Photo Credit: Noah Griffel, PR.

Alternative folk band The Lumineers appeared at WFUV for an interview and pre-recorded performance of 3 songs taken from their new album Automatic: “Same Old Song,” “Keys on the Table,” and “Plasticine.”  Hear them along with the chat HERE.

WFUV’s longtime pals Deer Tick celebrated the release of their new album, Emotional Contracts, with a visit to our Bronx studios in June 2023. In this WFUV Live session, American alternative rock-folk band Deer Tick was loose and having a few laughs while warming up and they tore through three songs, slowed down only by the momentary pause of a broken guitar string. As guitarist/vocalist John McCauley and drummer Dennis Ryan shared in our conversation, the band is based in Providence again — they all live close to each other and not far from McCauley’s studio, where the new songs were born. Listen to our conversion and see 3 live performances at WFUV here.

Deer Tick photo credit: WFUV staff

I had a chance to speak with British singer-songwriter David Gray for WFUV about his album Skellig that came out earlier this year.  He’s an excellent conversation partner and he offered great insight into the album while also sharing some fascinating and entertaining tidbits drawn from his lifetime.  Here’s the unedited Zoom version…

Enjoy this performance in the WFUV series “Marquee Live at Home” of Kathleen Edwards playing from her homebase in Ottawa, Canada. I interviewed her between songs in this 5-song set. The link to the interview and performances is here.

Tom Rush Talks Songwriting & Performing – Schimmel Center at Pace University December 9, 2016

When Tom Rush was a student at Harvard University in the early sixties, he hosted a Tuesday evening radio program on the college station WHRB called Balladeers that featured his own performances on the air as well as a different guest each week.  In order to recruit the artists to play on his radio show, he spent time in the coffee houses and cafes around Harvard Square and beyond.   The hours spent in this way didn’t help his grades but did help Rush develop a discriminating ear and eye regarding the best talent on that burgeoning scene.  It also, of course, gave him ample opportunity to cop guitar licks and help him find his own voice.  The legendary Club 47 was one block away from his dorm room.  As Rush told me prior to the show at the Schimmel Center earlier this month, “that was dangerous.”

Tom Rush has never really abandoned the concept of that radio show which paired his work with artists he was excited about it and wanted to share. By recording their songs, he was instrumental to the careers of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and James Taylor.  When I asked him what we was most proud of in his career, he passed over his enviable body of work and enduring success as a songwriter or performer.   He replied, “I think I’ve helped some up and comers come up.”  That led to praise for Matt Nakoa and Seth Glier who were part of the event at the lovely 672 seat downtown venue.  Nakoa will again share the bill with Rush in April.  That show, put on by First Acoustics, is at the First Unitarian Church in Brooklyn Heights.  

Rush has been enjoying a fruitful writing period and may head down to Nashville where he recorded 2009’s What I Know (which he considers his finest work) to record an album entirely of his compositions.  

Martha Wainwright CD Release Party At Le Poisson Rouge – November 18, 2016

Martha Wainwright is the daughter of two accomplished singer songwriters: American Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian Kate McGarrigle who died almost seven years ago.  She inherited great expectations along with royal musical blood.  Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole is the title track to Martha Wainwright’s first EP and was included on her self-titled debut album in 2005.  At the risk of a oversimplified conclusion, the song indicted her dad  for being a ghost to her while giving the best part of himself to his songs.  At the time,  interviews suggested she was less than amused about how he had mined their relationship for lyrical fodder while falling down on authentic communication with her in the context of a prominent musical family.  She was kicking out against her whole situation as part of a declaration of independence that followed a move from Montreal to her birthplace of New York City.  The song suggested exploring family relationships is crucial to her expression… It still is.

In the New York era, Martha Wainwright recorded a handful of rewarding albums and evolved as artists and people do.  When it was time for the daughter to become a mother herself, she returned to Montreal.  That transition to another station in life is a driving lyrical force on the new album Goodnight City.  Produced by her husband Brad Albetta along with Thomas Bartlett, it includes half a dozen songs from her pen along with one co-written by her and Glen Hansard and another she collaborated on with her aunt Anna McGarrigle and her cousin Lily Lanken.  Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, Rufus Wainwright, Beth Orton, and Michael Ondaatje also wrote songs for the project with Martha in mind. 
Having known of their friendship and her covers of songs like The Traitor and Tower of Song, before the interview concluded I asked her to remark about the great loss that was the death of Leonard Cohen earlier this month.  

Billy Bragg & Joe Henry Ride Train, Release Album Together

On Saturday -October 1st, 2016 – Billy Bragg and Joe Henry celebrated the unleashing of their first album recorded as a duo, Shine A Light, with a show at Society of Ethical Culture. Recently these two collaborated on Bragg’s excellent Tooth & Nail album of 2013 that Henry produced but they crossed paths initially almost thirty years ago. At that time and in subsequent years, they found they shared plenty of common musical ground; least of which was not a love for Woody Guthrie. In fact, when we were chatting before the show, Bragg compared the depth that he and Wilco were able to achieve in mining Guthrie’s work in on the Mermaid Avenue sessions to that in which he and Henry were able to accomplish with railroad-themed music on this project. He suggested, as a Englishman working with Americans on each, the contrast in perspectives was key to both.

Joe Henry’s extensive production credits include The River in Reverse by Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise by Bettye LaVette, and The Way of the World by Mose Allison just to name three of my faves. In addition to the over three dozen albums he has produced, he’s issued thirteen Joe Henry albums as well. The most recent being Invisible Hour from two years ago. He’s written songs with Rosanne Cash and Madonna. Atop the myriad skills that his resume implies, Bragg mentioned that Henry is also an outstanding arranger which helped elevate the renditions of these songs to something more personal than mere cover versions.

Henry noted the train and train song is part of our cultural mythology evoking loss and regret but also possibility. Both artists stressed that Shine A Light: Field Recordings From The Great American Railroad is not a nostalgia trip. Bragg said that they wanted to make it an immersive investigation into the railroad song in American history but also to reconnect people to the enduring viability of the railroad.

HERE is a link to a conversation (with performance) Billy Bragg and I had at WFUV in 2013.

Meet Peter Calo

I first met Peter Calo in the fall of 2013.  My friend John Platt, who hosts a great show on WFUV called Sunday Supper, asked to MC a show he was playing at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock (a.k.a. the UUCSR) where they do a thing called Soulful Sundown on the second Friday of every month.  They have an excellent house band of top Long Island musicians and that night they were led by Peter Calo. I enjoyed the show immensely and was well impressed at Peter’s masterful, exciting guitar work that drew from a handful of genres and his evocative songs.  Clearly a very musical guy, it was no surprise to learn he had a resume full of recoding sessions and gigs with a long list of well-known musicians including half a dozen or so albums with Carly Simon.  I made a mental note to try to catch PC sometime he was in the city.  I ended up catching him a couple of times and I was clever enough to bring my camera during a recent show at Rockwood 3 which, as Peter mentions in the vid, is a preferred haunt of his because of  the sound and vibe.  Happily, he’ll be there again this Saturday evening (January 23,2016) at 7p and you’re invited…well, you know tickets are on sale.

Glen Hansard Interview NYC Shows

The man is an astonishing performer.  Absolutely thrilling performance turned in at The Beacon Theatre last Tuesday – December 2nd, 2015 – featuring songs from the new record Didn’t He Ramble not to mention a genius cover of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks.  This is the second ‘solo’ album from Hansard aside from the 25 years he has led The Frames and his work as a member of The Swell Season. (His first encore was The Frames’ song Say It To Me Now.  The Swell Season’s Your Mind’s Made Up and Falling Slowly, which he did solo, also made it onto the setlist.)   Didn’t He Ramble was made mostly here in New York, with Pat Dillett engineering, at a studio with no name that no longer exists.  He also did some sessions in Chicago, Dublin, and Paris.

As Glen is such an engaging interview, I’ve included some bonus bits here beyond the 2 minute report that is airing on NY1-TV tomorrow.  The first video below is outtakes from the conversation we had backstage at The Beacon Theatre prior to the show.  It includes remarks about the two songs that I shot: Winning Streak and Just To Be The One.  He also discusses playing King’s Theatre in Brooklyn the previous night, a great story about bringing his parents to New York, and insights on the mystery and craft of songwriting.

The second video below is a snippet from an interview that I did with him two years ago when he spoke about the circumstances of his amazing cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Drive All Night.  That interview was also conducted at The Beacon Theatre at the Holiday Cheer for WFUV show on 12-30-2013 that was billed as Iron and Wine and friends.  As Sam Beam, who is Iron and Wine, guests on Didn’t He Ramble, I asked if they met at that show.  The answer was no; they go back further than that.  However, he revealed that Holiday Cheer ’13 did mark the first time he ever played some of the songs that ended up on the new album.  (This year’s Holiday Cheer show was another brilliant night by the way.)

Just before the last encore of Her Mercy, the band came to the front of the stage and led a sing-a-long of Brendan Behan’s The Auld Triangle…

Upon hearing Shawn Colvin had a new album of covers, Uncovered, her first such collection in 21 years, I looked forward to the album release with something similar to the feeling of sitting down for brunch at La Bonbonniere.  That is, I knew I was going to be happy.  There are few artists I have more confidence in interpreting great songs than the Austin based artist who published her memoirs Diamond in the Rough three years ago.  The Rockwood Music Hall is a lovely little joint and a crowd of especially good eggs had crowded in.  Please click HERE to access the full performance at WFUV along with a few questions from me…

This was the second chance I had to rub elbows with Shawn.  The first time was 3 years ago.  In that interview, I asked her about being the voice of Rachel Jordan on The Simpsons among other things.