Podcasts about Transit

We explore the revived Baltimore Red Line light rail project with Jerome Horne, Deputy Communications Director, who explains how this 14-mile east-west corridor will transform transportation across the city while potentially healing historical urban scars.• The Red Line project dates back to 2002 planning but was canceled in 2015 just before construction began• Governor Wes Moore resurrected the project in 2023, recognizing its vital importance to Baltimore's transportation network• Three route alternatives are under consideration, balancing tunneled sections versus surface routes• The project will connect with existing light rail, metro subway, and regional rail systems• The Red Line could help rectify harm done by the "Highway to Nowhere" that displaced Black communities• Expected $19 billion economic impact through construction jobs, operations positions, and transit-oriented development• Community engagement focuses on preventing displacement while encouraging appropriate density• Jerome shares his personal journey from music education to transit advocacy, starting with an email to a transit CEO at age 10Learn more about the Baltimore Red Line at redlinemaryland.com or follow @RedLineMaryland on social media.Send us a textSupport the show

One month since the major transit changes. Plus, what will the Bank of Canada do with its key lending rate tomorrow?

Kevin James jokes about transit in his Netflix special, "Never Don't Give Up".

Since 2007, Jeff Browaty has been a regular guest on TGCTS in his role as city councillor for North Kildonan. Currently the Finance chair, Episode 38 features a long-from interview with him discussing numerous civic issues . We start with an explanation of how the concerns of the residents of Elmwood-East Kildonan are being handled until a byelection fills the seat.6.30- The revised Transit stop and route system is touched on, as North Kildonan faces an influx of vagrants and criminals taking a free ride to the suburbs- "I'm ready for a crackdown" on freeloaders, says Browaty. He discusses planned fare payment options, which likely won't include accepting paper cash. 20.00- Coun. Gilroy's motion to enforce bans on illegal camping in parks and playgrounds has Browaty looking to eliminate encampments beside major traffic routes. Hear his view of the disorder and crime "happening brazenly right in the open." While Mayor Gillingham, Coun. Vivian Santos and the CBC harp about potential lawsuits, there are three court decisions that Browaty and council has not been briefed on backing the enforcement of public safety. We wonder why.28.00 Part 2 - Browaty answers questions about increased water bill costs and the reasons driving the hikes; we raise the issue of tax dollars expended on pet projects like bike lanes and decorative painting on roads. If "calming curbs" are being installed to manage traffic, why aren't the engineers and bureaucrats who drafted the inadequate road designs fired? Browaty goes on to express his support for photo radar but is unaware there are performance reports long overude; on the other hand, he thinks some of the school zone enforcement practices are "baloney".42.00 - Browaty is asked whether bike lanes and other laneway modifications proposed in the Moving on Marion project actually violate the required standards for provincial truck routes. He commits that the residents of the St. Boniface Hospital district will finally be directly consulted about the project. *****Today in the Winnipeg Sun: ”We have a homeless man and woman in a yard near us. I've spoken to him and the situation is interesting,” The male, 30, is struggling to overcome his addictions and doesn't want to be near the drugs endemic to theinner-city camps. The 33 year old female is disabled and, he noted, pregnant. They had been in contact with Main Street Project, yet there they were, in his neighbour's yard, using the outdoors as a commode. They needed help and the readerwasn't sure where to turn.  But I did. I told him that Marion Willis at Street Links should be notified and provided the contact details. He was led to believe that they were put out of business after the city cut their funding - but I assured him they were still operating and were not limited to St. Boniface.Within two hours, he emailed me again.https://winnipegsun.com/opinion/columnists/homeless-couple-gets-housing-plan-in-a-day-the-marion-willis-way******Over the next few weeks, we'll be making therounds to get feedback and reaction from our listeners and readers. Their financial support is the fuel that drives our reports and investigations. To make a contribution towards the Season Six funding drive, email martygoldlive@gmail.com or go to ⁠https://actionline.ca/2024/02/donate-2/⁠

At long last, another sonic edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. It's summertime and the podcasting isn't as easy due to a combination of travel, heat, and other factors but this edition will tide you over until the next version which may be in two weeks. Or perhaps on time? I'm Sean Tubbs, and if you've never heard one of these before, take a listen!In this edition:* Charlottesville City Council refers Development Code back to Planning Commission (learn more)* Charlottesville files motion asking Judge Worrell to reconsider default judgment (learn more)* Charlottesville Planning Commission reviews design for apartment building on Seminole Trail (learn more)* City Council briefed on budget scenarios for expanded service (learn more)* Albemarle Planning Commission discuss Comprehensive Plan's implementation chapter (learn more)* The Albemarle Board of Supervisors followed suit eight days later and some members want AC44 to speak to social belonging (learn more)Commercial shout-out: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

July 24, 2025 ~ WJR's very own Lloyd Jackson is the new voice of the Detroit People Mover, aiming to add a personal and legacy touch to the rider experience! Robert Cramer, CEO of the Detroit Transportation and City of Detroit's Executive Director of Transit, joins Chris, Lloyd, and Jamie to discuss the addition of Lloyd's voice and the new Water Square Station. Photo: Andrew Mullins ~ 760 WJR

The Gateway Program is a $16 billion project to build new tunnels under the Hudson River to improve service for Amtrak and NJ Transit trains. But as the project prepares to break ground, they have uncovered some mysterious — and some historically illuminating — obstacles, including a totally unaccounted for staircase to nowhere, pig bones from the Meatpacking District's meatpacking days, and a bevy of wires, cables, and other infrastructure dreamed up by the engineers of yesteryear. Stephen Nessen, transit reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, talks about the discoveries, and how Gateway crews will have to work around these buried treasures from the past.

Send us a textJim's inspiration into law enforcement began when local police and fire were called to his Grandparent's home in Warrensville Heights, OH. Years later, he went on to ride with the same officer who responded that fateful day, while he served as a reserve officer until he was old enough apply.Hired in 1977, his career began and he never looked back. Because he was able to accomplish so much (Motors, SWAT, detective/investigations) we just scratched the surface of his careering this episode. I've already got him in the books to come back two Saturdays in August.His book, "Suburban Policing; Cleveland Style" is a memoir detailing the more extraordinary scenes and incidents he witnessed over his career. It's available on Amazon.com, and Kindle.Let's give him a warm welcome and please...enjoy the show! Come see me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/choir.practice.94 or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cp_sfaf/

Crain's residential real estate reporter Dennis Rodkin and host Amy Guth discuss news from the local housing market, including including realtors going on the offensive over a plan to rescue the CTA with real estate taxes.Plus: Chicago CFO says property tax hike likely in 2026 budget package, Northern Trust denies holding merger talks with Bank of New York Mellon, NASCAR names new city for 2026 street race and AI boom drives power costs to new record on biggest U.S. grid.

Only 4% of Americans ride transit—but 84% of people in communities with transit say they value it.In this episode, Paul Comfort digs into the details with Mark Aesch (CEO, TransPro Consulting) and Alvin McBorrough (CEO, OGx Consulting). Together they unpack two big levers for agency performance: measuring what actually matters and using AI to deliver it more efficiently. Featuring: Mark Aesch – CEO, TransPro ConsultingWhy ridership is a misleading primary metric; shifting from volume to value; what the 84% really care about (jobs access, service for older adults/people with disabilities, low‑income mobility); and how current federal incentives (unlinked passenger trips, revenue miles) work against customer satisfaction. Mark also previews how FTA reform could move agencies from “happy buses” to “happy customers.” Alvin McBorrough – CEO, OGx ConsultingPractical AI use cases transit agencies can deploy now: real‑time passenger tools (ETAs, chatbots), predictive maintenance, route optimization, computer vision for safety, demand forecasting, and digital twins for planning. Turning “data rich, information poor” operations into smarter decisions—and doing more with less. Resources & Links:https://www.transproconsulting.com/https://www.middlegeorgiarc.org/transportation/TransitUnplugged.com Subscribe & Stay Connected:Like what you heard? Subscribe to Transit Unplugged on your favorite podcast platform, or sign up for the newsletter at TransitUnplugged.com for weekly updates from the field. Podcast Credits:Transit Unplugged is brought to you by ModaxoCreator, Host, + Producer: Paul ComfortExecutive Producer: Julie GatesProducer + Newsletter Editor: Chris O'KeeffeAssociate Producer: Cyndi RaskinPodcast Intern: Desmond GatesSpecial thanks to: Brand Design: Tina Olagundoye Social Media: Tatyana Mechkarova Got a question or comment? Email us at: info@transitunplugged.com Subscribe to the newsletter:transitunplugged.com/subscribe-to-the-transit-unplugged-newsletter Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Modaxo Inc., its affiliates or subsidiaries, or any entities they represent. This production belongs to Modaxo and may contain information subject to trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property rights and restrictions. This production provides general information and should not be relied on as legal advice or opinion. Modaxo specifically disclaims all warranties, express or implied, and will not be liable for any losses, claims, or damages arising from the use of this presentation, from any material contained in it, or from any action or decision taken in response to it.

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The Transportation Commission decides on transportation issues including Transit, Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Motor Vehicle.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Joan Slonczewski, author of Minds in Transit. About Minds in Transit: In the hundred-level city of Iridis, human lords recycle diamonds and emeralds down to the Underworld while sentient machines pilot lightcraft and perform surgeries. Microbial minds expand the brains of scientists and artists. The artist […] The post Episode 671-With Joan Slonczewski appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

Philadelphia's public transit agency, SEPTA, faces devastating 45% budget cuts if Pennsylvania doesn't pass adequate funding, threatening to eliminate 50 bus routes, end rail service at 9 pm, and cancel five suburban rail lines. We are joined by Steve, a Transit advocate from How We Get Around, to discuss the crisis and ongoing fight to save the system.• SEPTA's funding crisis stems from Act 89's reduction from $450 million to $50 million for public transit statewide• COVID relief funds temporarily kept service running, but are now depleted• Proposed cuts would eliminate 50 bus routes and end all rail service at 9 pm• Five of thirteen suburban rail lines would be canceled entirely, including the busy Paoli-Thorndale line• Pennsylvania Senate remains the primary obstacle to passing transit funding• Several Republican senators from transit-served areas have emerged as advocates• State budget negotiations continue, but without a clear timeline for resolution• Advocacy groups, including Save the Train, Transit for All PA, and Transit Forward Philadelphia are mobilizing public pressure• New SEPTA GM Charles Sauer, who started as a trolley operator, brings operational experience to leadership• Advocates stress the importance of creating permanent funding solutions beyond the current crisisContact your Pennsylvania state representatives and senators today to support public transit funding. Visit transitforallpa.org to learn how to get involved.Send us a textSupport the show

Game 3 is an away game against the Transit Trilliums who are a team completely comprised of children of MBTA employees. When they arrive at their underground field, the team is not there. They must brave the depths of the Boston subway system and figure out what is happening. Blittle League is a comedy-horror theatrical tabletop rpg live play using the Monster of the Week system set in the Blaseball universe. We follow the adventures of a team of youth Blaseball players (with super powers) that keep their hometown of Somervile, MA safe from danger and face the horrors of growing up.Music and Sound Engineering by Kate HardlyBlittleLeague.comtwitch.tv/JoeyTBadgerBlittle League was inspired by the game Blaseball which was created by The Game Band. Blittle League is not affiliated with either entity.

Send us a textThis week on The Traveling Hypnotist Podcast, top NYC clinical hypnotist and coach Nicole Hernandez explores the expansive, story-driven energy of Gate 56 in Human Design, known as The Gate of Stimulation, and how it invites you to make meaning out of your lived experiences.Gate 56 is about more than just sharing your story; it's about how your words land, uplift, and awaken others (and yourself) when you're fully in your truth.In this episode, Nicole explores the deeper purpose of storytelling and how this week's energy can help you break free from old narratives, emotional clutter, or that creative funk you've been quietly carrying.Inside, you'll explore:What Gate 56 reveals about your voice, your visibility, and your ability to captivateThe hidden traps of overstimulation, escapism, and performative storytellingHow to work with the wanderer archetype without getting lost A frequency-shifting reflection that might change how you see your pastWhether Gate 56 is part of your design or simply activating your energy this week, this episode is here to help you access the magnetic medicine within your message.Full Show Notes for Gate 56Get Your FREE Human Design ChartBook A Human Design Reading with NicoleJoin the High-Frequency Success Coaching WaitlistHi Friend! If you loved this week's episode, I'd be thrilled if you could do these three quick things:✨ Subscribe - Hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Rate and Review - Give us a rating and drop a comment about your favorite episode so far! Tag and Share - Snap a pic while listening and tag me @nicolereneehernandez on your IG stories—don't forget to share it! Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and inspirational purposes only. It's not a replacement for professional mental health care. If you're facing any psychological or medical issues, please seek help from a qualified healthcare professional. Thanks for supporting the show!

What's currently going on with the Pittsburgh regional transit budget issues affects us all. Most impacted by the service cuts and fare increases are our neighbors, friends and family whose income is below $25,000. If we are our brother's keeper we need to be about the business of contacting our political officials. Have we really become a people unconcerned about the next person? I pray not -but it certainly looks that way. As I sit here on my back porch, pondering solutions to the dilemmas we face every day. I have to ask myself what am I doing to help my neighbors, my friends, my family? What am I doing in my neighborhood, my community, my city, my county and my state. Is voting enough? Do I have a sphere of influence? Am I expected to do anything? Should I do anything? Is there anything that can be done? I am civic minded. I am active in my community. I'm not active in my church, but I should be. I'm not active in my neighborhood. I do speak to my neighbors (those who seem receptive ) I do believe in being neighborly, as a matter of fact, one of my neighbors is 92 years old, I take her garbage can back  from the street after the garbage has been picked up. Her caregiver sets it out on Tuesday. Our pick up is Friday. It's the little things that make a big difference. Her caretaker told me someone in the neighborhood was putting dog excrement in the can!  She asked me if I wouldn't mind moving the trashcan back to the house so that that wouldn't happen. It's a small thing to do and I'm able to do it but certainly there are some other things that I can be doing, should be doing and as I continue to ruminate about it, I will come up with something that I can do that's going to hopefully join with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of other Allegheny county residence to stem the tide of Pittsburgh Regional Transit cuts to services and fare increases. Let's stand with our residents who depend on Pittsburgh regional transit. Contact your state representative today ! 

Send us a textProvidence Streets Coalition's Dylan Giles joins Bill Bartholomew to discuss the upcoming Transit-Oriented Beach Day and general Rhode Island transit developments. Support the show

Jill Locantore, Executive Director of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP), joined co-hosts Divya Gandhi and Em Hall at the 2025 National Planning Conference in Denver to discuss how Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) can be a key tool for achieving Denver's Vision Zero goals. This Critical Conversation in Transportation Planning dives deep into the political, cultural, and social challenges inherent to transforming corridors from car-centric to bike and pedestrian-friendly. From traffic calming and street design to Denver's bold efforts to prioritize buses and pedestrian safety, Jill unpacks how a truly safe city starts with valuing people over cars. Under Jill's leadership, DSP has helped to advocate for and implement policies that promote a transit-centered approach to improving traffic safety. The organization has been instrumental in convening multiple community stakeholders with a common goal of transforming Colfax Avenue, the “longest, wickedest street in America,” into a major arterial that supports the city's ambitious Vision Zero goals of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2030. Relevant Links Denver Streets Partnership Guiding Principles for Colfax BRT A Vision for Transit in the Denver Region A new vision for Speer Boulevard: Cut down the cars in favor of pedestrians, parks and buses Episode URL: https://www.planning.org/podcast/critical-conversations-in-transportation-planning-jill-locantore/

April Engelberg, Toronto lawyer and former city council candidate, joins Greg to talk about Mayor Chow's candid comments about the snow removal debacle and the Toronto council's plan for more efficient transit, through the RapidTO . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TriMet has a new “road diet” planned for Portland, this time on 82nd Avenue. Working with Metro, TriMet is proposing a transit corridor entirely dedicated to buses. They plan to dedicate bus-only lanes, up and down both sides of the street, shrinking 82nd from a four-lane avenue down to a two-lane road for up to seven miles—from Clackamas Town Center to Portland's Cully neighborhood.The project claims that bus-only lanes are only one of the options as part of ongoing conversations, but the most recent Metro mockup on the future of 82nd Avenue prominently prioritizes “BAT lanes” (Business Access and Transit lanes) as the locally preferred alternative (LPA).By cutting car lanes in half, the bus-only lanes will increase congestion substantially. According to TriMet's own estimates, adding these lanes would cause up to 25 percent of drivers to divert from their routes to avoid traffic. Those diversions will put more stress on residential streets and neighborhoods, requiring additional safety features and maintenance. In the same document, TriMet states these new bus-only lanes will save transit riders three or four minutes at most. That's with seven straight miles of bus lanes.The purpose of 82nd Avenue—also known as Highway 213—is to move as many people and vehicles as possible from point A to point B. What moves more people: a lane that allows both cars and buses, or a lane that only allows buses?Metro Council is scheduled to consider bond funding for 82nd avenue and four other projects on July 31. Metro should eliminate bus-only “BAT lanes” from any further consideration as part of the 82nd Avenue Transit Project.

Skift reports that agentic and generative AI are set to reshape employment in the travel industry, with travel agencies increasing their tech workforce significantly since 2003, though core providers like airlines and hotels still rely heavily on manual labor. Analyst Robin Gilbert-Jones notes that while digitalization has grown, the sector still lacks sufficient tech talent, potentially forcing traditional travel suppliers to ramp up hiring in tech and engineering. In other news, NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani calls for urgent infrastructure upgrades after severe flash flooding, and Uber introduces a “Women Drivers” feature in Saudi Arabia to give female passengers more choice and safety. Connect with Skift LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/skift/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ WhatsApp: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAL375LikgIXmNPYQ0L/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://facebook.com/skiftnews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/skiftnews/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.threads.net/@skiftnews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/skiftnews.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/skift⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@SkiftNews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and never miss an update from the travel industry.

Should public transit be free? Or will removing fares cause all busses and trains to sink into the earth, never to be seen or heard of again? This episode we systematically go...

Philadelphia, one of America's oldest cities, blends rich history with a dense, walkable urban core. Its transit system, operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA), includes subways, trolleys, buses, and regional rail that connect neighborhoods, suburbs, and key destinations like the airport and multiple universities. While aging infrastructure poses challenges, Philly's compact layout makes it one of the most transit-accessible cities in the U.S. • SEPTA's tap-to-pay system proves convenient for making connections across multiple modes• Roosevelt Boulevard corridor plans include potential BRT, light rail, or subway extensions by 2040• Historic trolley system provides frequent service but faces capacity challenges with packed cars• Visiting Camden via PATCO and returning by ferry adds a multistate dimension to Philadelphia transit• SEPTA faces a critical funding crisis with potential 45% service cuts and fare increases threatening system viabilityIf you've enjoyed this episode, please consider supporting us through Patreon, buying us a coffee, or checking out our merch store. Don't forget to like this episode and let us know which cities we should check out next!Send us a textSupport the show

Text me your thoughts about this epidode ...In this episode, I explore Saturn and Neptune as they journey through Uttara Bhadrapada Nakshatra. Have you been feeling squeezed in 2025? That cosmic pressure isn't just life—it might be the rare Saturn–Neptune conjunction coupled with Saturn retrograde in Pisces, activating karmic lessons and reshaping our collective ideals through this penultimate Vedic Lunar Mansion.I unpack a specific Nakshatra meaning in Vedic Astrology by delving into the mythic symbolism of the Ahirbudhnya serpent and connecting that to the “Oil Mill Lord” metaphor from "The Greatness of Saturn". You'll discover how planetary transits like — Neptune in Pisces, Saturn Transit of 2025 (including Saturn retrograde), and their Nakshatra transit — press out the essence of your life experiences similar to a powerful Soma extraction ritual. Whether you follow Tropical or Sidereal Vedic Astrology, you'll gain fresh insights into this Vedic Nakshatra, Pisces Rasi, retrograde interpretation, and Neptune's visionary influence.Along the way, I share my experience and discuss practical astrology tools like yin-yoga spinal twists to embody the cosmic squeeze, and ask journaling prompts to help you extract your personal Soma. Tune in now to align with these planetary transits, transform celestial tension into sacred essence, and deepen your astrology practice.Join me at Fiona Marques | The Vedic Astrology Podcast and more! | Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/fionamarques if you would like to explore Vedic Astrology more deeply in a warm and inviting community.And you can learn all about Vedic Astrologer and become a Vedic Astrologer at https://www.fionamarques.com/become-a-vedic-astrologerWatch this episode at https://youtu.be/DxKKxjvAQT4Read about the episode at www.fionamarques.com/thevedicastrologypodcast/saturn-neptune-transit-uttarabhadrapada#VedicAstrology #SaturnTransit #NeptuneTransit #Nakshatra #Uttarabhadrapada #PiscesInVedicAstrology #AhirbudhnyaSerpentSupport the show

Send us a textThis week on The Traveling Hypnotist Podcast, top NYC clinical hypnotist and coach Nicole Hernandez dives into the precision-driven energy of Gate 62 in Human Design—the Gate of Details—and how it's calling you to speak clearly, think critically, and communicate with purpose.If you've been second-guessing your words, over-explaining, or obsessing over whether your message is landing—this one's for you. Gate 62 is your invitation to organize your thoughts, cut through the noise, and let your language lead with clarity.In this episode, Nicole unpacks how to work with the logic and structure of Gate 62 so you can express your truth with power, not perfectionism.Inside, you'll discover:Why Gate 62 is a throat center activation—and how it impacts what you say and how you say itWhat it means when you spiral in over-analysis, mental looping, or information hoardingHow to translate your ideas into clear, magnetic messaging that others actually understandA mindset prompt to help you stop doubting your voice and start trusting your depthWhether Gate 62 is defined in your human design chart or just lighting up your communication this week, this episode is a must-listen if you're ready to stop perfecting and start expressing.Full Show Notes for Gate 62High-Frequency Success Coaching Waitlist Book A Human Design Reading with NicoleHi Friend! If you loved this week's episode, I'd be thrilled if you could do these three quick things:✨ Subscribe - Hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Rate and Review - Give us a rating and drop a comment about your favorite episode so far! Tag and Share - Snap a pic while listening and tag me @nicolereneehernandez on your IG stories—don't forget to share it! Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and inspirational purposes only. It's not a replacement for professional mental health care. If you're facing any psychological or medical issues, please seek help from a qualified healthcare professional. Thanks for supporting the show!

Public transit agencies across the state may soon be seeing some changes in services as some face funding troubles. The Federal Transportation Administration recently made revisions to its agreement with rural transit agencies, requiring them to comply with federal immigration enforcement action, contradicting Oregon’s sanctuary state law. This dispute has left some federal reimbursements in limbo for agencies. At the same time, House Bill 2025, which would have raised billions through fees and taxes for road projects, ultimately failed in the state Legislature. Melissa Metz is the general manager for the Coos County Area Transportation District. They recently announced some services will be suspended and will be accepting public comments at their next board meeting. Julie Brown is the general manager for the Rogue Valley Transportation District, the president of the Community Transit Association of America and the commissioner chair for the Oregon Department of Transportation. The RVTD recently shared that funding uncertainties will lead to a reduction in staff and service, alongside ODOT’s recent announcement of laying off nearly 500 employees. Metz and Brown join us to share more on some of the challenges facing rural transit agencies right now, and what they’d like to see in a special session from lawmakers.

This week we have a very special episode, talking just about transit. EJ Carrion is out this week, so Ann Zadeh & Wesley Kirk bring you the history of transit in Fort Worth, where we're currently at, what the future of transit could look like, and how you can advocate for better transit.Much of the info for today's episode came from local historian Quentin McGown's History of Transit presentation for Tarrant Transit Alliance's Transit Academy, and is being used in the upcoming Transit Zine for Community Design Fort Worth.Other info came from:Streetcar operations once thrived in Fort Worth. And then buses and cars came along. by Carol Roark in Star-Telegram.Who Killed the Streetcar? The State of Fort Worth's Public Transit by Brian Kendall in Fort Worth MagazineTrolley Parks: Lake Como ("Most Beautiful Spot in Texas") by Mike Nichols in Hometown by  HandlebarACTIONSJoin us at Community Design Fort Worth's monthly transit mixer every third Wednesday of the month from 4:30pm - 6:30pm at Acre Distilling.For more transit info, follow:@design.fortworth@urbanfortworth@walkablefortworth@ridewithdata@strong_towns@jonjon.jpeg

The long-discussed transit plan may be coming to a ballot near you. The referendum for a one-cent sales tax for transit has one more hurdle to clear: the Mecklenburg County Commission. If they say yes, you'll be asked to vote on it in November. But not everyone is on board for what has been described as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. We'll talk about pros and cons.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, in an interview for the Mayor's Desk series, details work on housing affordability, homelessness, and other growing pains amid the city's increasing popularity. Solutions include reducing building costs, incentivizing new construction, and taking better advantage of the metro region's extensive light rail network for transit-oriented development.

Hour 1 10:05 - Citi to create 500+ jobs with new investment in CLT / I-77 bridge project 10:20 - Monroe votes "No Confidence" for Mayor / Relationships between federal & state/local governments 10:35 - Caller Jim: Monroe's mayor being railroaded 10:50 - Caller Jack: Where will government cuts end? / Caller Angela: Can you run for Tillis' Senate seat? Hour 2 11:05 - JD Vance slapping down stupidity / US doesn't need more people like Mamdani 11:20 - Mayor of LA is standing in the way of federal law enforcement officers / Harry Enten deportation polling info 11:35 - X's CEO steps down / Trump threatens to put NYC under White House control 11:50 - Biden's doctor pleads 5th when questioned by congress / Caller Betty: Trump is just Trump / Caller Gary: States have the right to republic governmentSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest this week is Jenny DeWitt - a certified travel advisor, digital strategist, cat diplomat, and chaos whisperer who figured out a long time ago that “normal” is the least interesting option. From pioneering social media before it had rules (or dignity), to house-sitting my way across multiple continents, her career looks less like a ladder and more like an abstract painting—bold, layered, and occasionally featuring Greece, England, Morocco and so many more.I discussed with Jenny everything from where her love of travel came from, solo travel, what Slow travel is, to how she is a travel advisor for Fora and her love of creating that travel magic for others, curating group journeys that don't just show you a destination, but let it settle into your bones. The kind of experience that lingers long after you've unpacked. It's always great to catch up with Jenny and what she is up to.Lunch with Biggie is a podcast about small business and creatives sharing their stories and inspiring you to pursue your passion, with some sandwich talk on the side. Created, edited, and produced in Orlando, FL by Biggie- the owner of the sandwich-themed clothing brand- ⁠⁠Deli Fresh Threads⁠⁠. Jenny In Transit Socials:Jenny in Transit Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennyintransit/Jenny In Transit Website: https://jennyintransit.com/FORA Travel: https://www.foratravel.com/advisor/jennifer-de-wittBiggie's Social: ⁠⁠Deli Fresh Thread's Instagram⁠⁠- ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/delifreshthreads/⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Podcast's Instagram⁠⁠- ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/lunchwithbiggie/⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Podcast's Facebook Group⁠⁠- ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/lunchwithbiggie⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Podcast's Twitter-⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/LunchwithBiggie⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Deli Fresh Threads⁠⁠- ⁠⁠ ⁠https://DeliFreshThreads.com

Send us a textThis week on The Traveling Hypnotist Podcast, top NYC clinical hypnotist and coach Nicole Hernandez explores the expansive energy of Gate 53 in Human Design—the Gate of Beginnings—and how it's inviting you to initiate with intention.If you've been feeling the pressure to start something—whether it's a new business, relationship, or chapter of your life—you're not alone. Gate 53 brings a powerful momentum to begin again. In this episode, Nicole breaks down how to harness this energy wisely—so you're not just chasing shiny new things, but consciously planting seeds that are built to grow.Inside, you'll discover:Why Gate 53 isn't just about starting—but about sustainability, integrity, and energetic follow-throughHow to distinguish between a soul-led beginning vs. a fear-based escapeThe shadow signs of serial starting and how to break the patternWhy some half-finished dreams still served their purpose—and how to honor themA self-check ritual to help you initiate from abundance, not anxietyWhether Gate 53 is defined in your chart or just stirring things up this week, this episode will help you navigate the pressure, choose your path with clarity, and make your next beginning one that actually sticks.Tune in now—and if you're feeling the call to start something new, this is your energetic permission slip.Full Show NotesHigh-Frequency Success Coaching Waitlist Book A Human Design Reading with NicoleHi Friend! If you loved this week's episode, I'd be thrilled if you could do these three quick things:✨ Subscribe - Hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Rate and Review - Give us a rating and drop a comment about your favorite episode so far! Tag and Share - Snap a pic while listening and tag me @nicolereneehernandez on your IG stories—don't forget to share it! Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and inspirational purposes only. It's not a replacement for professional mental health care. If you're facing any psychological or medical issues, please seek help from a qualified healthcare professional. Thanks for supporting the show!

In this conversation, LaWanna Bradford, COO of the Bradford Group, shares her journey from the mass transit industry to the world of commercial real estate. She discusses the impact of the 2008 mortgage crisis on her career, the transition to commercial lending, and the various types of commercial properties she has worked with. LaWanna emphasizes the importance of understanding risk management, evaluating deals, and offers advice for those looking to enter the commercial real estate space. Professional Real Estate Investors - How we can help you: Investor Fuel Mastermind:  Learn more about the Investor Fuel Mastermind, including 100% deal financing, massive discounts from vendors and sponsors you're already using, our world class community of over 150 members, and SO much more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/apply   Investor Machine Marketing Partnership:  Are you looking for consistent, high quality lead generation? Investor Machine is America's #1 lead generation service professional investors. Investor Machine provides true ‘white glove' support to help you build the perfect marketing plan, then we'll execute it for you…talking and working together on an ongoing basis to help you hit YOUR goals! Learn more here: http://www.investormachine.com   Coaching with Mike Hambright:  Interested in 1 on 1 coaching with Mike Hambright? Mike coaches entrepreneurs looking to level up, build coaching or service based businesses (Mike runs multiple 7 and 8 figure a year businesses), building a coaching program and more. Learn more here: https://investorfuel.com/coachingwithmike   Attend a Vacation/Mastermind Retreat with Mike Hambright: Interested in joining a “mini-mastermind” with Mike and his private clients on an upcoming “Retreat”, either at locations like Cabo San Lucas, Napa, Park City ski trip, Yellowstone, or even at Mike's East Texas “Big H Ranch”? Learn more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/retreat   Property Insurance: Join the largest and most investor friendly property insurance provider in 2 minutes. Free to join, and insure all your flips and rentals within minutes! There is NO easier insurance provider on the planet (turn insurance on or off in 1 minute without talking to anyone!), and there's no 15-30% agent mark up through this platform!  Register here: https://myinvestorinsurance.com/   New Real Estate Investors - How we can work together: Investor Fuel Club (Coaching and Deal Partner Community): Looking to kickstart your real estate investing career? Join our one of a kind Coaching Community, Investor Fuel Club, where you'll get trained by some of the best real estate investors in America, and partner with them on deals! You don't need $ for deals…we'll partner with you and hold your hand along the way! Learn More here: http://www.investorfuel.com/club   —--------------------

I discuss the astrology of Uranus transiting Gemini which commences on July 7, 2025 and will complete in May of 2033. Uranus is finishing up its transit of Taurus which began in 2018, I also discuss that.There will be some retrograde transitional periods at the beginning and end of this transit. Dates are calculated using the Eastern North America time zone. This episode was published on July 7, 2025 at 5:33pm EDT.Book an astrology reading with me.Check my "Community Tab" where I comment, and share astrological updates and links that I find interesting.Please add yourself to my contact list.There are transcripts of some episodes at my website.Related episodes or articles:Pluto in Aquarius - Dawn of Global Consciousness⁠ - Feb 14, 2022 ⁠Uranus square Pluto and Far-Right Extremism: 1930's and 2010's - Jun 15, 2023USA Pluto Return 2022 - Civil War or Transformation? Part 1 - Jan 10, 2022USA Pluto Return 2022 Part 2 - Neptune, Mars and Saturn - Jan 25, 2022USA Progressed New Moon - Mar 16, 2024The Astrology of Mass Delusion: 2011-2026 - Jun 21, 2023The Stunning Transit of Neptune in Aries: 2025-2039The Dramatic Astrology of 2028

Welcome back to OBSERVING THE PATTERN: A FRINGE PODCAST... This episode Luke Winch is joined by network chief Tony Black to discuss Fringe, season four, episode 18, the far future of Letters Of Transit. They chat about the format breaking episode in terms of television, Observer lore, the guest stars and more. Host / Producer / Editor Luke Winch Guest Tony Black Executive Producer Tony Black X: @TheOTPPodcast Facebook: Observing the Pattern Support the Film Stories podcast network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/simonbrew X: @filmstories Facebook/Instagram/Threads: Film Stories Website: www.filmstories.co.uk Logo artwork by Mel Langton. Website: mellangton.com. Find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram under Mel Langton Art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Fleet isn't just turning wrenches anymore—it's strategic asset management, customer service, data science, and culture building. And it deserves that respect.” – Clinton Bench, UCLA Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Fleet Success Show, host Marc Canton sits down with Clinton Bench, Director of Fleet and Transit at UCLA, for a thought-provoking discussion on the evolving role of fleet managers in higher education.Clinton opens up about the operational and cultural transformations happening within UCLA's fleet operation—including their journey to electrification, the role of microgrids and dynamic wireless charging, and the importance of centralization in a historically decentralized university system.This episode is a masterclass in leading change from within, using data, partnerships, and perseverance to shift paradigms in the public sector. From overcoming EV charging infrastructure challenges to creating intentional development paths for team members, this conversation delivers a rare behind-the-scenes view into a cutting-edge government fleet that's building for the future. Key TakeawaysCentralization is key in large, decentralized institutions. Fleet operations thrive when given control over acquisition, maintenance, and remarketing.Fleet professionals are service providers, and success depends on building internal trust and aligning fleet goals with stakeholder needs.UCLA is a national leader in EV transition, with 40% of the fleet now electric, and an innovative microgrid project tied to a hydrogen fuel cell.Data is essential: Smart use of FMIS and telematics enables predictive maintenance, utilization tracking, and customer service improvements.Culture matters: Staff development, continuous learning, and embracing change are just as critical as technical skills. Speaker Bios

There are time when you're neither here no there, and wonderful things can happen. We'll also tackle some of a rig's worst issues, look at a way to keep dirt out of your rig, get stuck in Nevada and visit Norway.  If you're looking for my personal articles, you can find them at https://peregrinus.ghost.io Hard to see this from a van. PRODUCT REVIEW Stansport Tatami Straw Ground Mat 60" L x 78" W https://amzn.to/44LP7cA RESOURCE RECOMMENDATION Chris Boden - Be Weird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bscBYTMg4sE Some links are affiliate links. If you purchase anything from these links, the show will receive a small fee. This will not impact your price in any way.  

“City Life, Creeping Gentrification and Flesh-eating Snakes:” now that's a gripping tagline! Josh Green, editor of Urbanize Atlanta, joins Host Carol Morgan on the Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast to discuss his new novel, “Goodbye, Sweetberry Park,” which explores gentrification and urban development through the eyes of the fictional journalist, Archie “God” Johnson. From the Rust Belt to Urbanize Atlanta Green grew up in the Rust Belt and describes it as the “polar opposite of the growing Sun Belt population explosion.” As he began to explore the country, he was fascinated by the vibrance and quick growth of Atlanta and many Florida cities. Now the editor of Urbanize Atlanta, Green taps into his passion for urban development every day, providing readers with detailed perspectives on all things Atlanta. Urbanize Atlanta celebrates its fourth anniversary this year. Green said, “You get on the ground with a camera and just really explore the curiosities about what's happening and how it all links together.” Goodbye Sweetberry Park Following the success of his short story collection, “Dirtyville Rhapsodies” and first novel, “Secrets of Ash,” Green released a new novel, “Goodbye, Sweetberry Park,” earlier this year. The novel chronicles the joys and struggles of a fictional veteran journalist covering a chaotic summer in Atlanta. “It's kind of an amalgamation of a lot of different, fun, beautiful, lovely, troubled, historic intown Atlanta places ranging from West End to Cabbagetown,” said Green. “There's Grant Park mixed in, the fictional Zoo and then where I'm living now, Kirkwood and some Oakhurst.” “Goodbye Sweetberry Park” offers a more personal perspective of gentrification in Atlanta neighborhoods. Green says he draws from his experiences as an Atlanta reporter, so this novel serves as his “street-level” perspective on the topic. One of Green's early influences for the novel was an Atlanta Magazine article he wrote, “The Gentrifier.” He detailed his experience in buying a larger intown home for his family and becoming a “gentrifier” in the process. The article went on to win an Atlanta Press Association Award and sparked major conversations about modernization in the city. Green states that the neighborhood transformation that has stuck with him is the Atlanta Beltline. The trails offer alternative transportation, while restaurants and recreation are big influences for tourism to the city. As Atlanta grows and develops, the Beltline is an asset to connect residents to work, home and attractions. What About Affordable Housing? Transit-oriented development is one way that Green sees Atlanta adding affordable housing. Neighborhoods such as Candler Park are already one step ahead, converting unused MARTA parking lots into brilliant housing complexes and retail centers. With convenient proximity to local MARTA stations and rapid bus routes, residents can take transportation out of their monthly budgets, which makes housing more attainable in the long run. Tune in to the full episode to discover more about Atlanta gentrification and Green's experiences as an Atlanta journalist. Order your copy of “Goodbye, Sweetberry Park” on Amazon or at JoshRGreen.com. About Josh Green Josh Green is the editor of Urbanize Atlanta, a popular news site known for its colorful, up-close coverage of Atlanta. In March 2025, he released his second book, Goodbye, Sweetberry Park,” a brand-new story behind “Secrets of Ash,” the first installation in his Peach-State trilogy. “Dirtyville Rhapsodies,” his published book of short stories, was highly acclaimed from the start, named “Best Book for the Beach” by Men's Health and in Atlanta Magazine's “Top 10 Books of 2013.” Podcast Thanks Thank you to Denim Marketing for sponsoring Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio. Known as a trendsetter, Denim Marketing has been blogging since 2006 and podcasting since 2011. Contact them when you need quality,

Hanover Park Village President Rod Craig joins Lisa Dent to discuss how suburban mayors are slamming the transit proposal.

Send us a textThis week on The Traveling Hypnotist Podcast, top clinical hypnotist and coach Nicole Hernandez dives into the catalytic energy of Gate 39 in Human Design—the Gate of Provocation—and how it can activate your next-level evolution.If you've been feeling emotionally poked, irritated, or like life keeps pushing your buttons—this isn't chaos. It's a call. Gate 39 shows up to stir your soul awake, challenge the status quo, and provoke you into embodying your untapped potential.In this episode, Nicole unpacks how to work with this bold energy instead of resisting it—so you can channel discomfort into radical growth, power, and alignment.Inside, you'll discover:What it really means to be provoked—and how to recognize the invitationThe high- and low-frequency expressions of Gate 39 and how they play out in your relationships, goals, and emotionsWhy some challenges are actually spiritual initiations disguised as annoyancesWhether Gate 39 is defined in your chart or just lighting up your week, this episode will help you decode the tension—and turn it into transformation.Full Show NotesHigh-Frequency Success Coaching Waitlist Book A Human Design Reading with NicoleHi Friend! If you loved this week's episode, I'd be thrilled if you could do these three quick things:✨ Subscribe - Hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Rate and Review - Give us a rating and drop a comment about your favorite episode so far! Tag and Share - Snap a pic while listening and tag me @nicolereneehernandez on your IG stories—don't forget to share it! Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and inspirational purposes only. It's not a replacement for professional mental health care. If you're facing any psychological or medical issues, please seek help from a qualified healthcare professional. Thanks for supporting the show!

Boston proves its rank as one of America's premier transit cities through our comprehensive exploration of its historic first subway, vintage trolleys, modern rail lines, and extensive bike infrastructure.• Visit to the Mattapan Trolley line featuring 1940s streetcars in regular daily service• Interview with Andrew Cassidy from MBTA about America's first subway, built in 1897• Exploration of how Boston's transit-oriented development shapes neighborhoods like Back Bay• Experience with Fenway Park as a model urban stadium without massive parking requirements• Testing of Boston's outstanding Blue Bikes system• Observation of how Boston's transit feels like traveling through different decades simultaneously• Comparison with other cities revealing where Boston ranks on our top cities listIf you enjoyed this episode, please consider supporting us on Patreon to get early access to our upcoming episodes in Philadelphia, Baltimore and beyond. Check out our merch store or use the "buy us a coffee" link to help keep Transit Tangents running.Send us a textSupport the show

Exciting transit upgrades are on track in New Haven! Mayor Justin Elicker joins us to discuss how the city, served by CTtransit, CTrail, and Amtrak, embraces a bold vision for sustainable, accessible, and modern mobility. From key station improvements to regional growth strategies, this episode explores how New Haven is reimagining its role as a transit hub for Connecticut and beyond.

"Fantastic Tomb" by Ty Segall from Possession; "Single Ladies" by Phil Langero from Practical Dancing (for the Modern Man); "Her Blur" by Torn Hawk from Watching Heat On Mute; "C

Does French spoken in a Brummie accent get you going?Welcome back to the Chris Moyles Show on Radio X Podcast. There were no guests on the show this week, just some questionable impersonations of Noel Edmonds and Kate Nash instead.The team spoke about the news of Brownhaven sinking deeper into a hole… literally, it has a sink hole. This then led to further discussion about why Whitehaven breeds such great goalkeepers.With the lead-up to Glastonbury, Captain spoke about his campervan which, if we're honest, is just a Transit van with a shower hose stuck to the back. We also spoke to friend of he show, Rosie who was already there bright and early on Thursday with her (con)Dom flag flying high above camp.Four weeks in and still no winner of the 25k Box. All contestants walked away with a grand each in their pockets, apart from one incredibly lucky man (of course it was another bloke, still no female callers) who won an enormous five thousand pounds!Here's some more to to keep you entertained:Chris watering his plantsDom's holiday plans Captain's Glasto scheduleEnjoy!The Chris Moyles Show on Radio XWeekdays 6:30am - 10am

The regional transit bill moves forward in Raleigh, temperatures hit the triple digits in the region this week, Charlotte imposes new restrictions on street vending in NoDa, and the Checkers Calder Cup hopes end. Those stories and more with our roundtable of reporters

Pittsburgh Regional Transit and other public transit systems across the state are in big financial trouble. The state budget is due on Monday, and lawmakers are considering a few proposals to boost transportation funding — including taxing Uber and Lyft rides — but it seems likely PRT won't get what it needs to avoid service cuts. Laura Chu Wiens, the executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit, is here to explain what's on the table, what's at stake, and what she thinks could be done to build a more robust, financially stable transit system. Want to learn more about the statewide campaign to improve our transit system? Check out Transit for All PA. Learn more about the sponsors of this June 26th episode: Heinz History Center Bike PGH VisAbility Become a member of City Cast Pittsburgh at membership.citycast.fm. Want more Pittsburgh news?  Sign up for our daily morning Hey Pittsburgh newsletter. We're on Instagram @CityCastPgh. Text or leave us a voicemail at 412-212-8893. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this heartfelt episode of Feminine and Ambitious, I'm sharing everything you need to know about the current Jupiter in Cancer transit — what it means, how long it will last, and how this beautiful, nurturing energy can bless every area of your life. You'll learn: ✨ Why Jupiter in Cancer is such a lucky transit ✨ How to find which part of your life it's activating (using my blog post on the 12 Houses of the Universe) ✨ How to manifest emotional abundance, security, and soul-level support ✨ Ways to apply this transit to your personal growth, your business, and your feminine journey ✨ A simple practice to align with this soft, loving cosmic energy today If you're ready to feel more cared for, safe, and open to receive life's sweetest blessings — this episode is for you. Links Mentioned:

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