Podcast appearances and mentions of Paul Simon

You guys, this is such a beautiful book! This is one we highly, highly recommend listening to and enjoying for yourself-- it's read by Fisher and it is somehow an absolute joy to read despite its heavy subject matter. It's such a short read that we finish it in one episode. Fisher talks about growing up in the shadows of her famous parents, her marriage to Paul Simon, and her struggles with substance use and mental illness. It is just fantastic. Enjoy the episode!Want even more Page 7? Support us on Patreon! Patreon.com/Page7Podcast  Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

This episode of The Other Side of the Bell, featuring our own podcast host and trumpeter John Snell, is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. This episode also appears as a video episode on our YouTube channel, you can find it here: "Getting to know John Snell"   Who is the man behind the microphone?   You've been asking for a long time, 12.5 years and 138 episodes in fact, and today's the day: it's time to put John Snell himself on the other side of the bell!   John is the steadfast presence at Bob Reeves Brass, from the shop to the studio to the numerous conferences and events he attends every year. Many of you have met him in person over the years, and with our increasing number of video episodes, you have a better sense for what he's like.   Yet his story has only emerged in bits and pieces over all that time and all those episodes, and warrants the spotlight just as much as any of the wonderful guests who have stopped by the podcast since 2013.   And who better to interview John than the gregariously awesome Vinnie Ciesielski, who was himself a guest on The Other Side of the Bell, Episode #93 back in September of 2021.   Vinnie and John chat about how John grew up to follow in the footsteps of his professional trumpet-playing father, Keith Snell, yet forged his own path through his education, musical styles and interests, before a sudden complete career U-turn that proved to give him another solid professional foundation, alongside his continued passion for music.   And behind it all, for the past 20+ years, there's been Bob Reeves Brass. John talks about first meeting Bob and being taken under his wing, before returning with a law degree in hand to rescue the business, provide stability for Bob and his wife into retirement, and maintaining Bob's principled approach to business and customer service.   Thank you to Vinnie for encouraging the idea and bringing this episode to life, and thank you to all of our wonderful listeners and viewers for your continued support.   Don't forget to share this and other episodes with your friends in the trumpet world and beyond, and send us your thoughts and feedback! Email John at info@bobreeves.com     Episode Links:   Bob Reeves Brass website (bobreeves.com) Bob Reeves Brass store (trumpetmouthpiece.com) Bob Reeves Brass on Instagram LA Lawyers Philharmonic (lalawyersphil.org) Vinnie Ciesielski website (trumpetvinnie.com) Vinnie on Facebook     About John Snell:   John Snell is co-owner of Bob Reeves Brass, where he has been a vital team member since 2001. After an extensive apprenticeship, he became the company's lead valve alignment technician, personally working on thousands of instruments. Since 2010, John has also managed the business, guiding its growth while maintaining its reputation for uncompromising craftsmanship.   An accomplished trumpet player, John has performed with ensembles including The California Brass Ensemble, The California Brass Quintet, The Northridge Brass Quintet, the San Bernardino Symphony, and as lead trumpet in the Big Band of Barristers - a busy big band made up of lawyers, judges, and law students.   He hosts three popular podcasts - The Other Side of the Bell, The Trombone Corner, and The Horn Signal - interviewing top brass musicians worldwide. John regularly presents clinics on trumpet, equipment, and mindset across the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia.     About Vinnie Ciesielski:   Attending Towson University in Maryland, Vinnie Ciesielski majored in music performance on trumpet. Vinnie has years of experience playing and touring all over the world and has a wealth of studio knowledge and creativity!   Since coming to Nashville in 1992, Vinnie has played on thousands of recordings with artists such as Taylor Swift, Josh Groban, Demi Lovato, Grace Potter, Jimmy Buffet, Kirk Franklin, Queen Latifah, Jill Scott, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin, Israel Houghton, Toby Keith, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton, Jon Pardi, Alison Krauss, Steven Tyler, Vince Gill, Michael McDonald, Keb Mo, Zach Brown Band, Lyle Lovett, Travis Tritt, Tracy Byrd, Smokey Norful, Shirley Ceasar, Rance Allen, Donald Lawrence, The Clark Sisters, Tanya Tucker, Glenn Frey, T.D. Jakes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, Gregg Allman, Delbert McClinton, Nuno Betencort, Marcus Scott (Tower of Power) Johnny Taylor, Bobby Blue Bland, Via Con Dios, Martina McBride, Don Was and many more.   He has performed live with artists such as Brian May, Bruce Springsteen, Jason Scheff, Gladys Knight, Randy Newman, Kid Rock, Keith Richards, Jimmy Buffett, Paul Simon, Sting, Tony Bennett, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Kenny Rogers, Shelby Lynne, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The O'Jays, Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, Shawn Colvin, Eddie Floyd, Booker T. and the MGs, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Bob Hope, Frankie Valli, Sheryl Crow, Adrian Belew, Bruce Hornsby, Michael McDonald, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Nettles and The Beach Boys.   He has also appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The CBS New Years Eve Bash, The Road, SoundStage, Disney and Universal TV specials, Nashville Now, Music City Tonight, Austin City Limits, Grand Old Opry, Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen's Really Big Show, Crossroads, The Huckabee Show, The Dove Awards and The Stellar Awards. Vinnie has performed on numerous Radio, Internet, TV and Movie soundtracks and Trailers, and has also performed with the Nashville Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Orchestra Kentucky, Nashville and Knoxville Jazz Orchestras.   Well known in the performance and recording community, Vinnie's resume includes work on right at 7000 recording sessions and counting. Vinnie has also appeared on and contributed to 50 plus Grammy-nominated and 25 plus Grammy-winning recordings in every decade since the 1990's, and dozens of Stellar and Dove Award nominated and winning recordings.   

Five-time Grammy winner, ACM Poet's Award honoree, and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Mary Chapin Carpenter opens up about her process and reflects on her approach to the craft. PART ONE:Paul and Scott geek out hard on Elvis and legendary songwriter Doc Pomus. PART TWO:Our in-depth conversation with Mary Chapin CarpenterABOUT MARY CHAPIN CARPENTERMary Chapin Carpenter is a five-time Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter and performer who has been nominated 18 times in categories ranging from country to Americana to folk to general Record of the Year. Making a name for herself with hits such as “Down at the Twist and Shout,” “He Thinks He'll Keep Her,” and “Shut Up and Kiss Me,” she has won two CMA Female Vocalist of the Year awards, two ACM awards, and is one of only a small handful of women who have been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Additionally, she received the Americana Music Association's “Spirit of Americana Free Speech Award” and was honored with the Academy of Country Music's Poets Award in 2023. Her most recent album, Personal History, which was released this summer, is her most autobiographical project to date.  

Super special not-so-secret friend Jordan Pries, copropietor of Electric Kitcsh, joins Jay and Deon for a discussion about the music he creates along with Mitch Anderson of Black Circle Radio. 8 additional vinyl records from 8 other artists are covered and some of life's questions are answered along the way. JOIN US PLLLLLLLLEASE!Sonic contributors of this special twenty-seventh bonusepisode of Lightnin' Licks Radio include:Dave Mathews Band, Jurassic 5, DJ NuMark, Prince Paul. De La Soul, Zach Braff, Natilie Portman. Jula @soundwavesofwax, Kriss Kross, Arc of All, Errol Paul Reed, N.W.A. Electrik Funk, Lou Reed, A Tribe Called Quest, Red Man. Jay Dilla, Leaders of the New School, Morrissey, Autumn Defense, Bob Welch. Lindsey Buckingham, 10,000 Maniacs, Goldfrapp. Wes Montgomery, Bobby Hebb, Burt Bacharach, Love. The Smithereens, The Sand Rubies, Fiona Apple, Abraham Jefferson. M.M. Knapps. Mitch Anderson, Paul Simon, The Bee Gees. Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson, Northwoods Improvisors. Mike Johnstone, Donovon Boxey, Roland Kirk. Height Keech, Cindy Lee, Ol' Burger Beats. Roy Ayers, CalTjader, Roberta Flacc, Donny Hathaway. Ralph MacDonald, William Salter. Tom Bell, Linda Reed, and Spongebob Squarepants. Deon urges you to continue appreciating the music of Q-Tip,Richard & Linda Thompson, George Benson, and Johnny Lytle.Jay suggested the sonic stylings of Josh Rouse, AlisonGoldfrapp, Sidewinders, and Wee.Super special not-so-secret friend Jordan is funking withhis own music, The Source of Light and Power. We're so happy to share this with you.We'll be returning next month, continuing with the alphabet.Up next…the letter ”M.”Bonus 27 mixtape tracklist[V.A.] (1) Richard & Linda Thompson - I Wanna See the Bright Lights Tonight (2) Alison Goldfrapp - The Love Invention (3) Q-Tip - Even If It Is So (4) Josh Rouse - Trouble (5) Wee - Try Me (6) Johnny Lytle - Where Is the Love? (7) Sidewinders - We Don't Do That Anymore (8) George Benson - Giblit Gravy.[SOLP] (1) Whisper Telepathy (2) Sonny was, Sonny is with Donovon Boxey (3) A Rap About Records with Deon and Height Keech (4) Numeric Tumor (5) The Immotal Rites of Bongo Whoosh.Please be kind to each other. Also don't be a bitch, stand up for what is right. Distinguishing what is right and what is not is not as difficult as you think.

Barry and Abigail discuss Navy Blues by Sloan and sample three Canadian beers: Labatt Blue from Labatt Brewing Company, Moosehead Canadian Lager from Moosehead Breweries Limited, and Life in the Clouds from Collective Arts Brewing.The delightful can art of Life in the Clouds was designed by Joe Boyd.Navy Blues was entered into our Jukebox long ago by Paul Zawacki during our episode Bonus: A Dozen Updates (The Procession Reunion Special). He described Sloan as the Canadian Beatles, comparing One Chord to Another to the White Album (we have officially gone zero episodes without mentioning the White Album!) and Navy Blues to Abbey Road.In preparation for this episode, Abigail listened through Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Love by The Beatles.Revolver is one of Barry's favorite Beatles albums. He compared the throat clear at the beginning of She Says What She Means to George Harrison's counting on Taxman, the opening track of Revolver.Barry then compared C'mon C'mon to Good Day Sunshine, also off Revolver.…He then compared Iggy & Angus to The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) by The Banana Splits.…Then, collectively, they compared Sinking Ships to Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney.Barry "complained" about the sirens in Money City Maniacs, which reminded Abigail of the sounds of cars whizzing by underlying Lonely Boy by The Black Keys.Abigail had confusion over Seems So Heavy, which by title alone seems to be a rip-off of/tribute to I Want You (She's So Heavy) by The Beatles. Later, she would compare the opening couple of notes of Suppose They Close the Door to the opening couple of notes of I Want You (She's So Heavy).Abigail shared that one of the best meals she ever ate was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, from where Sloan originated. She ate sea-cuterie at Waterfront Warehouse.Barry compared the piano in Chester the Molester to the piano in Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by The Beatles.We briefly discussed James Taylor's eponymous debut album, which was released on The Beatles' Apple Records (the first non-British artist on the label), was recorded at Trident Studios concurrently with the White Album, and features Paul McCartney and George Harrison on bass guitar and backing vocals, respectively! But Barry had part of the story backward - Something in the Way She Moves inspired the opening line of Harrison's Something, not the other way around. (Coincidentally, Taylor has said he had meant for the song to be called “I Feel Fine,” but that title had already been taken by The Beatles!) We played a little bit of the version of Carolina In My Mind that appears on this debut album - the version with members of The Beatles included. Later, Abigail mentioned that she kept hearing How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) by James Taylor in I Wanna Thank You.Our word association around “ways to get even” from Suppose They Close the Door led us to 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover by Paul Simon and 50 Ways to Say Goodbye by Train. We should have also added Ways to Hang On by The Stick Arounds!Our next Jukebox episode will be 2014 Forest Hills Drive by J. Cole, submitted to our Virtual Jukebox by Alinor Mezinord.Up next… Teenage Dream by Katy PerryJingles are by our friend Pete Coe.Visit Anosmia Awareness for more information on Barry's condition.Follow Barry or Abigail on Untappd to see what we're drinking when we're not on mic!Leave us a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky | YouTube | Substack | Website | Email us | Virtual Jukebox | Beer Media Group

Ariadne Trujillo Durand is a powerhouse Cuban-born, Grammy nominated, virtuoso pianist and singer, one of the world's leading Latin Jazz musicians. She began performing at age 14 with Cuba's top symphonic orchestras. She's worked with Paul Simon, Paquito D'Rivera, Wynton Marsalis and Esperanza Spalding. Her vocal technique ranges from opera to jazz. This past March she released her first solo album, “Legacy”, along with a live performance at Lincoln Center with her 10 piece orchestra.My featured song is my reimagined version of “The ‘In' Crowd”, the 1960s hit by Dobie Gray from the album East Side Sessions by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link.------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!Click here for All Episodes Click here for Guest List Click here for Guest Groupings Click here for Guest TestimonialsClick here to Subscribe Click here to receive our Email UpdatesClick here to Rate and Review the podcast—----------------------------------------CONNECT WITH ARIACNE:www.ariacne.com____________________ROBERT'S NEWEST ALBUM:“WHAT'S UP!” is Robert's new compilation album. Featuring 10 of his recent singles including all the ones listed below. Instrumentals and vocals. Jazz, Rock, Pop and Fusion. “My best work so far. (Robert)”CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS—----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com 

In this conclusion of a two-part episode, Frank and guest co-host Dan Pasternack talk to Emmy-winning writer-actor-director Robert Smigel about his lifelong obsession with Charles Schulz and Peanuts, his preference for "specific" comedy, his working relationship with Lorne Michaels and his unusual friendship with Blackwolf the Dragonmaster. Also, Triumph debates Carl Bernstein, Jesus meets Kathie Lee Gifford, Mr. T auditions for "A Doll's House" and Robert stresses the importance of "embracing oddballs." PLUS: Anne Beatts! Shel Silverstein! The brilliance of Darlene Love! Paul Simon weighs in! Robert turns into Ed Grimley! And Frank and Dan praise the inventiveness of "Leo"! Subscribe now on  Apple ⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fun-for-all-ages-with-frank-santopadre/id1824012922⁠⁠⁠ Spotify ⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/18EQJNDwlYMUSh2uXD6Mu6?si=97966f6f8c474bc9⁠⁠⁠ Amazon ⁠⁠⁠https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/13b5ed88-d28d-4f0c-a65e-8b32eecd80f6/fun-for-all-ages-with-frank-santopadre⁠⁠⁠ YouTube ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgvlbF41NLLPvsrcZ9XIsYKkH_HvUXHSG⁠⁠⁠ iHeart ⁠⁠⁠https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-fun-for-all-ages-with-fran-283612643/⁠⁠⁠ TuneIn ⁠⁠⁠http://tun.in/pxOWO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick opens with a push for movie fans to get back into theaters, especially to catch Spike Lee's powerful new film Highest 2 Lowest. Music journalist Jim Ryan from Forbes then drops by to recap a run of standout shows, including Rod Stewart with Cheap Trick, Al Green with The O'Jays, Paul Simon, and a throwback 80s fest featuring John Waite and Wang Chung. He also shares highlights from his interview with Morgan Freeman and delivers a full Lollapalooza report. Later, Esmeralda Leon joins Nick for a dive into 90s pop culture. They swap stories about Airheads, Pogs, the Pink Power Ranger, and how Mentos commercials somehow made it acceptable to act like a complete jerk. Esma clears up the mysteries of Clarissa Explains It All, while Nick revels in the nostalgia of a decade defined by quirky candy and questionable fashion. [Ep 378]

Episode: 2456 The invention and history of Kodachrome film.  Today, photographic memory.

This week…. An encore of our 2016 conversation with legendary musician Paul Simon.  Paul Simon first gained prominence in the 1960s as one-half of duo Simon and Garfunkel. Their hits included The Sound of Silence, Mrs. Robinson, and songs from their fifth and final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Simon expanded his music beyond traditional American folk rock in a highly successful solo career that included platinum selling albums like Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints. He was twice inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.On June 6, 2016, Simon came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to writer Dave Eggers about his painstaking process, in which he has sometimes taken more than two years to finish a single song -  and about the physics of sound. At the time this program was recorded, Simon was touring and had just performed two concerts at Berkeley's Greek Theater.  In 2018, he announced he was retiring from public performance, in part because of hearing issues. but in 2025, at the age of 83, he returned to the stage with “A Quiet Celebration Tour”.  

The forceful music that rolled out of Muscle Shoals in the 1960s and 1970s shaped hits by everyone from Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon. Christopher M. Reali's in-depth look at the fabled musical hotbed examines the events and factors that gave the Muscle Shoals sound such a potent cultural power. Many artists trekked to FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound in search of the sound of authentic southern Black music—and at times expressed shock at the mostly white studio musicians waiting to play it for them. Others hoped to draw on the hitmaking production process that defined the scene. Reali also chronicles the overlooked history of Muscle Shoals's impact on country music and describes the region's recent transformation into a tourism destination. Multifaceted and informed, Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals (University of Illinois Press, 2022) reveals the people, places, and events behind one of the most legendary recording scenes in American history. Dr. Christopher Reali is an assistant professor of music at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Emily Ruth Allen (@emmyru91) holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Florida State University. Her current research focuses on parade musics in Mobile, Alabama's carnival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

The forceful music that rolled out of Muscle Shoals in the 1960s and 1970s shaped hits by everyone from Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon. Christopher M. Reali's in-depth look at the fabled musical hotbed examines the events and factors that gave the Muscle Shoals sound such a potent cultural power. Many artists trekked to FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound in search of the sound of authentic southern Black music—and at times expressed shock at the mostly white studio musicians waiting to play it for them. Others hoped to draw on the hitmaking production process that defined the scene. Reali also chronicles the overlooked history of Muscle Shoals's impact on country music and describes the region's recent transformation into a tourism destination. Multifaceted and informed, Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals (University of Illinois Press, 2022) reveals the people, places, and events behind one of the most legendary recording scenes in American history. Dr. Christopher Reali is an assistant professor of music at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Emily Ruth Allen (@emmyru91) holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Florida State University. Her current research focuses on parade musics in Mobile, Alabama's carnival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The forceful music that rolled out of Muscle Shoals in the 1960s and 1970s shaped hits by everyone from Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon. Christopher M. Reali's in-depth look at the fabled musical hotbed examines the events and factors that gave the Muscle Shoals sound such a potent cultural power. Many artists trekked to FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound in search of the sound of authentic southern Black music—and at times expressed shock at the mostly white studio musicians waiting to play it for them. Others hoped to draw on the hitmaking production process that defined the scene. Reali also chronicles the overlooked history of Muscle Shoals's impact on country music and describes the region's recent transformation into a tourism destination. Multifaceted and informed, Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals (University of Illinois Press, 2022) reveals the people, places, and events behind one of the most legendary recording scenes in American history. Dr. Christopher Reali is an assistant professor of music at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Emily Ruth Allen (@emmyru91) holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Florida State University. Her current research focuses on parade musics in Mobile, Alabama's carnival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/performing-arts

The forceful music that rolled out of Muscle Shoals in the 1960s and 1970s shaped hits by everyone from Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon. Christopher M. Reali's in-depth look at the fabled musical hotbed examines the events and factors that gave the Muscle Shoals sound such a potent cultural power. Many artists trekked to FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound in search of the sound of authentic southern Black music—and at times expressed shock at the mostly white studio musicians waiting to play it for them. Others hoped to draw on the hitmaking production process that defined the scene. Reali also chronicles the overlooked history of Muscle Shoals's impact on country music and describes the region's recent transformation into a tourism destination. Multifaceted and informed, Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals (University of Illinois Press, 2022) reveals the people, places, and events behind one of the most legendary recording scenes in American history. Dr. Christopher Reali is an assistant professor of music at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Emily Ruth Allen (@emmyru91) holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Florida State University. Her current research focuses on parade musics in Mobile, Alabama's carnival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

The forceful music that rolled out of Muscle Shoals in the 1960s and 1970s shaped hits by everyone from Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon. Christopher M. Reali's in-depth look at the fabled musical hotbed examines the events and factors that gave the Muscle Shoals sound such a potent cultural power. Many artists trekked to FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound in search of the sound of authentic southern Black music—and at times expressed shock at the mostly white studio musicians waiting to play it for them. Others hoped to draw on the hitmaking production process that defined the scene. Reali also chronicles the overlooked history of Muscle Shoals's impact on country music and describes the region's recent transformation into a tourism destination. Multifaceted and informed, Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals (University of Illinois Press, 2022) reveals the people, places, and events behind one of the most legendary recording scenes in American history. Dr. Christopher Reali is an assistant professor of music at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Emily Ruth Allen (@emmyru91) holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Florida State University. Her current research focuses on parade musics in Mobile, Alabama's carnival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-south

The forceful music that rolled out of Muscle Shoals in the 1960s and 1970s shaped hits by everyone from Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon. Christopher M. Reali's in-depth look at the fabled musical hotbed examines the events and factors that gave the Muscle Shoals sound such a potent cultural power. Many artists trekked to FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound in search of the sound of authentic southern Black music—and at times expressed shock at the mostly white studio musicians waiting to play it for them. Others hoped to draw on the hitmaking production process that defined the scene. Reali also chronicles the overlooked history of Muscle Shoals's impact on country music and describes the region's recent transformation into a tourism destination. Multifaceted and informed, Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals (University of Illinois Press, 2022) reveals the people, places, and events behind one of the most legendary recording scenes in American history. Dr. Christopher Reali is an assistant professor of music at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Emily Ruth Allen (@emmyru91) holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Florida State University. Her current research focuses on parade musics in Mobile, Alabama's carnival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture

Today's episode is a fun story about Paul Simon and his way of playing. As a guitarist, Paul Simon does his own thing, and he does it really well. His sophistication, style, and the different elements of his playing often go unrecognised thanks to his incredible songwriting skills. So in today's episode, I discuss the different facets of Paul Simon's skills as a guitarist, a songwriter, and a singer. One of the most beautiful things he talks about is the guitar being a source of comfort for him. I show you some little tunes you can play too when you turn to your guitar for comfort. Take a listen and enjoy! If you enjoyed this podcast, you can get my free “guitar secrets” video course which will help all beginners or those who are “stuck”. Get the course for free, exclusively at - https://fingerstyle101.com/secrets/ Like this episode? Your reviews for this podcast mean the world to me, so please let us know what you thought about the Acoustic Asylum!  

"You're that nerd!" Yeah so what? The Hardest-Working Man In Music In LA Giovanny Blanco and I are quite comfortable with our nerdly ways, and we've stumbled upon a topic that suits our particular brand of music obsession. Top Ten Greatest Hits Hits is our love letter to the classic Greatest Hits collection, and those tracks that made their first appearance as additions to some of our favorite artists' Best Of compilations. We can't thank Gio enough for his tireless work bringing more music to the masses and taking time to join the pod in furtherance of this mission. Geek out with us here in Part 2 where we reveal picks 5-1.If you missed Part 1, be a dear and check it out first wherever you get your podcasts.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-680-top-ten-greatest-hits-hits-part-1-w-giovanny/id573735994?i=1000720582102Get all of the Greatest Hits Hits in one handy playlist! The official Top Ten Greatest Hits Hits playlist features every song heard in Parts 1 & 2, bumper songs included:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6FlLK6wlqafZafnpGcAFNN?si=bdac7c24b2ff4d4eGio is out there earning his title as the Hardest Working Man In Music here in LA, and if you dare to, try and keep up with him by following him on the "Gram":https://www.instagram.com/therealgiovannyblanco/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. Volume 18 dropped August 1st featuring the delightful Matt Dinan in his solo EP debut. Good times! 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!https://www.facebook.com/groups/940749894391295

Barry and Abigail discuss Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians and sample Cherry Limeade, Peach Kill All The Golfers, and Yacht Rock from B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale, Michigan.Cherries are, in fact, both deciduous fruits and stonefruits.Edie Brickell and Steve Martin released a bluegrass album together in 2013, Love Has Come For You.The “flanged” guitar in the breakdown of What I Am reminded Abigail of Peter Frampton speaking through his guitar in Do You Feel Like We Do - Live.Abigail learned all about Edie Sedgwick and Little Miss S. from this article!Air of December reminded Abigail loosely of a poetic form called a sestina.Abigail entered The Wheel into the Abigail Hummel School of Speaking Smartly About Music with a comparison to I Fought the Law by The Clash. Abigail also wanted to remind everyone that the concept of the multiverse was first proposed by Hugh Everett III, the father of E of Eels. Listen to our episode on Eels: Owlectro-Shock Brews (Eels and Dangerous Minds Brewing Co.) or read this great biography of Hugh Everett III.Abigail compared the mystery percussion in Love Like We Do to the percussion in This Means War by Marianas Trench.Content-wise, Abigail compared Circle to THE GREATEST by Billie Eilish. Barry thought it was more similar to Transit Town by Harborcoat.She prompted Abigail to educate Barry about the concept of the manic pixie dream girl. Lyrically, it reminded Barry of Mean girls by Charli xcx.The “fact” we learned in Carlo's Corner has been partially debunked. If you're interested, you can learn more about Niels Bohr, Carlsberg, or Jarlsberg.Barry took an opportunity to plug our friend Kevin Richberg's Slate Hill Edible Forest.Nothing reminded Abigail of the Greek myth of Odysseus and Polyphemus. Barry brought up the hypothesis that fossilized dwarf elephant skulls may have inspired myths of Cyclopes. (And dinosaur bones dragons! And rhinos unicorns! And manatees mermaids!)Abigail then entered Nothing into the A.H.S.O.S.S.A.M. with a comparison to Crazy Love, Vol. II by Paul Simon.Listen to our resequenced playlist of this album, which we have called Retooling Rubberbands at the Stars.Up next… Navy Blues by Sloan, submitted to our Jukebox by Paul ZawackiJingles are by our friend Pete Coe.Visit Anosmia Awareness for more information on Barry's condition.Follow Barry or Abigail on Untappd to see what we're drinking when we're not on mic!Leave us a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky | YouTube | Substack | Website | Email us | Virtual Jukebox | Beer Media Group

word-podcast-798-peter-ames-carlinFriend of the pod and chronicler of the careers of Springsteen, Paul Simon and REM, Peter Ames Carlin has heard all the recordings that went into the album which was Springsteen's last chance saloon and spoken to the people who were there to put together the story of how it was all done.….the lucky break that came when the boss's son went to a Springsteen show….the man who played on Bruce Springsteen's greatest record and then left….how Springsteen learned that the way to make a live-sounding record was not to record it live….the reconnecting of 70s rock with the great American rock & roll of the 50s…the thinking behind one of the few album covers deserving of the adjective “iconic”…what happened when Steve Van Zandt told the Brecker Brothers what to play….the fundamental difference between American and British musicTonight In Jungleland: The Making Of Born To Run: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tonight-Jungleland-Making-Born-Run/dp/0385551533Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

word-podcast-798-peter-ames-carlinFriend of the pod and chronicler of the careers of Springsteen, Paul Simon and REM, Peter Ames Carlin has heard all the recordings that went into the album which was Springsteen's last chance saloon and spoken to the people who were there to put together the story of how it was all done.….the lucky break that came when the boss's son went to a Springsteen show….the man who played on Bruce Springsteen's greatest record and then left….how Springsteen learned that the way to make a live-sounding record was not to record it live….the reconnecting of 70s rock with the great American rock & roll of the 50s…the thinking behind one of the few album covers deserving of the adjective “iconic”…what happened when Steve Van Zandt told the Brecker Brothers what to play….the fundamental difference between American and British musicTonight In Jungleland: The Making Of Born To Run: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tonight-Jungleland-Making-Born-Run/dp/0385551533Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

word-podcast-798-peter-ames-carlinFriend of the pod and chronicler of the careers of Springsteen, Paul Simon and REM, Peter Ames Carlin has heard all the recordings that went into the album which was Springsteen's last chance saloon and spoken to the people who were there to put together the story of how it was all done.….the lucky break that came when the boss's son went to a Springsteen show….the man who played on Bruce Springsteen's greatest record and then left….how Springsteen learned that the way to make a live-sounding record was not to record it live….the reconnecting of 70s rock with the great American rock & roll of the 50s…the thinking behind one of the few album covers deserving of the adjective “iconic”…what happened when Steve Van Zandt told the Brecker Brothers what to play….the fundamental difference between American and British musicTonight In Jungleland: The Making Of Born To Run: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tonight-Jungleland-Making-Born-Run/dp/0385551533Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've decided to do a deep dive on some of our favourite albums to explore the stories behind them.What did the artists really think of each other? Where did the inspirations from the songs come from?Joining Andrea to discuss is Head Tour Guide at the Irish Rock ‘N' Roll Museum Experience, Alan Buckley, who's going to talk through Paul Simon's ‘Graceland'!

Send us a textGrowing up in Seattle, Washington, this week's guest, Peter Ames Carlin, has a distinct memory of the hubub surrounding the release of The Beatles “Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band” even though he was only 4 years old at the time. “I have very vivid memories of “Sgt Pepper” being the new record…and then “The White Album” and puzzling through that stuff when I was very young”Spending most of his life as a writer, for newspapers, People Magazine and co-authoring a few books, Peter turned to writing about his passion, music, with the release of his book “Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson”. Books about Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Warner Brothers Records and R.E.M. followed, almost all to rave reviews. Some books were written with exclusive interviews for his subjects and others without that cooperation. Tuesday August 5th sees the release of “Tonight In Jungleland: The Making of Born To Run”, a second Springsteen book in the Springsteen universe. This time Carlin focuses on a very specific late 1973-late 1975 time frame to chronicle the process of Springsteen writing and recording and dealing with the aftermath of his make or brake third album which is celebrating its 50th anniversary on August 25th, 2025.   Join us for a conversation about reading, writing and rocking with Peter Ames Carlin

Broken Record's Justin Richmond joins us to talk Still Crazy After All These Years. Paul Simon's Grammy-winning album was born out of divorce, and produced some of his greatest songs of all time, like 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, My Little Town and I Do It For Your Love.We dive into the story behind this remarkable album, including Steve Gadd's famous drum beat and how Stevie Wonder's Innervisions may have been the catalyst for Paul Simon's divorce?! Plus - Adam shares why this has been such a transformative album for him, and how it influenced his playing. And, we ask: Is this the ultimate sad boy album? Is this the apex moment of boomerism? We kick off our new season with these questions and so much more!

This episode begins with Michael Brecker in some interesting situations with Paul Simon and James Taylor. We follow that up with new music from another tenor sax player, Jimmy Greene from his newest release. Playlist  Artist ~ Name ~ Album Michael Brecker ~ African Skies ~ Tales from the Hudson Paul Simon ~ Under African Skies ~ Graceland Michael Brecker ~ The Nearness of You ~ Nearness of You: The Ballad Book Jimmy Greene ~ Praises ~ As We Are Now Jimmy Greene ~ Speak Low ~ As We Are Now Sam Rivers ~ Beatrice ~ Fuchsia Swing Song Chick Corea ~ Friends ~ Friends Herbie Hancock ~ Maiden Voyage ~ Maiden Voyage

American Eagle's Male-Geared Sydney Sweeney Ads Have Gen Z Women Scratching Their Heads and the White House Ballroom Project // 7-Eleven, Inc. is Revving Up Nostalgia with New Exclusive Hot Wheels® Collection // Angel Martinez talks about her handmade Sandal business: NaughtyUSA.com/ Pasadena couple rebuilding after Eaton Fire could see finished home by Thanksgiving // One Hit Wonder Songs /Closing Songs at bars and events. Paul Simon's Career #AmericanEagle #SydneySweeney #7Eleven #HotWheels #Nostalgia #EatonFire #Fire #OneHitWonders #PaulSimon 

Though we couldn't gather the entire podcast staff, Robbie and Art still managed to produce an episode that should strike a chord with music-loving listeners.   Following Robbie's recent visit to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the iconic FAME Recording Studios, the two Guys take note of the incredible amount of musical talent that has recorded there. Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett, Paul Simon, and Etta James are just a few of the artists who have made their way to Alabama and worked with the late Rick Hall, backed by the legendary "Swampers" studio musicians.    Geeks of the week include Robbie's look at a role-playing game inspired by Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon—no word on if there's a slo-mo option.

There are only a handful of comedies that changed cinema ... and even fewer that took home the Best Picture Oscar. Annie Hall was both of those things.  Woody Allen's career, with this classic, altered the course of his career from hysterical madcap comedies to hysterical, deep-meaning thought provoking artful films that became a template for future rom-coms.  He used every stylistic trick in the book to make his point. From breaking the fourth wall to split-screen dialogues and everything else in between,  It really was an original. But does it still deserve to be recognized as the best of 1977? Does it still resonate after all these years?Listen to film critic Jack Ferdman's take on it as he analyzes everything about Annie Hall, as well as many other films from that year, and hear which film he gives his Rewatch Oscar of 1977.Download, listen, and share ALL Rewatching  Oscar episodes.SUBSCRIBE and FOLLOW Rewatching Oscar:Website: https://rewatchingoscar.buzzsprout.comApple Podcasts/iTunesSpotifyGoogle PodcastsiHeart RadioPodchaserPodcast AddictTuneInAlexaAmazon Overcasts Podcast Addict Player FMRSS Feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1815964.rssWebsite: https://rewatchingoscar.buzzsprout.comSocial Media Links: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, BlueSkyShare your thoughts and suggestions with us through:Facebook Messanger or email us atjack@rewatchingoscar.com or jackferdman@gmail.comMusic by TurpacShow Producer: Jack FerdmanPodcast Logo Design: Jack FerdmanMovie (audio) trailer courtesy of MovieClips Classic TrailersMovie (audio) clips courtesy of YouTubeSupport us by downloading, sharing, and giving us a 5-star Rating.  It helps our podcast continue to reach many people and make it available to share more episodes with everyone.Send us a text

Label: Columbia 45133Year: 1970Condition: M-Last Price: $12.00. Not currently available for sale.Found one! This is a beautiful, Near Mint copy of the duo's second big hit from their best and, sadly, final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water. What the heck is that rhythm section doing, by the way? Anybody ever figure it out (without looking at the session notes)? By the way, it's not your imagination -- the 45 rpm version of "Cecilia" is speeded up from the LP version, which probably explains why the track is only 2:40 on the 45 but 2:55 on the LP. (!) I actually measured it by recording a snippet of the 45 (have a listen!). That segment is 2 seconds shorter from the 45 (1:43:66) than from the LP (1:45:713). Another reason why collecting 45s is so rewarding. Maybe you wondered if the LP version of "Cecilia" sounded slow all these years, but couldn't figure out why. Now you know... and you weren't imagining it! The B side, also from the album, is sublime itself in so many ways, and it's a privilege to hear it in pristine Mint audio on the original 45 record; don't forget, this song is so quiet it makes "Bridge" sound loud (!), so finding this styrene pressing with sound like this is cause for celebration! It's also worth noting that "Cecilia" was really the first recording that showed how much in love with complex rhythms Paul Simon had become. (And what a master producer as well!) Many of his solo releases demonstrate that passion, starting with his first single, "Mother And Child Reunion," which was one of the first hits with a reggae/ska rhythm by someone not from Jamaica. But in particular I think of his great single Late In The Evening (from the failed album/movie, One Trick Pony), and his entire Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints albums.?Note: This copy comes in a vintage Columbia Records factory sleeve. The audio sounds pristine Mint. The labels and vinyl (styrene) both grade Near Mint with faint storage wear and signs of possible light use.

O palco do Carnegie Hall, em Nova York, recebe neste verão americano mais uma edição da NYO Jazz, a Orquestra Jovem de Jazz dos Estados Unidos. O projeto educativo, ligado à tradicional casa de concertos, já teve como convidadas especiais Dee Dee Bridgewater, uma das maiores cantoras de jazz da atualidade, e Dianne Reeves, ambas vencedoras de múltiplos prêmios Grammy. Luciana Rosa, correspondente da RFI em Nova York Este ano, quem assume os vocais é Luciana Souza, cantora, compositora e educadora musical nascida em São Paulo e radicada nos Estados Unidos desde os anos 1990. Luciana conta que foi convidada especial de um projeto já tradicional do Carnegie Hall, uma instituição que, além de apresentar grandes concertos e artistas, também mantém um forte braço educativo. “Eles organizam três orquestras – duas sinfônicas e uma big band. Chama-se NYO, a sigla para National Youth Orchestra”, explica. Filha do cantor e compositor Walter Santos e da letrista Teresa Souza, Luciana cresceu imersa em um ambiente musical. Ainda menina, gravava jingles e acompanhava o movimento da música instrumental brasileira. “Meus pais foram muito influentes na música, especialmente em São Paulo”, relembra a cantora. Eles criaram um selo de disco chamado Som da Gente que, durante dez anos, ajudou a impulsionar a música instrumental brasileira – ou, como ela mesma define, “o jazz brasileiro”. Repertório inclui canções de Tom Jobim, Ivan Lins e Vince Mendoza Reconhecida como uma das vozes mais respeitadas da música brasileira fora do país, Luciana Souza traz ao projeto sua vivência única entre o jazz norte-americano e os ritmos brasileiros. Ela vê em Tom Jobim a figura central dessa ponte entre os dois mundos. “Praticamente todo o repertório de música brasileira que a gente está fazendo é baseado no Jobim”, destaca. Entre os clássicos escolhidos para o repertório da turnê está “Chega de Saudade”, eternizada por João Gilberto. O programa ainda inclui a canção “Se Acontecer”, de Ivan Lins e Lenine, além de um novo choro assinado pelo maestro Vince Mendoza, diretor musical da NYO Jazz. Com seis indicações ao Grammy, Luciana já colaborou com nomes como Herbie Hancock, Hermeto Pascoal, Romero Lubambo, Maria Schneider, Danilo Perez, Paul Simon e James Taylor. Mas, segundo ela, o que mais a inspira é ver o jazz renascer nas mãos dos jovens músicos. Para ela, o jazz está longe de ter desaparecido. “O jazz não está morto. Está morto para algumas pessoas, mas para muitos de nós ainda está muito vivo”, afirma. “Tem muita vitalidade na voz desses jovens que vão tocar. Eles são o futuro do jazz.” Turnê da NYO Jazz no Brasil Após as apresentações neste fim de semana (26 e 27 de julho) em Nova York, a NYO Jazz – sob regência do trompetista Sean Jones – embarca para uma turnê pelo Brasil, com shows em São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro e Manaus. “Esse ano, o foco é a América do Sul, principalmente o Brasil. A gente vai fazer concertos em São Paulo, no Rio e em Manaus”, conta Luciana. A volta ao palco do Carnegie Hall tem um sabor especial. Ela já se apresentou ali em outras ocasiões, mas diz que o convite atual tem um peso simbólico. “É uma honra e uma alegria imensa. Trabalhar com o Carnegie Hall é algo muito prestigioso”, diz Luciana. “Eu acredito profundamente no jazz e estou em um momento da vida em que sigo criando, mas também quero abrir espaço para a nova geração.” Entre o passado glorioso do jazz e seu futuro vibrante, Luciana Souza é ponte, voz e referência.

Ukraine and Russia exchanged drone strikes yesterday after peace talks failed in Turkey. Drones have taken on a pivotal role in that war, and are also reshaping modern warfare around the globe. Also, Turkish firms are on track to sell more than $8 billion dollars in military hardware this year, a new record for the country. And, young people in Togo are protesting against a recent government move to consolidate power for the country's leader. Plus, South African musician Bakithi Kumalo, who is known for his bass playing, is all over Paul Simon's seminal album “Graceland.”Listen to today's Music Heard on Air. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

What does it mean to age with style and impact? Episode 250 of Late Boomers is here to enlighten you! Join us as We chat with Joe Owens, the dynamic author of "Feeling Groovy: A Boomer's Guide to Ageless Aging." From a health scare in his fifties to working with music legends like the Rolling Stones, Joe's journey is a testament to living life fully. Discover his secrets to staying youthful, from mingling with younger generations to embracing natural wellness. Tune in for Joe's insights on maintaining mental and physical vitality and redefining aging with zest! Don't miss this inspiring episode.Joe Owens' Bio:Joe Owens writes character-driven novels, short stories, non-fiction and screenplays. Whether set in the gaslit alleys of Victorian England or the everyday corners of modern life, his work reveals what motivates people, what moves them, and what sometimes leads them astray.Connect with Joe:Website: www.joeowensbooks.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/joeowensbooksInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/joeowensbooksThank you for listening. Please check out @lateboomers on Instagram and our website lateboomers.us. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to watch it or listen to more of our episodes, you will find Late Boomers on your favorite podcast platform and on our new YouTube Late Boomers Podcast Channel. We hope we have inspired you and we look forward to your becoming a member of our Late Boomers family of subscribers.

This episode of “613 Books” podcast is PART TWO of producer Heather Dean's interview with Rabbi Nachman Seltzer. He is the bestselling author of well over fifty books, many of which are biographies, novels, collections of inspirational stories, and books about Jewish history. Rabbi Seltzer's most recently-published books is called “Missiles, Miracles and Mesiras Nefesh,” which explores the war that began on October 7th, on what should have been one of the most joyous days of the year, Simchat Torah – which that year also fell on Shabbat. Through riveting stories and unforgettable behind-the-scenes reports, Rabbi Seltzer's book has it all: tragedy, hope, heroism, and military miracles. THIS EPISODE focuses on: · The rise and fall of the notorious “Butcher of Khan Yunis” Yahiya Sinwar, y-sh"u · Rabbi Seltzer's reflections being a young writer · How long it takes to write each book · Ideas for creative writing –song lyrics included - come from Hashem · The Jewish spark of Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, and Ben & Jerry · His opinions about Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) as a writer's tool · And more! SUBSCRIBE to 613 Books Podcast and never miss an episode! = = = Show notes: Featured Guest: Rabbi Nachman Seltzer Featured Book: Missiles, Miracles and Mesiras Nefesh. Link to purchase on Artscroll's website https://www.artscroll.com/Books/9781422643204.html Link to purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Miracles-.The-Heartbreak-Miraculous-Operations/dp/1422643204 Contact Rabbi Nachman Seltzer: NachmanSeltzer@gmail.com = = = = = Show Announcer for 613 Books Podcast: Michael Doniger Michael's contact info, voice-over samples, and demo: https://michaeldoniger.net/en/home/ SUBSCRIBE to “613 Books” Podcast and discover new books week!

Throughout the 50-year history of Saturday Night Live, there have been a few things you could always count on: "Live From New York, It's Saturday Night!", Weekend Update, Paul Simon showing up whenever he pleases... and of course, the legendary talk show sketch!From celebrity chat shows gone wrong to morning programs spiraling into chaos, SNL has perfected the art of skewering television's most beloved format. Whether it's the cringe-worthy interviews, over-the-top hosts, or unexpected guest meltdowns, these sketches have given us some of the most quotable moments in comedy history.This week on Tournament Talk, Bill Swerski assembles a panel of SNL experts to duke it out in the ultimate showdown of Best SNL Talk Show Sketches. Will your favorite gabfest parody make the cut? What all time classic have been forgotten? Find out which sketch will be crowned our champion and discover some hidden gems that deserve a spot in the SNL Hall of Fame (we miss you guys)!---------------------------------Subscribe today!Follow us on social media: X (Twitter): NR4PTProjectBluesky: nr4ptproject.bsky.socialInstagram: nr4ptprojectFacebook: The Not Ready for Prime Time ProjectContact Us: Website: https://www.nr4project.comEmail: nr4ptproject@gmail.com

In this episode, Kirk and Paul look at artists from the Garden State, but not artists from the soundtrack to that shitty movie by that fuckface Zach Braff, except Paul Simon's in both.

This is an Encore Presentation of my July 2024 interview with Steve Gadd, World Class Drummer who has played and/or toured with a Who's Who of Superstars including James Taylor, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Chick Corea, Frank Sinatra and Luciano Pavoratti. He's played on countless hit records including Paul Simon's “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” and “Late In The Evening” and Steely Dan's “Aja”. My featured song is my version of Chick Corea's “Sea Journey” from my debut 1994 album Miles Behind. Spotify link.---------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!Click here for All Episodes Click here for Guest List Click here for Guest Groupings Click here for Guest TestimonialsClick here to Subscribe Click here to receive our Email UpdatesClick here to Rate and Review the podcast—----------------------------------------CONNECT WITH STEVE:www.drstevegadd.com______________________ROBERT'S RECENT SINGLES:“THE CUT OF THE KNIFE” is Robert's latest single. An homage to jazz legend Dave Brubeck and his hit “Take Five”. It features Guest Artist Kerry Marx, Musical Director of The Grand Ole Opry band, on guitar solo. Called “Elegant”, “Beautiful” and “A Wonder”! CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS—----------------------------“DAY AT THE RACES” is Robert's newest single.It captures the thrills, chills and pageantry of horse racing's Triple Crown. Called “Fun, Upbeat, Exciting!”CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS___________________“MOON SHOT” reflects my Jazz Rock Fusion roots. The track features Special Guest Mark Lettieri, 5x Grammy winning guitarist who plays with Snarky Puppy and The Fearless Flyers. The track has been called “Firey, Passionate and Smokin!”CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS____________________“ROUGH RIDER” has got a Cool, ‘60s, “Spaghetti Western”, Guitar-driven, Tremolo sounding, Ventures/Link Wray kind of vibe!CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS—--------------------------------“LOVELY GIRLIE” is a fun, Old School, rock/pop tune with 3-part harmony. It's been called “Supremely excellent!”, “Another Homerun for Robert!”, and “Love that Lovely Girlie!”Click HERE for All Links—----------------------------------“THE RICH ONES ALL STARS” is Robert's single featuring the following 8 World Class musicians: Billy Cobham (Drums), Randy Brecker (Flugelhorn), John Helliwell (Sax), Pat Coil (Piano), Peter Tiehuis (Guitar), Antonio Farao (Keys), Elliott Randall (Guitar) and David Amram (Pennywhistle).Click HERE for the Official VideoClick HERE for All Links—----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com 

A Norwegian musician, novelist, and interdisciplinary artist whose work defies easy categorization, Jenny Hval has built a reputation for music that blends experimental pop, spoken word, noise, and electronic textures—often paired with provocative lyrics exploring the politics of the body, gender identity, desire, and the intersection of art and intimacy. Her critically acclaimed solo albums, including Apocalypse, Girl (2015), Blood Bitch (2016), and Classic Objects (2022), are known for their fearless exploration of taboo and vulnerability, often framed through surreal, dreamlike narratives. In parallel with her music, Hval has authored several novels—including Paradise Rot and Girls Against God—which mirror her sonic work in their poetic, sensory, and transgressive style. A frequent collaborator across disciplines, Hval also creates live performances that incorporate theatrical elements, scent, sound installations, and spoken word. Her newest record, Iris Silver Mist, was released by 4AD on May 2, 2025. In this episode, she discusses how songs by Suzanne Vega, One Dove, and Paul Simon informed her development as an artist.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's show, after Jim sings some Beths: brand new Neko Case, Idlewild, Tombstones in Their Eyes, Wet Leg, Echodrone, Superchunk, and Jeffrey Runnings, plus The Moody Blues, Desmond Dekker, David Bowie, Don Gibson, Paul Simon, Mama Cass, and Bill ...

durée : 01:58:54 - 1975, année pléthorique (3/3) : Voyages et vagabondages - par : Thierry Jousse - Pour le troisième et dernier épisode de notre feuilleton spécial 1975, nous visiterons des contrées musicales variées et croiserons quelques stars de la période, comme Paul Simon, Pink Floyd ou Herbie Hancock… Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les autres épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France.

Paul Simon's bittersweet lyrics set the stage for this raw and funny exploration of why even life-changing insights often slip through our fingers. Raghunath and Kaustubha unpack the slippery nature of spiritual determination — and how each of us can make the simple but bold choice to live a meaningful life before the clock runs out. This episode blends music, humor, and timeless wisdom from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Highlights include: •⁠  ⁠What Paul Simon teaches us about missing our moment •⁠  ⁠How Kamsa fell back into old ways after glimpsing wisdom — and why we do too •⁠  ⁠Why meaning matters more than magnitude in what we do •⁠  ⁠The elements of a Vishnu-centered society — and the surprising roles of cows and brahmanas Don't let your breakthroughs slip away — tune in now! SB 10.4.28-41 ********************************************************************* LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN! Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages LISTEN ON ITUNES: https://podcasts/apple.com/us/podcast/wisdom-of-the-sages/id1493055485 CONNECT ON FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/wisdomofthesages108

Paul Simon's bittersweet lyrics set the stage for this raw and funny exploration of why even life-changing insights often slip through our fingers. Raghunath and Kaustubha unpack the slippery nature of spiritual determination — and how each of us can make the simple but bold choice to live a meaningful life before the clock runs out. This episode blends music, humor, and timeless wisdom from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Highlights include: •⁠  ⁠What Paul Simon teaches us about missing our moment •⁠  ⁠How Kamsa fell back into old ways after glimpsing wisdom — and why we do too •⁠  ⁠Why meaning matters more than magnitude in what we do •⁠  ⁠The elements of a Vishnu-centered society — and the surprising roles of cows and brahmanas Don't let your breakthroughs slip away — tune in now! SB 10.4.28-41 ********************************************************************* LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN! Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages LISTEN ON ITUNES: https://podcasts/apple.com/us/podcast/wisdom-of-the-sages/id1493055485 CONNECT ON FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/wisdomofthesages108

Dean Richards, entertainment reporter for WGN, joins Bob Sirott to provide the latest news in entertainment. Bob and Dean share Paul McCartney’s U.S. tour announcement and Dean’s interview with the actors from the new “Superman” movie. They also share details about “The Big Bang Theory” spin-off show and why Paul Simon’s daughter is upset with […]

(Airdate: 7.10.25) Lulu Simon, daughter of Paul Simon, is dragging Richard Gere for selling her childhood home to developers after allegedly promising to “take care of the land.” She's mad. Like “hope my dead pets haunt you” mad. Gere hasn't responded—but we're guessing he's keeping the lights on at night. Then, it's Tom Brady and Sofia Vergara, who may be heating up Ibiza with what insiders are calling a “summer romance.” It started on a superyacht, and yes, Tom asked to sit next to her. Smooth, TB12. Real smooth. And finally, Hugh Grant fell asleep in the Royal Box at Wimbledon—right behind Queen Camilla. We love a British nap, but Hugh… what the hell were you thinking? And @HalleBerry Listen to the daily Van Camp and Morgan radio show at: https://vancampandmorgan.com/stations buy us a coffee    

This episode features Jake Sumner, director of the music documentary Ron Delsener Presents. The film explores the life and legacy of legendary music impresario Ron Delsener, with insights from an impressive roster of interviewees including Billy Joel, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, and Bette Midler. As the son of Sting (of The Police), Jake brings a unique perspective to the project, having known Delsener personally and wanting to uncover the story behind his iconic status. Jake discusses how the documentary came together during the pandemic and shares some of the wild stories featured in the film.

This performance used with permission from Jamey Haddad. Jamey Haddad holds a singular position in the world of jazz and contemporary music. Haddad's musical voice transcends styles and trends, and the universal quality of his playing has attracted many international collaborations with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, and Sting. Among many accomplishments, Jamey partnered with, among others, Venezuelan pianist Leo Blanco on Under One Sun, a multi-generational multi-national world music collective. Though the full group doesn't get together often, Leo was kind enough to grace our stage in a mini reunion of sorts in the second night of a two night stand that features Jay Ashby on trombone, Kip Reed on bass and Patrick Duke Graney on drums along side Jamey Haddad on percussion and Leo Blanco on piano. Waltz #5 - Blanco Africa Latino - Blanco Lawns - Blanco Colors of the South - Blanco For more information on our program, visit thebopstop.org and click on the Live at the Bop Stop Radio Show link.

Kenny Ascher returns to The Paul Leslie Hour. Are you here? Let's be honest with one another from the get-go. You're here, I'm here, we're all here tuned into episode number 1,076 of The Paul Leslie Hour. For the SECOND time, we're joined by the great artist Kenny Ascher for a personal interview. We just knew, “we're going to go back there someday.” Kenny is the co-writer of timeless songs like “Rainbow Connection” and “You and Me Against the World,” both written with Paul Williams. And Kenny Ascher is also an acclaimed pianist and appeared on recordings from John Lennon, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Carly Simon, and so many others. Before we bring out the kind Kenny, real quick please subscribe to Paul Leslie's YouTube channel and ring that bell. Also, consider throwing a buck or two into the tip jar right here. And with that, let's start the show.

We pay tribute to a musical giant, focusing on the moment where is started to get the recognition he deserved, and a cover where everyone reinforced that recognition. Surfer Girl, originally by The Beach Boys, covered by Paul Simon.  Outro music is Brian Wilson, by Barenaked Ladies.

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

The president tried to halt observances of the Juneteenth holiday but Americans celebrated anyway, the FDA is scrapping guidelines on daily alcohol limits, we're in for a very hot weekend across the country, and a special nuke-proof plane was spotted landing in Washington, D.C. as Trump contemplates bombing Iran. Legendary singer and songwriter Paul Simon sits for an extended, wide-ranging interview with Stephen Colbert that touches on the meaning behind the lyrics on his latest album, ‘Seven Psalms,' and stories from his over 50-year career in music. Head to The Late Show's YouTube channel to watch Paul's performance! 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