Dolgin

The Show On The Road – Kat Edmonson

This week on The Show On The Road, we bring you a two-part conversation between host Z. Lupetin and folk-jazz visionary Kat Edmonson. The first part was captured backstage before a show at Largo in LA, right before the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown. In the second part, Z. caught up with Edmonson during her anxious but creative quarantine in New York City. 


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Initially turning heads for her dreamy and futuristic interpretations of great songbook classics like Gershwin’s “Summertime,” which have been listened to over ten million times and counting, Edmonson broke through with playful original works a decade ago, self-producing one of Z.’s all-time favorite records, Take to the Sky. She quickly found powerful fans in folks like Lyle Lovett, who she toured with wildly. Major label releases followed. Edmonson soon migrated from her home state of Texas to Brooklyn, with her elfin chanteuse look and sparkling vintage sound (think Blossom Dearie with some Texan muscle).

Z. and Edmonson sat down to discuss her newest record, Dreamers Do, which may just be the shot of pure cinematic nostalgia we all need right now. Does she cover Mary Poppins, Alice In Wonderland, and Pinocchio and somehow make them deeply cool, sonically subversive, and somehow brand new again? She sure does.  

WATCH: Mile Twelve, “Long Done Gone”

Artist: Mile Twelve
Hometown: Boston, Masschusetts
Song: “Long Done Gone”

In Their Words: “Back in February we had a few days off the road and decided to spend one of them in Brooklyn, New York, playing music and making videos with some friends. We called up Michael Daves, Jacob Jolliff, and Tony Trischka and ended up having this epic afternoon of arranging a few bluegrass standards for eight people to jam on. Things got pretty wacky, including this video, which is a mashup of the bluegrass song ‘Long Gone’ and the fiddle tune ‘Done Gone.’ We decided to try this medley at first because we thought it would be funny but it turned out they’re both in the key of Bb and it ended up working great. Hope you enjoy!” — Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Mile Twelve


Photo credit: Kaitlyn Raitz

LISTEN: The Nine Seas, “I Never Will Marry”

Artist: The Nine Seas
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “I Never Will Marry”
Album: Dream of Me
Release Date: April 3, 2020

In Their Words: “I learned this song from a Joe Val & the New England Boys album. Joe’s version is faster and surprisingly upbeat, which is how I was originally playing it. When I played the song for Fiona on guitar, she soon worked it into our slower, more mournful version, which seems to be much more in line with the heartbreaking lyrics.” — Liz Tormes

“When Liz played me this song I thought it was so beautiful, so evocative and sad. I slightly reharmonized the chords to make them more ambiguous and I put it in 6/8 tempo so it sounded more of a lullaby/lament. I’d never heard the Joe Val version, but once Liz sang the song to me, with its tragic, desperate lyrics, I knew I could never hear a man sing this song again.” — Fiona McBain


Photo credit: Dave Doobinin

WATCH: Brian Dunne, “Harlem River Drive”

Artist: Brian Dunne
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Harlem River Drive”
Album: Selling Things
Release Date: April 10. 2020

In Their Words: “‘Harlem River Drive’ is a song about contentment and the things that stand in the way of it. It was born out of this feeling of being forever stuck on the precipice of something big, ultimately driving you to the edge of your sanity. That’s what the song is about to me; missing the present — either in anticipation of the future, or in romanticism of the past — and the consequences that come along with that. But there’s resolution in the song. I do believe there is hope for us yet, or something like that.” — Brian Dunne


Photo credit: Adam Gardner

BGS 5+5: Taylor Ashton

Artist: Taylor Ashton
Hometown: Brooklyn via Toronto via Winnipeg via Victoria via Vancouver
Latest album: The Romantic
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Roger

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Paintings, drawings, movies, dancing … all of those things give me feelings that I want to express through music, and that’s a big part of what inspires me, to see if that’s possible. For a little while I was obsessed with the idea of trying to write songs the way David Lynch directs movies. That idea floated around in my head for a couple years and then I realized David Lynch sort of directs movies in a way that is kind of like songwriting — you don’t always understand the literal connection between all the elements but they give you a really emotionally affecting end result that feels personal.

I’ve been into visual art a lot longer than I’ve been into music — as a kid I used to draw constantly no matter what else was going on. I discovered music in my teens and the drawing took a backseat for a while. Then, a few years ago, after my old band Fish & Bird stopped being on the road all the time, I moved to New York and stayed still for a while. I took a few years off of touring and releasing music, and in that time I got back into making visual art in a big way and it was such a huge relief. Right now those two halves of me feel pretty balanced. Music and visual art work well for me because if I’m stuck in a rut with one of them, I can usually turn to the other for relief, and actually I sometimes use one medium to directly process my frustration with the other. And then the cycle continues!

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I’m fluid with this… some of my songs are very biographical in that they accurately express my actual feelings toward one specific other person, and only use details that are from my life. Then there are others where the characters in the song are amalgamations of different people, or exaggerations, or sung by a healthier version of me, or by a stupider version of me. Different stories call for different angles.

Sometimes if somebody has told me about something hard that is going on between them and another person, I’ll find myself walking away from that conversation chewing on the situation in my mind. Some stories, after you hear them, just seem to roll around in your brain, and you can’t help but imagine yourself in the shoes of the people involved. So, let’s say somebody has told me about a new relationship they are in, where they really like the person but they’re not feeling connected to them and they can’t figure out why. I might subconsciously imagine that I am them or that I’m the other person, and I’ll wonder how that would make me feel.

Of course, to imagine how you would feel in somebody else’s shoes you have to draw on your own experience, so I have a number of these songs where the “I” or the “you” character is sort of a combination of myself and somebody else I know or that I’ve read about. In “Anyway” for example, I think I’m the “I”, the “You”, AND the implied third person, at different times. And certain lines really make me think of specific people when I sing them, but it might just be that one line in a song and then I’m me again for the rest of the song.

But I don’t know if it’s “hiding” exactly because distancing yourself slightly the “I” you’re singing from can let you be more fearless in exploring vulnerable spaces that might feel off-limits if you thought people were going to assume you were always singing about yourself. OK, maybe it is hiding.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Usually the hardest songs to write are the ones I don’t end up liking very much. For me, writing songs needs to be basically enjoyable. If it’s not, I’m afraid my resentment toward the process will come out in the finished product and infect all who hear it. I have songs that I’ve labored over for months, joylessly chasing some idea I felt like it was important to express, and then once I finally put the finishing touches on it I felt completely unmoved to share it with anybody.

So, if the writing is “tough,” I try to just set it down, especially if it’s something I really like. “If You Can Hear Me” was one that was like that … I came up with the seed and got really excited about it, but then I just couldn’t finish it. I tried to fit so many things into the empty space and everything just made it worse. In that case I just had to stop fussing and trust that I just wasn’t ready to write the rest of that song yet. Sure enough, months later in the shower, I thought I was having a completely new song idea, until I realised it was the other half of “If You Can Hear Me.” I really wanted to finish that song, but I kind of had to trick myself into stopping wanting it so bad in order for it to happen.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

MISSION STATEMENT: To make art that inspires people to be honest, true to themselves, and compassionate toward all people and their natural world; to help little girls know they can do anything; to help little boys know they can have feelings and ask for help; to cause all to laugh and cry.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I would love to go to the Mermaid Café and have 1971 Joni Mitchell buy me a bottle of wine … y’know, laugh and toast to nothing, and smash our empty glasses down. (Does wine count as food?)


Photo credit: Jonno Rattman

LISTEN: Puss N Boots, “You Don’t Know”

Artist: Puss N Boots (Sasha Dobson, Norah Jones, Catherine Popper)
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “You Don’t Know”
Album: Sister
Release Date: February 14, 2020
Label: Blue Note Records

In Their Words: “Puss N Boots is a band that inspires me. When we get together to play I want to write songs with us in mind. ‘You Don’t Know’ is one of those songs I could imagine doing with Sasha and Cat while I was writing it. The way Sasha plays this kind of slow country groove on the drums is one of my favorite things and the way our harmonies slink in and out is exactly how I pictured this song working.” — Norah Jones, Puss N Boots


Photo credit: Danny Clinch

LISTEN: Nora Brown, “Buck Creek Girls”

Artist: Nora Brown
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Song: “Buck Creek Girls”
Album: Cinnamon Tree
Release Date: October 25, 2019
Label: Jalopy Records

In Their Words: “‘Buck Creek Girls’ is a square dance tune from Kentucky that goes by different names depending on the source you get it from. Though [it doesn’t have] many words, the tune has a driving tempo and surprises the listener with each turn of the A to the B part. I learned this tune from the late John Cohen in his living room, from his interpretation of his recording of Banjo Bill Cornett. It’s exciting to listen to this tune because it seems like every time I hear it there is some note or emphasis I missed. For me, the tune never gets old because there’s always something new about it.” — Nora Brown


Photo credit: Benton Brown

BGS 5+5: Ana Egge

Artist: Ana Egge
Hometown: Brooklyn-based, by way of North Dakota
Latest album: Is It the Kiss

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

Well it might go back to my first concert seeing Willie Nelson at the North Dakota State Fair when I was 5 or 6. My parents and their friends all listened to his records. We had a poster on the wall at home with animals wearing cowboy hats that quoted him, saying, “Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” And I remember sitting up on my dad’s shoulders watching this gentle man with a long braid sing and play the guitar for so many people all singing and smiling along. I lived in Ambrose, North Dakota. A very small town of fifty people. That made a huge impact on me.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I love to read. One of the songs on my new record was inspired by Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and what a powerful, deeply felt love story it is! The love between Teacake and Janey practically jumps off the page. I’ve just recently had my mind blown by the insane talent of Anton Chekhov and his short stories.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

That’s a good question. It might be “Bully of New York” from the album Road to My Love. It took me about three years to finish that one. And I knew it was so special from the get-go. Sometimes they take a little while, but I couldn’t figure out how to differentiate between the three characters in the song. It’s a true story about hitching a ride with a park ranger in Central Park in the rain and him sharing his stories of his hard life with me while I was daydreaming of my new girlfriend. So many are silently suffering. Lend an ear and you might just lessen the loneliness for a moment.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

I’ve always wanted to be an artist and a musician. I’ve always wanted to be a good person and to build and make things and share them with people and maybe, just maybe, bring people together in that. To quote Barry Manilow, “I write the songs that make the whole world sing, I write the songs of love and special things, I write the songs that make the young girls cry, I write the songs, I write the songs.”

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I like this question. I feel like my head is so often in the clouds that it helps when I slow down. So air, breathing. And earth, when I get grounded or think of being grounded. It is part of the work.


Photo credit: Shervin Lainez