When Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero of Rodrigo y Gabriela were both sixteen years old, they applied to the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and both were rejected. This may have been the best thing that ever happened to the pair, setting them off on a fiercely independent and largely […]
Interview
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Real Estate celebrated the release of Daniel, their ninth album over 15 years, by dropping by Studio A to play a few tunes. As frontman Martin Courtney explained in my chat with him and bassist Alex Bleeker, Martin’s daughter gave Kacey Musgraves’ album, Golden Hour, a lot of play around the house. Courtney […]
Twenty-five years into their career, Kings of Leon sounds like a band that has a deep appreciation and gratitude for holding the group (and the family) together and having the opportunity to build upon their remarkable body of work. The new album is Can We Please Have Fun and it was a pleasure […]
Jesse Malin has been building and nurturing the music scene in the five boroughs for over forty years. He is essentially the New York Mayor of Rock and he makes friends wherever he goes. Through the decades he’s played countless benefit shows and spearheaded more than a few efforts to […]
Here’s a quick peek at the interview – video courtesy of WFUV graduate fellow Maya Sargent Listen to full interview with music here: I’m very happy to be able to post this full one hour radio show recorded 7/19/2023 from 9 – 10p on WFUV. I’ve always been a huge […]
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 […]
The music of Hermanos Gutiérrez brings you to another place. It’s a place of saguaro cacti and miles of sun-baked sand. If you’re a fan of spaghetti Westerns, it may suggest a love of Ennio Morricone and perhaps even evoke images of characters named Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco in […]
American blues, country, and Americana singer, guitarist, and songwriter Charley Crockett is back with a new album, The Man from Waco. It’s a laconic, elegant song cycle that tells the story of a fictional character who has some things in common with the artist but who has a life of […]
Sting is the rarest of artists. In 1978 – the year he first visited New York, “Roxanne” established him as one of the great voices in music and a formidable songwriter who would go on to pen the most played song on the radio ever. (Which one is revealed in […]
The song “Witchoo” explodes right out of the speakers. It’s undeniable and a no-brainer pick for one of my top ten songs of the year. (And now that it’s October I better start pondering what the other nine are.) It turns out the band behind the song have crafted an […]
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 […]
Marshall Crenshaw is one of my all time favorite songwriters. The singer/multi-instrumentalist is a tunesmith of the first order and an artist I continually go back to when I’m choosing songs for a radio show or an album for the living room. Listen to a recent live Q&A interview on […]
ALPHABETLAND is the first new studio album by X in 35 years featuring all four original members (and X’s first full venture since 1993’s Hey Zeus!) and it compares well with anything previously recorded by the celebrated Los Angeles quartet. Founding member, singer, and bassist John Doe chatted with me […]
Sylvan Esso are a wildly crafty and inventive musical duo made up of the golden-throated Amelia Meath and mad sonic scientist Nick Sanborn. They’ve created music that’s long on hooks and not short on style since they got together seven years ago. Along with unleashing their new album — their […]
The Go-Go’s have released their first new song in almost two decades and “Club Zero” will likely make you realize how much you missed them. If you weren’t around in the Eighties, when they helped to define the sound of that decade, it may introduce you to this band whose […]
I spoke with Josh Ritter about his new EP of rare and unreleased songs, See Here, I Have Built You A Mansion. Josh also created the cover art and is an engaging conversationalist. Hear our conversation here.
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.
Hate for Sale by The Pretenders, the follow-up to 2016’s Alone, was unleashed this month. In this freewheeling conversation with me archived on WFUV-FM, Chrissie Hynde names her favorite three Pretenders songs and covers an impressive amount of ground. Listen to it here.
Steve Earle’s new album is called Ghosts of West Virginia. In this recorded interview, Steve chats with me about what inspired the songs on the album and covers some wide-ranging topics. Steve performs 4 of the songs in a WFUV Live session. The interview can be heard, and performances can […]
The Tedeschi Trucks Band is a rare outfit. It’s a group steeped in rock, in blues, in soul, in jazz, in American music, and with the musicianship and spirit to immerse themselves in songs and allow the songs to go where they want to go. It’s tough keeping any band […]
In September I had a golden opportunity for a lifelong fan of ZZ Top, an invitation to talk with Billy Gibbons for about an hour in front of an audience at The Iridium. The show was taped for Speakeasy TV who distribute the show through PBS. It is airing tonight […]
Bettye Lavette put on a typically thrilling show at The Iridium last night. She highlighted songs from her most recent album Things Have Changed which is up for Best Americana (Americana?) Album Grammy later this month. She has also been nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance (that sounds more like […]
The Revivalists, a New Orleans octet, are riding high these days. They’ve got a couple of big hits under their belt with Wish I Knew You and All My Friends and they’ve recently taken the bold musical step of adding a second drummer to their live shows. Vocalist and guitarist David […]
With ties to the Catskills as well as New York, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds have built a reputation as a stomping, brass-soaked, eight-piece live band rooted in traditional rhythm and blues. The band’s new album, Gold, is released as a solo work by Sister Sparrow although The Dirty […]
2018 is now in the rear view mirror (or as us Pearl Jam fans prefer rearviewmirror) but before I say Hey Nineteen, here’s some photos and words – with the benefit of some time to digest – about a couple of my fave experiences from the latest trip around the […]