ALL Interviews Episodes

In 1972, Ray Charles released "A Message for the People", a record, that combined his soul and R&B style with some distinctly country nuance. The album, now out of print is filled with really important, socially conscious songs delivered in a way only Ray could. Almost 50 years later, the stories of these songs still resonate, so much so, that the Band of Heathens decided to cover the album in its entirety, of course putting their own more modern, classic rock and country spin on it. We recently sad down with Ed Jurdi, to talk about A Message for the People - Revisited and its relevance today. Both A Message for the People and A Message for the People Revisited are two incredible albums you should check out. The former, the original from Ray Charles may be harder to find, but the Revisited record is available on all your favorite streaming services and of course to purchase at bandofheathens.com. Band of Heathens continues to be one of my favorite bands out their on the road, and they…

If you’ve part of the jam band scene for a while, you’ve no doubt heard the name Erik Deutsch. He’s been somewhat of a fixture dating back to his days with Fat Mama, solo pursuits and now part of Leftover Salmon. He is an extremely talented keyboard player and lends his talents to a multitude of projects. We recently caught up with Erik to talk about his solo record Falling Flowers.

Since Gregg Allman's unfortunate passing, Scott Sharrard has found himself at a crossroads between hanging on to his love and work with Gregg, and getting on with his own career. Luckily for us, he will be releasing his first solo record in quite some time but his fifth thus far, September 21st, Saving Grace, and I can tell you its a gorgeous blues, soul and R&B record with standout slide guitar playing and passionate vocals. For more on Scott's work visit scottsharrard.com and make sure you get your ears on Saving Grace and see Scott at one of his various dates.

Attempting to define the kind of music Ghost Note plays, would be near impossible. They are a jazz hybrid that play funk, r&b, soul, hip-hop and yes, they rock. Started by Snarky Puppy’s drummer Robert “Sput” Searight and percussionist Nate Werth. Rather than just telling you about this band that has complete blown my mind, we got in touch with Sput to talk about the Ghost Note Project. For more on Ghost Note check out Ghost-Note-Official.com.

Color Wheel is Aqueous’ first length album since 2014s Cycles, and though the band has released a few EPS, Live compilations and regularly release their live shows we haven’t had new studio music from them in quite some time. Actually the album is being released in waves with three tracks of ten each week. We recently caught up with Mike and Dave to talk about Color Wheel, touring and much more. We’re excited to hear more from Color Wheel and catch them live on the road during their fall tour. For more on Aqueous visit Aqueousband.com. You should also check out the podcast “All in With Aqueous” from our Osirispod pal Myke “Memo” Menio.

Magic in the Other is the brainchild of drummer Ezra Lipp, who’s name may be familiar from the San Francisco Jam Band scene. He’s toiled with Phil Lesh and Friends, often hangs at Terrapin Crossroads and plays with ALO as well. Actually ALO bassist Steve Adams is also in the band, as well as guitar wizard Roger Reidlbauer. It’s an interesting project, blending solid instrumentals, with thought provoking songs. For more on release information, tour dates, and some cool videos, check out magicintheother.net.

MMW’s forthcoming release Omnisphere featuring Alarm Will Sound, is something definitely a little different for our audience and those that love Medeski Martin and Wood, but certainly not for guys themselves. Both John Medeski and Billy Martin are classically trained musicians who while dabbling in the jazz music we’ve been accustomed to hearing from them, always have sought opportunities to work on more complex arrangements. Alarm Will Sound is a chamber orchestra that focuses on contemporary pieces. Since I’m not even close to an expert on Classical music, we asked Billy Martin to come on the show and talk about the project since we’re big MMW fans, and give us an update on other MMW goings on. For more information on MMW visit medeskimartinandwood.com. You can also check our our MMW playlist at tsp.show/ECMMW or our MMW playlist on youtube at youtube.com/thesoundpodcast.

The Lockn’ Festival in Arrington Virginia has wrapped up, and we have some audio goodness for you to enjoy, as a recap of the festival. Episode 131 part 2 features more great performances from the festival including songs from Southern Avenue, Turkuaz, Spafford, Umphrey’s McGee, and Widespread Panic featuring Margo Price.

The Lockn’ Festival in Arington Virginia has wrapped up, and we have some audio goodness for you to enjoy, as a recap of the festival. Episode 131 is our first ever two-parter, and in part one you’ll hear music from Lettuce, Ghost Light, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Foundation of Funk (with Zig Modeleste and George Porter Jr.) and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead as we wrap up this summer’s last great music festival!

Though the record won't be out until September 28th, I did have a chance to sample it, and have to tell, you it might be their best to date. You can tell that the band, fronted by Dave Brandwein has really coming together and matured on this record. As you'll soon hear, this record was more collaborative then past efforts, and sonically you can tell that this band is hitting their studio stride. Long known for awesome live performances, I suspect Turkuaz will take another giant leap forward with their brand of funk, R&B, rock, and psychedelia. We chatted with Dave Brandwein about recording the new record, the song writing process and some other cool things. You should definitely check out turkuazband.com for tour dates, to pre-order Life in the City and much more.

Fruition dropped the EP filled with four songs a day before they were set to play Red Rocks opening for Railroad Earth. We caught up with Jay Cobb Anderson, settled and home after another amazing weekend for the band at that fabled venue. You should definitely listen to Dirty Thieves and New Colussus as money will go to both the Community Housing Project and the National Immigration Law Centre. For more on Fruition visit fruitionband.com. You can also listen to our Essential Collection of Fruition songs at tsp.show/ECFRUITION.

We first heard about Liz Cooper and The Stampede from our pal Steve. He sent us a link to an AudioTree Live session, and we liked it and so too did over 220,000 people. We’ve been jonesing to get her on the show ever since, and luckily with the release of her record “Window Flowers” we indeed got a chance to chat. Given her life on the road, the talented people she hangs with, and the songs she writes and performs, I suspect we will be hearing a lot more from Liz. She has an absolutely unmistakeable sound, and her guitar playing along with the talent of the stampede will take her even further. For tour dates, album info and more visit lizcooperandthestampede.com.

The thing about being a talented musician is that you are often are in demand to play with many different people, and doing so, you aren’t necessarily afforded the time to work on your own projects. Such is the case for keyboard wiz, Robert Walter. He’s been touring extensively and making records with Mike Gordon, and is always is ready to jam with whomever asks. So when I heard that he had a new project inspired by space, comic books and science fiction I was psyched to check out. Robert and the 20th Congress will be playing a select number of dates around Spacesuit’s release, and to learn more visit robertwalter.com.

Living in the shadow of a family member is nothing anyone truly wants to deal with. Particularly, when your parent, is a musician in a world famous band who is adored by millions of people. Following in their footsteps, can be, and likely is a daunting task, but being able to carve out a niche for yourself with the rich history of a last name, can and is brave and noble. Such is the case for Devon Allman who has trudged through the music industry for some twenty years, and Duane Betts who has done the same, for quite some time. Needless to say, both thrive on their father’s legacies and talent but more to the point have become great musicians in their own right. We have spoken to both individually, but recently got the chance to catch up with them both on tour as part of the Devon Allman Project. You can learn more about the Devon Allman Project at devonallmanproject.com. Check out the new Duane Betts EP Sketches of American Music wherever you listen to music or at duanebetts.com.

Truth be told, when the latest album from Circles Around the Sun showed up in my inbox a few weeks ago, I was psyched to check it out. Circles or CATS is undoubtedly one of my favorite acts going right now. They are a four piece instrumental jam band. On the surface, knowing that Neal Casal, Adam MacDougall, Dan Horne and Mark Levy are the players in the band, you are likely to think this is some hippie outfit performing jams straight out of a Dead show. Truth is, while those sorts of sonic landscapes are very much part of their sound, this record, Let it Wander is filled with all kinds of jams from all sorts of different genres. We recently sat down with Adam MacDougall the keyboard player in the group, who also performs with Neal Casal in Chris Robinson’s Brotherhood to talk about Let it Wander, and making a go of CATS. For tour dates and to get Let it Wander, you’ll want to check out their website at circlesaroundthesun.com. You may also be intrigued to check out our youtube channe…

I have long been fascinated by the emergence of the live EDM/Prog rock thing and it’s place within the Jam Band scene. That conversation has to involve Papadasio a five piece originally from Athens, Ohio who now call the hot bed of southern music Asheville, North Carolina home. We recently sat down with brothers Billy and Sam Brouse along with Anthony Thogmartin to get the lowdown on their genre-less sonic tour de force. Papadosio will be on the road quite a bit over the next little bit. You can get all the details at papadosio.com . We’ve also created a YouTube and Spotify playlists, and those details are available on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds.

The emergence of Grateful Dead tribute bands, both locally and nationally, indeed internationally is at an all time high. Between members of the Dead playing the repertoire they made famous, to acts like DSO, JRAD, and others more locally like Mars Hotel and Barely Dead. The music lives on and has never stopped. Back a few months ago, we had Sam and Clay and Mapache on the show. A listener who heard the show, alerted us to the fact that this duo were part of yet another Dead tribute outfit Grateful Shred. Since then, we’ve heard several performances, and tracked their trajectory. We recently sat down with Dan Horne, who holds down the Phil Lesh role with the band, playing bass. You can check out Grateful Shred’s tour schedule at gratefulshredmusic.com or check out our Grateful Shred playlist on youtube at youtube.com/thesoundpodcast.

After talking to Grahame and Elliott of Midnight North about that record, I decided to check out where they were playing after Peach Festival. Turned out that they would be only 4 hours away in Canandaigua, New York, so technical producer Adam Karch and I hopped in a car and drove out to one of my favorite venues in North America. We indeed booked an opportunity to talk with members of Midnight North, and to our great amazement members of Twiddle. So picture it, me, Adam, and a roundtable that included Grahame, Ellliott of Midnight North, and Mihali, Gubb and Ryan of Twiddle. A few others interjected, but you get the basic idea. Our conversation started when I asked Mihali about hooking up with Midnight North a few years ago. For more midnight north info and dates visit midnightnorth.com, and for more Twiddle info visit twiddlemusic.com

Just over a year ago, we chatted with Grahame Lesh about the release of Midnight North’s record “Under the Lights”. Since that time, Midnight North has been reasonably busy, playing tour dates, festivals, and making various media appearances. With news that Midnight North was releasing a live record, “Selections from the Great American Hall”, we reached out to not only get Grahame on the show, but also Elliott Peck who shares lead vocal, songwriting and harmonies with Grahame. For more on “Midnight North Selections from the Great American Music Hall” visit midnightnorth.bandcamp.com.

We’re big fans of Hot Buttered Rum, a west coast mainly bluegrass outfit for quite some time and are really impressed with their latest effort which continues to be an eclectic blend of bluegrass, americana and rock n roll. Recently we caught up with multi-instrumentalist, and one of the two voices in the band Erik Yates to learn more about their latest release, their 6th, Lonesome Panoramic and about the inner workings of “Butter”. To learn more about HBR visit hotbutteredrum.net

We’re big fans of all of Cory’s projects including his work with Vulfpeck, and had no idea until recently the physical and indeed mental crossroad he faced when he was just sixteen. Almost two decades ago, Cory suffered a concussive head injury which created a scenario where his right arm kept going numb. Unsure of what exactly was causing the numbness, doctors suggested that it was a blood clot that could potentially reach his brain, and ultimately kill him. His diagnosis was an ominous one, either he would die in a short amount of time or he would be fine. Luckily, his own gumption and perseverance guided him, and eventually the numbness and any thought of a blood clot faded. To learn more about The Optimist, and Cory’s upcoming tour schedule visit corywongmusic.com.

The Magpie Salute is somewhat of a supergroup fronted by Rich Robinson once of the Black Crowes along with former Crowes Marc Ford and Sven Pipien, John Hogg who played in Robinson’s Brown Hookah and Matt Slocum and Joe Migestro who have played on several of Rich’s solo projects. The band’s birth came accidentally, after a show in Woodstock, and has grown organically since. It’s a great record with familiar sounds and some new ones. They’ve been touring consistently since 2016, playing all kinds of music on the road. Though the record isn’t out for a bit, you will be able to catch The Magpie Salute on a series of dates through out the summer. You can check if they’re coming to your town at themagpiesalute.com. You can also purchase some of The Magpie Salute’s live performances at nugs.net.

On August 9th, 1995 the world learned that Jerry Garcia, the once jovial, uber talented leader of the Grateful Dead had passed. Following that was a performance of the Walkin’ Blues, the second song of the set that night. What unfolded for the 20 or so years following that night, has long been the stuff of gossip, rumour and innuendo. To suggest that anyone was completely aware of what went on behind the vaulted doors of the Grateful Dead and its various business tentacles would be folly, since for the most part collecting all the various stories, and connecting all of the dots would be a fairly time consuming but mostly a contentious endeavour. Publishing those findings, and providing a narrative for what could only be described as a complete and utter melt down of what was once a mighty musical industry powerhouse seems on the surface to be a completely impossible task. So while the rumours, gossip, and tall tales persisted, noted music journalist and San Francisco Chronicle reporte…

I’ve been following Rayland Baxter’s career ever since his debut Feathers and FishHooks, an album I wore out, if you could do such a thing to a CD or digital files. What I appreciate most about Rayland is his attention to detail in his writing regarding the human condition. His thoughts, are your thoughts, and while he is serious about his personal craft, he isn’t disjointed from the reality we all live in. I sat down with Rayland to unpack this new record, one I think you should listen to. “Wide Awake” is definitely one of my favorite records of the year thus far. The outstanding song writing is matched by the absolute magical production value and playing by the entire cast. For more on Rayland visit raylandbaxter.com.