For a long time, Barry Mazor (along with fellow music writers) puzzled over what struck them as a glaring omission: There was no dependable, carefully sourced book on one of music's most important groups, The Everly Brothers. Eventually, Barry's agent asked a question that seems somewhat obvious in hindsight: "Why don't you write it?" That is the origin story of Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story.

Barry's painstakingly researched new book captures not only the story of the duo's music and lasting influence, but also dives into Don and Phil Everly's close and sometimes fraught relationship. As for himself, Barry knows a bit about having performers in the family — some of his relatives were vaudevillians — and as both one of the country's top music writers and a lifelong Everlys fan, he knows his way around the legend and the lore.

Guest: music writer, author of Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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This week, Bob Bernstein announced that beloved Hillsboro Village coffee shop Fido will be closing — three years from now, on June 1, 2028. In the announcement, which was posted below a digital countdown clock, he wrote: "As leases expired, many of those who put their savings and dreams into their small businesses and created the look, feel and taste of Nashville became victims of their own success." The news sparked conversations around the changing character of the city.

Bob didn't intend to open one of Nashville's most beloved coffee shops. In fact, he first moved here to be a journalist. But hearing about plans for growing the city, he bought into the idea that something special was happening in Music City. He opened a coffee house — even though he didn't drink coffee at the time — because he loved the culture. Bongo Java, intended to be a gathering place for Nashvillians of all stripes, opened on Belmont Boulevard with a line out the door on its very first day.

Guest: Bob Bernstein, owner, Bongo Java and Fido

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Growing up, Stephen Bargatze got into plenty of trouble. He wasn't a very good student. His home life was rocky at best, and he had a terrible relationship with his mother. But with some help from family, he got a chance to turn his life around. And when he found he had some skill at magic tricks, his world brightened a bit. Then he discovered that with clown make-up on, "talking funny" was actually an asset.

These days, Stephen is still dazzling audiences with his sleight-of-hand and enjoying the outsize fame of his son, comedian Nate Bargatze. (His parents still think of him as Nathaniel.) He'll soon be recording his first special with his family's production company — one of the many doors that Nate's success has opened for the family.

Guest: Stephen Bargatze, magician and comedian

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Liz McLaurin looks at the landscape a little different than the rest of us. As the head of the nonprofit Land Trust for Tennessee, she works with landowners who want to set aside some (or all) of their property for conservation. So when she sees forests and farmlands, she's not just thinking about what's there now; she's also thinking about what that land might look like decades or even centuries from now. Will it be protected and left unspoiled?

In her line of work, the answer is often yes. The Land Trust helps owners make arrangements for their land, to make sure it doesn't get paved over or covered in condos. Hers was an indirect path to this work, starting with years as a working actor. In the years since, she's come to know that people who've lived on land know that land and the stories it holds — and her job is to listen for how to sustain those stories for the future.

Guest: Liz McLaurin, president and CEO, The Land Trust for Tennessee

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Shane Caldwell got his start on public access television as "kind of a goof," after watching a comedy show and thinking he and his fellow bartender friends could do much better. What they came up with, The Sylvan Brothers, became an underground sensation. That led to a local sketch comedy show called Cuts that aired right after Saturday Night Live. The first musical guest? Vince Gill.

The child of performers, Shane hails from Savannah, Tenn. — fishing worm capital of the world — where some of the off-kilter residents he observed growing up informed the characters he eventually created for his shows. Clips of one of those characters, the indelible "Rehab Guy," still get shared on social media. Since those days, Shane has worked with a long roster of collaborators, including Jeff Foxworthy and professional wrestler Dusty "The American Dream" Rhodes.

Guest: Shane Caldwell, comedian

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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You should never meet your heroes, the old saying goes. But for Jim McGuire, it has turned out pretty well. Jim grew up listening to country radio, and then — after a roundabout path took him to an Army base in Oklahoma, then to Vietnam and eventually to Nashville — he made a career capturing photos of some of the stars he had once only known through their music.

He started out in an old grocery store that he converted into a photo studio — he slept in the back — but it wasn't long before his skill behind the camera drew a steady stream of notable subjects: The Nashville Portraits include legends like Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Doc Watson, Earl Monroe and Dolly Parton, to name but a few. He doesn't often give interviews, so this is a rare chance to hear his story firsthand.

Guest: Jim "Senor" McGuire, photographer

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Tamara Saviano has worked in radio, been a publicist — Kris Kristofferson was a client — served as president of the Americana Music Association (the first woman to do so), and produced albums and award shows at the Ryman Auditorium. All of this has given her an inside view of the Americana scene from the very start. If that sounds like a singularly winding career path, you can now read about it in her new memoir.

This week, Tamara sits down with Demetria to talk about that book, as well as her path from Wisconsin to Music City, what she loves about working with musicians, and what it's been like wearing so many hats over the years while staying true to herself along the way.

Guest: Tamara Saviano, writer, author, Poets and Dreamers: My Life in Americana Music

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Shauna Reynolds and Steve Haruch

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Shortly after the end of the Civil War, formerly enslaved African Americans established and settled Promise Land in Dickson County. They came from farms around Charlotte, Tennessee, and from Cumberland Furnace, the nearby ironworks town. Some of the first settlers, like Ed Vanleer and John Nesbitt served with the United States Colored Troops during the war. The town remained independent, and actually flourished through the Jim Crow Era.

Serina Gilbert is a descendant of those original inhabitants, and with the Promise Land Heritage Association, helps keep the stories of this historic community alive. And she is co-author of the book From the Fiery Furnace to the Promise Land: Stories of a Tennessee Reconstruction Community, which collects many of these tales, handed down through the generations. Her collaborator is esteemed historian and TSU professor Dr. Learotha Williams Jr., who joins her in conversation with Demetria.

Plus, after the interview, an audio story featuring sounds and voices from the annual Promise Land festival — essentially a big family reunion — produced by Banner managing editor Andrea Tudhope, which originally aired on WPLN.

Guests:

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Steve Haruch and Andrea Tudhope

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Aaron Gray found peace after enduring the unthinkable. His 5-month-old son Joel died in August 2012 after Gray’s then wife accidentally left the baby in the back seat of the family car. But Gray didn’t allow Joel’s death to shatter his life forever — he found peace in nature as he learned to untangle and release his trauma.

Gray used the worst moment in his life as a catalyst to help him help others. Through his podcast, Guys Dealings With Feelings, he seeks to connect with men and help them find their own paths to healing. These paths include holistic wellness and realizing the connections between the mind and body. Along with his therapist co-host, Gray tries to normalize men identifying and discussing their emotions: "I’m living life today to make sure there’s no more regrets."

Guest: Aaron Gray, host, Guys Dealings With Feelings

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Shauna Reynolds

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From the time she job-shadowed at the Jackson Sun in 8th grade, Becca Andrews knew she wanted to be a journalist. This aspiration took her from Tennessee to California and back again as she began an award-winning career as an investigative reporter. Andrews’ extensive coverage of reproductive healthcare and right-wing extremism prepared her for her latest project, American Shrapnel.

As co-writer and cohost, Andrews retraces the violent crimes of serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, explores the past that filled him with hate and aggression and describes the manhunt that put the elusive perpetrator in prison. It’s a story that took Andrews, her cohost and their producer three years to research and report, now unfolding one disturbing podcast episode at a time.

Guest: Becca Andrews, journalist, co-host, American Shrapnel

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Shauna Reynolds

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