Podcast appearances and mentions of willow tree

Brian Slinger joins the guys to talk about the 24-Hour Ultra Relay that he's a part of on Washington Island. The relay is taking place the weekend of July 24th. Brian is raising money for the Willow Tree Cornerstone Child Advocacy Center. Kristie Sickel from Willow Tree is also in the studio to inform Jim and John what the program is all about. If you'd like to donate to Brian's fundraiser, you can visit the Family Services website and donate. Then Patty Hendrickson sits in for Deanna and Ben Malcore in the Moving With The Malcores segment. Maino and the Mayor is a part of the Civic Media radio network and airs Monday through Friday from 6-9 am on WGBW in Green Bay and on WISS in Appleton/Oshkosh. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! To learn more about the show and all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows to see the entire broadcast lineup. Follow the show on Facebook and X to keep up with Maino and the Mayor! Guests: Patty Hendrickson, Brian Slinger, Kristie Sickel

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

Host: Candee O'Donnell Guest: Linda Morley Description: This podcast episode from "Life Under the Willow Tree" features an interview with Linda Morley, a Willow Valley resident. Morley discusses her extensive career in education, highlighting how her organizational skills and experience presenting to large groups are now applied to her current volunteer work. The main focus of the interview is her initiative to create "memory books" and "five facts" displays for residents in memory care facilities like Lakeside and Cedarbrook. These personalized items, filled with annotated photos and key life facts, aim to stimulate conversation, provide comfort, and help residents with memory issues connect with their past and present. Morley also shares insights into the development of Willow Valley's new memory center, drawing inspiration from innovative European facilities, and passionately advocates for increased visitor engagement and family participation in supporting residents who may lack frequent visitors.

Host: Candee O'Donnell Guest: Francisco Rivera Description: This podcast episode from "Life Under the Willow Tree" features an interview with Francisco Rivera, an employee at Willow Valley for nearly 24 years. The discussion highlights his career progression from a 16-year-old busboy to a healthcare administrator, emphasizing Willow Valley's support for employee growth and education, including on-site training and tuition assistance. The interview also touches upon the three generations of Rivera men working at Willow Valley, showcasing a strong family connection to the organization. Additionally, the conversation briefly mentions the diverse and internationally renowned JP McCaskey High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Francisco's personal life, including his triplet daughters.

PLANTED A LONG-BEAKED WILLOW TREE TODAY, JOYFUL : 1/4:  The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet, by Jim Robbins. https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Planted-Trees-Science/dp/0812981294/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=   Twenty years ago, David Milarch, a northern Michigan nurseryman with a penchant for hard living, had a vision: angels came to tell him that the Earth was in trouble. Its trees were dying and, without them, human life was in jeopardy. The solution, they told him, was to clone the champion trees of the world—the largest, the hardiest, the ones that had survived millennia and were most resilient to climate change—and create a kind of Noah's ark of tree genetics. Without knowing if the message had any basis in science, or why he'd been chosen for this task, Milarch began his mission of cloning the world's great trees. Many scientists and tree experts told him it couldn't be done, but, twenty years later, his team has successfully cloned some of the world's oldest trees—among them giant redwoods and sequoias. They have also grown seedlings from the oldest tree in the world, the bristlecone pine Methuselah.   When the New York Times journalist Jim Robbins came upon Milarch's story, he was fascinated but had his doubts. Yet, over several years, listening to Milarch and talking to scientists, he came to realize that there is so much we do not yet know about trees: how they die, how they communicate, the myriad crucial ways they filter water and air and otherwise support life on Earth. It became clear that as the planet changes, trees and forest are essential to assuring its survival .1863 AMAZON

PLANTED A LONG-BEAKED WILLOW TREE TODAY, JOYFUL : 2/4:  The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet, by Jim Robbins. https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Planted-Trees-Science/dp/0812981294/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=   Twenty years ago, David Milarch, a northern Michigan nurseryman with a penchant for hard living, had a vision: angels came to tell him that the Earth was in trouble. Its trees were dying and, without them, human life was in jeopardy. The solution, they told him, was to clone the champion trees of the world—the largest, the hardiest, the ones that had survived millennia and were most resilient to climate change—and create a kind of Noah's ark of tree genetics. Without knowing if the message had any basis in science, or why he'd been chosen for this task, Milarch began his mission of cloning the world's great trees. Many scientists and tree experts told him it couldn't be done, but, twenty years later, his team has successfully cloned some of the world's oldest trees—among them giant redwoods and sequoias. They have also grown seedlings from the oldest tree in the world, the bristlecone pine Methuselah.   When the New York Times journalist Jim Robbins came upon Milarch's story, he was fascinated but had his doubts. Yet, over several years, listening to Milarch and talking to scientists, he came to realize that there is so much we do not yet know about trees: how they die, how they communicate, the myriad crucial ways they filter water and air and otherwise support life on Earth. It became clear that as the planet changes, trees and forest are essential to assuring its survival. 1866 PANAMA

PLANTED A LONG-BEAKED WILLOW TREE TODAY, JOYFUL : 3/4:  The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet, by Jim Robbins. https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Planted-Trees-Science/dp/0812981294/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=   Twenty years ago, David Milarch, a northern Michigan nurseryman with a penchant for hard living, had a vision: angels came to tell him that the Earth was in trouble. Its trees were dying and, without them, human life was in jeopardy. The solution, they told him, was to clone the champion trees of the world—the largest, the hardiest, the ones that had survived millennia and were most resilient to climate change—and create a kind of Noah's ark of tree genetics. Without knowing if the message had any basis in science, or why he'd been chosen for this task, Milarch began his mission of cloning the world's great trees. Many scientists and tree experts told him it couldn't be done, but, twenty years later, his team has successfully cloned some of the world's oldest trees—among them giant redwoods and sequoias. They have also grown seedlings from the oldest tree in the world, the bristlecone pine Methuselah.   When the New York Times journalist Jim Robbins came upon Milarch's story, he was fascinated but had his doubts. Yet, over several years, listening to Milarch and talking to scientists, he came to realize that there is so much we do not yet know about trees: how they die, how they communicate, the myriad crucial ways they filter water and air and otherwise support life on Earth. It became clear that as the planet changes, trees and forest are essential to assuring its survival. 1890 HEART OF THE ANDES 

PLANTED A LONG-BEAKED WILLOW TREE TODAY, JOYFUL : 4/4:  The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet, by Jim Robbins. https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Planted-Trees-Science/dp/0812981294/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=   Twenty years ago, David Milarch, a northern Michigan nurseryman with a penchant for hard living, had a vision: angels came to tell him that the Earth was in trouble. Its trees were dying and, without them, human life was in jeopardy. The solution, they told him, was to clone the champion trees of the world—the largest, the hardiest, the ones that had survived millennia and were most resilient to climate change—and create a kind of Noah's ark of tree genetics. Without knowing if the message had any basis in science, or why he'd been chosen for this task, Milarch began his mission of cloning the world's great trees. Many scientists and tree experts told him it couldn't be done, but, twenty years later, his team has successfully cloned some of the world's oldest trees—among them giant redwoods and sequoias. They have also grown seedlings from the oldest tree in the world, the bristlecone pine Methuselah.   When the New York Times journalist Jim Robbins came upon Milarch's story, he was fascinated but had his doubts. Yet, over several years, listening to Milarch and talking to scientists, he came to realize that there is so much we do not yet know about trees: how they die, how they communicate, the myriad crucial ways they filter water and air and otherwise support life on Earth. It became clear that as the planet changes, trees and forest are essential to assuring its survival. 1922 CARACAS

Host: Ray Loewe Guest: Margaret (Muggs) Frentz Description: For this latest episode in Life Under the Willow Tree, Ray Loewe interviews Willow Valley resident Margaret "Mugs" Frenz,, discussing her discovery of a black swallowtail caterpillar she named Fatty McFatty. This encounter inspired Mugs to learn about butterflies and their host plants, leading to the formation of the Parsley Project. This project aims to engage fellow residents in raising swallowtail butterflies from eggs, with support from the Willow Valley community and environmental groups, encouraging residents to become citizen scientists and contribute to local butterfly populations. The podcast highlights a photo exhibit and upcoming presentation to further promote the project and educate residents on the butterfly life cycle.

After all of the excitement for JOY's annual Radiothon last week, Katie is alone in the studio on a cold Melbourne morning to offer listeners an hour of beautiful music.... LEARN MORE The post The Weep Willow Tree – Show #352 (part 1), 18 May 2025 appeared first on Miss Chatelaine.

Stephanie Koenig (Lessons in Chemistry, The English Teacher) and Patrick Luwis (Cobra Kai) star in a Taiwanese tale about a tiny ant, a boastful pigeon, and unexpected favors.

Our story tonight is called The Willow Tree, and it's a story about the first signs of spring on an open field beside a lake. It's also about stepping stones, a bench up high on the bluff, geese paddling at the shore, tall rubber boots, a breeze that blows the hat from your head and the calm quiet that comes when you stop chasing some other moment and make a home in this one. We give to a different charity each week and this week we are giving to A Home for Hooves Sanctuary. They offer a forever home for rescued farmed animals. Visit our partner page to learn about the products featured in our ads. Order your own NMH weighted pillow now! Subscribe for ad-free, bonus and extra long episodes now, as well as ad-free and early episodes of Stories from the Village of Nothing Much! Search for NMH Premium channel on Apple podcast or follow this link. Listen to our daytime show Stories from the Village of Nothing Much on your favorite podcast app. Join us tomorrow morning for a meditation.

Møt Arild Steinsland, den nye prosten i Sunnhordland! I denne episoden blir du betre kjent med mannen bak prestekragen – frå barndomens fascinasjon for ferjer til kjærleiken for softis med krokan.Arild deler historia om korleis han fann vegen inn i presteyrket, opplevingane sine som prest i Nord-Noreg, og kvifor han ein gong vart persona non grata i Romania. Han gir også eit innblikk i kva som er det beste – og mest utfordrande – med prostetenesta.Dei neste åra skal Sunnhordland prosti ha ekstra fokus på ungdom, og Arild vil gjerne høyre frå DEG om korleis det kan sjå ut i praksis. Har du gode idear? Send dei hans veg!Vi får også høyre om hobbyane hans – frå sykkel og innebandy til korleis familien lagar kreative julevideoar. Og kva skjedde eigentleg då han fekk seg ein skikkeleg trøkk på sykkel?Lytt inn for ei spennande og variert episode!

Wakey, wakey sleepyheads. Looks like someone's been enjoying their wildest fantasies a little too well. After spending the night in dreamland with Colin Bridgerton's roused subconscious, it's time to jump out of bed, refresh the sheets and begin Part 1 of our S3E3 rewatch. As Dream Polin consume our every thought, we'll be breakfasting with Benedict, falling off roofs with Greg and gulping down tea with a rather flustered thirdborn son. Once we've commiserated over a failed reconciliation, we'll be clearing our head with a promenade, glaring at mamas with Rae and diving under a willow tree to meet with a very good acquaintance of the family's. And if a time-travelling vegetarian decides to come a-courting? Worry not, dear Mr Bridgerton. We have it on very good authority that Prophet Hyacinth has already foretold your future: It is just Polin. It has only ever been Polin. * Show Notes: Crumbs Shondaland: Behind-the-scenes photos of the Season 4 table read What's On Netflix: Susan Brown cast as Mrs Crabtree PORTER: Interview with Phoebe Dynevor The Direct: Phoebe Dynevor Season 4 update Screen Actors Guild: SAG Awards 2025 nominations IFTA: IFTA Awards 2025 nominations The Hollywood Reporter: NAACP Awards 2025 nominations Art Directors Guild: ADG Awards 2025 nominations Digital Spy: Digital Spy Readers Awards 2024 The Jamie Lloyd Co.: Full casting for Much Ado About Nothing Theatre Royal Bath: A Man for All Seasons Hope Mill Theatre: Vignettes – Letters to the NHS Mrs Warren's Profession, Garrick Theatre ITVX: The Masked Singer Show Notes: Rewatch Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library "Forces of Nature." Bridgerton. Written by Eli Wilson Pelton. Unpublished manuscript (double white revisions, no draft date). Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library. “Old Friends.” Bridgerton. Written by Lauren Gamble. Unpublished manuscript (yellow revisions, no draft date). Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library. Spotify: Bridgerton The Official Podcast: 303 Forces of Nature w/ Andrew Ahn & Sam Phillips Reddit: Colin's S3 waistcoat statistics by u/bookmovietvworm HELLO! Magazine: Interview with Sam Phillips Town & Country: Interview with Sam Phillips IG: @jessie_hmua Penelope's Dream make-up breakdown IG: @jessie_hmua Penelope's Willow Tree make-up breakdown IG: @jessie_hmua Penelope's Soiree make-up breakdown IG: @faridaghwedar Penelope's Soiree hair breakdown * Follow Us Patreon Instagram⁠ ⁠ ⁠ TikTok⁠⁠ YouTube

This week's free story comes from the Gratitude Stories Collection. It's called "Strong, Warm, and Grateful"   In this story, 7-year old Clancy is having a difficult day in which nothing seems to go his way. The Willow Tree takes him to the forests of Siberia where he meets a group of Yakutian Cows who live in very harsh, cold conditions. But do they complain? No, they keep strong and warm by feeling gratitude for what they have.   If you enjoyed that story, there are hundreds and hundreds more where that came from. Try a Sparkle subscription now - for free. Go to www.sparklestories.com and click the button at the top that says “Start Free Trial,” then you can listen to our giant library as much as you like, anytime you like.   Each week on the Sparkle Stories Podcast, we share a free story from one of our original story series! For many many many more stories like this one, visit the Sparkle website: www.sparklestories.com Questions?  Ideas?  Requests? Email us!  info@sparklestories.com Enjoy!

Dearest Gentle Listeners, Your favourite tangent queens are back to their old tricks for Season 3 Episode 3. In today's ep we talk all things Willow Tree from the Polin chemistry, the history and symbolism of willow tree's and finish off with surprising ourselves with our combined genius as we tie the sun and moon into our favourite duo. Enjoy the unhinged ravings of two woman who simply cannot get enough. Yours Truly, The Ladies Bridgerton

After three inspiring days at Braze Forge 2024 in Las Vegas, Billie sits down with Mitch Walden, Senior Director of Digital & Loyalty at Scooter's Coffee, to discuss the company's remarkable digital transformation journey. Scooter's Coffee, one of the nation's fastest-growing drive-thru coffee franchise companies, partnered with WillowTree to assist their rapid expansion. In just nine months, Scooter's completely overhauled their app, loyalty program, and overall technology stack. Billie and Mitch discuss how the company's strategic shift from national promotions to a more personalized, data-driven approach has had a profound impact, deepening franchise/brand collaboration and powering game-changing loyalty campaigns. Their conversation also highlights the importance of a seamless integration of technology platforms, like Braze, for achieving real-time customer engagement and driving revenue growth.Mitch walks Billie through helpful examples of how these new digital tools have leveled up his team's creativity and generated significant incremental revenue for Scooter's. Plus, he shares insights on ensuring a brand's digital experience upholds its brand promise. In the case of Scooter's Coffee, that's “Amazing People, Amazing Drinks…Amazingly Fast.”Additional ResourcesTOPICS DISCUSSEDPrioritizing real-time data and integration between platforms for loyalty campaign successUsing data to build trust and enhance communication with franchisees in the QSR spaceEnsuring tech stack sustainability and building a program that can adapt to future trendsKEEP THE GROWTH GOINGRead our report on Increasing QSR Emotional Loyalty and Customer Lifetime ValueExplore loyalty solutions for your use case: How to Select the Right Loyalty Platform for Your Business Connect with Mitch Walden on LinkedInFollow Billie Loewen on LinkedIn

Send us a textFounded in 2008, WillowTree was built on a heritage of mobile applications. While the company still engages in much of that work, it's grown into other areas in support of brands, including strategy and consulting, data and artificial intelligence (AI), digital marketing, loyalty program design, and more. WillowTree works alongside brands to develop successful loyalty programs and, in many cases, administers them. The company works in a variety of industries, including Financial Services, Health Care, Telecom, Travel and Hospitality, Food Service, and Retail and Consumer Goods, among others.  Loyalty360 spoke with Caitlin Watson, Partner, Marketing Services, and David Shaw, VP, Business Development, at WillowTree. Watson has been with the company for the last three years, helping to develop the company's marketing services department—specifically in the areas of loyalty, strategy, and technology—while also working to build out MarTech services, CRM, lifecycle, and all elements of the customer journey. Shaw has led insight and strategy teams for his whole career. At WillowTree, he leverages his experience in strategy development to help determine how the company can go to market with individual companies and with specific vertical strategies—many of which involve loyalty.

Lois Lowry has written more than 40 books. As of this month, she is also featured in half of our 2021 Patreon episodes. This is incidentally very close to the total number of surviving Shakers. Just in time for spring, we read Lowry's Like the Willow Tree, a Dear America journey for the ages. Based on meticulous research at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community, this book features a young diarist named Lydia who loses her parents to the flu pandemic. Though the Shakers initially wreck her plans, Lydia eventually teach her how to bend to the wind. We discuss Shaker controversies, our varying levels of interest in intentional communities, and much more. Like to read along? You can support the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village by purchasing Lowry's book here: https://www.maineshakers.com/product/like-the-willow-tree-by-lois-lowry/ . Our next book (May 2021) is Last Night at the Telegraph Club, a novel by Malinda Lo.   Original air date: April 21, 2021

On this episode, we explore the connection between brand and customer experience — and how to maintain positive customer sentiment while undergoing a rebrand.An effective rebranding strategy can serve to reposition a company, product or service to better align with customer expectations. But it's not a given; to retain existing customers and attract additional ones, brands must engage numerous stakeholders, plan meticulously and communicate clearly. Listen for the compelling insights of Billie Loewen, vice president of marketing services at WillowTree, a TELUS Digital Company; and David Soberman, professor of marketing and Canadian national chair in strategic marketing at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.Hear more growth marketing insights from Billie Loewen on WillowTree's Room For Growth podcast.Visit our website to learn more about TELUS Digital.

In this podcast episode, Amir Bormand interviews Michelle Avery, Group VP of AI at WillowTree, a TELUS International Company. They discuss the process of prototyping Generative AI (Gen AI) solutions and transitioning from prototypes to production-ready applications. Key points include identifying business problems, the importance of intentional prototyping, overcoming data access challenges, and ensuring user acceptance and ROI. Michelle shares insights from her work at WillowTree, emphasizing the role of strategic planning and cross-disciplinary collaboration in successful AI implementation. Highlights 01:34 Prototyping Gen AI Solutions 03:25 Identifying Business Problems for AI Solutions 06:40 Challenges in Prototyping and Data Access 07:55 From Prototype to Production 09:57 Ensuring User Acceptance and Feedback 16:01 Moving Beyond Chatbots Guest: With 17 years of experience across engineering, AI, FinTech, and Robotics, Michelle Avery is a technical leader in the Data and AI space. As the Group Vice President of AI at WillowTree, a Telus International Company, Michelle is passionate about building responsible, production-ready AI applications that address real-world business problems. She leads innovative initiatives in generative AI, oversees impactful research projects, and drives the development of data-intensive applications for Fortune 100 clients. www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-avery-63729bb7 ---- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek. We would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode of Room for Growth, Billie sits down with accomplished CMO Pauline Reader. With a career that includes CMO and SVP marketing leadership positions with renowned brands such as eBay, Minted, and Stitch Fix, and most recently Podium, a communication SaaS platform for SMBs and larger enterprises. Pauline now runs Reader Consulting, where she offers fractional CMO and consulting services, and in this episode, she brings valuable insights into the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in B2C and B2B marketing strategies.Pauline isn't new to AI — for years she's been actively leveraging traditional data science methodologies to enhance customer experiences (e.g., providing personalized clothing recommendations) and improve business operations. She shares pragmatic and tangible examples of interpreting data-driven insights and combining human judgment with technology for the most effective results.Throughout the discussion, Billie and Pauline explore topics including data collection, personalization strategies, maintaining customer privacy, decision-making in technology investments, and finding a balance between short-term goals and long-term AI strategy.Additional ResourcesTOPICS DISCUSSEDUsing AI and data science models to better understand customer preferences in eCommerce platformsOvercoming obstacles with data compliance and privacy in AI-driven marketing strategies.Ways of leveraging unstructured data through machine learning to extract relevant information.Key considerations for rolling out AI features or changes in customer-facing technology.Connecting and measuring customer data within brand loyalty platformsKEEP THE GROWTH GOINGLearn about WillowTree's Data & AI Consulting services Explore how WillowTree can enhance your brand's customer loyalty programConnect with Pauline Reader on LinkedInFollow Billie Loewen on LinkedIn

This week Jami is chatting with Kathryn (Katie) MacMillan. Katie educates us about the magic of colorpuncture, a new wave of healing that is growing in popularity. She explains the process and even shares how the clothes we wear affect our vibration.  Kathryn (Katie) MacMillan has spent the past decade on a journey allowing her to experience the wonders of self-healing and self-discovery, which is how The Calming Willow Tree came into being. Katie's mission is to help others achieve positive, life-altering changes while on their personal journey. She believes that everyone is strong, resilient, and wise, like the Willow Tree; they just need guidance to find their inner peace. Learn more about Katie at The Calming Willow Tree Follow her on Facebook

Author of In The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology.

In this episode, David Rubinstein, editor-in-chief of SD Times, interviews Michelle Avery, group VP of AI at WillowTree, about a recent survey the company did on rude chatbots.Key talking points include: What we mean by "rude bot behavior"What goes into creating a chatbot that is politeHow organizations can measure politeness of a chatbotOn the flip side, humans can be rude to bots too

In this episode of Room for Growth, Billie is joined by two WillowTree colleagues, Kate Gallaher (Partner & VP, Head of Financial Services) and Caitlin Watson (Partner, Marketing Services), as they delve into global loyalty in financial services. Focusing on credit card payment processors and retail banks, they explore the complexities of building brand loyalty in a regulated market, discuss the impact of digitization on customer behavior, and share insights into the most effective loyalty programs in today's digital age, competing with digitally-native FinTech upstarts.Billie, Kate, and Caitlin also unpack our recent research study, authored by WillowTree Senior Product Researcher Rachel Vanderbilt, PhD. The study explores the nuances in credit card loyalty programs across five global markets — North America, South America, Europe, Middle East–Africa, and Asia–Pacific — and underscores the dangers of adopting a US-first mindset on the global stage. ADDITIONAL RESOURCESTOPICS DISCUSSEDHow digitization leads to increased product diversity and brand disloyalty.How data integrity and personalization create relevant offers and user-centric experiences.How brands can build loyalty in a B2B2C model while keeping CX at the forefront.Why considering a global perspective is essential in designing loyalty programs for diverse regional customer bases.KEEP THE GROWTH GOINGPreview WillowTree's forthcoming research study, Global Credit Card Rewards Programs: How Consumer Loyalty Preferences Differ by RegionExplore WillowTree's Loyalty Strategy & Consulting practiceExplore WillowTree's Financial Services expertiseConnect with Kate Gallaher on LinkedInConnect with Caitlin Watson on LinkedInFollow Billie Loewen on LinkedIn

On the heels of Adobe Summit, we're joined by Brightline Chief Technology and Digital Innovation Officer Kevin McAuliffe as he and Billie dive deep into brand loyalty, building trust, technology innovation, and what it means to be a leader today. Brightline partnered with WillowTree to achieve its vision of fully modernizing train travel. Tapping into our end-to-end suite of capabilities, WillowTree teams delivered a revamped website, native apps (iOS and Android), kiosks, digital signage, and a digital marketing engine fueled by Adobe Experience Cloud. By prioritizing guest experience and agility, the high-speed private rail service is delighting travelers with a best-in-class, omnichannel digital experience worthy of Brightline's premium brand. Our host and guest explore some of the integrated experiences that have launched across Brightline's digital platforms, improving travel experiences at every step of the journey — from pre-booking to post-arrival. Additional ResourcesTOPICS DISCUSSEDBuilding loyalty by meeting your users where they are, even amid ongoing tech stack evolutionActivating technology, people, and processes to inform and encourage decision-makersEvolving MVPs through data and feedback to enable controllable, scalable changesKEEP THE GROWTH GOINGRead our case study on How Brightline High-Speed Rail Increased Ridership & RevenueExplore Kevin's Adobe Summit 2024 keynote, presented with WillowTree Chief Marketing Services Officer Mike Colombo: Breaking Down Silos to Deliver an End-to-End Customer Experience Connect with Kevin McAuliffe on LinkedInFollow Billie Loewen on LinkedIn

Locals Rock Van Sessions Recorded at The Monarch in Ogden, Utah.   ARTIST | Amanda Lynn Jones   FULL SET: Song 1 - Monster Song 2 - Thick Skin Song 3 - Feel My Love Song 4 - The Willow Tree Song 5 - Crack a Beer   ARTIST LINKS WEBSITE: https://amandalynnjonesmusic.com/ YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcGN09_oZtP7ixIXtVkSkaA INATAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/amandalynnjonesmusic GUITAR LESSONS: https://amandalynnjonesmusic.com/guitar-lessons SUPPORTERS   The Monarch Building: https://themonarchogden.com/ UTOG Brewing: https://www.utogbrewing.com/ Ogden City Arts: https://ogdencity.com/707/Arts Locals Rock: https://www.instagram.com/localsrock/   CREDITS Producer / Host: R. Brandon Long, The Banyan Collective Logistics / Bookings: Todd Oberndorfer, The Banyan Collective Audio Mix: Scott Rogers, The Proper Way DOP: Dixon Stoddard https://www.instagram.com/studios_d21/   FOLLOW // SUBSCRIBE Van Sessions Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vansessions/ Van Sessions Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thevansessions Van Sessions YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@vansessionspod   Our “Patreon,” Like what you hear, buy us beer: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/banyanmedia   The drive behind Van Sessions is to create a music discovery community for Northern Utah musicians to share their work, refine their craft, and network with other artists.   Van Sessions helps support local musicians, photographers, and videographers through our project. Show your support for local artists by subscribing to Van Sessions on YouTube @vansessionspod or search "Van Sessions Podcast" on your favorite podcast platform.   Join us live at the Monarch in Ogden every First Friday to be a part of the free concert and video podcast recording.   Bookings: todd@thebanyancollective.com   #vansessions #localsrock #musicdiscovery #localmusic #podcast #music #amandalynnjones

We are just days away from Adobe Summit: our bags are packed and we are bringing an all-star crew to Las Vegas. But before we head out to one of the largest MarTech conferences in the world, we're connecting with Mike Kellner, TELUS Director - AI Data & Analytics. Mike shares win stories from the leading global telecommunications providers' recent innovations, driven by Adobe Customer Journey Analytics.We explore how Mike's team at TELUS taps into Customer Journey Analytics' powerful capabilities to optimize critical moments in the customer journey, like onboarding, billing, and opportunities to cross-sell or upsell products and services. What's unique about Customer Journey Analytics are its analytics and business intelligence capabilities: through the platform, TELUS has connected offline data from call centers and retail interactions with online data from its app, websites, chatbots, and other digital channels to create more holistic, omnichannel customer experiences.TELUS prides itself on providing a truly personalized customer care experience when and where customers need it most — whether online, by phone, or across its retail footprint. Now, other business units at TELUS are utilizing Customer Journey Analytics to enable similar use cases and, with WillowTree's help, ensure that using the platform is as cost-effective, collaborative, and efficient as possible.Additional ResourcesTOPICS DISCUSSEDResolving common customer pain points with Adobe Customer Journey Analytics' robust online and offline data activation capabilitiesFacilitating more seamless, cost-effective user adoption of new technologies across Adobe Experience CloudConnecting with WillowTree at Adobe Summit 2024 (see us at Booth 1127!)KEEP THE GROWTH GOINGConnect with Billie Loewen on LinkedInFollow Mike Kellner on LinkedIn

Tobias Dengel believes voice technology is poised to completely transform how we interact with apps, services and even entire industries. As someone who has been working with digital technology for decades, Tobias predicts a major shift from conversational assistants to devices that combine voice, visuals and more. He joins us to talk about his work developing voice technology with WillowTree and his new book: The Sounds of the Future.

Curious about what makes your prospects tick?Are you overlooking obvious needs or perhaps missing subtle cues? How does your confidence impact your sales approach? What role does fear of rejection play, and how can you transform it into a powerful tool for connection? Dive into these questions and more in the latest episode of Quantum Revenue Expansion where I unravel the mysteries of what your prospects really want to hear. This episode isn't just about selling; it's a deep dive into the psychology behind sales interactions. Are you ready to change the way you perceive and practice selling?Ursula's Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Sales fears and beliefs (05:15)Effective sales techniques through active listening (09:52)Sales strategies and course options for business growth (14:24)Sales strategies for understanding prospects' needs (18:30)About Ursula Mentjes Ursula Mentjes is an award-winning Entrepreneur and Sales Expert. She will transform the way you think about selling so you can reach your revenue goals with less anxiety and less effort! Ursula specializes in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and other performance modalities to help clients double and triple their sales fast. Honing her skills at an international technical training company, where she began her career in her early twenties, Ursula increased sales by 90% in just one year. Just 5 years later, when the company's annual revenue was in the tens of millions, Ursula advanced to the position of President at just 27. Sales guru Brian Tracy endorsed her first book, Selling with Intention, saying, “This powerful, practical book shows you how to connect with customers by fully understanding the sales process from the inside out. It really works!” Ursula is also the author of One Great Goal, Selling with Synchronicity and The Belief Zone, which received the Beverly Hills President's Choice award. Ursula also serves as Past Statewide Chairperson of the NAWBO-CA Education Fund and Past President of NAWBO-CA. She is the recipient of the SBA's Women in Business Champion and a recipient of the Willow Tree's Extraordinary Example and Extraordinary Entrepreneur Awards, the NAWBO-IE ANITA Award, chosen as PDP's Extraordinary Speaker, PDP's Business Woman of the Year, the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards Finalist and the President's Lifetime Achievement Award from two Presidents. She has shared the stage with bestselling author Loral Langemeier, Les Brown, Tom Antion, Lisa Nichols, Giuliana Rancic and many others! Her clients include Aflac, Ebenezer and Fairview Hospitals, New York Life, Paychex and more! She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Communication from St. Olaf College and an M.S. in Counseling Psychology from California Baptist University.Social Links:LinkedInFacebookInstagram: @7figure_ceoTwitter: @ursulamentjesQRE Private Facebook GroupQuantum Revenue Class Sign-Up2X Your Monthly Income?YoutubeThanks for Listening!Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that...

It's 2024 and I'm excited to guide you through turning your annual income into your monthly revenue. Reflecting on the past few years, from the unpredictability of 2020 to the growth and challenges that followed, it's become clear that our achievements are deeply rooted in our core and limiting beliefs. That's why in today's episode, we're tackling the topic of knocking out your number one limiting belief about closing sales. Whether it's the fear of being pushy or doubts about your pricing strategy, these beliefs can hold back your business significantly.In this episode, I'll share insights and real-life examples of overcoming these sales hurdles, drawing from both personal experiences and client success stories. We'll explore how changing your mindset around sales can lead to transformative growth in your business.If you're ready to challenge your limiting beliefs and elevate your sales game, this episode is for you. Join me as we embark on a journey to unlock your full sales potential and make 2024 your most successful year yet.Ursula's Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Business Growth, Personal Struggles + Authenticity (04:43)Limiting Beliefs + Sales Success (09:30)Missed Revenue Opportunities In Sales (13:05)Overcoming Fear Of Being Pushy In Sales (17:54)Shifting Limiting Beliefs For Business Growth (22:04)FREE GIFT:Our FREE gift for you! The Quantum Revenue Expansion Masterclass: https://www.ursulainc.co/quantum-revenue-expansion/Ready to turn your annual revenue into your monthly revenue? Apply for the 2X Intensive here: https://www.ursulainc.co/applyAbout Ursula Mentjes Ursula Mentjes is an award-winning Entrepreneur and Sales Expert. She will transform the way you think about selling so you can reach your revenue goals with less anxiety and less effort! Ursula specializes in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and other performance modalities to help clients double and triple their sales fast. Honing her skills at an international technical training company, where she began her career in her early twenties, Ursula increased sales by 90% in just one year. Just 5 years later, when the company's annual revenue was in the tens of millions, Ursula advanced to the position of President at just 27. Sales guru Brian Tracy endorsed her first book, Selling with Intention, saying, “This powerful, practical book shows you how to connect with customers by fully understanding the sales process from the inside out. It really works!” Ursula is also the author of One Great Goal, Selling with Synchronicity and The Belief Zone, which received the Beverly Hills President's Choice award. Her Podcast, Double Your Sales NOW, is available on iTunes, iHeartRadio and other outlets. Ursula also serves as Past Statewide Chairperson of the NAWBO-CA Education Fund and Past President of NAWBO-CA. She is the recipient of the SBA's Women in Business Champion and a recipient of the Willow Tree's Extraordinary Example and Extraordinary Entrepreneur Awards, the NAWBO-IE ANITA Award, chosen as PDP's Extraordinary Speaker, PDP's Business Woman of the Year, the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards Finalist and the President's Lifetime Achievement Award from two Presidents. She has shared the stage with bestselling author Loral Langemeier, Les Brown, Tom Antion, Lisa Nichols, Giuliana Rancic and many others! Her clients include Aflac, Ebenezer and Fairview Hospitals, New York Life, Paychex and more! She holds a B.A. in Psychology and...

On this episode, we explore whether voice-first experiences will be as ubiquitous as the internet and smartphones — and how brands can prepare for a voice-first future.Voice technology offers distinct advantages over other forms of inputs, allowing for lower effort customer interactions, increased efficiency and improved accessibility.With recent advancements in generative AI, voice-first experiences – the combined process of voice recognition and natural language processing – have the potential to completely transform how we interact with our devices in our everyday lives, leveraging multimodal environments to create the ultimate interface.Listen for the compelling insights of Tobias Dengel, president of WillowTree, a TELUS International Company, and Bret Kinsella, founder, CEO, and research director of Voicebot.ai.Tobias's book, The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology, is available for purchase in hardcopy, digital and audiobook formats.Visit our website to learn more about TELUS International.

Welcome to a fresh start in 2024 and a new chapter in our sales journey! As we gear up for another year of quantum revenue expansion, I'm eager to share with you the number one secret to boosting your sales success.If you don't like selling, I feel you, It can be one of the most uncomfortable conversations you ever have. In fact, reflecting back on my early days in sales, I recall the struggle and discomfort that came with selling — I hated everything about it.The thing to remember about sales and selling is that no one is born, really knowing how to sell and or sell well — and selling effectively goes beyond mere techniques; it involves a deep dive into overcoming personal blocks and reshaping how we perceive our own value and worth. If you are ready to unlock the full potential of your sales prowess, this episode is for you.Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your sales game, gain invaluable insights and start transforming your sales approach today!Ursula's Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Closing More Sales With A Focus On Personal Growth (01:19)Overcoming Limiting Beliefs (03:00)Selling In Business And Life (08:47)Remembering The Impact Of A Business (12:35)Silence In Sales Conversations (17:20)Sales Techniques And Strategy (21:52)Our FREE gift for you! The Quantum Revenue Expansion Masterclass: https://www.ursulainc.co/quantum-revenue-expansion/Ready to turn your annual revenue into your monthly revenue? Apply for the 2X Intensive here: https://www.ursulainc.co/apply About Ursula Mentjes Ursula Mentjes is an award-winning Entrepreneur and Sales Expert. She will transform the way you think about selling so you can reach your revenue goals with less anxiety and less effort! Ursula specializes in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and other performance modalities to help clients double and triple their sales fast. Honing her skills at an international technical training company, where she began her career in her early twenties, Ursula increased sales by 90% in just one year. Just 5 years later, when the company's annual revenue was in the tens of millions, Ursula advanced to the position of President at just 27. Sales guru Brian Tracy endorsed her first book, Selling with Intention, saying, “This powerful, practical book shows you how to connect with customers by fully understanding the sales process from the inside out. It really works!” Ursula is also the author of One Great Goal, Selling with Synchronicity and The Belief Zone, which received the Beverly Hills President's Choice award. Ursula also serves as Past Statewide Chairperson of the NAWBO-CA Education Fund and Past President of NAWBO-CA. She is the recipient of the SBA's Women in Business Champion and a recipient of the Willow Tree's Extraordinary Example and Extraordinary Entrepreneur Awards, the NAWBO-IE ANITA Award, chosen as PDP's Extraordinary Speaker, PDP's Business Woman of the Year, the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards Finalist and the President's Lifetime Achievement Award from two Presidents. She has shared the stage with bestselling author Loral Langemeier, Les Brown, Tom Antion, Lisa Nichols, Giuliana Rancic and many others! Her clients include Aflac, Ebenezer and Fairview Hospitals, New York Life, Paychex and more! She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Communication from St. Olaf College and an M.S. in Counseling Psychology from California Baptist University.Social Links:Youtube:

As we approach the end of 2023, you may be feeling the urge to slow down and just coast through to the end of December. Hold that thought… and join me to hear my "Five Steps to Reverse Engineer Your Best Year Yet" in 2024. This roadmap I've designed will not only help you dream about what's possible, but actually work towards achieving your goals. So grab your pen, your paper, your favorite beverage, and get ready to turn this end-of-year reflection into a proactive strategy for success in 2024. Are you ready to unlock your best year yet? — Let's Go!!Ursula's Takeaways:Intro (00:00)5 Steps To Reverse Engineer Your Best Year Yet (01:19)Creating A Revenue Model For Business Growth (04:39)Focus On Revenue Models And Delegation (08:53)Setting Goals (14:32)Business Growth And Coaching (19:37)Our FREE gift for you! The Quantum Revenue Expansion Masterclass: https://www.ursulainc.co/quantum-revenue-expansion/Ready to turn your annual revenue into your monthly revenue? Apply for the 2X Intensive here: https://www.ursulainc.co/apply About Ursula Mentjes Ursula Mentjes is an award-winning Entrepreneur and Sales Expert. She will transform the way you think about selling so you can reach your revenue goals with less anxiety and less effort! Ursula specializes in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and other performance modalities to help clients double and triple their sales fast. Honing her skills at an international technical training company, where she began her career in her early twenties, Ursula increased sales by 90% in just one year. Just 5 years later, when the company's annual revenue was in the tens of millions, Ursula advanced to the position of President at just 27. Sales guru Brian Tracy endorsed her first book, Selling with Intention, saying, “This powerful, practical book shows you how to connect with customers by fully understanding the sales process from the inside out. It really works!” Ursula is also the author of One Great Goal, Selling with Synchronicity and The Belief Zone, which received the Beverly Hills President's Choice award. Ursula also serves as Past Statewide Chairperson of the NAWBO-CA Education Fund and Past President of NAWBO-CA. She is the recipient of the SBA's Women in Business Champion and a recipient of the Willow Tree's Extraordinary Example and Extraordinary Entrepreneur Awards, the NAWBO-IE ANITA Award, chosen as PDP's Extraordinary Speaker, PDP's Business Woman of the Year, the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards Finalist and the President's Lifetime Achievement Award from two Presidents. She has shared the stage with bestselling author Loral Langemeier, Les Brown, Tom Antion, Lisa Nichols, Giuliana Rancic and many others! Her clients include Aflac, Ebenezer and Fairview Hospitals, New York Life, Paychex and more! She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Communication from St. Olaf College and an M.S. in Counseling Psychology from California Baptist University.Social Links:LinkedInFacebookInstagram: @ursulaincorporated!Twitter: @ursulamentjesQRE Private Facebook Group

In today's episode,  we talk about Adaptive Personalization with Tony Ferreira, currently Senior Growth Director at WillowTree, a conultancy/agency. He is primarily responsible for the growth of their Adobe Practice area. Tony has 15+ years in technology, marketing, data, strategy, ecommerce, and product ownership experience. Prior to joining WillowTree, Tony has held various leadership and management roles in agencies/consultancies and in house. He is an avid consumer of content and is always looking for ways to apply it to his current roles and teams.Tune in to hear: Tony discusses his career journey, highlighting the influence of his coaching experience at a school on his approach to Marketing Operations.He explains the concept of "Adaptive Personalization" in marketing, as discussed in his recent LinkedIn post.Tony differentiates between "Adaptive Personalization" and the often-heard term "personalization at scale," clarifying their meanings and applications in marketing.He explores the feasibility and reality of real-time personalization in both B2B and B2C sectors, leveraging tools like Adobe's suite for unified account profiles.This episode was originally inspired by this LinkedIn post by Tony.Blog posts written by Tony mentioned in this episode:Navigating Marketing Operations: Insights from a MarTech Professional.Why Marketing Ops Should Have Its Own Seat at the TableEpisode Brought to You By MO Pros The #1 Community for Marketing Operations Professionals

PREVIEW: From a longer conversation with author Jim Robbins on the gift of trees: what we do know of the aroma of the willow tree as a natural healing remedy like aspirin as well as a natural water cleaner.  The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet, by Jim Robbins. https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Planted-Trees-Science/dp/0812981294/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= 1868

My guest today is Tobias Dengel, the President of WillowTree, a TELUS International Company. With over 20 years of technology expertise, Tobias has been recognized by Glassdoor as a Top CEO and featured as a VOICE Summit speaker at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2022 and 2023. Prior to WillowTree, Tobias helped steward strategic partnerships and acquisitions and drive innovation on behalf of companies including AOL and Kearney. The topic is his book The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: Growing up in Virginia Voice technology and its current limitations Implications on language translation and accessibility Search engine optimization Challenges with new voice technology Effective trust and cognitive trust Impact of human-like features  Jump in! --- I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!

Have you ever dreamt of achieving more with less effort, like doubling your monthly revenue while working smarter, not harder?I was in the same boat until I uncovered five game-changing strategies that we now employ with our clients at Ursula Inc to revolutionize our clients' workweeksGrab a paper and pen to take some notes because I'm convinced this is the breakthrough you've longed for.Ursula's Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Doubling Monthly Revenue While Working Less (02:18)Hiring Virtual Assistants (05:01)Creating A Revenue Container (10:09)Overcoming Limiting Beliefs (13:56)Maintaining Work-Life Balance (18:03)Lead Generation And Sales Conversations (23:04)QRE Class: https://www.ursulainc.co/quantum-revenue-expansion/Apply For 2X: https://www.ursulainc.co/apply About Ursula Mentjes Ursula Mentjes is an award-winning Entrepreneur and Sales Expert. She will transform the way you think about selling so you can reach your revenue goals with less anxiety and less effort! Ursula specializes in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and other performance modalities to help clients double and triple their sales fast. Honing her skills at an international technical training company, where she began her career in her early twenties, Ursula increased sales by 90% in just one year. Just 5 years later, when the company's annual revenue was in the tens of millions, Ursula advanced to the position of President at just 27. Sales guru Brian Tracy endorsed her first book, Selling with Intention, saying, “This powerful, practical book shows you how to connect with customers by fully understanding the sales process from the inside out. It really works!” Ursula is also the author of One Great Goal, Selling with Synchronicity and The Belief Zone, which received the Beverly Hills President's Choice award. Her Podcast, Double Your Sales NOW, is available on iTunes, iHeartRadio and other outlets. Ursula also serves as Past Statewide Chairperson of the NAWBO-CA Education Fund and Past President of NAWBO-CA. She is the recipient of the SBA's Women in Business Champion and a recipient of the Willow Tree's Extraordinary Example and Extraordinary Entrepreneur Awards, the NAWBO-IE ANITA Award, chosen as PDP's Extraordinary Speaker, PDP's Business Woman of the Year, the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards Finalist and the President's Lifetime Achievement Award from two Presidents. She has shared the stage with bestselling author Loral Langemeier, Les Brown, Tom Antion, Lisa Nichols, Giuliana Rancic and many others! Her clients include Aflac, Ebenezer and Fairview Hospitals, New York Life, Paychex and more! She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Communication from St. Olaf College and an M.S. in Counseling Psychology from California Baptist University.Social Links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ursulamentjessalescoach/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UrsulaSalesCoachInstagram: @ursulaincorporated!Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkRDmcQgP96A8XtWKIOwr0ATwitter: @ursulamentjesJoin Quantum Revenue...

In this insightful episode of the Tech Talks Daily Podcast, I sat down with Tobias Dengel, CEO of WillowTree, a leader in the digital product industry. Our conversation revolved around the transformative potential of voice technology and its role in reshaping our interaction with devices and machines. Tobias brought a wealth of knowledge and foresight on how the latest advancements in AI and voice technology are set to revolutionize our daily lives and the business landscape. At the outset, Tobias and I explored the concept of the complete reinvention of human-device interaction. We delved into how voice technology, powered by cutting-edge AI, is not just an emerging trend but a pivotal shift towards a more intuitive, efficient, and human-centric way of engaging with technology. Tobias emphasized the evolution of digital experiences towards multimodal interfaces, which integrate spoken words, screens, keyboards, sounds, and haptics, creating a seamless connection between humans and machines. A crucial part of our discussion focused on crafting exceptional user experiences in voice technology. Tobias highlighted the need for a multimodal approach, where voice is used for input and other output forms like text or graphics. This approach, he believes, is the breakthrough we need to enhance our interaction with technology, making it more natural and effective. We then tackled the challenges inherent in creating relatable and compelling voice interactions. Tobias and I discussed the crucial balance between making voice technology relatable yet transparent about its non-human nature. We also touched upon the sensitive data collection and usage issue, underscoring the need for clear communication and ethical practices in this domain. Diversity in voice technology development was another significant topic we covered. Tobias highlighted the progress made in training systems to recognize a variety of accents and languages, underlining the importance of inclusivity in this field. He also advised businesses on implementing voice technology, advocating for a step-by-step approach that focuses on solving bounded problems and gradually building trust with users. An exciting part of our conversation was when Tobias discussed his book, which delves into the convergence of General AI and conversational AI in the voice technology sector. He shared his prediction about the future of Siri and other voice assistants, envisioning a scenario where they become integrated layers within various applications, facilitating a more fluid and natural voice interaction experience within apps. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the future trajectory of voice technology and its implications for both personal and professional realms. Join us as we unravel the complexities and explore the immense possibilities of voice technology with Tobias Dengel, a visionary in the digital product space.

What new possibilities do you see emerging with voice technology? How might it influence our interactions with businesses and services in the future and what if your voice could transform the way we interact with technology? Imagine a world where your voice can effortlessly interact with devices and transform the way we navigate our surroundings.In this episode of This Anthro Life, we explore the world of future technology with guest Tobias Dengel, a leading expert in digital transformation, and discuss the power of voice technology and its potential to transform how we interact with devices and the world around us. Dengel sheds light on the reasons why integrating voice technology into existing platforms is perceived as a safer approach compared to building entirely new platforms from scratch. He emphasizes the importance of leveraging the familiarity and trust already established with these platforms, enabling a smoother transition for users. Additionally, Dengel delves into the widespread adoption of voice assistants such as Alexa and Siri, highlighting their increasing presence in our daily lives. Furthermore, the discussion extends to the role of voice technology in banking applications, where it plays a crucial role in enhancing security measures and making our lives safer. The exploration of voice technology in this episode showcases its transformative potential and the various ways it is revolutionizing our interactions with devices and services.Tune in to discover Dengel's captivating insights and expertise as we envision the transformative power of voice technology.Key takeaways:Voice technology is evolving and becoming increasingly sophisticated, with the adoption of voice assistants like Alexa and Siri skyrocketing.Adding voice to existing platforms feels safer than creating new ones altogether, as users are already familiar with the platform and trust it.Voice technology solves the problem of faster communication, as humans speak three times faster than they type.The interface of voice technology needs to be redesigned to be more efficient, as listening to machines is slower than reading or interacting with visuals.The more human-like voice assistants become, the less users trust them, as they feel like they are being tricked.Multimodality is important in voice technology, as it allows for a combination of voice, visuals, and other forms of communication to enhance the user experience.Voice technology has applications in various industries, such as law enforcement, warehouses, retail, and safety in industrial settings.The combination of generative AI and conversational AI is where the magic happens in voice technology, allowing for more accurate interpretation and response.Conversational designers will play a crucial role in designing effective voice experiences, considering factors like speed, efficiency, and user preferences.Voice technology has the potential to reshape business processes and models, such as centralized restaurants, telemedicine, and global healthcare access.Timestamps:00:00:07 Voice technology is evolving.00:05:14 Design voice experiences in multimodal.00:09:37 Voice is a powerful interface.00:18:38 Conversational AI and generative AI.00:21:08 Context is crucial for conversation.00:28:31 The blend of generative AI and conversational AI is creating a user experience breakthrough.00:29:15 Voice experiences are becoming multimodal.00:34:06 Voice technology revolutionizes business processes.00:39:03 The future of technology is voice-based.00:43:30 Spread anthropological thinking to audiences.Tobias Dengel is a seasoned technology executive with over 20 years of experience in mobility, digital media, and interactive marketing. He currently holds the position of President at WillowTree, a TELUS International Company, a global leader in digital product design and development. Dengel's expertise and leadership have contributed to WillowTree's continuous growth and recognition as one of America's fastest-growing companies, as listed by Inc. magazine for 11 consecutive years. He is also the author of the book "The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of AI-Enabled Voice Technology," where he explores the transformative potential of voice technology in various aspects of business and society.About This Anthro Life This Anthro Life is a thought-provoking podcast that explores the human side of technology, culture, and business. Hosted by Adam Gamwell, we unravel fascinating narratives and connect them to the wider context of our lives. Tune in to https://thisanthrolife.org and subscribe to our Substack at https://thisanthrolife.substack.com for more captivating episodes and engaging content.Connect with Tobias DengelLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiasdengel/ Twitter: https://x.com/TobiasDengel?s=20Website: https://www.tobiasdengel.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tobias.denge.7/ Connect with This Anthro Life:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisanthrolife/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisanthrolife LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/this-anthro-life-podcast/ This Anthro Life website: https://www.thisanthrolife.org/ Substack blog: https://thisanthrolife.substack.comThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5168968/advertisement

You may be asking the wrong question about the future – it's not what it looks like, but what it sounds like.  Tobias Dengel is the President of WillowTree, a TELUS company that specializes in digital product design and development. He's also the author of “The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology.” Ricky Mulvey caught up with Dengel to discuss: What Alexa and Siri get wrong about voice interaction, Secret leaders in voice technology, And the next battle in the cybersecurity arms race. Tickers discussed: MCD, SG, AMZN, APPL, GOOG, MSFT, META, NVDA, TU Host: Ricky Mulvey Guest: Tobias Dengel Producer: Mary Long Engineer: Rick Engdahl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to an interview with the author of The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology, Tobias Dengel. In his new book, Tobias answers why voice technology is the next big thing in technology, as big as mobile a decade ago and the internet in the late 90s, fundamentally altering the way companies do business. Tobias connects the dots about this emerging paradigm to vividly illustrate how business leaders can stay ahead of the game, rather than scrambling to catch up, as voice technology gradually reveals its power, creating a host of new winners and losers.  Tobias Dengel is president of WillowTree, a TELUS International Company, a global leader in digital product design and development, with 13 offices in North America, South America, and Europe, headquartered in Charlottesville VA. The company has been named by Inc. magazine to the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing companies for 11 straight years. WillowTree, a TELUS International Company's clients include some of the best-known brands in the world, such as T Mobile, Mastercard, Capital One, HBO, Fox, Time Warner, PepsiCo, Regal Cinemas, Charles Schwab, Johnson & Johnson, Lidl, Wyndham Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Holiday Inn, Canadian Broadcasting Corp, Synchrony Bank, Edward Jones Investments, and National Geographic. These industry leaders trust WillowTree, a TELUS International Company to design and develop their websites, apps, internal systems and voice interfaces. Get Tobias' book here: https://rb.gy/y4p29 The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Fresh off her whirlwind experience at Forge 23, Braze's annual customer conference for marketers and their tech partners, Billie highlights some of the biggest brands there, her favorite moments, and the most exciting predictions for 2024. Spoiler alert: It's an exciting time for marketing, and you'll want to listen before deep-diving into strategy season. But before diving into her key takeaways, Billie takes a moment to share some big WillowTree news: our CEO Tobias Dengel's new book is available now and already a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller. She also encourages listeners to check out Episode 4 of WillowTree's docuseries 2 Weeks To Better, which details our recent collaboration with Braze.Speaking of Braze, Billie gives a preview of the new ways marketers can save time and communicate more effectively using the engagement platform's upcoming product innovations. She also recaps lessons from the Forge panel she hosted, featuring media experts and marketing leaders like Eric Vander Voort from Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and Allyson Kurth from Braze. Their fresh approaches to seasonal content strategy, newsletters, user preferences, and geolocation inspired lively discussion.Overall, the trends, expertise, and discoveries shared at Forge this year reinforced the importance of implementing best practices (especially with advancements in AI), optimizing personalization, and increasing efficiency.Hot topics discussed: New product features released by Braze, including Sage AI, Landing Pages, and Feature Flags Billie and the Growth Marketing team collaborating with Braze to enhance the sports media experience on the latest episode of WillowTree's docuseries, 2 Weeks To Better  WillowTree CEO Tobias Dengel's new book, The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology Inspiring marketing campaigns from brands like Disney+, Intuit, Marvel, and more Preparing for AI implementation Investing in long-term retention and customer loyalty Keep the growth going: Connect with Billie Loewen, WillowTree Partner & VP of Growth Marketing on LinkedIn Follow WillowTree on LinkedIn

Have you ever wondered why, in a world where we can speak three times faster than we type, we're still relying on outdated buttons and touchscreens? Today, we're diving deep into the revolutionary world of voice technology with none other than Tobias Dengel, the author of 'The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology,' on shelves now. As the President of WillowTree, a digital experience developer recently acquired for $1.3 billion, he's shaped digital strategies for global giants like T-Mobile, HBO, and Mastercard. We're about to uncover the potential of voice tech way past early attempts like Siri and Alexa, understand its transformative power across industries, and discover the profound shifts awaiting the financial sector and beyond. Plus, we'll touch on the key challenges, privacy concerns, and the tantalizing future of this groundbreaking technology. Stay tuned for an enlightening conversation, starting right now:

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 388, an interview with the author of The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology, Tobias Dengel. In his new book, Tobias answers why voice technology is the next big thing in technology, as big as mobile a decade ago and the internet in the late 90s, fundamentally altering the way companies do business. Tobias connects the dots about this emerging paradigm to vividly illustrate how business leaders can stay ahead of the game, rather than scrambling to catch up, as voice technology gradually reveals its power, creating a host of new winners and losers.  Tobias Dengel is president of WillowTree, a TELUS International Company, a global leader in digital product design and development, with 13 offices in North America, South America, and Europe, headquartered in Charlottesville VA. The company has been named by Inc. magazine to the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing companies for 11 straight years. WillowTree, a TELUS International Company's clients include some of the best-known brands in the world, such as T Mobile, Mastercard, Capital One, HBO, Fox, Time Warner, PepsiCo, Regal Cinemas, Charles Schwab, Johnson & Johnson, Lidl, Wyndham Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Holiday Inn, Canadian Broadcasting Corp, Synchrony Bank, Edward Jones Investments, and National Geographic. These industry leaders trust WillowTree, a TELUS International Company to design and develop their websites, apps, internal systems and voice interfaces. Get Tobias' book here: https://rb.gy/y4p29 The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Jim talks with Tobias Dengel about the ideas in his book The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology. They discuss the idea that voice tech will be the biggest shift since mobile, the problem of public babble, positives & negatives of current voice tech, changing norms around speaking to devices, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), using LLMs through a voice interface, improving communication cycles for incapacitated people, smart speakers vs smart mics, problems with the voice-to-voice paradigm, multimodal use cases, using voice interfaces for writing, finetuned LLMs in combination with voice tech, using LLMs to check each other, Jim's method for reducing LLM hallucinations, improving agent performance in customer service, the state of the art in voice-to-text, Baumol's cost disease, the Jevons paradox, a golden age of innovation, Talon hands-free input, the possibility of a pushback against public babble, coming changes in medicine, privacy issues & the industry's violation of trust, the uncanny valley, concurrent communication, a new horizon for video games, low-hanging fruit, interfaces between humans and robots, innovations in model testing & training, selecting models, an arms race between models creating content & models curating content, the info agent opportunity, the human capacity for interruptions, defending attention & flow, whether voice tech will make interruptions better or worse, and much more. Transcript The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology, by Tobias Dengel with Karl Weber Talon JRS EP123 - Jamie Wheal on Recapturing the Rapture Tobias Dengel is president of WillowTree, a TELUS International Company, a global leader in digital product design and development, with 13 offices in North America, South America and Europe, headquartered in Charlottesville VA. The company has been named by Inc. magazine to the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest growing companies for 11 straight years. WillowTree's clients include some of the best-known brands in the world, such as T Mobile, Mastercard, Capital One, HBO, Fox, Time Warner, PepsiCo, Regal Cinemas, Charles Schwab, Johnson & Johnson, Lidl, Wyndham Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Holiday Inn, Canadian Broadcasting Corp, Synchrony Bank, Edward Jones Investments, and National Geographic. These industry leaders trust WillowTree to design and develop their websites, apps, internal systems and voice interfaces.

Recently, I was thrilled to join my close friend, Mary Barnett on her incredible podcast, "The Brilliant Marketing With Mary".In this episode we dove deep into the world of business growth through economic challenges. We explored the art of getting clear on your goals, scaling with small teams and implementing systems and processes for increased productivity for making more while working less.Tune in to uncover the power of conquering your limiting beliefs and breaking down the barriers that obstruct your path to success. Start your journey to overcoming these obstacles today!If you're looking for actionable advice and a dose of motivation, this episode is a must-listen!Ursula's Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Business Growth And Momentum (4:09) Goal Setting And Clarity For Small Business Growth (9:00)Limiting Beliefs And Their Impact On Business Growth (14:15)Business Growth And Scaling During Economic Challenges (18:31)Scaling Businesses With Small Teams (23:03)Scaling A Business Through Virtual Teams And Systematization (27:14)Documenting Processes (30:37)Business Growth And Marketing Strategies (37:20)About Mary BarnettMary “MobileMary” Barnett, has over 32 years of promotional marketing expertise. She is known as an industry leader known for her innovative and effective solutions and has produced award winning results for her clients around the world.“MobileMary” hosted a weekly radio show called the ‘Brilliant Mobile Marketing Radio Show' for almost 3 years — and currently streams educational content aimed at helping small businesses convert more human conversations into sales conversions regularly on various social media platforms.Mary also can be found speaking in small business venues and larger stages across the country. Often, she speaks on one of her favorite topics – Mobile and Social Marketing Technology.Connect with MaryWebsite: https://anotherbrilliantidea.com/about-us/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mary.barnett1Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mobilemary/About Ursula Mentjes Ursula Mentjes is an award-winning Entrepreneur and Sales Expert. She will transform the way you think about selling so you can reach your revenue goals with less anxiety and less effort! Ursula specializes in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and other performance modalities to help clients double and triple their sales fast. Honing her skills at an international technical training company, where she began her career in her early twenties, Ursula increased sales by 90% in just one year. Just 5 years later, when the company's annual revenue was in the tens of millions, Ursula advanced to the position of President at just 27. Sales guru Brian Tracy endorsed her first book, Selling with Intention, saying, “This powerful, practical book shows you how to connect with customers by fully understanding the sales process from the inside out. It really works!” Ursula is also the author of One Great Goal, Selling with Synchronicity and The Belief Zone, which received the Beverly Hills President's Choice award. Her Podcast, Double Your Sales NOW, is available on iTunes, iHeartRadio and other outlets. Ursula also serves as Past Statewide Chairperson of the NAWBO-CA Education Fund and Past President of NAWBO-CA. She is the recipient of the SBA's Women in Business Champion and a recipient of the Willow Tree's Extraordinary...

Did you know that the simple act of jotting down your goals significantly increases your chances of achieving them?This powerful process not only helps you to get clear on what it is you want, it guides you towards both your personal and professional dreams.If you are ready to step up your game and make your dreams a reality, join me this week over on Heather Hansen O'Neill's podcast “From Fear to Fire” where we'll delve into the topic of upleveling, and you'll discover how goal setting and clarity are essential components for achieving what you set out to do.Ursula's Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Make A Decision To Up Level Now (3:02) How To Set Goals And Achieve Them (6:19)How To Release Limiting Beliefs (10:55)The Number One Secret To Scaling Your Business (16:48)The Importance Of Having A Revenue Model (19:27)How To Keep Your Energy Going (23:39)About Host:Heather Hansen O'Neill is an award-winning speaker and author who fires up organizations and corporations on leadership, team development, and change management.For over 18 years Heather's company has helped clients from entrepreneurs of new businesses to Fortune 100 companies improve their relationships and lead more effectively in a rapidly changing corporate environment. She has helped her clients create deeper more meaningful relationships in sales and customer service resulting in increased customer loyalty and overall profit. In addition, the work she does to enhance understanding within and between departments has shown a better flow of productivity as well as higher ratings in employee satisfaction.Connect with HeatherWebsite: https://heatherhansenoneill.com/2022/11/25/uplevel-with-ursula-mentjes/Podcast: https://heatherhansenoneill.com/2022/11/25/uplevel-with-ursula-mentjes/About Ursula Mentjes Ursula Mentjes is an award-winning Entrepreneur and Sales Expert. She will transform the way you think about selling so you can reach your revenue goals with less anxiety and less effort! Ursula specializes in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and other performance modalities to help clients double and triple their sales fast. Honing her skills at an international technical training company, where she began her career in her early twenties, Ursula increased sales by 90% in just one year. Just 5 years later, when the company's annual revenue was in the tens of millions, Ursula advanced to the position of President at just 27. Sales guru Brian Tracy endorsed her first book, Selling with Intention, saying, “This powerful, practical book shows you how to connect with customers by fully understanding the sales process from the inside out. It really works!” Ursula is also the author of One Great Goal, Selling with Synchronicity and The Belief Zone, which received the Beverly Hills President's Choice award. Her Podcast, Double Your Sales NOW, is available on iTunes, iHeartRadio and other outlets. Ursula also serves as Past Statewide Chairperson of the NAWBO-CA Education Fund and Past President of NAWBO-CA. She is the recipient of the SBA's Women in Business Champion and a recipient of the Willow Tree's Extraordinary Example and Extraordinary Entrepreneur Awards, the NAWBO-IE ANITA Award, chosen as PDP's Extraordinary Speaker, PDP's Business Woman of the Year, the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards Finalist and the President's Lifetime...

Willow tree bark is a fantastic herb for natural pain relief! Backaches, muscular soreness, headaches, arthritis…these are just some of the complaints willow can help you with. But, as with any herb, you need to know how to work with it safely and effectively. Join me in this episode to find out how you can work with willow tree bark when inflammatory and musculoskeletal pain is bringing you (or a loved one) down. I'm sharing a recipe for willow bark tea so you can easily have your own willow bark medicine right at your fingertips. (Don't miss downloading your free, printable recipe card with all the details!) I'll also show you a great way to apply this powerful tea topically… it's wonderful for cooling and soothing itchy rashes like poison ivy, poison oak, and eczema! After listening in, you'll know:► Why willow is safer than aspirin► How to choose the willow you make medicine with► Who should avoid taking willow barkShow snippet: “Willow is one of our most generous plants, offering us pain relief, digestive and skin support, baskets, and even a bit of shade to rest under.”----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here.