Podcast appearances and mentions of Jerry Lee Lewis

649. This week we chat with Leah Payne about her book, God Gave Rock and Roll To You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music. We focus especially on the role of the family of Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Mickey Gilley in the history of Rock and Roll. Her book chronicles the confluence of evangelical, Pentecostal, and charismatic networks through the lens of Contemporary Christian Music, or CCM. The book indexes American evangelicalism's political and social aspirations as seen through its cultural intermediaries: the youth group leaders, non-profit groups, industry executives, and parents who contributed to what was morally permissible and economically profitable in CCM.  Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 221 years. Order your copy today! This week in the Louisiana Anthology. H. P. Lovecraft. "The Call of Cthulhu." "In a natural glade of the swamp stood a grassy island of perhaps an acre's extent, clear of trees and tolerably dry. On this now leaped and twisted a more indescribable horde of human abnormality than any but a Sime or an Angarola could paint. Void of clothing, this hybrid spawn were braying, bellowing, and writhing about a monstrous ring-shaped bonfire; in the centre of which, revealed by occasional rifts in the curtain of flame, stood a great granite monolith some eight feet in height; on top of which, incongruous in its diminutiveness, rested the noxious carven statuette." This week in Louisiana history. October 25, 1769. Bloody" O'Reilly executes rebels who ousted Ulloa to hang but no hangman, they were shot instead. This week in New Orleans history. Earl Cyril Palmer born in New Orleans and raised in the Tremé (October 25, 1924 – September 19, 2008) was an American rock & roll and rhythm and blues drummer, and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Palmer played on many recording sessions, including Little Richard's first several albums and Tom Waits' 1978 album Blue Valentine. playing on New Orleans recording sessions, including Fats Domino's "The Fat Man", "I'm Walkin" (and all the rest of Domino's hits), "Tipitina" by Professor Longhair, "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard (and most of Richard's hits), "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" by Lloyd Price, and "I Hear You Knockin'" by Smiley Lewis. This week in Louisiana. Halloween in New Orleans Website     If you thought that Halloween was just a night for the kids to go trick or treating with their parents in tow, you need to think again. Here in New Orleans, like everything else, it's different.     Halloween, Crescent City-style, is second only to Mardi Gras for wild and crazy, dressing-up-in-costume kind of fun and it isn't just for kids, either. Adults get to join the fun and craziness as well. In fact, there are a few events that are much more fun for the grown-ups than for the little ones! You can go on our haunted tours, visit our voodoo shops, our costume shops, our street parties, and we even have events for the kids! Postcards from Louisiana. Delfeyo Marsalis at Snug Harbor. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I'm excited to share that a new Broadway Drumming 101 podcast episode with Larry Lelli will be re-released soon. I originally sat down with Larry back on December 16, 2021, and since then, his career has kept growing in remarkable ways.Larry isn't just a veteran Broadway drummer—he's now also a Broadway producer. He's gone on to co-produce Water for Elephants (opened March 21, 2024), Gutenberg! The Musical! (opened October 12, 2023), and most recently Waiting for Godot (opened September 28, 2025).Before stepping into producing, Larry built a career most musicians dream of. He's played drums and conducted for over 40 Broadway shows, including The Producers, Assassins, How To Succeed In Business, and Million Dollar Quartet. His list of collaborations is just as impressive—Melissa Etheridge, Josh Groban, Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Nick Jonas, Vanessa Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, and even the New York Philharmonic.Larry is also a clinician with Yamaha Drums and Sabian Cymbals, and you can currently catch him performing in the Tony Award-winning hit Come From Away.In our conversation, we dug into:* Growing up in the Midwest playing in baton and drum corps* Touring with country star Doug Stone after moving to Nashville* How a jazz cruise changed his life and led him to New York City* Why subbing for Michael Hinton on Miss Saigon was his big break* Learning from legends like Paul Gemignani* How he approaches learning an entire Broadway showLarry's story is a masterclass in building a long, versatile career in music—and now he's added producing to his list of achievements.Stay tuned for the re-release of this edited Broadway Drumming 101 episode. It's one you won't want to miss.https://www.larrylelli.comClayton Craddock is the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of the forthcoming book Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician's Guide to Building a Theater Career. His Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include tick, tick…BOOM!, Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Ain't Too Proud, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, and The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, along with extensive subbing on shows like Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour. He has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the TONY Awards, and has performed with artists from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis. www.claytoncraddock.com Get full access to Broadway Drumming 101 at broadwaydrumming101.substack.com/subscribe

Send us a textStarted playing piano and saxophone at a very young age. Highly influenced by her father, who played with big names like Frank Sinatra, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis. She performs a variety of genres: covers, originals; styles range from pop, blues, country, classic rock and more. Support the showPodcast edited by Paul Martin.Theme song courtesy of M&R Rush.www.rocknrollchicagopodcast.com

Fast facts about Bing Crosby and rock 'n' roll icon Jerry Lee Lewis. 

National coffee day. Entertainment from 1998. Worlds first modern police force went on duty, Comero went on sale, Worlds 1st billionaire. Todays birthdays - Gene Autry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Larry Linville, Jon Minnoch, Madeline Kahn, Mark Farner, Cindy Morgan, Andrew Dice Clay, Halsey. Helen Reddy Died.Intro - God did good - Dianna Corcoran   https://www.diannacorcoran.com/ The coffe song - Frank SinatraI don't want to miss a thing - AerosmithWhere the green grass grows - Tim McGrawBirthdays - In da club - 50 Cent      http://50cent.com/Back in the saddle again - Gene AutryGreat balls of fire - Jerry Lee LewisAmerican band - Grand Funk RailroadNightmare - HalseyI am woman - Helen ReddyExit - Kiss about it - Christie Lamb     https://www.christielamb.com/countryundergroundradio.comHistory & Factoids webpage

Schleßelmann, Bernd www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Studio 9

On the September 29 edition of Music History Today, Kurtis Blow makes history, & MTV introduces grunge to the mainstream. Plus, it's Jerry Lee Lewis's birthday.For more music history, subscribe to my Spotify Channel or subscribe to the audio version of my music history podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts fromALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST NETWORK LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytoday

Hochbegabt, kriminell und ein Raubtier am Klavier: Jerry Lee Lewis hat Rock 'n' Roll mit Ekstase gewürzt. Seine Konzerte sowie sein Privatleben lieferten Schlagzeilen und machten ihn berühmt und berüchtigt zugleich. Dibbern, Simonetta www.deutschlandfunk.de, Kalenderblatt

A key figure in the rise of rock and roll, the singer-pianist scored several hits in the 1950s, and later shifted his focus to country music. 

Heute vor 90 Jahren wurde in Louisiana der US-amerikanische Rock'n'Roll- und Country-Musiker Jerry Lee Lewis geboren.

Ce n'est un secret pour personne, il y a dans la musique de Michel Berger et les histoires qu'il raconte, une infinie mélancolie. Et tous ceux de sa génération qui l'ont vu évoluer et parler à la télé ont ressenti que malgré la réussite artistique et la vie du couple idéalisé qu'il formait avec France Gall, cet homme n'a pas été heureux. Il a connu des joies, nombreuses, mais il n'a pas réussi à se construire un monde achevé, encore moins parfait dans sa tête. Sans doute est-ce ce qui nous a touché le plus dans sa musique.Bien sûr, je vous ai parlé du drame de sa vie avec un père célèbre qui prétexte l'amnésie pour abandonner sa famille. Mais il y a bien plus encore. Regardez Michel jouer du piano : il a tout du concertiste, n'est-ce pas ? Il a sûrement fait le conservatoire. Et bien pas du tout. Non, Michel, quand il suit les cours de piano, à domicile, a bien du mal à se concentrer sur Chopin et Beethoven. Il faut dire que les professeurs ennuyeux ont du mal à rivaliser en cette fin des années cinquante avec cette musique qui vient des Etats-Unis, le rock'n'roll.Pour Michel, comme pour la plupart des jeunes de sa génération, cette musique occupe toute la place dans sa vie. Il passe ainsi des heures à écouter le single  What'd I Say de Ray Charles. Et que dire du grand Jerry Lee Lewis qui, lui, a trouvé comment jouer du piano d'une manière intéressante. Mais voilà, jamais dans sa famille qui vit dans un hôtel particulier avec personnel de maison, où on doit toujours bien se tenir y compris le dimanche, il ne pourrait pas ôter sa cravate, ni monter sur son piano et encore moins, en jouer debout. Non, lui, le seul truc rythmé qu'on l'autorise à jouer, c'est du Gershwin. Mais Michel ne se révolte pas : pas assez de force ni de soutien pour briser la couche formée par les convenances de la haute société et le drame qui pèse sur le noyau familial, autant qu'il ne l'a soudé.Même quand Michel commence à jouer du rock avec deux copains de lycée, aussi guindés que lui, il demeure un Hamburger ou un Haas-Guggenheim selon qu'on lui trouve une ressemblance avec son père ou sa mère.Alors quand avec ses comparses, il se rend à l'audition des disques Pathé-Marconi annoncée par le journal France Soir, Michel a du mal de jouer à être un autre que lui-même. Difficile. Impossible, coincé dans l'uniforme de son école, de faire comme Dick Rivers des Chats Sauvages, ce Niçois de 16 ans, un an de plus que lui, devenu une star et découvert par Jacques Scingland, l'homme devant lequel Michel se tient. Et quand il entend dire cet homme à qui il faut plaire lors de cette audition des idoles de demain : C'est bien, ça, Petit, ce que vous venez de jouer. Tu t'appelles comment ?, Michel n'en croit pas ses oreilles. Comment a-t-il pu déceler dans le jeune bourge qu'il est, qui est loin d'avoir l'insolence d'Eddy Mitchell ni le charisme de Johnny Hallyday, l'attraction qu'il va exercer sur le public et le métier de la chanson ? C'est vrai, quand on vous dit ça, c'est qu'on va vous engager. Mais quelle était sa question déjà ? Ah oui, tu t'appelles comment.Et là, Michel, qui en a assez qu'on lui parle de pommes frites à cause du nom de ce père qu'il ne connaît pas, répond : Berger, Monsieur, je m'appelle Michel Berger.

When does a country star get "canceled," and does it even work? In this eye-opening episode, Jay and Tiffany dive into eight notorious country music controversies—from Morgan Wallen's racial slur captured on a doorbell camera to Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his 13-year-old cousin (which rock music rejected but country music... accepted?). Their candid exploration reveals the strange double standards that exist within different music communities.Beyond cancel culture, we uncover a startling radio industry revelation: 38 of the top 40 most-played country songs weren't even released this year. This leads to a fascinating discussion about why music executives consistently prefer safe, proven sounds over innovation, and how artists like Garth Brooks and Zach Topp initially struggled because they didn't sound like "everything else on the radio."The conversation shifts to exciting industry developments with Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks preparing a Christmas duet album, Jake Owen returning to old-school country sounds, and rising star McCoy Moore who received life-changing advice from Luke Combs when he was just 16. We also highlight Hardy's darker artistic direction with his aptly-named upcoming album "Country, Country, Country."Our question of the day—"Who is an artist more people should know about?"—sparks passionate responses from listeners, with multiple nominations for Chapel Heart and several mentions of previous show guests deserving wider recognition. The episode concludes with thought-provoking mailbag questions addressing everything from live album authenticity to AI's growing role in songwriting, where Jay reveals industry secrets about how "live" recordings are often doctored and fixed before release.Whether you're a dedicated country fan or simply curious about the inner workings of the music industry, this episode offers honest insights into what really happens behind Nashville's curtain. Listen now to join the conversation about authenticity, innovation, and the future of country music.Send us a text Support the showLinks Jay Franze: https://jayfranze.com/ The Jay Franze Show: https://thejayfranzeshow.com/ JFS Country Countdown: https://jayfranze.com/countdown/ Contact Reach Out: https://jayfranze.com/contact/ Mailbag: https://jayfranze.com/mailbag/ Question of the Day: https://jayfranze.com/question/ Sponsor the Show: https://jayfranze.com/sponsor/ Socials Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayfranze TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jayfranze X: https://x.com/jayfranze YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jayfranze Services Consulting: https://jayfranze.com/services/ Books Stand Out or Fade Out: https://jayfranze.com/books/

In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we're going all the way back to the beginning of rock and roll – and our back catalogue – by taking another look at Sun Records.  In January 1950, Sam Phillips and his assistant Mario Keisker opened a small recording studio in a former auto glass repair shop in Memphis, Tennessee and the rest is rock and roll history. Sun Records brought us the first rock and roll song Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. They also introduced the world to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and more.  We're going to talk about the history of Sun Records and Sam Phillips, the roster of amazing artists that recorded there, and the impact it had on music forever. Let's roll. Or as Johnny Cash would say, “get rhythm.” Episode Playlist Check out our episode playlist ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Get In Touch Check us out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠online⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or drops us an email at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠show@prisonersofrockandroll.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Or if you're in Philadelphia, come visit our home base at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠McCusker's Tavern⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Prisoners of Rock and Roll is part of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pantheon Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We're sponsored by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Boldfoot Socks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we're going all the way back to the beginning of rock and roll – and our back catalogue – by taking another look at Sun Records.  In January 1950, Sam Phillips and his assistant Mario Keisker opened a small recording studio in a former auto glass repair shop in Memphis, Tennessee and the rest is rock and roll history. Sun Records brought us the first rock and roll song Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. They also introduced the world to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and more.  We're going to talk about the history of Sun Records and Sam Phillips, the roster of amazing artists that recorded there, and the impact it had on music forever. Let's roll. Or as Johnny Cash would say, “get rhythm.” Episode Playlist Check out our episode playlist ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Get In Touch Check us out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠online⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or drops us an email at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠show@prisonersofrockandroll.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Or if you're in Philadelphia, come visit our home base at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠McCusker's Tavern⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Prisoners of Rock and Roll is part of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pantheon Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We're sponsored by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Boldfoot Socks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Show Notes Episode 507; Tito Get Me Some Tissue This week Host Dave Bledsoe passed out at a petting zoo and woke up making out with a llama.  (It was the closest he came to getting laid in years.) On the show this week take a look at the oddities and eccentricities of the King of Pop .  (Yes, we DO talk about THAT, but we do not make any jokes.) Along the way we discover that Dave was not the most bullied kid in school. (Only because of that one kid that ate other people's boogers.) Then we dive into a short history of musicians behaving badly from Mozart's poop poems to Jerry Lee Lewis trying to kill Elvis.  Then we pick up with Michael as his career cools off and people start to notice how weird he is. (Like who wears one glove?) We follow along as Mike collects animal friends, builds an amusement park, turns white and gets a new nose every two years. (We guess he was leasing?) Then we discuss his dating, his marriage, and finally that other thing he allegedly did. (But probably definitely did) Before we wrap up with his sad but predictably bizarre ending. Our Sponsor this week is Ron's Rhinoplasty, don't like the nose on your face, get a new one to take its place.  We open with MJ being mad at Ed and close with Eve St Jones who wants to hear what you have to say. Show Theme: Hypnostate Prelude to Common Sense The Show on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whatthehellpodcast.bsky.social The Show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatthehellpodcast/ The Show on Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxP5ywpZ-O7qu_MFkLXQUQ The Show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatthehellwereyouthinkingpod/ Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/kHmmrjptrq Our Website: https://www.whatthehellpodcast.com Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/Whatthehellpodcast The Show Line: 347 687 9601 Closing Music: https://youtu.be/s4VORb6BSt0?si=Bw-u0uyIxQh6KgSx Buy Our Stuff: https://www.seltzerkings.com/shop Citations Needed: Five of the Craziest Classical Composers https://www.tumblr.com/thestarvingpianist/137229986238/five-of-the-craziest-classical-composers The Mayo Clinic: Vitiligo https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/vitiligo/symptoms-causes/syc-20355912 Why Freddie Mercury never finished three duets with Michael Jackson — and it involves a llama: ‘The last straw' https://nypost.com/2025/04/28/entertainment/why-freddie-mercury-never-finished-3-duets-with-michael-jackson-it-involves-a-llama/ Inside Michael Jackson's zoo of horrors - giraffes on fire and bear in bumper car https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/inside-michael-jacksons-zoo-horrors-26809558 Center for Great Apes: Bubbles https://centerforgreatapes.org/chimpanzee/bubbles/ Surgeon: Michael Jackson A 'Nasal Cripple' https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Cosmetic/story?id=131910&page=1 Lisa Marie Presley was engaged 5 times and married 4 times. Here is what to know about her relationships with Michael Jackson, Nicolas Cage and other husbands. https://www.businessinsider.com/lisa-marie-presley-marriages-michael-jackson-nicolas-cage-danny-keough-2023-1 Wikipedia: Philanthropy of Michael Jackson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philanthropy_of_Michael_Jackson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grammy Award-winning guitarist Peter Frampton will perform “Baby, I Love Your Way” on “Conan” February 29. The performance celebrates the forthcoming release of his new album Acoustic Classics, due February 26 via RED Distribution. In addition, a new live video of Frampton performing the song with longtime collaborator Gordon Kennedy is premiering on The Huffington Post today [insert link]. For the first time ever, Frampton brings us stripped-down versions of his classic hits including “Lines On My Face,” “Do You Feel Like I Do,” “Show Me The Way” and more. Acoustic Classics also includes one new song, “All Down to Me,” which was co-written by Kennedy, who also co-produced Frampton's Grammy Award-winning album Fingerprints. “All Down to Me” is also the only track on the record that features a guest musician. See below for full track listing.The new album was mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Jeff Balding (Don Henley, Lionel Richie, Joe Cocker) and produced by Frampton himself. Of the recording process, Frampton explains, “The approach I took on this was that each song came across as if you are the first person to hear this song after I wrote it. I had to reverse engineer each song in order to get this result, which I feel I achieved.”Acoustic Classics is available for pre-order now and a special pre-order bundle is being offered exclusively on www.frampton.com, which includes the album, a pick set and signed lyric sheet. Frampton will also perform on DirecTV and AT&T's new weekly music program, the Audience Network, March 4. The programming will be available to both subscribers of DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse and the two platforms' mobile apps.Moreover, Frampton has extended his “Peter Frampton Raw, An Acoustic Tour” with more dates next month. Kennedy will join him again for the March run along with Frampton's son, singer and guitarist Julian Frampton. Peter Frampton remains one of the most celebrated artists and guitarists in rock history. At 16, he was lead singer and guitarist for British band the Herd. At 18, he co-founded one of the first super groups, seminal rock act Humble Pie. His session work includes collaborations with such legendary artists as George Harrison, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ringo Starr, John Entwistle and many others. His fifth solo album, the electrifying Frampton Comes Alive! is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and remains one of the top-selling live records of all time. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

TVC 704.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with award-winning producer, director, and author Joseph Wallenstein (Knots Landing, Hotel, Seventh Heaven, Flynn vs. Miranda, Nothing Dies for Film), longtime director of physical production for the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the host of the new podcast Whatcha Know Joe? Topics this segment include Joe's experience working with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins in American Hot Wax; working with Alex Karras, Garo Yepremian, Mike Lucci, and other NFL players in Paper Lion; and how Joe singlehandedly “nearly ruined” The Godfather (according to director Francis Ford Coppola). Whatcha Know Joe? is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you find podcasts.

Michael Lee's life reads like a Forrest Gump-style when-you-come-to-a-fork-in-the-road-take-it Southern novel. Except that it's all true. Starting out humbly enough as a shoeshine boy in his dad's smalltown Mississippi barber shop--where he was once invited to swim in a king's swimming pool--he later played champion-level college football, looped for years on the Mid-south Wresting circuit, worked his way through local law enforcement ranks and became body guard to none other that The Killer himself, Mr. Jerry Lee Lewis. Along his journey he met folks you wouldn't believe, picking up stories--and insights--that'll make you laugh, raise your eyebrows and shake your head. This epsiode if full of grit, heart and behind the scenes tales and insights from a heckuva life.    Visit the Legendary Brands That Make MOJO's Duck Season Somewhere Podcast Possible: MOJO Outdoors  Alberta Professional Outfitters Society Benelli Shotguns Bow and Arrow Outdoors Ducks Unlimited  Flash Back Decoys GetDucks.com HuntProof Premium Waterfowl App Inukshuk Professional Dog Food  Migra Ammunitions onX Maps  Use code GetDucks25 Sitka Gear SoundGear Tom Beckbe USHuntList.com   Like what you heard? Let us know! • Tap Subscribe so you never miss an episode. • Drop a rating—it's like a high-five in the duck blind. • Leave a quick comment: What hit home? What made you laugh? What hunt did it remind you of? • Share this episode with a buddy who lives for duck season.   Want to partner? Have or know a story to share? Contact: Ramsey Russell ramsey@getducks.com

Can we actually separate the art from the artist? Well, if you're willing to contort yourself around some pretty terrible behavior, the art you are separating from the artists involved better be worth it. Only the best of the best can get away with being the worst of the worst and have us still wanting to enjoy their art. From bleak to dark, this list and the stories involved might make the squeamish squeam - fair warning! Who else to help us navigate these treacherous waters than our old dear friends from Milwaukee, Chris Van Gompel, DJ Hostettler and Dixie Jacobs. Here in Top Ten "Separate The Art" Artists Part 1, we discuss Picks 10-6 of this problematic cast of characters, but we also get to rock out with some of their amazing creations.These guys are always busy with the rocking out and such. Go listen to and see IfIHadAHiFi and Body Futures live when they're in your area. Follow them on the 'gram' for more info:https://www.instagram.com/ifihadahifimke/https://www.instagram.com/bodyfutures/We've lowered our prices, but not our standards over at the ATTT Patreon! Those who are kindly contributing $2 a month are receiving an exclusive monthly Emergency Pod episode featuring our favorite guests and utilizing our patent-pending improv format in which we miraculously pull a playlist out of thin air. Ryan Stockstad returned for his second EP attempt, and there was much rejoicing! Check out Volume 19 out September 1st. Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/c/alltimetoptenWe're having a blast chatting it up about music over on the ATTT Facebook Group. Join us and start a conversation about music!https://www.facebook.com/groups/940749894391295

Hello and welcome to How Did I Get Here? From The Vault! Today we go back to episode 1275 for a great conversation with legendary rock and roll madman, Mojo Nixon originally released on May 12, 2023 before his untimely passing in February of 2024. Below are my original notes form the show.  Hello friends! Legendary rock and roll madman, activist, thinker, talker, Mojo Nixon is my guest for episode 1275! Mojo is the subject of an incredible, new documentary, "The Mojo Manifesto: The Life And Times Of Mojo Nixon", directed by long time bass player, Matt Eske. It's currently available to rent on Amazon, Apple TV or wherever you rent your movies. Go to mojomanifestomovie.com for more info. You can hear Mojo on Sirius XM Outlaw Radio weekdays at 4 pm EST where he's the "Loon In The Afternoon". We have a great conversation about what it took to make "The Mojo Manifesto: The Life And Times Of Mojo Nixon", his crazy life, his connection to Austin, MTV, making the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic, "Great Balls of Fire", Ron Goudie, retiring from music, getting into radio and much more. I had a great time getting to know Mojo. I'm sure you will too. Let's get down! Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you pod. Send someone the gift of Johnny with Cameo.   If you feel so inclined. Venmo: venmo.com/John-Goudie-1  Paypal: paypal.me/johnnygoudie

George Jones - "Into My Arms Again" [0:00:00] Marty Robbins - "Count Me Out" [0:07:33] Jack Reeves & The Lonesome Cowboys - "If the World Should End Tomorrow" [0:10:04] Jimmie Skinner - "John Wesley Hardin" [0:12:33] Jimmie Walker - "Detour" [0:16:59] Rusty York - "Sugaree" [0:17:16] Charlie Rich - "Gonna Be Waitin'" [0:19:41] Music behind DJ: Rusty York - "Red Rooster" [0:23:15] Wanda Jackson - "Let's Have A Party" [0:25:35] Warren Smith - "Miss Froggie" [0:27:28] Curt Jensen with the Don Henze Rhythmaires - "Just For You" [0:29:45] Jerry Lee Lewis and his Pumping Piano - "Down The Line" [0:31:36] Monty Olive and His Piano - "Mary Lee" [0:33:51] Music behind DJ: Rusty York - "Red Rooster" [0:36:06] Bobby Rice - "Sugar Shack" [0:38:06] Cathy Senn - "There's Bound To Be A Fall" [0:40:31] Jeanette Jabaley - "I Love You A Thousand Ways" [0:43:00] Jerry Kay - "See See Rider" [0:45:27] Randy King - "Sunset And Wine" [0:47:51] Music behind DJ: Rusty York - "Red Rooster" [0:51:34] Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton - "The Right Combination" [0:53:21] Rose Mae La Pointe - "Phantom Buffalo" [0:55:58] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/155585

George Jones - "Into My Arms Again" [0:00:00] Marty Robbins - "Count Me Out" [0:07:33] Jack Reeves & The Lonesome Cowboys - "If the World Should End Tomorrow" [0:10:04] Jimmie Skinner - "John Wesley Hardin" [0:12:33] Jimmie Walker - "Detour" [0:16:59] Rusty York - "Sugaree" [0:17:16] Charlie Rich - "Gonna Be Waitin'" [0:19:41] Music behind DJ: Rusty York - "Red Rooster" [0:23:15] Wanda Jackson - "Let's Have A Party" [0:25:35] Warren Smith - "Miss Froggie" [0:27:28] Curt Jensen with the Don Henze Rhythmaires - "Just For You" [0:29:45] Jerry Lee Lewis and his Pumping Piano - "Down The Line" [0:31:36] Monty Olive and His Piano - "Mary Lee" [0:33:51] Music behind DJ: Rusty York - "Red Rooster" [0:36:06] Bobby Rice - "Sugar Shack" [0:38:06] Cathy Senn - "There's Bound To Be A Fall" [0:40:31] Jeanette Jabaley - "I Love You A Thousand Ways" [0:43:00] Jerry Kay - "See See Rider" [0:45:27] Randy King - "Sunset And Wine" [0:47:51] Music behind DJ: Rusty York - "Red Rooster" [0:51:34] Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton - "The Right Combination" [0:53:21] Rose Mae La Pointe - "Phantom Buffalo" [0:55:58] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/155585

All week we're revisiting archival interviews with key figures in early rock and roll, rockabilly and R&B. Sam Phillips discovered Elvis Presley and produced his first records, which many consider Elvis' best. He also founded Sun Records and launched the careers of Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich and Johnny Cash. Cash is one of the most influential figures in country music. His collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, starting in the late 1990s, transformed Cash's image and gained him a new, young audience. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

All week we're revisiting archival interviews with key figures in early rock and roll, rockabilly and R&B. Sam Phillips discovered Elvis Presley and produced his first records, which many consider Elvis' best. He also founded Sun Records and launched the careers of Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich and Johnny Cash. Cash is one of the most influential figures in country music. His collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, starting in the late 1990s, transformed Cash's image and gained him a new, young audience. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

[Originally aired: 5/4/23] Chuck Girard, singer, songwriter, recording artist, and worship leader, is one of the pioneers of Contemporary Christian Music. He was co-founder and lead singer of the group LOVE SONG from it's beginning to the present. Born in Los Angeles, Chuck began playing music at an early age. In his teens, he formed a group called THE CASTELLS, which had two national top 20 hits. They also released the song “I Do”, which was produced by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Chuck shared the stage with stars such as Roy Orbison, Jan and Dean, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby Vee, and others. This led to a successful career as a studio singer and musician which included singing the lead vocals on THE HONDELLS first two albums and their biggest hit, “Little Honda.” In his early twenties Chuck became disillusioned with life, and like so many of his generation began experimenting with drugs. This led to a five-year search for God through LSD, eastern religion, and a committed “hippie” lifestyle.  Rock & Roll Preacher - Chuck Girard After years of searching for meaning through drugs, Buddhism, sex, and Eastern philosophy, a long-haired hippie musician walked his bare feet into a little country church and encountered the living God. Confounded by the simplicity of the gospel, a young Chuck Girard dedicated his life to Jesus during the height of the sexual revolution and civil unrest that characterized the decade of the '60s. Along with thousands of other "Jesus Freaks" who came to be known as the Jesus Movement, Chuck's story was only just getting started. This raw and honest memoir is both refreshing and convicting.  MORE Love Song - The Band, The Ministry, The Movement [Trailer] Follow Chuck and Love Song on Facebook! Alisa (Girard) Childers on Stand Up

[Originally aired: 5/4/23] Chuck Girard, singer, songwriter, recording artist, and worship leader, is one of the pioneers of Contemporary Christian Music. He was co-founder and lead singer of the group LOVE SONG from it's beginning to the present. Born in Los Angeles, Chuck began playing music at an early age. In his teens, he formed a group called THE CASTELLS, which had two national top 20 hits. They also released the song “I Do”, which was produced by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Chuck shared the stage with stars such as Roy Orbison, Jan and Dean, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby Vee, and others. This led to a successful career as a studio singer and musician which included singing the lead vocals on THE HONDELLS first two albums and their biggest hit, “Little Honda.” In his early twenties Chuck became disillusioned with life, and like so many of his generation began experimenting with drugs. This led to a five-year search for God through LSD, eastern religion, and a committed “hippie” lifestyle.  Rock & Roll Preacher - Chuck Girard After years of searching for meaning through drugs, Buddhism, sex, and Eastern philosophy, a long-haired hippie musician walked his bare feet into a little country church and encountered the living God. Confounded by the simplicity of the gospel, a young Chuck Girard dedicated his life to Jesus during the height of the sexual revolution and civil unrest that characterized the decade of the '60s. Along with thousands of other "Jesus Freaks" who came to be known as the Jesus Movement, Chuck's story was only just getting started. This raw and honest memoir is both refreshing and convicting.  MORE Love Song - The Band, The Ministry, The Movement [Trailer] Follow Chuck and Love Song on Facebook! Alisa (Girard) Childers on Stand Up

There's something magical about a determined paperboy chasing John Cusack down, saying "I want my two dollars!" That's the power of an unforgettable movie moment - it sticks with you for decades. In this episode, I dive into why Johnny the Paperboy from 1985's "Better Off Dead" created one of cinema's most quotable running gags despite being just a minor character in the film.But that's just the beginning of our musical journey. I share my recent rockstar encounter with Cheap Trick's legendary guitarist Rick Nielsen, who took time to reminisce over an old band photo I brought him to sign. There's nothing quite like watching a music legend examine his younger self and tell stories about the shoes he wore in 1977! And yes, he flipped the bird in our photo together - a true rock and roll moment I'll never forget.The concert experiences continue as I recount seeing Cheap Trick open for Rod Stewart (who sounds incredible at 80!), connecting with podcast listeners at shows, and my adventure of turning lawn seats into something much better. We explore musical history with deep dives into Squeeze's 1985 comeback tour, Queen's landmark album "The Game" (their only US #1), and why The Cars' underappreciated "Panorama" album deserves another listen. Plus, Jimmy takes us back to 1955 to discover Big Maybel's original version of "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On" before Jerry Lee Lewis made it famous.Throughout our musical exploration, we discover how certain songs become time machines, instantly transporting us back to specific moments with friends, first listens, and the emotions attached to them. From $2 newspaper deliveries to multimillion-dollar rock tours, this episode celebrates how music connects our past to our present. Give it a listen, then share your own musical memories with us - we'd love to hear which songs define your life's soundtrack!“Music In My Shoes" where music and memories intertwine.Learn Something New orRemember Something OldVisit our Facebook and Instagram pages and spread the word if you enjoy the podcast. Contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail.com with your own musical memories.Send us a one-way message. We can't answer you back directly, but it could be part of a future Music In My Shoes Mailbag!!!

Ken Sluiter is a Grammy‑nominated recording engineer, producer, and mixer whose career spans from Chicago's indie scene to major Los Angeles studios. He has worked with a diverse roster of artists, including Weezer (Red Album), Morrissey, James Blunt, Heart, OK Go, Jerry Lee Lewis, Andra Day, The Mekons, and Flogging Molly. After establishing himself at Chicago's Kingsize Sound Labs, Ken moved to LA in 2003, where he assisted legendary engineers Andrew Scheps, Greg Fidelman, and Jim Scott on projects for artists such as Metallica, Pink, and Keith Richards.Known for his refined in‑the‑box Pro Tools workflow and ability to commit to bold sonic decisions early in the process, Ken blends analog tracking with digital precision in his own API‑equipped mix room. His credits extend to film and television scores—including Hannibal and American Gods—and he now works extensively in Dolby Atmos, continuing to shape mixes for artists across genres.IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN:Working on jinglesThe process of editing on tapeCharging based on time vs per projectChecking your ego at the door to help grow your careerAlways being ready for anything to happen in the studioBeing flexible to a band's style of workingHow clocking affects your sound while mixingHow to identify a good clock from a bad oneMixing in-the-box vs. hybridWhy you should listen really loud when starting a mixListening in context to determine when something is/isn't a problemMaking bass sound good on small speakersFocusing on mixing translationMixing kick drums to feel big, but without being muddyUsing gates as a sound shaperKick/bass relationships: How to get them to work well togetherTo learn more about Ken Sluiter, visit: https://promixacademy.com/mentor/ken-sluiter/Looking for 1-on-1 feedback and training to help you create pro-quality mixes?Check out my coaching program Amplitude and apply to join:https://masteryourmix.com/amplitude/ Want additional help with your music productions?For tips on how to improve your mixes, visit: https://masteryourmix.com/ Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/ Get your copy of my Amazon #1 bestselling books:The Recording Mindset: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Pro Recordings From Your Home Studio: https://therecordingmindset.com The Mixing Mindset: The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/ Check out our Sponsors:Download Waves Plugins here: https://waves.alzt.net/EK3G2K Subscribe to the show:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/master-your-mix-podcast/id1240842781 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4xtrWSnpA5e9L67QcJej Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@MasterYourMix...

With special guest: Jeff Apter… in conversation with Bill Kable It is hard to discover who the real Lee Gordon was but Jeff Apter provides a whirlwind tour of this extraordinary life in his new book Lee Gordon Presents. We know Lee Gordon arrived for the first time in Australia in September 1953. We know he left for the last time in 1963 before he died alone in a London hotel at the age (probably) of 40. Not much is certain about his real name, his date of birth and why this brash American decided on making Australia his home. But in the ten years he lived in Australia he revealed himself as a force of nature. Lee Gordon must have been a charming personality. He prevailed upon a whole host of the most successful entertainers in America to make the long trip to Australia and perform in sometimes primitive venues such as the Sydney Stadium. Those entertainers who fell under his spell included Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and the list goes on. Podcast (mp3)

This week's show, after a 1972 Bee Gees butcher: brand new Moving Targets, Successful Failures, Jeanines, Robert Forster, Valery Trails, Lake Ruth, Flying Vipers (featuring Earl Sixteen), and Jesse Welles, plus The Animals, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hawkshaw Ha...

Pacific St Blues & Americana August 10, 2025 Spotlight on Creedence Clearwater Revival & John Fogerty22. Big Bill Bronzy / Night Time is the Right Time 23. CCR @ Woodstock / Green River24. Emmylou Harris / Bad Moon Rising 25. Southern Culture on the Skids / Tombstone Shadow26. Jerry Lee Lewis w/ Fogerty / Travelin' Band 27. The Kentucky Boys / Cotton Fields28. Lead Belly w/ Golden Gate Quarter / Midnight Special 29. Dave Alvin / Don't Look Now 30. Mike Zito w/ Sonny Landreth / Fortunate Son 31. Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup / My Baby Left Me32. Ooby Dooby / Roy Orbison33. Marvin Gaye / I Heard It Through the Grapevine34. Who'll Stop the Rain / Duke Robillard 35. Tom Fogerty / Mystic Isle of Avalon36. John Fogerty / Centerfield37. John Fogerty / Weeping in the Promised Land38. John Fogerty / I Will Walk with You 

Back on this day in 1957, Jerry Lee Lewis made his TV debut when the rock and roll hall of famer performed on the Steve Allen show 

We reconnect with local historian Steven Rogstad about his latest book "The Million Dollar Quartet and the Challenges of Oral Testimony." The title refers to four legendary musicians- Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis- who converged on a Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee in 1956 for what turned out to be a spontaneous jam session .... some of which was recorded and ultimately shared with the world. In the book, Rogstad seeks to gain some clarity on what exactly happened on that memorable occasion- and how a serious historian goes about such a task.

Look out, boys and girls, cuz we got a big'un coming through! That's right, it's been a minute since we've recorded, so you're in for an even girthier than usual episode. And it is chock full of goodies like werewolves vs. German shepherds, childhood trauma-inducing animation, Liam Neeson punching carnies, and more Jerry Lee Lewis than you can shake a statutory rape charge at. All that, a double dose of Scare Exchange, and much more await you with We Belong Dead 145! As mentioned in the episode, we encourage you to send your love and well wishes to the wonderful Reggie Bannister at: Reggie Bannister PO Box 4387 Crestline, CA 92325 Have any questions or comments for us? Send us a message to our social media pages or email us directly at webelongdeadpod@gmail.com. And if you liked the music you heard on this or any other episode, check out the We Belong Dead Tunes playlist on Spotify!

An all new episode! Songs in this episode: “America the Beautiful” Frank Sinatra (1963) “Outa Space” Billy Preston (1971) Excerpts from Jimmy Swaggart Ministries (YouTube) “Great Balls of Fire” Jerry Lee Lewis (1961) “That’s All There Is” Mickey Gilley (1980) “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”  Bob Dylan (1983) Theme from the …

(00:00-16:03) Joined by voice of the Blues, Chris Kerber. Talking nicknames. Blues excited about their draft pick, Justin Carbonneau. Locking up Joel Hofer. Jordan Kyrou. How close is Carbonneau to being ready?(16:11-25:59) Jerry Lee Lewis and cousins. Audio of Victor Scott talking about the comeback victory on Saturday. A lot of people fell in love with Miles Teller that day. Top Gun Maverick.(26:09-45:08) Looming work stoppage in MLB. MLB has the slowest growing player salaries over the last 20 years. Baseball getting shut down until there is a salary cap?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

///////// Michael Bales' Orlando Story: Lovegods in Leisure Suits, Rocket 88 & More /////////Nearly 40 years of Florida sound and style. Michael Bales' musical journey spans hardcore punk, funk, swing, and rockabilly — from the raw energy of Lovegods In Leisure Suits, to the retro grit of Rocket 88 and Knock Down Drag Out. He's shared stages with Jerry Lee Lewis, The B-52's, Dick Dale, Wanda Jackson & countless more — a deep dive into one of Florida's most eclectic voices and creative forces.

For those who haven't heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a two-episode look at the song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” by Fairport Convention, and the intertwining careers of Joe Boyd, Sandy Denny, and Richard Thompson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-one-minute bonus episode available, on Judy Collins’ version of this song. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by editing, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Erratum For about an hour this was uploaded with the wrong Elton John clip in place of “Saturday Sun”. This has now been fixed. Resources Because of the increasing problems with Mixcloud’s restrictions, I have decided to start sharing streaming playlists of the songs used in episodes instead of Mixcloud ones. This Tunemymusic link will let you listen to the playlist I created on your streaming platform of choice — however please note that not all the songs excerpted are currently available on streaming. The songs missing from the Tidal version are “Shanten Bells” by the Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” by A.L. Lloyd, two by Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, three by Elton John & Linda Peters, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow” by Sandy Denny and “You Never Know” by Charlie Drake, but the other fifty-nine are there. Other songs may be missing from other services. The main books I used on Fairport Convention as a whole were Patrick Humphries' Meet On The Ledge, Clinton Heylin's What We Did Instead of Holidays, and Kevan Furbank's Fairport Convention on Track. Rob Young's Electric Eden is the most important book on the British folk-rock movement. Information on Richard Thompson comes from Patrick Humphries' Richard Thompson: Strange Affair and Thompson's own autobiography Beeswing.  Information on Sandy Denny comes from Clinton Heylin's No More Sad Refrains and Mick Houghton's I've Always Kept a Unicorn. I also used Joe Boyd's autobiography White Bicycles and Chris Blackwell's The Islander.  And this three-CD set is the best introduction to Fairport's music currently in print. Transcript Before we begin, this episode contains reference to alcohol and cocaine abuse and medical neglect leading to death. It also starts with some discussion of the fatal car accident that ended last episode. There’s also some mention of child neglect and spousal violence. If that’s likely to upset you, you might want to skip this episode or read the transcript. One of the inspirations for this podcast when I started it back in 2018 was a project by Richard Thompson, which appears (like many things in Thompson’s life) to have started out of sheer bloody-mindedness. In 1999 Playboy magazine asked various people to list their “songs of the Millennium”, and most of them, understanding the brief, chose a handful of songs from the latter half of the twentieth century. But Thompson determined that he was going to list his favourite songs *of the millennium*. He didn’t quite manage that, but he did cover seven hundred and forty years, and when Playboy chose not to publish it, he decided to turn it into a touring show, in which he covered all his favourite songs from “Sumer Is Icumen In” from 1260: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Sumer is Icumen In”] Through numerous traditional folk songs, union songs like “Blackleg Miner”, pieces by early-modern composers, Victorian and Edwardian music hall songs, and songs by the Beatles, the Ink Spots, the Kinks, and the Who, all the way to “Oops! I Did It Again”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Oops! I Did it Again”] And to finish the show, and to show how all this music actually ties together, he would play what he described as a “medieval tune from Brittany”, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”] We have said many times in this podcast that there is no first anything, but there’s a reason that Liege and Lief, Fairport Convention’s third album of 1969, and the album other than Unhalfbricking on which their reputation largely rests, was advertised with the slogan “The first (literally) British folk rock album ever”. Folk-rock, as the term had come to be known, and as it is still usually used today, had very little to do with traditional folk music. Rather, the records of bands like The Byrds or Simon and Garfunkel were essentially taking the sounds of British beat groups of the early sixties, particularly the Searchers, and applying those sounds to material by contemporary singer-songwriters. People like Paul Simon and Bob Dylan had come up through folk clubs, and their songs were called folk music because of that, but they weren’t what folk music had meant up to that point — songs that had been collected after being handed down through the folk process, changed by each individual singer, with no single identifiable author. They were authored songs by very idiosyncratic writers. But over their last few albums, Fairport Convention had done one or two tracks per album that weren’t like that, that were instead recordings of traditional folk songs, but arranged with rock instrumentation. They were not necessarily the first band to try traditional folk music with electric instruments — around the same time that Fairport started experimenting with the idea, so did an Irish band named Sweeney’s Men, who brought in a young electric guitarist named Henry McCullough briefly. But they do seem to have been the first to have fully embraced the idea. They had done so to an extent with “A Sailor’s Life” on Unhalfbricking, but now they were going to go much further: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves” (from about 4:30)] There had been some doubt as to whether Fairport Convention would even continue to exist — by the time Unhalfbricking, their second album of the year, was released, they had been through the terrible car accident that had killed Martin Lamble, the band’s drummer, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson’s girlfriend. Most of the rest of the band had been seriously injured, and they had made a conscious decision not to discuss the future of the band until they were all out of hospital. Ashley Hutchings was hospitalised the longest, and Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, and Sandy Denny, the other three surviving members of the band, flew over to LA with their producer and manager, Joe Boyd, to recuperate there and get to know the American music scene. When they came back, the group all met up in the flat belonging to Denny’s boyfriend Trevor Lucas, and decided that they were going to continue the band. They made a few decisions then — they needed a new drummer, and as well as a drummer they wanted to get in Dave Swarbrick. Swarbrick had played violin on several tracks on Unhalfbricking as a session player, and they had all been thrilled to work with him. Swarbrick was one of the most experienced musicians on the British folk circuit. He had started out in the fifties playing guitar with Beryl Marriott’s Ceilidh Band before switching to fiddle, and in 1963, long before Fairport had formed, he had already appeared on TV with the Ian Campbell Folk Group, led by Ian Campbell, the father of Ali and Robin Campbell, later of UB40: [Excerpt: The Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Shanten Bells (medley on Hullaballoo!)”] He’d sung with Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd: [Excerpt: A.L. Lloyd, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” ] And he’d formed his hugely successful duo with Martin Carthy, releasing records like “Byker Hill” which are often considered among the best British folk music of all time: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, “Byker Hill”] By the time Fairport had invited him to play on Unhalfbricking, Swarbrick had already performed on twenty albums as a core band member, plus dozens more EPs, singles, and odd tracks on compilations. They had no reason to think they could actually get him to join their band. But they had three advantages. The first was that Swarbrick was sick of the traditional folk scene at the time, saying later “I didn’t like seven-eighths of the people involved in it, and it was extremely opportune to leave. I was suddenly presented with the possibilities of exploring the dramatic content of the songs to the full.” The second was that he was hugely excited to be playing with Richard Thompson, who was one of the most innovative guitarists of his generation, and Martin Carthy remembers him raving about Thompson after their initial sessions. (Carthy himself was and is no slouch on the guitar of course, and there was even talk of getting him to join the band at this point, though they decided against it — much to the relief of rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol, who is a perfectly fine player himself but didn’t want to be outclassed by *two* of the best guitarists in Britain at the same time). And the third was that Joe Boyd told him that Fairport were doing so well — they had a single just about to hit the charts with “Si Tu Dois Partir” — that he would only have to play a dozen gigs with Fairport in order to retire. As it turned out, Swarbrick would play with the group for a decade, and would never retire — I saw him on his last tour in 2015, only eight months before he died. The drummer the group picked was also a far more experienced musician than any of the rest, though in a very different genre. Dave Mattacks had no knowledge at all of the kind of music they played, having previously been a player in dance bands. When asked by Hutchings if he wanted to join the band, Mattacks’ response was “I don’t know anything about the music. I don’t understand it… I can’t tell one tune from another, they all sound the same… but if you want me to join the group, fine, because I really like it. I’m enjoying myself musically.” Mattacks brought a new level of professionalism to the band, thanks to his different background. Nicol said of him later “He was dilligent, clean, used to taking three white shirts to a gig… The application he could bring to his playing was amazing. With us, you only played well when you were feeling well.” This distinction applied to his playing as well. Nicol would later describe the difference between Mattacks’ drumming and Lamble’s by saying “Martin’s strength was as an imaginative drummer. DM came in with a strongly developed sense of rhythm, through keeping a big band of drunken saxophone players in order. A great time-keeper.” With this new line-up and a new sense of purpose, the group did as many of their contemporaries were doing and “got their heads together in the country”. Joe Boyd rented the group a mansion, Farley House, in Farley Chamberlayne, Hampshire, and they stayed there together for three months. At the start, the group seem to have thought that they were going to make another record like Unhalfbricking, with some originals, some songs by American songwriters, and a few traditional songs. Even after their stay in Farley Chamberlayne, in fact, they recorded a few of the American songs they’d rehearsed at the start of the process, Richard Farina’s “Quiet Joys of Brotherhood” and Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn’s “Ballad of Easy Rider”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Ballad of Easy Rider”] Indeed, the whole idea of “getting our heads together in the country” (as the cliche quickly became in the late sixties as half of the bands in Britain went through much the same kind of process as Fairport were doing — but usually for reasons more to do with drug burnout or trend following than recovering from serious life-changing trauma) seems to have been inspired by Bob Dylan and the Band getting together in Big Pink. But very quickly they decided to follow the lead of Ashley Hutchings, who had had something of a Damascene conversion to the cause of traditional English folk music. They were listening mostly to Music From Big Pink by the Band, and to the first album by Sweeney’s Men: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “The Handsome Cabin Boy”] And they decided that they were going to make something that was as English as those records were North American and Irish (though in the event there were also a few Scottish songs included on the record). Hutchings in particular was becoming something of a scholar of traditional music, regularly visiting Cecil Sharp House and having long conversations with A.L. Lloyd, discovering versions of different traditional songs he’d never encountered before. This was both amusing and bemusing Sandy Denny, who had joined a rock group in part to get away from traditional music; but she was comfortable singing the material, and knew a lot of it and could make a lot of suggestions herself. Swarbrick obviously knew the repertoire intimately, and Nicol was amenable, while Mattacks was utterly clueless about the folk tradition at this point but knew this was the music he wanted to make. Thompson knew very little about traditional music, and of all the band members except Denny he was the one who has shown the least interest in the genre in his subsequent career — but as we heard at the beginning, showing the least interest in the genre is a relative thing, and while Thompson was not hugely familiar with the genre, he *was* able to work with it, and was also more than capable of writing songs that fit in with the genre. Of the eleven songs on the album, which was titled Liege and Lief (which means, roughly, Lord and Loyalty), there were no cover versions of singer-songwriters. Eight were traditional songs, and three were originals, all written in the style of traditional songs. The album opened with “Come All Ye”, an introduction written by Denny and Hutchings (the only time the two would ever write together): [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Come All Ye”] The other two originals were songs where Thompson had written new lyrics to traditional melodies. On “Crazy Man Michael”, Swarbrick had said to Thompson that the tune to which he had set his new words was weaker than the lyrics, to which Thompson had replied that if Swarbrick felt that way he should feel free to write a new melody. He did, and it became the first of the small number of Thompson/Swarbrick collaborations: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Crazy Man Michael”] Thompson and Swarbrick would become a brief songwriting team, but as much as anything else it was down to proximity — the two respected each other as musicians, but never got on very well. In 1981 Swarbrick would say “Richard and I never got on in the early days of FC… we thought we did, but we never did. We composed some bloody good songs together, but it was purely on a basis of “you write that and I’ll write this, and we’ll put it together.” But we never sat down and had real good chats.” The third original on the album, and by far the most affecting, is another song where Thompson put lyrics to a traditional tune. In this case he thought he was putting the lyrics to the tune of “Willie O'Winsbury”, but he was basing it on a recording by Sweeney’s Men. The problem was that Sweeney’s Men had accidentally sung the lyrics of “Willie O'Winsbury'” to the tune of a totally different song, “Fause Foodrage”: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “Willie O’Winsbury”] Thompson took that melody, and set to it lyrics about loss and separation. Thompson has never been one to discuss the meanings of his lyrics in any great detail, and in the case of this one has said “I really don't know what it means. This song came out of a dream, and I pretty much wrote it as I dreamt it (it was the sixties), and didn't spend very long analyzing it. So interpret as you wish – or replace with your own lines.” But in the context of the traffic accident that had killed his tailor girlfriend and a bandmate, and injured most of his other bandmates, the lyrics about lonely travellers, the winding road, bruised and beaten sons, saying goodbye, and never cutting cloth, seem fairly self-explanatory: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Farewell, Farewell”] The rest of the album, though, was taken up by traditional tunes. There was a long medley of four different fiddle reels; a version of “Reynardine” (a song about a seductive man — or is he a fox? Or perhaps both — which had been recorded by Swarbrick and Carthy on their most recent album); a 19th century song about a deserter saved from the firing squad by Prince Albert; and a long take on “Tam Lin”, one of the most famous pieces in the Scottish folk music canon, a song that has been adapted in different ways by everyone from the experimental noise band Current 93 to the dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah to the comics writer Grant Morrison: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Tam Lin”] And “Matty Groves”, a song about a man killing his cheating wife and her lover, which actually has a surprisingly similar story to that of “1921” from another great concept album from that year, the Who’s Tommy. “Matty Groves” became an excuse for long solos and shows of instrumental virtuosity: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves”] The album was recorded in September 1969, after their return from their break in the country and a triumphal performance at the Royal Festival Hall, headlining over fellow Witchseason artists John and Beverly Martyn and Nick Drake. It became a classic of the traditional folk genre — arguably *the* classic of the traditional folk genre. In 2007 BBC Radio 2’s Folk Music Awards gave it an award for most influential folk album of all time, and while such things are hard to measure, I doubt there’s anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of British folk and folk-rock music who would not at least consider that a reasonable claim. But once again, by the time the album came out in November, the band had changed lineups yet again. There was a fundamental split in the band – on one side were Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, whose stance was, roughly, that Liege and Lief was a great experiment and a fun thing to do once, but really the band had two first-rate songwriters in themselves, and that they should be concentrating on their own new material, not doing these old songs, good as they were. They wanted to take the form of the traditional songs and use that form for new material — they wanted to make British folk-rock, but with the emphasis on the rock side of things. Hutchings, on the other hand, was equally sure that he wanted to make traditional music and go further down the rabbit hole of antiquity. With the zeal of the convert he had gone in a couple of years from being the leader of a band who were labelled “the British Jefferson Airplane” to becoming a serious scholar of traditional folk music. Denny was tired of touring, as well — she wanted to spend more time at home with Trevor Lucas, who was sleeping with other women when she was away and making her insecure. When the time came for the group to go on a tour of Denmark, Denny decided she couldn’t make it, and Hutchings was jubilant — he decided he was going to get A.L. Lloyd into the band in her place and become a *real* folk group. Then Denny reconsidered, and Hutchings was crushed. He realised that while he had always been the leader, he wasn’t going to be able to lead the band any further in the traditionalist direction, and quit the group — but not before he was delegated by the other band members to fire Denny. Until the publication of Richard Thompson’s autobiography in 2022, every book on the group or its members said that Denny quit the band again, which was presumably a polite fiction that the band agreed, but according to Thompson “Before we flew home, we decided to fire Sandy. I don't remember who asked her to leave – it was probably Ashley, who usually did the dirty work. She was reportedly shocked that we would take that step. She may have been fragile beneath the confident facade, but she still knew her worth.” Thompson goes on to explain that the reasons for kicking her out were that “I suppose we felt that in her mind she had already left” and that “We were probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, though there wasn't a name for it back then.” They had considered inviting Trevor Lucas to join the band to make Denny more comfortable, but came to the (probably correct) conclusion that while he was someone they got on well with personally, he would be another big ego in a band that already had several, and that being around Denny and Lucas’ volatile relationship would, in Thompson’s phrasing, “have not always given one a feeling of peace and stability.” Hutchings originally decided he was going to join Sweeney’s Men, but that group were falling apart, and their first rehearsal with Hutchings would also be their last as a group, with only Hutchings and guitarist and mandolin player Terry Woods left in the band. They added Woods’ wife Gay, and another couple, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, and formed a group called Steeleye Span, a name given them by Martin Carthy. That group, like Fairport, went to “get their heads together in the country” for three months and recorded an album of electric versions of traditional songs, Hark the Village Wait, on which Mattacks and another drummer, Gerry Conway, guested as Steeleye Span didn’t at the time have their own drummer: [Excerpt: Steeleye Span, “Blackleg Miner”] Steeleye Span would go on to have a moderately successful chart career in the seventies, but by that time most of the original lineup, including Hutchings, had left — Hutchings stayed with them for a few albums, then went on to form the first of a series of bands, all called the Albion Band or variations on that name, which continue to this day. And this is something that needs to be pointed out at this point — it is impossible to follow every single individual in this narrative as they move between bands. There is enough material in the history of the British folk-rock scene that someone could do a 500 Songs-style podcast just on that, and every time someone left Fairport, or Steeleye Span, or the Albion Band, or Matthews’ Southern Comfort, or any of the other bands we have mentioned or will mention, they would go off and form another band which would then fission, and some of its members would often join one of those other bands. There was a point in the mid-1970s where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport Convention while Fairport Convention had none. So just in order to keep the narrative anything like wieldy, I’m going to keep the narrative concentrated on the two figures from Fairport — Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson — whose work outside the group has had the most influence on the wider world of rock music more broadly, and only deal with the other members when, as they often did, their careers intersected with those two. That doesn’t mean the other members are not themselves hugely important musicians, just that their importance has been primarily to the folk side of the folk-rock genre, and so somewhat outside the scope of this podcast. While Hutchings decided to form a band that would allow him to go deeper and deeper into traditional folk music, Sandy Denny’s next venture was rather different. For a long time she had been writing far more songs than she had ever played for her bandmates, like “Nothing More”, a song that many have suggested is about Thompson: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Nothing More”] When Joe Boyd heard that Denny was leaving Fairport Convention, he was at first elated. Fairport’s records were being distributed by A&M in the US at that point, but Island Records was in the process of opening up a new US subsidiary which would then release all future Fairport product — *but*, as far as A&M were concerned, Sandy Denny *was* Fairport Convention. They were only interested in her. Boyd, on the other hand, loved Denny’s work intensely, but from his point of view *Richard Thompson* was Fairport Convention. If he could get Denny signed directly to A&M as a solo artist before Island started its US operations, Witchseason could get a huge advance on her first solo record, while Fairport could continue making records for Island — he’d have two lucrative acts, on different labels. Boyd went over and spoke to A&M and got an agreement in principle that they would give Denny a forty-thousand-dollar advance on her first solo album — twice what they were paying for Fairport albums. The problem was that Denny didn’t want to be a solo act. She wanted to be the lead singer of a band. She gave many reasons for this — the one she gave to many journalists was that she had seen a Judy Collins show and been impressed, but noticed that Collins’ band were definitely a “backing group”, and as she put it “But that's all they were – a backing group. I suddenly thought, If you're playing together on a stage you might as well be TOGETHER.” Most other people in her life, though, say that the main reason for her wanting to be in a band was her desire to be with her boyfriend, Trevor Lucas. Partly this was due to a genuine desire to spend more time with someone with whom she was very much in love, partly it was a fear that he would cheat on her if she was away from him for long periods of time, and part of it seems to have been Lucas’ dislike of being *too* overshadowed by his talented girlfriend — he didn’t mind acknowledging that she was a major talent, but he wanted to be thought of as at least a minor one. So instead of going solo, Denny formed Fotheringay, named after the song she had written for Fairport. This new band consisted at first of Denny on vocals and occasional piano, Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Lucas’ old Eclection bandmate Gerry Conway on drums. For a lead guitarist, they asked Richard Thompson who the best guitarist in Britain was, and he told them Albert Lee. Lee in turn brought in bass player Pat Donaldson, but this lineup of the band barely survived a fortnight. Lee *was* arguably the best guitarist in Britain, certainly a reasonable candidate if you could ever have a singular best (as indeed was Thompson himself), but he was the best *country* guitarist in Britain, and his style simply didn’t fit with Fotheringay’s folk-influenced songs. He was replaced by American guitarist Jerry Donahue, who was not anything like as proficient as Lee, but who was still very good, and fit the band’s style much better. The new group rehearsed together for a few weeks, did a quick tour, and then went into the recording studio to record their debut, self-titled, album. Joe Boyd produced the album, but admitted himself that he only paid attention to those songs he considered worthwhile — the album contained one song by Lucas, “The Ballad of Ned Kelly”, and two cover versions of American singer-songwriter material with Lucas singing lead. But everyone knew that the songs that actually *mattered* were Sandy Denny’s, and Boyd was far more interested in them, particularly the songs “The Sea” and “The Pond and the Stream”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “The Pond and the Stream”] Fotheringay almost immediately hit financial problems, though. While other Witchseason acts were used to touring on the cheap, all packed together in the back of a Transit van with inexpensive equipment, Trevor Lucas had ambitions of being a rock star and wanted to put together a touring production to match, with expensive transport and equipment, including a speaker system that got nicknamed “Stonehenge” — but at the same time, Denny was unhappy being on the road, and didn’t play many gigs. As well as the band itself, the Fotheringay album also featured backing vocals from a couple of other people, including Denny’s friend Linda Peters. Peters was another singer from the folk clubs, and a good one, though less well-known than Denny — at this point she had only released a couple of singles, and those singles seemed to have been as much as anything else released as a novelty. The first of those, a version of Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” had been released as by “Paul McNeill and Linda Peters”: [Excerpt: Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”] But their second single, a version of John D. Loudermilk’s “You’re Taking My Bag”, was released on the tiny Page One label, owned by Larry Page, and was released under the name “Paul and Linda”, clearly with the intent of confusing particularly gullible members of the record-buying public into thinking this was the McCartneys: [Excerpt: Paul and Linda, “You’re Taking My Bag”] Peters was though more financially successful than almost anyone else in this story, as she was making a great deal of money as a session singer. She actually did another session involving most of Fotheringay around this time. Witchseason had a number of excellent songwriters on its roster, and had had some success getting covers by people like Judy Collins, but Joe Boyd thought that they might possibly do better at getting cover versions if they were performed in less idiosyncratic arrangements. Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway went into the studio to record backing tracks, and vocals were added by Peters and another session singer, who according to some sources also provided piano. They cut songs by Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “You Get Brighter”] Ed Carter, formerly of The New Nadir but by this time firmly ensconced in the Beach Boys’ touring band where he would remain for the next quarter-century: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “I Don’t Mind”] John and Beverly Martyn, and Nick Drake: [Excerpt: Elton John, “Saturday Sun”] There are different lineups of musicians credited for those sessions in different sources, but I tend to believe that it’s mostly Fotheringay for the simple reason that Donahue says it was him, Donaldson and Conway who talked Lucas and Denny into the mistake that destroyed Fotheringay because of these sessions. Fotheringay were in financial trouble already, spending far more money than they were bringing in, but their album made the top twenty and they were getting respect both from critics and from the public — in September, Sandy Denny was voted best British female singer by the readers of Melody Maker in their annual poll, which led to shocked headlines in the tabloids about how this “unknown” could have beaten such big names as Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black. Only a couple of weeks after that, they were due to headline at the Albert Hall. It should have been a triumph. But Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway had asked that singing pianist to be their support act. As Donahue said later “That was a terrible miscast. It was our fault. He asked if [he] could do it. Actually Pat, Gerry and I had to talk Sandy and Trevor into [it]… We'd done these demos and the way he was playing – he was a wonderful piano player – he was sensitive enough. We knew very little about his stage-show. We thought he'd be a really good opener for us.” Unfortunately, Elton John was rather *too* good. As Donahue continued “we had no idea what he had in mind, that he was going to do the most incredible rock & roll show ever. He pretty much blew us off the stage before we even got on the stage.” To make matters worse, Fotheringay’s set, which was mostly comprised of new material, was underrehearsed and sloppy, and from that point on no matter what they did people were counting the hours until the band split up. They struggled along for a while though, and started working on a second record, with Boyd again producing, though as Boyd later said “I probably shouldn't have been producing the record. My lack of respect for the group was clear, and couldn't have helped the atmosphere. We'd put out a record that had sold disappointingly, A&M was unhappy. Sandy's tracks on the first record are among the best things she ever did – the rest of it, who cares? And the artwork, Trevor's sister, was terrible. It would have been one thing if I'd been unhappy with it and it sold, and the group was working all the time, making money, but that wasn't the case … I knew what Sandy was capable of, and it was very upsetting to me.” The record would not be released for thirty-eight years: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Wild Mountain Thyme”] Witchseason was going badly into debt. Given all the fissioning of bands that we’ve already been talking about, Boyd had been stretched thin — he produced sixteen albums in 1970, and almost all of them lost money for the company. And he was getting more and more disillusioned with the people he was producing. He loved Beverly Martyn’s work, but had little time for her abusive husband John, who was dominating her recording and life more and more and would soon become a solo artist while making her stay at home (and stealing her ideas without giving her songwriting credit). The Incredible String Band were great, but they had recently converted to Scientology, which Boyd found annoying, and while he was working with all sorts of exciting artists like Vashti Bunyan and Nico, he was finding himself less and less important to the artists he mentored. Fairport Convention were a good example of this. After Denny and Hutchings had left the group, they’d decided to carry on as an electric folk group, performing an equal mix of originals by the Swarbrick and Thompson songwriting team and arrangements of traditional songs. The group were now far enough away from the “British Jefferson Airplane” label that they decided they didn’t need a female vocalist — and more realistically, while they’d been able to replace Judy Dyble, nobody was going to replace Sandy Denny. Though it’s rather surprising when one considers Thompson’s subsequent career that nobody seems to have thought of bringing in Denny’s friend Linda Peters, who was dating Joe Boyd at the time (as Denny had been before she met Lucas) as Denny’s replacement. Instead, they decided that Swarbrick and Thompson were going to share the vocals between them. They did, though, need a bass player to replace Hutchings. Swarbrick wanted to bring in Dave Pegg, with whom he had played in the Ian Campbell Folk Group, but the other band members initially thought the idea was a bad one. At the time, while they respected Swarbrick as a musician, they didn’t think he fully understood rock and roll yet, and they thought the idea of getting in a folkie who had played double bass rather than an electric rock bassist ridiculous. But they auditioned him to mollify Swarbrick, and found that he was exactly what they needed. As Joe Boyd later said “All those bass lines were great, Ashley invented them all, but he never could play them that well. He thought of them, but he was technically not a terrific bass player. He was a very inventive, melodic, bass player, but not a very powerful one technically. But having had the part explained to him once, Pegg was playing it better than Ashley had ever played it… In some rock bands, I think, ultimately, the bands that sound great, you can generally trace it to the bass player… it was at that point they became a great band, when they had Pegg.” The new lineup of Fairport decided to move in together, and found a former pub called the Angel, into which all the band members moved, along with their partners and children (Thompson was the only one who was single at this point) and their roadies. The group lived together quite happily, and one gets the impression that this was the period when they were most comfortable with each other, even though by this point they were a disparate group with disparate tastes, in music as in everything else. Several people have said that the only music all the band members could agree they liked at this point was the first two albums by The Band. With the departure of Hutchings from the band, Swarbrick and Thompson, as the strongest personalities and soloists, became in effect the joint leaders of the group, and they became collaborators as songwriters, trying to write new songs that were inspired by traditional music. Thompson described the process as “let’s take one line of this reel and slow it down and move it up a minor third and see what that does to it; let’s take one line of this ballad and make a whole song out of it. Chopping up the tradition to find new things to do… like a collage.” Generally speaking, Swarbrick and Thompson would sit by the fire and Swarbrick would play a melody he’d been working on, the two would work on it for a while, and Thompson would then go away and write the lyrics. This is how the two came up with songs like the nine-minute “Sloth”, a highlight of the next album, Full House, and one that would remain in Fairport’s live set for much of their career: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth”] “Sloth” was titled that way because Thompson and Swarbrick were working on two tunes, a slow one and a fast one, and they jokingly named them “Sloth” and “Fasth”, but the latter got renamed to “Walk Awhile”, while “Sloth” kept its working title. But by this point, Boyd and Thompson were having a lot of conflict in the studio. Boyd was never the most technical of producers — he was one of those producers whose job is to gently guide the artists in the studio and create a space for the music to flourish, rather than the Joe Meek type with an intimate technical knowledge of the studio — and as the artists he was working with gained confidence in their own work they felt they had less and less need of him. During the making of the Full House album, Thompson and Boyd, according to Boyd, clashed on everything — every time Boyd thought Thompson had done a good solo, Thompson would say to erase it and let him have another go, while every time Boyd thought Thompson could do better, Thompson would say that was the take to keep. One of their biggest clashes was over Thompson’s song “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”, which was originally intended for release on the album, and is included in current reissues of it: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”] Thompson had written that song inspired by what he thought was the unjust treatment of Alex Bramham, the driver in Fairport’s fatal car crash, by the courts — Bramham had been given a prison sentence of a few months for dangerous driving, while the group members thought he had not been at fault. Boyd thought it was one of the best things recorded for the album, but Thompson wasn’t happy with his vocal — there was one note at the top of the melody that he couldn’t quite hit — and insisted it be kept off the record, even though that meant it would be a shorter album than normal. He did this at such a late stage that early copies of the album actually had the title printed on the sleeve, but then blacked out. He now says in his autobiography “I could have persevered, double-tracked the voice, warmed up for longer – anything. It was a good track, and the record was lacking without it. When the album was re-released, the track was restored with a more confident vocal, and it has stayed there ever since.” During the sessions for Full House the group also recorded one non-album single, Thompson and Swarbrick’s “Now Be Thankful”: [Excerpt, Fairport Convention, “Now Be Thankful”] The B-side to that was a medley of two traditional tunes plus a Swarbrick original, but was given the deliberately ridiculous title “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”] The B. McKenzie in the title was a reference to the comic-strip character Barry McKenzie, a stereotype drunk Australian created for Private Eye magazine by the comedian Barry Humphries (later to become better known for his Dame Edna Everage character) but the title was chosen for one reason only — to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the song with the longest title. Which they did, though they were later displaced by the industrial band Test Dept, and their song “Long Live British Democracy Which Flourishes and Is Constantly Perfected Under the Immaculate Guidance of the Great, Honourable, Generous and Correct Margaret Hilda Thatcher. She Is the Blue Sky in the Hearts of All Nations. Our People Pay Homage and Bow in Deep Respect and Gratitude to Her. The Milk of Human Kindness”. Full House got excellent reviews in the music press, with Rolling Stone saying “The music shows that England has finally gotten her own equivalent to The Band… By calling Fairport an English equivalent of the Band, I meant that they have soaked up enough of the tradition of their countryfolk that it begins to show all over, while they maintain their roots in rock.” Off the back of this, the group went on their first US tour, culminating in a series of shows at the Troubadour in LA, on the same bill as Rick Nelson, which were recorded and later released as a live album: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth (live)”] The Troubadour was one of the hippest venues at the time, and over their residency there the group got seen by many celebrities, some of whom joined them on stage. The first was Linda Ronstadt, who initially demurred, saying she didn’t know any of their songs. On being told they knew all of hers, she joined in with a rendition of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”. Thompson was later asked to join Ronstadt’s backing band, who would go on to become the Eagles, but he said later of this offer “I would have hated it. I’d have hated being on the road with four or five miserable Americans — they always seem miserable. And if you see them now, they still look miserable on stage — like they don’t want to be there and they don’t like each other.” The group were also joined on stage at the Troubadour on one memorable night by some former bandmates of Pegg’s. Before joining the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Pegg had played around the Birmingham beat scene, and had been in bands with John Bonham and Robert Plant, who turned up to the Troubadour with their Led Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page (reports differ on whether the fourth member of Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, also came along). They all got up on stage together and jammed on songs like “Hey Joe”, “Louie Louie”, and various old Elvis tunes. The show was recorded, and the tapes are apparently still in the possession of Joe Boyd, who has said he refuses to release them in case he is murdered by the ghost of Peter Grant. According to Thompson, that night ended in a three-way drinking contest between Pegg, Bonham, and Janis Joplin, and it’s testament to how strong the drinking culture is around Fairport and the British folk scene in general that Pegg outdrank both of them. According to Thompson, Bonham was found naked by a swimming pool two days later, having missed two gigs. For all their hard rock image, Led Zeppelin were admirers of a lot of the British folk and folk-rock scene, and a few months later Sandy Denny would become the only outside vocalist ever to appear on a Led Zeppelin record when she duetted with Plant on “The Battle of Evermore” on the group’s fourth album: [Excerpt: Led Zeppelin, “The Battle of Evermore”] Denny would never actually get paid for her appearance on one of the best-selling albums of all time. That was, incidentally, not the only session that Denny was involved in around this time — she also sang on the soundtrack to a soft porn film titled Swedish Fly Girls, whose soundtrack was produced by Manfred Mann: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow?”] Shortly after Fairport’s trip to America, Joe Boyd decided he was giving up on Witchseason. The company was now losing money, and he was finding himself having to produce work for more and more acts as the various bands fissioned. The only ones he really cared about were Richard Thompson, who he was finding it more and more difficult to work with, Nick Drake, who wanted to do his next album with just an acoustic guitar anyway, Sandy Denny, who he felt was wasting her talents in Fotheringay, and Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band, who was more distant since his conversion to Scientology. Boyd did make some attempts to keep the company going. On a trip to Sweden, he negotiated an agreement with the manager and publisher of a Swedish band whose songs he’d found intriguing, the Hep Stars. Boyd was going to publish their songs in the UK, and in return that publisher, Stig Anderson, would get the rights to Witchseason’s catalogue in Scandinavia — a straight swap, with no money changing hands. But before Boyd could get round to signing the paperwork, he got a better offer from Mo Ostin of Warners — Ostin wanted Boyd to come over to LA and head up Warners’ new film music department. Boyd sold Witchseason to Island Records and moved to LA with his fiancee Linda Peters, spending the next few years working on music for films like Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange, as well as making his own documentary about Jimi Hendrix, and thus missed out on getting the UK publishing rights for ABBA, and all the income that would have brought him, for no money. And it was that decision that led to the breakup of Fotheringay. Just before Christmas 1970, Fotheringay were having a difficult session, recording the track “John the Gun”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “John the Gun”] Boyd got frustrated and kicked everyone out of the session, and went for a meal and several drinks with Denny. He kept insisting that she should dump the band and just go solo, and then something happened that the two of them would always describe differently. She asked him if he would continue to produce her records if she went solo, and he said he would. According to Boyd’s recollection of the events, he meant that he would fly back from California at some point to produce her records. According to Denny, he told her that if she went solo he would stay in Britain and not take the job in LA. This miscommunication was only discovered after Denny told the rest of Fotheringay after the Christmas break that she was splitting the band. Jerry Donahue has described that as the worst moment of his life, and Denny felt very guilty about breaking up a band with some of her closest friends in — and then when Boyd went over to the US anyway she felt a profound betrayal. Two days before Fotheringay’s final concert, in January 1971, Sandy Denny signed a solo deal with Island records, but her first solo album would not end up produced by Joe Boyd. Instead, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens was co-produced by Denny, John Wood — the engineer who had worked with Boyd on pretty much everything he’d produced, and Richard Thompson, who had just quit Fairport Convention, though he continued living with them at the Angel, at least until a truck crashed into the building in February 1971, destroying its entire front wall and forcing them to relocate. The songs chosen for The North Star Grassman and the Ravens reflected the kind of choices Denny would make on her future albums, and her eclectic taste in music. There was, of course, the obligatory Dylan cover, and the traditional folk ballad “Blackwaterside”, but there was also a cover version of Brenda Lee’s “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”] Most of the album, though, was made up of originals about various people in Denny’s life, like “Next Time Around”, about her ex-boyfriend Jackson C Frank: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Next Time Around”] The album made the top forty in the UK — Denny’s only solo album to do so — and led to her once again winning the “best female singer” award in Melody Maker’s readers’ poll that year — the male singer award was won by Rod Stewart. Both Stewart and Denny appeared the next year on the London Symphony Orchestra’s all-star version of The Who’s Tommy, which had originally been intended as a vehicle for Stewart before Roger Daltrey got involved. Stewart’s role was reduced to a single song, “Pinball Wizard”, while Denny sang on “It’s a Boy”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “It’s a Boy”] While Fotheringay had split up, all the band members play on The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. Guitarists Donahue and Lucas only play on a couple of the tracks, with Richard Thompson playing most of the guitar on the record. But Fotheringay’s rhythm section of Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway play on almost every track. Another musician on the album, Ian Whiteman, would possibly have a profound effect on the future direction of Richard Thompson’s career and life. Whiteman was the former keyboard player for the mod band The Action, having joined them just before they became the blues-rock band Mighty Baby. But Mighty Baby had split up when all of the band except the lead singer had converted to Islam. Richard Thompson was on his own spiritual journey at this point, and became a Sufi – the same branch of Islam as Whiteman – soon after the session, though Thompson has said that his conversion was independent of Whiteman’s. The two did become very close and work together a lot in the mid-seventies though. Thompson had supposedly left Fairport because he was writing material that wasn’t suited to the band, but he spent more than a year after quitting the group working on sessions rather than doing anything with his own material, and these sessions tended to involve the same core group of musicians. One of the more unusual was a folk-rock supergroup called The Bunch, put together by Trevor Lucas. Richard Branson had recently bought a recording studio, and wanted a band to test it out before opening it up for commercial customers, so with this free studio time Lucas decided to record a set of fifties rock and roll covers. He gathered together Thompson, Denny, Whiteman, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Pat Donaldson, Gerry Conway, pianist Tony Cox, the horn section that would later form the core of the Average White Band, and Linda Peters, who had now split up with Joe Boyd and returned to the UK, and who had started dating Thompson. They recorded an album of covers of songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Otis and others: [Excerpt: The Bunch, “Willie and the Hand Jive”] The early seventies was a hugely productive time for this group of musicians, as they all continued playing on each other’s projects. One notable album was No Roses by Shirley Collins, which featured Thompson, Mattacks, Whiteman, Simon Nicol, Lal and Mike Waterson, and Ashley Hutchings, who was at that point married to Collins, as well as some more unusual musicians like the free jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill: [Excerpt: Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band, “Claudy Banks”] Collins was at the time the most respected female singer in British traditional music, and already had a substantial career including a series of important records made with her sister Dolly, work with guitarists like Davey Graham, and time spent in the 1950s collecting folk songs in the Southern US with her then partner Alan Lomax – according to Collins she did much of the actual work, but Lomax only mentioned her in a single sentence in his book on this work. Some of the same group of musicians went on to work on an album of traditional Morris dancing tunes, titled Morris On, credited to “Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield”, with Collins singing lead on two tracks: [Excerpt: Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield with Shirley Collins, “The Willow Tree”] Thompson thought that that album was the best of the various side projects he was involved in at the time, comparing it favourably to Rock On, which he thought was rather slight, saying later “Conceptually, Fairport, Ashley and myself and Sandy were developing a more fragile style of music that nobody else was particularly interested in, a British Folk Rock idea that had a logical development to it, although we all presented it our own way. Morris On was rather more true to what we were doing. Rock On was rather a retro step. I'm not sure it was lasting enough as a record but Sandy did sing really well on the Buddy Holly songs.” Hutchings used the musicians on No Roses and Morris On as the basis for his band the Albion Band, which continues to this day. Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks both quit Fairport to join the Albion Band, though Mattacks soon returned. Nicol would not return to Fairport for several years, though, and for a long period in the mid-seventies Fairport Convention had no original members. Unfortunately, while Collins was involved in the Albion Band early on, she and Hutchings ended up divorcing, and the stress from the divorce led to Collins developing spasmodic dysphonia, a stress-related illness which makes it impossible for the sufferer to sing. She did eventually regain her vocal ability, but between 1978 and 2016 she was unable to perform at all, and lost decades of her career. Richard Thompson occasionally performed with the Albion Band early on, but he was getting stretched a little thin with all these sessions. Linda Peters said later of him “When I came back from America, he was working in Sandy’s band, and doing sessions by the score. Always with Pat Donaldson and Dave Mattacks. Richard would turn up with his guitar, one day he went along to do a session with one of those folkie lady singers — and there were Pat and DM. They all cracked. Richard smashed his amp and said “Right! No more sessions!” In 1972 he got round to releasing his first solo album, Henry the Human Fly, which featured guest appearances by Linda Peters and Sandy Denny among others: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away”] Unfortunately, while that album has later become regarded as one of the classics of its genre, at the time it was absolutely slated by the music press. The review in Melody Maker, for example, read in part “Some of Richard Thompson’s ideas sound great – which is really the saving grace of this album, because most of the music doesn’t. The tragedy is that Thompson’s “British rock music” is such an unconvincing concoction… Even the songs that do integrate rock and traditional styles of electric guitar rhythms and accordion and fiddle decoration – and also include explicit, meaningful lyrics are marred by bottle-up vocals, uninspiring guitar phrases and a general lack of conviction in performance.” Henry the Human Fly was released in the US by Warners, who had a reciprocal licensing deal with Island (and for whom Joe Boyd was working at the time, which may have had something to do with that) but according to Thompson it became the lowest-selling record that Warners ever put out (though I’ve also seen that claim made about Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, another album that has later been rediscovered). Thompson was hugely depressed by this reaction, and blamed his own singing. Happily, though, by this point he and Linda had become a couple — they would marry in 1972 — and they started playing folk clubs as a duo, or sometimes in a trio with Simon Nicol. Thompson was also playing with Sandy Denny’s backing band at this point, and played on every track on her second solo album, Sandy. This album was meant to be her big commercial breakthrough, with a glamorous cover photo by David Bailey, and with a more American sound, including steel guitar by Sneaky Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers (whose overdubs were supervised in LA by Joe Boyd): [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Tomorrow is a Long Time”] The album was given a big marketing push by Island, and “Listen, Listen” was made single of the week on the Radio 1 Breakfast show: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Listen, Listen”] But it did even worse than the previous album, sending her into something of a depression. Linda Thompson (as the former Linda Peters now was) said of this period “After the Sandy album, it got her down that her popularity didn't suddenly increase in leaps and bounds, and that was the start of her really fretting about the way her career was going. Things only escalated after that. People like me or Martin Carthy or Norma Waterson would think, ‘What are you on about? This is folk music.'” After Sandy’s release, Denny realised she could no longer afford to tour with a band, and so went back to performing just acoustically or on piano. The only new music to be released by either of these ex-members of Fairport Convention in 1973 was, oddly, on an album by the band they were no longer members of. After Thompson had left Fairport, the group had managed to release two whole albums with the same lineup — Swarbrick, Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks. But then Nicol and Mattacks had both quit the band to join the Albion Band with their former bandmate Ashley Hutchings, leading to a situation where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport plus their longtime drummer while Fairport Convention itself had no original members and was down to just Swarbrick and Pegg. Needing to fulfil their contracts, they then recruited three former members of Fotheringay — Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, Donahue on lead guitar, and Conway on drums. Conway was only a session player at the time, and Mattacks soon returned to the band, but Lucas and Donahue became full-time members. This new lineup of Fairport Convention released two albums in 1973, widely regarded as the group’s most inconsistent records, and on the title track of the first, “Rosie”, Richard Thompson guested on guitar, with Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Rosie”] Neither Sandy Denny nor Richard Thompson released a record themselves in 1973, but in neither case was this through the artists’ choice. The record industry was changing in the early 1970s, as we’ll see in later episodes, and was less inclined to throw good money after bad in the pursuit of art. Island Records prided itself on being a home for great artists, but it was still a business, and needed to make money. We’ll talk about the OPEC oil crisis and its effect on the music industry much more when the podcast gets to 1973, but in brief, the production of oil by the US peaked in 1970 and started to decrease, leading to them importing more and more oil from the Middle East. As a result of this, oil prices rose slowly between 1971 and 1973, then very quickly towards the end of 1973 as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict that year. As vinyl is made of oil, suddenly producing records became much more expensive, and in this period a lot of labels decided not to release already-completed albums, until what they hoped would be a brief period of shortages passed. Both Denny and Thompson recorded albums at this point that got put to one side by Island. In the case of Thompson, it was the first album by Richard and Linda as a duo, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Today, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and as one of the two masterpieces that bookended Richard and Linda’s career as a duo and their marriage. But when they recorded the album, full of Richard’s dark songs, it was the opposite of commercial. Even a song that’s more or less a boy-girl song, like “Has He Got a Friend for Me?” has lyrics like “He wouldn’t notice me passing by/I could be in the gutter, or dangling down from a tree” [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “Has He got a Friend For Me?”] While something like “The Calvary Cross” is oblique and haunted, and seems to cast a pall over the entire album: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “The Calvary Cross”] The album itself had been cheap to make — it had been recorded in only a week, with Thompson bringing in musicians he knew well and had worked with a lot previously to cut the tracks as-live in only a handful of takes — but Island didn’t think it was worth releasing. The record stayed on the shelf for nearly a year after recording, until Island got a new head of A&R, Richard Williams. Williams said of the album’s release “Muff Winwood had been doing A&R, but he was more interested in production… I had a conversation with Muff as soon as I got there, and he said there are a few hangovers, some outstanding problems. And one of them was Richard Thompson. He said there’s this album we gave him the money to make — which was I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — and nobody’s very interested in it. Henry the Human Fly had been a bit of a commercial disappointment, and although Island was altruistic and independent and known for only recording good stuff, success was important… Either a record had to do well or somebody had to believe in it a lot. And it seemed as if neither of those things were true at that point of Richard.” Williams, though, was hugely impressed when he listened to the album. He compared Richard Thompson’s guitar playing to John Coltrane’s sax, and called Thompson “the folk poet of the rainy streets”, but also said “Linda brightened it, made it more commercial. and I thought that “Bright Lights” itself seemed a really commercial song.” The rest of the management at Island got caught up in Williams’ enthusiasm, and even decided to release the title track as a single: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Neither single nor album charted — indeed it would not be until 1991 that Richard Thompson would make a record that made the top forty in the UK — but the album got enough critical respect that Richard and Linda released two albums the year after. The first of these, Hokey Pokey, is a much more upbeat record than their previous one — Richard Thompson has called it “quite a music-hall influenced record” and cited the influence of George Formby and Harry Lauder. For once, the claim of music hall influence is audible in the music. Usually when a British musician is claimed to have a music ha

Send us a textThis week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am proud to welcome Josh Christina, Recording Artist, scene-stealing, piano-wielding frontman, and veteran headliner of several cruise lines. Listeners know I am as passionate about music and comedy as I am about cruising so when I get a chance to have a conversation with someone who has performed on cruise ships, I am in my glory. Josh Christina is a dynamic and passionate musician whose love for piano rock has taken him on an incredible journey. His musical story began at the age of 7, inspired by the iconic sounds of Elvis Presley in Disney's Lilo & Stitch. It wasn't until age 15, after seeing the Broadway show Million Dollar Quartet and discovering the electrifying Jerry Lee Lewis, that Josh began playing piano, igniting his path as a pianist and performer. Josh's talents caught the attention of Grammy-nominated producer Kent Wells, who has worked with legends like Dolly Parton and Reba McIntire. Kent describes Josh as “such an old soul,” praising the way “the music just pours out of him.” This connection led to Josh recording in Nashville, creating music that resonates with the soul of classic rock and boogie-woogie. His single “Kayla Ann” topped several independent radio charts, and Josh's album Instincts (recorded at the historic Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, TN) was a testament to his mastery. Produced by Josh and Grammy-winning pianist Jon Carroll, Instincts received high praise, with Jon calling Josh a performer who “does it real well and means every note.” Josh's high-energy performances have taken him across the globe, including a UK tour where he graced the stage of Ireland's Late Late Show. He's headlined major cruise lines, bringing his piano rock show to fans of all ages worldwide. He's also shared the stage with some of the world's top boogie-woogie and rock ‘n' roll pianists, earning admiration from both peers and fans for keeping the genre alive. His latest album, UFO's Over Phoenix, recorded live at Stages Music and Arts in Maryland, has already captured attention for its unique sound. Daryl Davis, former bandleader and pianist for Chuck Berry, describes the album as striking “the perfect balance of a scent of the familiar while being creatively and refreshingly new.” Josh Christina's infectious energy, undeniable talent, and deep respect for rock and roll history have earned him a dedicated following. His music is a celebration of the past, present, and future of piano rock.Support the showSupport thejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/newSupport Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulthContact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.htmlBook Cruises http://www.thejoyofvacation.com/US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)The Joy of Cruising https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingCruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterruptedThe Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgainIntl Orders via Amazon

The Sharon Playhouse is launching its 2025 summer season with the musical “Million Dollar Quartet,” opening Friday night and run through July 6th, including a special holiday performance on July 4th at 4pm.This show brings to life the unforgettable night in 1956 when rock and roll legends Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins gathered at Sun Records to create musical history.The season will continue with three other shows including Annie, Sylvia and The Mousetrap.

For this episode we're joined in our Hammersmith lair by the highly respected Chris Bohn, known better these days by his alias Biba Kopf (cue a nod to Berlin Alexanderplatz author Alfred Döblin...) The veteran NME contributor and sometime editor-in-chief of The Wire talks about his long career as a Europhile connoisseur of extreme and out-there music. We start by asking our guest about his mother's experience as a teenage refugee fleeing her native Silesia after the advance of the Red Army in 1945 – and her subsequent settling in the English Midlands. We learn about Chris' journalistic training on the Sutton Coldfield News and his subsequent travels around Europe, where he reconnected with relatives in West (and East) Germany. Chris reminisces about his first London job as a press officer for Polydor Records, for whom he chaperoned Siouxsie & the Banshees to tapings of Top of the Pops. He then talks us through his writing career from Melody Maker and NME to decades-long association with The Wire. Among the articles mentioned are his 1979 live review of Joy Division, his groundbreaking 1981 on-the-road piece "Trans-Europe Express", and his interviews with Nina Hagen (1979) and Einstürzende Neubauten (1983). Discussion of The Wire leads us into clips from an audio interview with Wire icon Ornette Coleman … by Wire mainstay David Toop. We conclude the episode by paying heartfelt tribute to two Californian geniuses who left us this week: Family Stone funk pioneer Sly Stone and the Beach Boys' "pocket symphonist" Brian Wilson. We shall not see – or hear – their like again. Many thanks to special guest Chris Bohn a.k.a. Biba Kopf. Visit the Wire's website at thewire.co.uk to subscribe digitally and in print.  Pieces discussed: Nina Hagen: West Is Best, Einstürzende Neubauten: Let's Hear It For The Untergang Show, Ornette Coleman (1995), Sly & The Family Stone: Sly Buries Underground And Has Fun!, Not Only Sly, But Sometimes Just Plain Damn Evasive, Sly Stone's Higher Power, Some Producers' Hints From Beach Boy Brian, Brian Wilson, Brian Wilson: Beach Boy, Pop Visionary, Wounded Soul, The Devil and Jerry Lee Lewis and  Group Home: Supa Group.

In this episode of My Rock Moment, we sit down with Jake Brennan, the creator and voice behind the wildly popular podcast Disgraceland. Known for blending true crime and music history, Jake explores the wild, dark, and often unbelievable stories behind some of rock's most iconic figures. We dive into the legends—and the controversies—surrounding John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Mama Cass, Jerry Lee Lewis, and more. We also tackle the bigger question: Can we really separate the art from the artist? Find more info on Disgraceland and Hollywoodland here: https://www.disgracelandpod.com Disgraceland Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disgraceland/id1275172907 Hollywoodland Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hollywoodland/id1563966720 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we're headed off from Sacramento with the electrifying Billy Rude, who's currently tearing up the stage as Jerry Lee Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet at Broadway At Music Circus!

Send us a textSteve and Wyndham delve into the legacy of iconic rock pianists, debating which legends deserve a place on the Mount Rushmore of keyboard players who shaped rock history.• Tribute to recently departed Rick Derringer, known for "Hang On Sloopy," "Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo," Hulk Hogan's entrance music, and his work with Weird Al Yankovic• Discussion of a recent classic rock countdown that surprisingly placed Metallica's "Enter Sandman" at #1 over traditional classics• Billy Joel and Elton John considered piano rock royalty with both hosts ultimately choosing Billy Joel for Mount Rushmore status• Little Richard unanimously selected as a foundational figure who "started it all" for rock piano• Heated debate between Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder for the final spot on the piano Mount Rushmore• Brief consideration of other influential pianists including Chuck Lavelle, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Freddie Mercury• Announcement of next week's episode focusing on iconic opening bass riffs titled "All the Way to the Base"Join us next week for "All the Way to the Base" - an exploration of the most iconic opening bass riffs in rock history!One idea. Six songs. Infinite possibilities...

3pm: Guest - William Kirk - Washington Gun Law // Bill Kirk reacts to Bob Ferguson’s freshly signed gun legislation // Today in History // 1958 - Jerry Lee Lewis drops a bombshell in London // OceanGate sub implosion documentary goes deep on 'borderline psychopath' CEO: 'He wanted fame' // TITAN: The OceanGate Disaster | Official Trailer

6pm: Guest - William Kirk - Washington Gun Law // Bill Kirk reacts to Bob Ferguson’s freshly signed gun legislation // Today in History // 1958 - Jerry Lee Lewis drops a bombshell in London // OceanGate sub implosion documentary goes deep on 'borderline psychopath' CEO: 'He wanted fame' // TITAN: The OceanGate Disaster | Official Trailer

Jimmy Rip has been everywhere, mainly due to a life of touring, recording, producing, and gigging with some of the top names in rock and blues we've ever seen! He has notably recorded, produced, and played with the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Mick Jagger, Debbie Harry, Paul Collins and the Beat, Michael Monroe, Henry Lee Summer, Tom Verlaine, and more. Never one to slow down, Jimmy is hitting the road in his first truck camper, a Cirrus 820 by nuCamp RV! We have his story!

American singer and songwriter Jacob Tolliver was raised on classic rock and roll blasting from his grandmother's radio. After a spontaneous rendition of “Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On” on a dusty hardware store upright piano went viral, a star was born. At 19, Tolliver was hired as the understudy—and soon the principal—to play Jerry Lee Lewis in the Las Vegas production of the Tony-winning musical Million Dollar Quartet, giving him three years of eight-shows-a-week schooling in rock and roll showmanship. In this episode, Tolliver shares his inspirational story and how his friendship with Jerry Lee Lewis and other rock ‘n' roll notables has shaped his life and career.

This week Ken welcomes author, music fan, semi-pro plus one and cousin of the famous, David Klein (www.davidkleinauthor.org) to the show. Ken and David discuss his new book "The Plus-One: Getting by on Good Connections in the Analog Age", being Winona Ryder's cousin, growing up in suburban NJ, moving to North Carolina, mix tapes, personal memories tied to pop culture, David's brother's work with MTV, getting kicked out of a youth program resulting in riding in an airplane with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, going to the Night on Earth premiere, meeting Bono, having an ex-roomate who dated Marisa Tomei, MTV Europe, record shopping in London, cool older brother effect, Willie Alexander, a song for every number, the two 50s chord progressions, the highlight of a funeral, those people who not only light up a room but light up everyone in the room, trying to get your kids to like cool stuff, The Ramones, being ahead of your time, finding your thing, The Replacements, My Boyfriend's Back, finding your voice, becoming the author you always should have been, being fueled by rejection, how being bored by your work is the most offensive thing, suburban kids getting in trouble on a Friday night, Led Zepplin, Tenafly NJ, Tenafly Viper in Street Trash, the Pixies, how love is a jigsaw puzzle, Mermaids, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, how you only need to see the movie Hapiness once, reading underground Comix, Timothy Leary, the beauty of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Ken's advocacy for Adrian Borland's The Sound, still discovering new music as you get older, having your uncle ask Jerry Lee Lewis how he drove here tonight, Glen Miller, and how the Adventures of Pete and Pete is the greatest television show of all time. 

The night before Jerry Lee Lewis' fifth wife died, she made a phone call to her mother. She told her that she was thinking of leaving the rock ‘n' roll pioneer, but that he wouldn't let her. She also made a second call—this one to the sister of her high school sweetheart, making plans for the sister to come take her away from Jerry Lee later that month. Then … in mid-sentence the phone went dead. The next day, Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis was found dead. Placed nearly on top of a perfectly made bed in the newlywed couple's guest room. Despite the bruises on her body, the blood under her fingernails, the scratches on her husband's hands, and the mountain of other physical and anecdotal evidence, the death was ruled an accident. Did Jerry Lee Lewis kill his wife and get away with murder? To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at www.disgracelandpod.com. This episode was originally published on February 13, 2018. To listen to Disgraceland ad free and get access to a monthly exclusive episode, weekly bonus content and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at disgracelandpod.com/membership. Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - GET THE NEWSLETTER Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND: Instagram YouTube X (formerly Twitter)  Facebook Fan Group TikTok To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices