VMP Anthology

In an interview with Don Was, president of Blue Note, we talk about his history with the label, how he ended up working there, how he used to ride a bus just to hold Blue Note records as a teenager and why you should listen to more jazz.

In this episode, we talk to Blue Note president Don Was about how the loose, free-flowing culture at Blue Note let Horace Silver cut his first solo record when another performer backed out, and how Dexter Gordon made up for lost time following a prison sentence. Stay tuned to the end of the podcast for hints about your next two records.

In this episode, we talk about an organist on the Lou Donaldson album being the best bass player Don Was, president of Blue Note, has ever heard, even though he plays the organ, and how Wayne Shorter is a single-person history of jazz. We also discuss how Wayne and Lou have carried on as Blue Note artists, even today. And again, stay tuned to the end of this episode for hints on the final two albums of our new box set.

In this final episode of this season of VMP Anthology, we talk to Don Was about how the vibraphone has gone from a central piece of jazz big band to a semi-novelty and back again, the tumultuous middle years of Blue Note, and how signing young artists and letting them develop their own version of jazz remains a central purpose of Blue Note as it hits 80 years old.

On this prologue episode, we talk with Susan Whitall, the author of the book The Women of Motown and the author of the liner notes for our box set. Susan is also a longtime Detroit resident and was a writer and editor for Creem magazine and the Detroit News. In this episode, Susan--who will be our main guide through the albums featured in this edition of Anthology--talks about her book, the unique Detroit circumstances that led to Motown becoming such a powerhouse, and how the label succeeded with an everybody in the boat mentality.

We talk with Susan Whitall, the writer of the Liner Notes for our box set, about the first three albums in the box. Which, you know by now are Mary Wells’ Bye Bye Baby--I Don’t Want to Take a Chance, Martha and the Vandellas’ Heat Wave, and The Supremes Where Did Our Love Go. On This episode, Susan and I talk about Mary Wells being the blueprint for every Motown Diva who came after her. We’ll also talk about how Martha and the Vandellas’ impact feels muted now, but they were one of the biggest acts in the early days of Motown. And we’ll cover the Supremes, who along with the Temptations, blew the door open and made Motown into THE Motown.

We talk with Susan Whitall about the fourth and fifth albums in our Motown boxset, Tammi Terrell’s Irresistible and Syreeta’s Syreeta. In this episode, we talk about the sad tragedy of Tammi Terrell, and dispel rumors around her death. We also cover how Syreeta went from a backup vocalist to making some of the most adventurous R&B on the label in the early ‘70s, and how Motown’s move to LA opened it up to more genres and sounds. Stay tuned to the end of this episode to hear hints for the final three LPs in this edition of Anthology, which, if you’ve held off on opening all of them, will be revealed next week.

In this episode, we finish our talk with Susan Whitall, as we talk about how Tata Vega’s genre-less funk might have prevented her from being a star, but might have made her album sound timeless, and we talk about Teena Marie, who once threatened to kick Susan’s ass and who also never got the kind of credit she deserved. And in the final segment of this final episode, we head out to L.A. to talk with current Motown president Ethiopia Habtemariam about working with Erykah Badu and how giving artists like Erykah the space to create is the best thing a label can do. We also talk about how Ethiopia and her team are trying to keep the spirit of Motown alive in a modern world.

Season 3 Premiere. Upon the 20th anniversary of Ghostly International, Ghostly founder Sam Valenti IV and artists Dabrye, Todd Osborne and Will Calcutt recount the label’s origin story in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and explain Ghostly’s spiritual connection to Detroit and Chicago and the unique palette of influences – from booty music to Factory Records – and people that continue to shape the Ghostly aesthetic even 500 releases on. Hosted by Vivian Host

Cheese, cartoons and jazz are some of the topics covered as we unfurl further chapters in the Ghostly International history. We delve into the characters of the first Ghostly Swim compilation, and talk more about the label reaching out from the Midwest to the rest of the world, while Joshua Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv recalls reigning in wild styles. Ghostly artist Shigeto (an Ann Arbor native) joins in to talk about the hero’s journey of his debut, Full Circle, and pouring heart, hardship and a lifetime of music-making into his unique sound. Hosted by Vivian Host

In this episode, we journey through landscapes both external and internal, exploring texture, timbre and tone. Bay Area guitarist and sound designer Christopher Willits walks us through the love and technology at the backbone of his work, and his collaborations with Japanese ambient and classical pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Then, from Los Angeles, Ghostly design collaborator Will Calcutt and label manager Jeff Owens join Sam and Molly to talk about the intimate grandeur of This Is For the White In Your Eyes, the 2009 Ghostly debut from Copenhagen’s Choir of Young Believers.

In the fourth and final episode of this season of VMP Anthology, we dive deep into the aesthetics and curatorial ideas behind the final two albums in the Ghostly VMP Anthology box set: Ghostly Swim 2 and Thousands of Eyes in the Dark. Sam Valenti IV and Molly Smith talk to us about ego death, spooky paintings, music as a salve for these trying times and some new Ghostly artists to watch out for, plus Dabrye and Shigeto break down the making of some special tunes.  Hosted by Vivian Host

In this intro episode about our Stax box set, The Story of Stax Records, we talk to Robert Gordon and Booker T. Jones about the label's history. 

In this episode, we get to business, since time is tight, and discuss the first two LPs in your VMP Anthology box set: Booker T and the M.G.'s Soul Dressing, and Sam & Dave's Hold on I'm Coming. We introduced you to Booker T and the M.G.'s during our last episode, but here we get into the group's history, and Soul Dressing specifically. Later this episode, I sit down with one of the songwriters of most of Sam & Dave's iconic songbook. 

When we last left you, Stax was just starting it's climb from a regional soul label to one of the most iconic record labels of all time, thanks in part to a distribution deal with Atlantic Records. The boom thanks to artists like Sam & Dave and Booker T. and the M.G.'s--along with a changing music industry--lead to the label starting it's concerted push into LPs, vs. being the singles label they'd been before. The same time this was happening, a Georgian guitarist named Johnny Jenkins got offered some studio time at Stax. And little did Stax know, a guy along for the ride would become their most popular artist.

When we last left you, Stax was left reeling when Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays died in that tragic December 1967 plane crash. The next two albums in your box set came out in the immediate aftermath of the crash, during a 1968 and 1969 that eventually became known in Stax lore as the Soul Explosion.

 When we left our last episode, Stax was putting out many, many albums in 1969 to make an “instant catalog” and try to dig themselves out of the disasters of 1967 and 1968. In this final set of records, we have two albums from 1972, which, as we'll learn from Robert Gordon here, was one of the last good years at Stax. 

You've already opened your box by now, and now you're probably wondering what you're doing here. Well, Stax closed in 1975, as we established on the last episode, but the road to Stax as it is today: A label and a thriving museum and music academy, has 45 years of history for us to catch up on. As I mentioned in the first episode, the Stax complex at 926 E. McLemore Ave. in Memphis today is not the same Stax that was there in 1975. It took a lot of work--mainly by a Stax writer and office worker named Deanie Parker--to deliver what I think is the best music museum on earth: The Stax Museum of American Soul Music.  In this, our sixth and final episode of the season, I sit down with the museum's executive director Jeff Kollath to talk about the museum's mission, and how Stax went from a studio to a pile of rubble to a museum.   

Amanaz released their sole album Africa in 1975. In this episode, vocalist Keith Kabwe and lead guitarist Isaac Mpofu provide the backstory with some surprising insights into the genesis of one of Zamrock’s most sought after and critically acclaimed releases. We also hear from the producer of the album Billie David Nyati of the Zambia Music Parlour label and the bassist of the band Salty Dog, Norman Muntemba, describes Zambia’s early recording studios. Also featured are rare tracks from Amanaz offshoot bands Heathen and Drive Unit.

An episode of Zamrock firsts. Producer Billie David Nyati, who helped run Zambia Music Parlour under the direction of Edward Khuzwayo, recounts the excitement of being Zambia’s first independent record label, kick-starting the country’s recording boom in the early 1970s with an album by the band Tinkles. Vocalist Jagari Chanda tells the story of WITCH, Zamrock’s most beloved ensemble and the first Zambian rock group to release a vinyl record, namely the privately pressed edition of their debut release Introduction. Vocalist Violet Kafula, Zambia’s first female recording artist and a member of the band Crossbones, tells the story of the album Wise Man and the hit single that earned her the affectionate title the “Godmother of Zambian Pop.”

In a country of extraordinary and innovative electric guitar talents, Victor Kunda Kasoma of the Oscillations is among Zambia’s finest. In this episode, Victor candidly shares the story of his disability from polio, the challenges and hard work that shaped his spiritual mind-set and technique, his lifetime dedication to music and personal reflections on I Can See It Coming – an album he released in 1978 when he was just 21 years old.

The Zambian mining towns of Kitwe and Ndola offered an eclectic music scene in the 1970s from freewheeling derivative garage on the one hand to groups that channelled traditional ceremonial sounds through the matrix of rock on the other. Our final episode weaves a thread through the stories of the Fireballs, Ngozi Family, Ricky Banda and 5 Revolutions, showing the trajectory of Zambian pop music from rock and funk experimentation to the evolution of the kalindula sound, which brought an end to the Zamrock era in the early 1980s.

In this prologue episode, your hosts and VMP staffers Amileah Sutliff and Andrew Winistorfer discuss their personal histories with the Dead, and what made them reticent to dive into their catalog before now. Then they talk through how the rest of this season of VMP Anthology will work. 

In this episode, Amileah tackles your Episode 1 records, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. She talks with Dead archivist David Lemieux, and author Buzz Poole to understand the importance of the two albums in the band's career, and hears stories of this era of the Dead. 

In this episode, Andrew covers your Episode 2 records, Live / Dead and Europe '72, talking to David Lemieux and Dead Head Eric Renner Brown along the way. He learns why there might be three tiers of Dead releases, and why the European tour of 1972 might have been one of the Dead's peaks. 

In this final studio album episode, Amileah covers Wake of the Flood and Terrapin Station with David Lemieux and writer Toni Brown, who both cover why these albums are important stops in the Dead's catalog, and what they meant to Dead Heads at the time they were released. 

In this final episode covering records in your box, Andrew covers the final two episodes in your box, Reckoning and Without a Net, two albums recording during the 1980s at very different points on the Dead's arc. He talks about the albums with David Lemieux and writer Jesse Jarnow, who talks about how there's no right or wrong way to be a Dead Head. 

In the final episode of this season of VMP Anthology, Amileah and Andrew catch up on their journey through the Dead, months after they started their attempt to board the bus. Do they come away as Dead Heads? What do they think of the Dead now? Do they only wear tie-dye now? All those questions answered in this episode. 

In this bonus episode to this season of VMP Anthology, Andrew talks with the founder of Nugs.Net about his history as a Dead Head, and how his website full of incredible live shows came to be. This is a useful episode if you're wondering how to maximize the free Nugs.Net trial you got as part of purchasing this box set!

In this bonus episode to this season of VMP Anthology, your co-host Andrew shares some tips for tie-dying your own clothes, since he spent much of his time researching and learning about the Dead giving his wardrobe a DIY makeover. 

In this prologue episode, A Message from the Tribe, we first hear from Marcus Moore and Wendell Harrison, who talk about the Jazz scene in Detroit, and we’ll then hear from Phil Ranelin, who backs up Wendell’s depictions of Detroit’s jazz scene at the time.  They also talk about how a program guide for the collective’s concerts became a magazine, and why he thinks Tribe ultimately didn’t break through much outside of Detroit in the ‘70s.  And we end with some final thoughts from Wendell and Marcus, as Wendell discusses what it was like to hustle Tribe records live, and the label’s lasting legacy.

On this episode, An Evening With the Tribe, we’ll cover the first two albums in your box, Phil Ranelin and Wendell Harrison’s A Message from the Tribe and Wendell’s own An Evening With the Devil. 

In this episode, Vibes from the Tribe, devoted to Phil Ranelin, the soft-spoken jazz adventurist, Marcus talks briefly with Phil about the two albums that he is the leader of in your box set: The Time Is Now and Vibes from the Tribe. The two albums feel like different sides of the Phil Ranelin coin, with the Time Is Now being less groove-oriented and more post-bop and free jazz, and Vibes from the Tribe being a beloved record amongst cratediggers for its thick grooves and legendary breakbeats. 

On this final episode, we cover the final three albums in your Anthology box, Voices and Rhythms of the Creative Profile, Reflections in the Sea of Nurnen, and Farewell to the Welfare. These final three albums represent a tantalizing theoretical on where Tribe Records might have gone next if they had stayed in operation. They incorporate more funk, more wild electronics, and more songs you could see breaking through at radio, and represent the freedom in form that came with running your own label. The label would close before the final album in this box could be released, but they show clearly that for a label run often on a shoestring budget, Tribe had an impeccable catalog. 

This first episode of Season 7 of the VMP Anthology Podcast introduces some of the folks we’ll hear from this season sharing their thoughts on Herbie Hancock’s artistry, what makes him special, and why he’s such a joy to work with. We start with Wayne Shorter, Larry Klein, and Ron Carter, and hear from Bernie Grundman, who remastered this box set, as well as Robert Glasper and Corinne Bailey Rae.  Without further ado, here’s the Story of Herbie Hancock:

In this episode, we cover the first two albums in your VMP Anthology box set: Takin’ Off and Maiden Voyage. In this episode we’ll hear how Herbie lying about his draft status helped him get into the Blue Note studio, and stories of making Takin’ Off and Maiden Voyage, and in between we’ll hear from legendary bassist Ron Carter, who played on Maiden Voyage, and singer Corinne Bailey Rae, who shares her love of early Herbie here.

 In this episode, we cover the second set of records in your box, Head Hunters and Live Under the Sky. These albums celebrate Herbie’s landmark move into funk, and his team up with other jazz legends for the supergroup V.S.O.P. In the first segment of this podcast, we hear Herbie talk about Head Hunters, and how it became an unlikely hit, and trying the album out in dance clubs before it was released. Then we get Robert Glasper and Corinne Bailey Rae’s impressions of the album, before Herbie talks briefly about Live Under the Sky, and what he remembers most from those shows.

In this episode, we tackle the third set of records in your VMP Anthology box set: The Piano and Future Shock. These albums represent the breadth of Herbie’s sonic pushing, as The Piano is a solo piano record, and Future Shock was the first album to meld jazz and hip-hop. Both of them groundbreaking in their own way. In the first section of the podcast, we hear from Herbie on how The Piano came to be, and from fello pianist Robert Glasper who talks about the album’s mastery. Then, we hear from Herbie about the making of Future Shock, and close this episode with a lengthy interview with Grandmaster DXT, the DJ and turntablist who invented the sound of scratching on record.

In this, our final episode of the season, we cover the final two albums in your box set: 1+1, an album Herbie made with his best friend and collaborator Wayne Shorter, and River: The Joni Letters, an album that garnered Herbie the Album of the Year Grammy. We start with Herbie talking about 1+1, and then hear from Wayne, before Robert Glasper explains why the album is two masters in communication. Then we transition to River, where we hear from Herbie, producer Larry Klein, Robert Glasper, and finally Corinne Bailey Rae, who sings on the album and performed with Herbie a number of times after the album came out.

This ninth season of VMP Anthology tackles one of the most important labels in the history of heavy music, Metal Blade. On this first episode, our host J. Bennett interviews Metal Blade founder Brian Slagel about the label's beginnings. 

In this episode, we cover the first two albums in your Metal Blade Anthology, Omen's Warning of Danger and Fates Warning's The Spectre Within. In this episode, our host J. Bennett talks to Kenny Powell from Omen, and Fates Warning's singer John Arch. 

In the third episode of this season of the VMP Anthology podcast, we cover the second set of albums in your box set: Gwar's America Must Be Destroyed and Cannibal Corpse's Butchered at Birth. In this episode, J. Bennett talks to Mike Bishop from Gwar, and Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse, about the controversy that surrounded both bands   

In this fourth episode of the new season of the VMP Anthology podcast, we discuss the third set of albums in your VMP Anthology: The Story of Metal Blade box set: King Diamond's Voodoo and The Black Dahlia Murder's Miasma. In this episode, our host J. Bennett talks to King Diamond about his underrated classic and to Trevor Strnad of the Black Dahlia Murder about their breakthrough LP. 

In this final episode of season 9, we cover the final two albums in your Metal Blade Anthology, Amon Amarth's Twilight of the Thunder God and Armored Saint's La Raza. In this episode, our host J. Bennett talks to Amon Amarth's Johan Soderberg about one of their biggest albums, and Armored Saint's John Bush about the band's comeback album. 

The first episode of our podcast on The Story of Vanguard,  the 10th edition of VMP's Anthology box set series, will set the scene for the rest of your box and give you an overview of Vanguard, its importance, as well as the state of folk music at large in the late '50s and early '60s, when the albums contained in this box were first released.  Before we dive into the music of The Weavers, Odetta, Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Doc Watson and Skip James, learn from Ronald Cohen — professor emeritus of history at Indiana University Northwest and a leading scholar on folk music — about the backstory of the label, New York as an epicenter of folk and how to define folk music.

In this episode, we'll start to dive into the albums in your box set, starting with The Weavers' second album, At Carnegie Hall.  Recorded live at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Christmas Eve, 1955, and released in 1957, the record  paved the way for Vanguard's entry into the folk world, saved the Weavers' from the entertainment industry blacklist and was a catalyst for the folk boom. To explore this album, VMP sat down with Jesse Jarnow, the author of the book Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America, to talk about the story of the album's creation, the true radical nature of The Weavers, McCarthyism and more.

In the third episode of our series on the folk label Vanguard, we cover the story of Odetta's My Eyes Have Seen. The 1959 record solidified Odetta's place, both as a notable artist and as a voice and central figure in the Civil Rights Movement.  To explore Odetta, this album and her music — and why they both deserve to be more widely recognized and discussed for their contributions — we talk to historian and professor in Yale's American Studies program, Matthew Frye Jacobson, who also penned the 33 ⅓ book about Odetta's One Grain of Sand.

This fourth episode of this season of the VMP Anthology Podcast is devoted to Joan Baez, whose self-titled Vanguard debut is the third album in your VMP Anthology box set devoted to Vanguard and the folk explosion. It's hard to put into context now, but when Baez hit the folk scene in 1959, she was like a one-woman atom bomb, the biggest star the scene had ever seen, by a considerable margin. Where the Weavers could put a single on the charts on random larks, Baez's self-titled debut was a chart behemoth, to date still the best selling record in Vanguard history.   To help put Baez in proper context, we talk with Elizabeth Thomson, who in 2020 published The Last Leaf, an extensive biography of Baez that culminates in her final shows before Baez retired. Here, Thomson checks in from her home in London and discusses how Joan became famous, her debut album, her relationship with Bob Dylan and why Thomson wrote her book on Baez.   Listeners can order Joan Baez: The Last Leaf from IPG and get $10 off by either by phone or email using offer code JoanBaez21 by contacting one of the below:   Phone: (800) 888-4741   E-mail: orders@ipgbook.com

In this episode, we cover the fourth album in your box, Buffy Sainte-Marie's debut LP, It's My Way! It's hard to find a folk debut as daring, jarring and impactful as Buffy Sainte-Marie's Vanguard debut in 1964. That year, folk was at its highest peak of popularity, the same year Beatlemania made landfall on American shores, but there was no performer in music as direct as Sainte-Marie. And few were as prolific. As she told writer Andrea Warner for her authorized biography, she had written somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 songs by the time she recorded her debut.  In this episode, we talk with folk and blues scholar and writer Elijah Wald about how after the explosion following Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte-Marie — who, just 4 years earlier, might have been a risk for Vanguard — was part of a continuum of folk singers exploding at the time. We talk about how Buffy was both outside the mainstream, but also part of the wave of performers who benefitted from emerging college radio. We also talk about how underrated Sainte-Marie is, and how she's one of the best folk songwriters of the era. 

In this episode, we cover the fifth album in your box, Doc Watson's self-titled debut album. Doc was somewhere in between Joan Baez and Skip James, in terms of his age and novelty in the folk revival. Losing his eyesight at age 2, and spending his days and nights absorbing generations of Appalachian folk tunes, Doc was “discovered” in his late 30s by Ralph Rinzler, who recognized Doc's unique talents, and realized he'd do well on the coffeehouse and folk circuit.  Through a rare quirk in the bands he was in, in order to be heard properly in the outdoor venues he often played, he transposed the main instrument of Appalachian folk — the fiddle — to an acoustic guitar, developing a flat picking style, where he both plucked and picked at his guitar strings, playing dexterous, complicated riffs that rang through the clamor of a get down.  In this episode, we talk with Elijah Wald, who, in addition to being a blues and folk writer and historian, admires Watson as a guitar player, as Wald has played in traditional blues and folk bands inspired by him. Here we talk about Watson's unlikely rise to folk fame, why his guitar playing stood out and the mechanics of flat picking.

In this season's finale, we cover the sixth and final album in your Vanguard box set, Skip James' Today! James' signing to Vanguard represented the logical endpoint for a movement started in the mid '50s, by a wave of artists and record collectors who obsessed over the 78s of old, forgotten bluesmen. At some point in the early '60s, some of these players and collectors started actively hunting down the old bluesmen whose records they obsessed over. In this episode, we talk with Elijah Wald about Skip's rediscovery, and how he wasn't content to play to type when touring in the '60s. We also talk about how Today! presented Skip James to a new generation.  

This extra special bonus episode features an in-depth interview with Grammy-nominated artist, longtime visual collaborator of Quincy Jones and the designer of the VMP Anthology: The Story of Quincy Jones box, Mathieu Bitton. Press play to learn more about the visual artifacts featured in the Listening Notes booklet and the inspiration behind the visual elements of the box design.  Credits:  Alyssa Lein Smith: Co-host, Co-producer Sonari Glinton: Co-host Justin Richmond: Contributing Expert Paroma Chakravarty: Editor, Audio Engineer  Amileah Sutliff: Executive Producer Brought to you by Vinyl Me, Please in conjunction with Quincy Jones Productions

Description:  On the fourth and final episode of our podcast on The Story of Quincy Jones, the crew breaks down how Quincy generated a boundary-pushing conversation between old and the new, and how he famously convinced Miles Davis to revisit his old music. It covers the story of 1989's star-studded, style-fusing Back on the Block and 1993's beloved Miles and Quincy Live At Montreux.    Credits:  Alyssa Lein Smith: Co-host, Co-producer Sonari Glinton: Co-host Justin Richmond: Contributing Expert Paroma Chakravarty: Editor, Audio Engineer  Amileah Sutliff: Executive Producer Brought to you by Vinyl Me, Please in conjunction with Quincy Jones Productions 

Description:  Next up, our journey through Quincy's catalog gets cinematic as our team of experts tells the story of his most iconic film soundtrack and the statue that inspired an album. This episode will cover the story of the score to 1978's The Wiz and 1981's The Dude, discussing Quincy's first time meeting Michael Jackson, his lasting impact on entertainment, his substantial prominence, success and output during this period and much more.    Credits:  Alyssa Lein Smith: Co-host, Co-producer Sonari Glinton: Co-host Justin Richmond: Contributing Expert Paroma Chakravarty: Editor, Audio Engineer  Amileah Sutliff: Executive Producer Brought to you by Vinyl Me, Please in conjunction with Quincy Jones Productions

Our second iteration of our podcast on The Story of Quincy Jones delves into a fruitful, transitional and creative period in Jones' career, in which both his sound and the landscape of Black music at large were transforming and evolving deeply. This episode will cover the story of 1969's Walking in Space and 1974's heavily sampled Body Heat, both serving as an entryway into exploring Quincy's A&M Years and the journey and shifts that led to his first near-platinum album.    Credits:  Alyssa Lein Smith: Co-host, Co-producer Sonari Glinton: Co-host Justin Richmond: Contributing Expert Paroma Chakravarty: Editor, Audio Engineer  Amileah Sutliff: Executive Producer Brought to you by Vinyl Me, Please in conjunction with Quincy Jones Productions

Description:  In the first episode of our podcast on The Story of Quincy Jones, the 12th edition of VMP Anthology's box set, we'll introduce you to our experts, Alyssa Lein Smith, Sonari Glinton and Justin Richmond, and we'll set the scene for our journey through Q's storied and impossibly varied career. Working chronologically through the Anthology box, this episode will cover the story of 1957's This is How I Feel About Jazz and 1966's Sinatra At The Sands and use the titles as a jumping off point to discuss Jones' foundational early career.    Credits:  Alyssa Lein Smith: Co-host, Co-producer Sonari Glinton: Co-host Justin Richmond: Contributing Expert Paroma Chakravarty: Editor, Audio Engineer  Amileah Sutliff: Executive Producer Brought to you by Vinyl Me, Please in conjunction with Quincy Jones Productions 

On the fourth and final episode of The Story of Philadelphia International Records, we'll explore the fascinating passion projects that defined the late 1970s for PIR. This episode will cover the story of 1977's Let's Clean Up the Ghetto by The Philadelphia International All-Stars — a supergroup featuring Billy Paul, Archie Bell, Teddy Pendergrass, The Three Degrees and more — and Leon Huff's own 1980 solo album, Here to Create Music. We'll hear from Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, PIR vocal trio The Jones Girls member, Shirley Jones, and Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke professor of African American Studies at Duke University.  This season of the VMP Anthology Podcast is hosted by John Morrison. It's written by John Myers and Alex Lewis, with help from John Morrison. It was produced by Alex Lewis and John Myers of Rowhome Productions, and executive produced by Amileah Sutliff. A special thanks to the people at Sony Music and Philadelphia International Records.

Next up, our journey through Philadelphia International Records finds us right at the label's height of ubiquity during the mid-1970s. This episode will cover the story of Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes' 1975 record, Wake Up Everybody, and Dexter Wansel's widely sampled 1976 record, Life on Mars, featuring interviews from Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, PIR vocal trio The Jones Girls member, Shirley Jones, and Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke professor of African American Studies at Duke University.  This season of the VMP Anthology Podcast is hosted by John Morrison. It's written by John Myers and Alex Lewis, with help from John Morrison. It was produced by Alex Lewis and John Myers of Rowhome Productions, and executive produced by Amileah Sutliff. A special thanks to the people at Sony Music and Philadelphia International Records.

Our second iteration of VMP's Anthology podcast on Philadelphia International Records starts off at the former site of Sigma Sound Studios, the long-gone historic recording studio where most of the artists on Philadelphia International recorded. This episode will cover the story of PIR house band MFSB's 1973 record, Love is the Message, and vocal trio The Three Degrees' 1973 self-titled release, and we'll hear from Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, The Three Degrees's Valerie Holiday and PIR vocal trio The Jones Girls member, Shirley Jones. This season of the VMP Anthology Podcast is hosted by John Morrison. It's written by John Myers and Alex Lewis, with help from John Morrison. It was produced by Alex Lewis and John Myers of Rowhome Productions, and executive produced by Amileah Sutliff. A special thanks to the people at Sony Music and Philadelphia International Records.

In the first episode of our podcast on The Story of Philadelphia International Records, we'll introduce you to our host, John Morrison, who will kick things off with a trip through the early days of Philadelphia International Records. We'll also explore 1972's Back Stabbers by The O'Jays and 1972's 360 Degrees of Billy Paul by Billy Paul, featuring exclusive interviews with Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke professor of African American Studies at Duke University.  This season of the VMP Anthology Podcast is hosted by John Morrison. It's written by John Myers and Alex Lewis, with help from John Morrison. It was produced by Alex Lewis and John Myers of Rowhome Productions, and executive produced by Amileah Sutliff. A special thanks to the people at Sony Music and Philadelphia International Records.

This season of the VMP Anthology podcast is devoted to The Story of Willie Nelson. This season is also devoted to YOU, as we took your mailbag questions to answer your burning Willie Nelson questions, and we took your Outlaw Hotline calls, hearing what Willie has meant to you in your life.  On this episode, we answer questions about why Willie Nelson's music has endured, and hear from you about being mistaken for Willie Nelson, and ponder whether anyone has actually been rolled up and smoked when they died.  VMP Anthology: The Story of Willie Nelson is still available and now shipping. You can purchase one of the remaining copies here.   Presented by Vinyl Me, Please.  Hosted by Andrew Winistorfer Executive Produced by Amileah Sutliff and Andrew Winistorfer  Produced by Jim Hanke of the Vinyl Emergency Podcast and Julia McGuire

In the second episode of our season devoted to Willie Nelson, we listen to your emotional calls about how Willie allowed you to connect to people in your life, whether that's your mom, brother, grandpa, or yourself. VMP Anthology: The Story of Willie Nelson is still available and now shipping. You can purchase one of the remaining copies here.   Presented by Vinyl Me, Please.  Hosted by Andrew Winistorfer Executive Produced by Amileah Sutliff and Andrew Winistorfer  Produced by Jim Hanke of the Vinyl Emergency Podcast and Julia McGuire

In the third episode of our season devoted to Willie Nelson, we listen to your calls about Willie's most famous album, Stardust. We also take your questions, and explain how The Story of Willie Nelson was curated, what albums almost made the cut, and which albums to seek out once you digest the box.    VMP Anthology: The Story of Willie Nelson is still available and now shipping. You can purchase one of the remaining copies here.   Presented by Vinyl Me, Please.  Hosted by Andrew Winistorfer Executive Produced by Amileah Sutliff and Andrew Winistorfer  Produced by Jim Hanke of the Vinyl Emergency Podcast and Julia McGuire

In the final episode of our season devoted to Willie Nelson, we take your calls about Willie's ability to make each cover song his own, and we answer your questions about Outlaw Country as a genre. We also give an update on the rumored VMP Anthology devoted to Impulse Records, and give you hints on what you can expect next in VMP Anthology.    VMP Anthology: The Story of Willie Nelson is still available and now shipping. You can purchase one of the remaining copies here.   Presented by Vinyl Me, Please.  Hosted by Andrew Winistorfer Executive Produced by Amileah Sutliff and Andrew Winistorfer  Produced by Jim Hanke of the Vinyl Emergency Podcast and Julia McGuire

Welcome to this season of the VMP Anthology Podcast, I'm your host Andrew Winistorfer. This season, our 14th, unbelievably, is devoted to telling the story of Ghetto Records, a short-lived latin-jazz, soul, and boogaloo label founded by latinx music legend Joe Bataan. Collecting literally everything the label ever released–six albums, and a brand new compilation featuring loose 7-inches and unreleased material–this is the complete story of a small slice of the rich history of New York latinx musics. We partnered with Now Again records to make this box possible, and are excited for these albums–many of which sell for hundreds of dollars–to be back in circulation and on streaming for the first time ever.  Because this label and music are both not that well known, we thought we'd focus this season around telling brief overviews of the albums, and then playing a bunch of music for you. My co-host though Ghetto Records is Pablo E. Yglesias, a DJ, writer and latin music historian who wrote the extensive liner notes for this box set. We still have a few copies of this box left, so go grab it if you haven't already.  In this episode, we'll talk the background of Ghetto, how Joe Bataan used spite to launch Ghetto Records, and at the end, we'll talk the first album in the box, Ghetto Records Presents Eddie Lebron.

On this episode, my co-host Pablo E. Yglesias and I discuss albums 2 through 5 in your box. We start with Papo Felix, continue with Paul Ortiz and Orquesta Son, cover the latin psych rock of La Fantastica, and finish with the label's biggest hit maker, Joe Acosta. The box is still available at Vinyl Me, Please.com, so grab that if you haven't.

In the season finale, me and my co-host Pablo E. Yglesias talk about the final albums in your box, including one that didn't exist until Vinyl Me, Please release of The Story of Ghetto Records. Listen to the end for hints at what's coming next in VMP Anthology. 

Our 15th season is devoted to the epicenter of standup comedy, the Comedy Store. To celebrate our 15th VMP Anthology, 50 Years of the Comedy Store, we're handing the reigns of the VMP Anthology podcast over to the fine folks at the Comedy Store Podcast. In this quick prologue episode, VMP's Director of Music Andrew Winistorfer explains this season, and talks briefly about what's next for VMP Anthology. 

Originally aired as Comedy Store Podcast #215. With Eleanor still on the east coast, Rick welcomes Anthony Jeselnik into the studio to chat about showcasing, getting passed and not watching other people's stand-up.

Originally aired as Comedy Store Podcast episode #222. Rick & Eleanor welcome paid regular Jenica, an actress and comic banned from The Comedy Store after a physical altercation with another well-known comic. Who? You'll have to tune in to see. Plus appearances by "Jeff Garlin" and "Argus." Do NOT sleep on this one!

Originally aired as Comedy Store Podcast #227.  IT'S ANNIVERSARY WEEK! The Comedy Store is celebrating 50 years so it's a long one. Rick and Eleanor welcome a member of the founding family, Pauly Shore as well as Steve Simeone and the one and only Bobby Lee dropping in. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COMEDY STORE!

Originally aired as Comedy Store Podcast episode 234.  Contender for the best episode in Comedy Store Podcast history. With Rick still on the road, Eleanor is joined by guest co-host Bobby Lee as they welcome paid regular and MAD TV alum Johnny Sanchez. They discuss starting at the Store and tell some amazing stories and celebrate the life of Freddy Soto. Then things go sideways when they begin to complain about their spots, not realizing the Store booker is listening in the control room. GOLD.

This season of the VMP Anthology Podcast--our 16th!--is devoted to telling the story of the eight album box set devoted to Cadet Records, a short-lived jazz, blues, and soul music imprint underneath the Chess banner that launched artists like Minnie Riperton and Charles Stepney.  In this introductory episode, we talk to Marshall Chess, son of the Chess family, who ran the label as a response to the explosion of psych rock and soul music.  You can buy the box set, The Story of Cadet Records, here now.  Written, hosted and produced by Stephen Anderson Executive Produced by Andrew Winistorfer Produced and edited by Jim Hanke of the Vinyl Emergency Podcast

This season of the VMP Anthology Podcast--our 16th!--is devoted to telling the story of the eight album box set devoted to Cadet Records, a short-lived jazz, blues, and soul music imprint underneath the Chess banner that launched artists like Minnie Riperton and Charles Stepney.  In this episode, we talk to Robert Gordon, Muddy Waters' biographer, about Electric Mud, an experimental blues album Muddy Waters made for Cadet that Muddy thought was the worst of his career.  You can buy the box set, The Story of Cadet Records, here now.  Written, hosted and produced by Stephen Anderson Executive Produced by Andrew Winistorfer Produced and edited by Jim Hanke of the Vinyl Emergency Podcast

This season of the VMP Anthology Podcast--our 16th!--is devoted to telling the story of the eight album box set devoted to Cadet Records, a short-lived jazz, blues, and soul music imprint underneath the Chess banner that launched artists like Minnie Riperton and Charles Stepney.  In this episode, we talk about the non-Muddy Waters albums in the box, and hear incredible stories about Etta James falling asleep on Paul Simon, and how the Beatles' White Album inspired a wild Ramsey Lewis, among other wild tales of the short days of Cadet.  Stick around for a hint about what's next in VMP Anthology.  You can buy the box set, The Story of Cadet Records, here now.  Written, hosted and produced by Stephen Anderson Executive Produced by Andrew Winistorfer Produced and edited by Jim Hanke of the Vinyl Emergency Podcast

We recently hosted a Q&A session about Cadet Records on our Discord. Here is that Q&A, where Cadet executive producer, and liner notes and podcast mastermind Stephen Anderson is joined by Cadet producer and VMP Director of Music Andrew Winistorfer, and our Q&A host, Lead of Customer Care, and Discord Don Paul Bass.  Join the VMP Discord here!