A guitarist's guitarist on chasing craft over fame, and writing a song a week to outrun his inner critic

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

David Ryan Harris is the kind of musician other musicians revere, and at 30A he makes the case for craft over fame. He treats guitar and songwriting like puzzles, and writes weekly from prompts to keep his inner critic quiet and his angles fresh. He gets into "Still Be Loving You," written for his mom, and "Coldplay," and how sobriety and therapy deepened his communication. He debuts a new song, "Weekend Werewolves." What keeps a forty-year veteran chasing the next puzzle?

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Writing Women Honestly
4:07 Why 30A Keeps Calling
4:39 Small Rooms Over Stadiums
5:51 Playing the Big House
7:29 Craft Over Fame
10:20 Song Prompts and Deadlines
15:35 Editing vs. Inspiration
19:45 The "Coldplay" Chorus
21:16 Songs About Women
26:11 A Song for Mom
26:45 Communication and Sobriety
28:59 Producing and Growth
32:36 60 Seconds of Curiosity
33:30 Live Performance

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 fans and artists told us about streaming, AI, and where the money in music actually goes. → State of Music survey summary

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode. The moments that didn't make the clips, and one curiosity prompt each issue. → Subscribe

ABOUT CURIOUS GOLDFISH
A music podcast about more than music. Inspired by Ted Lasso. I talk with singer-songwriters and bands in Americana, folk, roots, and country about the lives behind the songs: resilience, faith, marriage, the business of music, and what keeps an artist going. Every episode ends with the same question about curiosity, and no two answers are alike.

New episodes every other week.

🌐 curiousgoldfish.com 🎧 Spotify | Apple Podcasts 📸 @curiousgoldfishpodcast