Tag: podcasts

The String – Hawktail

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Four virtuoso string band musicians well known for their work with other bands are taking instrumental acoustic music to new heights in the band Hawktail.

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They are fiddler Brittany Haas, bassist Paul Kowert, guitarist Jordan Tice and mandolinist Dominick Leslie. And they recently landed on the Grand Ole Opry on release weekend of their second album Formations. Also, the delightful and clever throwback country duo of Noel McKay and Brennan Leigh. They’ve moved from Austin to Nashville and put out a masterful album of timeless songwriting.

The Show On The Road – Dustbowl Revival

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on the show, a very special finale to our winter season, featuring a group of world-traveling, folk-funk adventurers that have been catapulting American roots music into the 21st century with their exuberant melding of string and brass band traditions and their white knuckle, award-winning live shows. It’s Dustbowl Revival.

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To say today’s episode is personal would be an understatement. Your host Z. Lupetin founded Dustbowl Revival in Venice Beach, CA over ten years ago with a lucky Craigslist ad that started it all. What began as a clandestine jam group with as many as ten instruments going full blast at an after-hours advertising office soon moved to speakeasies and small venues around LA, with the band eventually recording their beloved live album With A Lampshade On at the famed Troubadour in LA and the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

In 2013 Liz Beebe joined the group as they began touring full time, becoming a powerhouse eight-piece band that wowed festivals and stages in over a dozen countries, playing over a hundred and fifty shows a year. They’ve released a total of seven full-length records along the way, including their soul-dipped, self-titled work from 2017, which was produced by Grammy-winner Ted Hutt, co-founder of Flogging Molly.

This week celebrates the release of their most daring work to date, Is It You, Is It Me, produced by Sam Kassirer (Lake Street Dive, Josh Ritter) and engineered by Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens). Z. was able to gather the whole band around the mic while on the road in New Hampshire. Make sure you stick around to the end of the episode as the band shares their intimate acoustic single “Let It Go.”

The String – Beth Nielsen Chapman

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Often when songwriters talk process, we hear the same few nuggets about craft on repeat. Not Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Beth Nielsen Chapman, though. She has a deeply considered take on the art form and the personal work and qualities of mindfulness that truly unlock creative potential.

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Chapman’s workshops and lectures are in high demand and coming in 2020 she launches The Song School, a podcast that will include her wisdom and critiques of real songs in real time. Here, she invites host Craig Havighurst into her home studio to talk about her success as an artist and writer for others (Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, and many more) and how she keeps the flame lit.

The String – John Hiatt

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

To start the new year, a full-hour with one of the certified icons of roots/Americana music and Nashville songwriting, John Hiatt.

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We cover a lot of ground, from getting launched out of Indianapolis in 1970 through a long, frustrating recording career and a breakthrough in the mid 1980s to his stature today as a Nashville leader. His long-time label New West Records has just released a limited edition 15-LP box set covering his most recent 11 albums. It’s a heavyweight tribute to a soulful master of the art.

The Show On The Road – The Steel Wheels

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on the very first episode of The Show On The Road in 2020, we welcome The Steel Wheels, a Virginia-based band of harmony masters and savvy string band experimenters who have quietly put together an impressive body of work over the last decade, corkscrewing their way across the country supporting seven diverse, acoustic-based albums. Along the way they’ve gained gangs of devoted fans of their big-hearted, peace-promoting songs.

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Taped live at historic Mccabe’s Guitar Shop in Los Angeles, Z. Lupetin gathered the boys around the mic to dive into their boundary-pushing 2019 release, Over The Trees, how they once toured on bicycles to spread climate change awareness, and how they survive 15-hour drives to strange shows in Iowa. They end the episode with their gorgeous acapella song, “This Year”.

The String – The McCrary Sisters

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

The McCrary Sisters — Alfreda, Ann, Deborah, and Regina — grew up in Nashville in the home of legendary preacher and singer Reverend Sam McCrary, a key member of the Fairfield Four and a major figure in gospel music.

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They’ve sung, together and apart, on stages and in studios around the world. And they’ve become beloved anchors of roots music communities in Music City. After working with producer/artist Buddy Miller, they answered popular demand to form their own quartet, and after several albums through the 2010s, the McCrarys delivered their first Christmas album. It became a leaping off point for a joyful conversation about four remarkable lives in music.

The Show On The Road – JD McPherson

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

JD McPherson joins host Z. Lupetin for the final episode of The Show On The Road’s 2019 season.


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Oklahoma-born JD McPherson makes his own brand of high intellect, dance party-ready, Sun Studios-style rock ‘n’ roll. Last year he may have recorded one of the greatest original Christmas albums of the modern era with Socks.

While McPherson probably never dreamed he would become a new rock ‘n’ roll king of Christmas, Socks may be his most impressive feat yet. If you’re deeply suspicious of the capitalistic caterwauling of most modern holiday music on the airwaves (except you, Mariah!) you’ll still fall in love with JD’s sarcastic and sweet collection of holiday originals. The album deftly dives into lesser discussed Christmas subjects like broken expectations, inter-family angst, holiday horniness, and hilariously, the myth of why Santa must be grossly overweight to satisfy us fairy tale-loving kids. Give Socks a spin as you rock around the Christmas tree or the Hanukkah bush, or even better — keep it playing all year long.

 

The String – Allison Moorer

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Allison Moorer emerged around the year 2000 as one of the most profound and beautiful voices in true country music.

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As she grew in stature and acclaim, it emerged that she’s suffered an extraordinary loss as a 14-year-old when her troubled, alcoholic father murdered her mother and then took his own life. The time emerged for Moorer to grapple with the trauma in public, and she worked in prose and song. This fall, she released a book and song-cycle album, both called “Blood”. We talk about the parents she lost and the sister (the artist Shelby Lynne) who helped her move forward.

The String – Michaela Anne and Ickes / Hensley

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Michaela Anne went to New York City to study jazz vocals and emerged a full on convert to country music. She built a career in Brooklyn then moved to Nashville to see it through. She’s recently released her fourth album and a label debut with Yep Roc.

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There’s a serenity in her voice and a sensitivity in her lyrics. She talks about her background and the courage it takes, as one of her songs says, by her “own design.” Also in the hour, the game changing country-grass duo of Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley.

Notes and full versions of these edited interviews can be found at WMOT.org.

The Show On The Road – Jason Lytle (Grandaddy)

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on The Show On The Road, a special conversation with Jason Lytle, the founder and sonic visionary behind one of the America’s most beloved and underrated roots-and-noise-rock groups, Grandaddy.

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Starting from humble beginnings in the early 1990s as a trio of skateboarding friends in Modesto, CA, Grandaddy put out a series of daring, deeply weird records produced and written by Lytle that first caught fire in Europe. By the turn of the millennium, the band found themselves headlining rock festivals like Glastonbury in the UK and crashing late night TV in the US.

But Lytle wasn’t cut out for traditional cookie cutter stardom. Grandaddy broke up for six years, and after disappearing into the Montana wilderness, the soft spoken, mountain-crazy, multi-instrumentalist songwriter kept his devoted fanbase coming back for more.  His oddly-titled solo records, cinematically rich soundscapes that encircled whacked anti-heroes, and poetic, campfire-ready short story songs still make us worried kid listeners feel heard and seen — but also constantly keep us guessing.

His latest album, NYLONANDJUNO, which dropped in August on Dangerbird Records, is an experimental instrumental album made entirely with a nylon string guitar and a vintage Roland Juno synthesizer.

Host Z. Lupetin was able to catch up with Lytle before a recent rare solo show in LA.