Way back in 1988, guitarist Rik Emmett stunned fans when he left the successful Canadian rock group Triumph to pursue a solo career. He left many questions on the table in the wake of his departure, most of which he answers in Chapter 5 of his autobiography Lay It On The Line.   Now, when I call the book an autobiography I’m using air quotes because this is also a self-help book and an instructional guide to song writing and making your way through the music industry. Lay It In The Line is also much like Riks career. Why just be a rock star when you can also be a columnist, a jazz guitarist, a baseball coach, a teacher and a poet, as he proved with his 2021 book of poetry, Reinvention.

Jane Harbury has been a beloved figure in the Canadian music industry from her days washing dishes at Toronto's legendary Riverboat Folk Club to acting as publicist to some of the world's most revered musicians. A couple years ago I met Jane for coffee where she shared her origin story growing up in England. That afternoon has stuck with me all this time so recently she and I arranged to record our conversation so that we could share her story with the rest of you. In part one of our interview, Jane talks about growing up in England where she worked as a child actor, an au pair and a matron in a boys school.

Welcome to episode 50! When I started this podcast  I had no idea whether anyone would listen or how far I’d be able to take it and yet, here we are.  For this episode I reached to an old friend, Jeff Woods, to talk about his longtime love affair of writing and telling stories to turn people on to the things he loves. 

Many of you who are listening will instantly recognize Jeff’s voice from his days at rock radio and hosting his syndicated Legends of Classic Rock radio program. Most people might think of Jeff as the guy with those amazing pipes. But as we discuss in this episode, there are a great many people who under estimate Jeff’s other talents, not the least of which is writing, a talent his grade school teach recognized earlier on.

Anyone who read Jeff’s book Radio, Records and Rockstars can already attest to his talent as a writer. It is a fun read. As you’ll hear from our conversation, Jeff is passionate about many things in life. After radio he continued to turn people on to music with his radio and records podcast.  On his Instagram he shares his passion for music, art, motorcycles and beautiful women. Which brings us to his latest project. As host of The Blue Hotel podcast, Jeff interviews a different guest each episode to talk about life, love and sexuality and then ends the conversation with a self-penned story Jeff’s talent as a writer is why I asked him to be the 50th Creationist.

Discover Jeff Woods at jeffwoodsradio.com

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The Creationists is created, produced and hosted by Steve Waxman (that's me!). 

We all tell stories in our daily lives.  Some are just the mundane answers to the question "How was your day?" But others are the stories we use to try to entertain or convince people of something. Whether it's a sales person presenting a product or an artist doing an interview, there's a story to convey and the best way to tell it is with authenticity. But not everyone is comfortable sharing their story and, in some cases, they don't think they even know what the story is.

Erin Rodgers is a story coach, someone who helps people get to the authenticity of their story and then coaches them on their presentation. If you or someone you know have a hard time expressing themselves, Erin might be able to help.  Give the episode a listen and then contact Erin at:

storystarcoaching.com

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You can reach us at [email protected]

Gordon Valiant is a bio-mechanics engineer and 30+ year veteran at Nike where he helped develop ground breaking athletic footwear.  In this episode of The Creationists, Gordon talks about what goes into the research and development of new products and shares some of his experience as a part of the team that helped build the Nike Shox, a unique shock absorber first introduced in 2000.

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The Creationists is mastered in post-production by Paul Farrant.

Hosted and produced by Steve Waxman

Tim Sommer has had a remarkable life in the music industry. He became a rock journalist at the age of 16 writing for Trouser Press and then as the New York correspondent for Sounds Magazine in the UK. He was the first American to interview U2 and Henry Rollins called him out in print for a negative review Tim once wrote. He hosted an influential hard core punk radio show on WNYU and then learned how to play bass and became a recording artist in the art rock band Hugo Largo, working with Michael Stipe and Brian Eno. He’s worked at MTV and in the mid-90s he became, because of his background, perhaps the most unlikely of A&R people to sign Hootie & the Blowfish. 

With the release of Only Wanna Be With You, The Inside Story of Hootie & the Blowfish, Tim can now add author to his resume. His background and relationship with the band made him uniquely qualified to write this book. Here is some of what I learned after reading the book: before they ever had a record deal, Hootie & the Blowfish were making close to one million dollars a year as a cover band; if they could be any other band in the world, they would be REM; once signed to Atlantic they were victimized by label politics; their 25th Anniversary tour in 2019 was more lucrative than when the band was in their heyday; and Darius Rucker finally speaks out about his experience as a black man in America. This music biography is unlike any other I’ve ever read before as Tim is able to write from the perspective of an outsider as well as an insider and a music historian. After reading his book, I told Tim that it could have been subtitled, How To Make It In The Music Business and Not Die Trying.

The first time I heard the name Hootie & the Blowfish was over a dinner I shared with Tim in Toronto a few months before the release of the band's major label debut.  He had recently signed them to Atlantic Records and he explained that almost no one at the label believed in Hootie and then he laid out how the plan for how the record was going to break - and it did, big time, just like he said. If you’re interested in insider stories, you’ll really dig this one and stick around for Tim's thoughts on the responsibility of music journalism - lessons he learned from his own experiences.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to read Only Wanna Be With You, The Inside Story of Hootie & the Blowfish, you can buy it HERE from Amazon.com. You can also read some of Tim's more recent entertaining and sometimes controversial musings in Rock and Roll Globe HERE.

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The Creationists is mastered in post-production by Paul Farrant.

The Creationists is created and hosted by Steve Waxman.

There’s that old saying “Do what you love, love what you.” When Tim Pierce moved to LA from Arizona, he hoped to make a living as a professional musician not knowing the path that lay ahead.  It took a decade of hard work but he eventually became one of the town’s most in demand session guitarists playing on records by a wide range of superstars including Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Joe Cocker and Bob Dylan among countless others. Tim is now enjoying a much simpler life as a YouTube creator, sharing his knowledge with anyone interested in learning how to play guitar at every level.

There’s another old cliche, “It’s a small world” and that’s what I found when I signed up for Tim’s online guitar course.  It turned out that Tim played on many of the records I promoted in my time at Warner Music so I reached out to him to say that and we ended up connecting on the phone.  Over the course of our conversation we realized that, back in the early 80s, when I started my career working for manager Bill Aucoin in New York, Tim came to our Christmas party at the invitation of John Waite who happened to be an Aucoin client at the time.  See, small world. In this episode Tim and I talk about how he turned his passion for guitar into a lifelong career.

You can find hundreds of Tim’s entertaining and informative videos by searching him out on YouTube. You can also sign up at timpierce.com for a free trial of his online Master Class series that includes close to 1000 videos for guitarists of every level including beginners.

I hope that enjoy this episode of the creationists. If you’re a first timer, please check out our library of previous episodes. I’m sure that you’ll find something you like.  You also might want to subscribe to receive future episodes as soon as they’re released. If you’re so inclined please rate and review the episode, it helps us find new listeners this way and don’t forget to share the pod with your friends. 

The Creationists is mastered in post production by Paul Farrant

The Creationists was created by Steve Waxman.

I think that it's probably fair to say that Bernie Finkelstein is one of the architects of the Canadian music industry. He's well known as the founder of True North Records and for managing people like Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, and Dan Hill, among many others, but what's the lesser known story is how he started his career managing the Paupers with a $74 loan for his father.

In this interview, Bernie and I only scratched the surface on some of his incredible experiences. I highly recommend that you go more in depth and read his book True North, it's incredibly entertaining and well written, and it really fleshes out the stories we just barely touched on today. He's been a manager, a producer, a record company owner, and, in this episode, he gives us the scoop on his "second act" as a documentary film producer. It's been quite an incredible life.

If you have suggestions for future episodes, please email [email protected] and follow us on facebook and Instagram.

The Creationists is mastered in post production by Paul Farrant.

The Creationists was created and is produced by Steve Waxman.

One of the reasons that I started The Creationists podcast was in hopes of inspiring listeners to explore their own creativity. Over the past two years, I think that we've all come across friends and acquaintances who have finally taken the plunge, to do things that they always wanted to do but always made the excuse to not pursue. One of the biggest obstacles to get over is time. If Julie Adam had used the excuse of lack of time, it would have been understandable after all Julie is the president of News & Entertainment for Rogers Sports & media, one of the two largest broadcasters in Canada. But Julie didn't let time stand in the way of writing her book Imperfectly Kind.

I've known Julie Adam a very long time. She's come a long way from her days as an radio station intern, working her way to the very top of her profession.  She is held in the highest regard in the broadcast industry and as long as I've known her, Julie has always conducted business with a smile on her face. When I heard that she had written a book, I quickly downloaded the preview and after reading the introduction I knew, right away, that she would be an inspiring guest on the pod.

Imperfectly Kind is definitely a must read for anyone who manages people. Frankly, if you report to someone you think isn't kind, you might want to think about gifting them Julie's book. Imperfectly Kind is available digitally on Kobo and Kindle.  Physical copies are available through Indigo in Canada and Barnes and Noble in the US or you can link through julieadam.ca

I've worked in the music business for over half my life. One of the great privileges is to hear an amazing unknown artist and then have the opportunity to introduce them to the world. So I can only imagine what Jonathan Poneman was feeling the first time he heard Nirvana.

Before Nirvana literally changed the fortune of Sub Pop Records, Jonathan and his partner, Bruce Pavitt, were rolling right along putting out records by Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Green River who featured future members of Pearl Jam. Eventually, the label and its artists created a musical and cultural revolution. 

If I gave my episodes a name, I suppose that this one would be called Sleepless In Seattle. So sit back and listen to how a kid from Toledo parlayed his bar mitzvah money into one of the world's coolest record labels.

In 2013 Jonathan started talking to the press about how he discovered that he had contracted Parkinson's Disease. It's obvious that Parkinson's never slowed him down or curbed his enthusiasm for music as Sub Pop continues to find and release the music of great indie artists.  You can check out the current roster and their latest releases at subpop.com.  While you're there, sign up for their newsletter and get the latest Sub Pop news delivered right to your inbox.

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The Creationists is mastered in post-production by Paul Farrant.