Curious Goldfish Podcast

Ten years sober, a new baby, a father lost, and an album about letting go of control.

Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity

Lucy Isabel wrote most of All the Light while she was recording it, in a stretch where she lost her father and welcomed a second daughter within months of each other. A Yale drama graduate who traded the New York theater scene for the Nashville songwriting community, she sits down with Jason to talk about the constant mental load of motherhood, getting sober at 22, and why she stopped waiting for the muse to show up before writing. The album's title comes from a line in "Where It Lies": sometimes the hardest things to see are the ones sitting right in front of us. Underneath all of it is a question she keeps circling back to: how much of a life are we actually meant to control?

🎵 Lucy Isabel's latest: All the Light (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
0:44 Always Mom Things
1:14 From Musical Theater to Music
2:27 Leaving New York for Nashville
3:19 The Brandi Carlile Conversion
6:26 Activism and the Queer Community in the South
9:19 The New Album: All the Light
10:42 What "The Light" Means
11:35 Remembering Her Father, Joseph
14:00 Letting Go and Letting God
15:01 Writing Without Waiting for the Muse
17:01 Is There a Formula?
18:11 Ten Years Sober
22:00 60 Seconds of Curiosity
24:24 Live Performance: "My Memory"

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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

A Christian-music star who came out, walked away, and came back to the songs on her own terms

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

Jennifer Knapp built a career in contemporary Christian music in the late '90s, then came out as a lesbian and stepped away from that world. She talks about her Kansas roots, the project "Kansas 25" marking 25 years since her debut, and the long work of holding faith and identity together. She has spent years advocating for LGBTQ people inside religious spaces, and she closes with "Diamond in the Rough." What does it take to come home to your own songs after the world tells you to choose?

🎵 Jennifer Knapp's latest: Kansas 25 (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Resistance and Success
1:45 The Larry King Live Appearance
3:02 From Kansas to Stardom
7:20 Kansas 25
15:39 Faith and Identity
29:30 Songwriting and Spirit
45:43 The Conditionality of Love
54:04 Musical Rediscovery
1:01:57 Advocacy in Faith Communities
1:12:21 The Journey of Self-Acceptance
1:14:45 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

Half of Thompson Square waited almost 30 years to make the country record she always wanted.

Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity

Shawna Thompson sat down at Americana Fest a week after releasing Lean On Neon, the traditional honky tonk record she first wanted to make when she moved to Nashville in 1996. For a decade she was half of Thompson Square. This solo debut is a tribute to her late father, built from songs they played together and from collaborations with heroes like Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs. She talks about faith and the criticism that came with playing honky tonks young, a 25-year marriage she measures in "dog years," and a hard recovery from back surgery. The conversation keeps circling one question: what makes a person wait almost 30 years for the thing they wanted most, and what changes when they finally do it?

🎵 Shawna Thompson's latest: Lean On Neon (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
0:54 The Album Is Finally Out
1:34 Introducing Shawna Thompson
2:34 A Tribute To Her Father
3:52 Older, Wiser, More Country
5:51 Faith, Honky Tonks, And A Small Town Wreck
8:15 The Dream Collaborators
10:24 What Makes A Marriage And A Band Work
11:49 Dog Years And A Hard Recovery
12:33 The Future Of Thompson Square
13:11 60 Seconds of Curiosity
15:11 Getting The Word Out
15:47 Live Performance: "Burn It Down"

📊 FREE REPORT: The state of music in the age of AI and streaming → State of Music summary

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity, the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe free

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

He traded a Vanderbilt economics degree for midnight cover sets on Broadway.

Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity

Jason first heard Noah Silver at The Row in Nashville, working through a set of covers, and tipped him to play an original. That small request opened a bigger conversation. Silver grew up in Arizona, came to Nashville for Vanderbilt, finished an economics degree, and then walked away from the safe path to gig a dozen times a week. He talks about his debut EP Kaleidoscope, a chance meeting with Hall of Fame songwriter Kent Blazy at Radnor Lake that led to a night at the Bluebird, and the piano ballad he wrote for his grandfather. What keeps a 23-year-old chasing this when his college friends are already cashing bigger checks?

🎵 Noah Silver's latest: Kaleidoscope (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
0:43 A Tip for an Original at The Row
2:16 Going Full-Time After Vanderbilt
3:30 Family Support for the Dream
4:35 How Many Gigs a Week
5:25 The Grind of Playing Covers
7:25 Why Nashville Means Community Over Competition
9:29 The EP "Kaleidoscope" and "Crazy One"
11:18 Co-Writing With Kent Blazy and the Bluebird
14:13 The Murder Ballad "The Only Ones Who Know"
16:21 What's Next: A Deluxe Edition and "Takes Me Back"
18:00 60 Seconds of Curiosity
19:51 Live Performance: "Takes Me Back"

📊 FREE REPORT: Where music, money, and AI are heading → State of Music summary

📬 NEWSLETTER: One story behind the music, every week → Subscribe free

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

Johnny Cash's old producer cut nine songs with her at sixteen, then vanished. She kept going.

Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity

Sarah Mootz was sixteen when Johnny Cash's former producer recorded a nine-song album with her and then disappeared without a word. On this episode she tells Jason English what twelve years in the business taught her about vouching for yourself, from converting rooms of people eating pizza to a brutal American Idol audition that pushed her to be someone she's not. She splits her time between the songwriter soul of Athens and the business mindset of Nashville and LA, building everything by hand. Her album Human Condition is the most honest work she's made, written, as she puts it, to tell herself the things she isn't saying yet. What does it cost to keep believing in yourself when no one's handing you permission?

🎵 Sarah Mootz's forthcoming album: Human Condition

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
2:00 Vouching for Yourself
3:21 Johnny Cash's Producer and the Ghosting
4:30 Finding Athens and Studying Music Business
6:21 Confidence and Converting the Pizza Crowd
9:51 Making the Ask
12:52 "Say You Love Me"
14:21 The American Idol Story
19:56 "The Dog"
21:21 The Album: Human Condition
23:41 Doing It Myself
27:35 60 Seconds of Curiosity
29:43 Live Performance: "Say You Love Me"
33:06 Live Performance: "The Secret"

📊 FREE REPORT: Our research on how artists really make money in the age of AI and streaming → State of Music summary

📬 NEWSLETTER: Stories behind the episodes, in your inbox → Subscribe free

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

A Cape Cod carpenter who writes his best songs before 8 a.m., one line at a time.

Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity

Greg Loftus sat down with Jason on a Saturday morning at his first AmericanaFest, a week out from releasing No Kings in the Wild. He splits his life between a Cape Cod wood shop, where he builds tables and bars under the name Narrowland Woodworks, and the guitar he picks up every morning from 7 to 7:45 to chip away at new songs. He talks about trading Austin for the Northeast, the divorce and early-COVID stretch that filled a record, and why he has never been in a hurry to quit the day job. What does taking the leap even look like when the stable thing and the calling both feel like home?

🎵 Greg Loftus's latest: No Kings in the Wild (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
0:43 First AmericanaFest, Fresh Album
1:00 The Dream Festival Lineup
2:51 Scoping the Scene and Bloodshot at 30
4:02 A Music Life on Cape Cod
4:29 From the Cape to Austin and Back
6:52 Narrowland Woodworks and the Day Job
9:17 Songwriting as Therapy, Woodworking as Meditation
12:21 Divorce, COVID, and the Songs That Followed
14:55 What "No Kings in the Wild" Means
17:34 Castaways and Wash Ashores
20:47 The Steve Earle Camp and Meeting Anders Osborne
23:20 Show Up and Do the Work
25:11 60 Seconds of Curiosity

📊 FREE REPORT: What 573 artists and fans told us about music, money, and AI → State of Music summary

📬 NEWSLETTER: Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe free

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

Ten years producing for other people. Now he is learning to be the artist.

Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity

Elis Cole grew up just outside Nashville, grandson of Don Winters, a yodeler who once held a world record for holding a note. His own path ran through a decade of production long before it ever reached a microphone. At a songwriter retreat, he sits down with Jason English to talk about stepping out from behind the boards and into the role of artist, and about the sound he calls upbeat sad boy: driving pop built on the melancholy of growing up. His 2023 album Wrong Person, Right Time set that identity, and a new teaser called "2003" hints at where he is headed. What happens to the music when the sadness starts to feel less like a wound and more like home?

🎵 Elis Cole's latest: Wrong Person, Right Time (2023)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome From the Songwriter Retreat
0:39 Inside the Ari Retreat
2:51 A Moment That Sticks: Sitting on the Artist's Side
3:56 Growing Up Just Outside Nashville
6:23 A Grandfather and a Yodeling Record
7:36 Defining "Upbeat Sad Boy"
8:20 Why the Lyrics Lean Sad
9:02 Where the Sound Is Headed
10:12 Influences and Hyper-Pop
11:39 Is Nashville the Right Place
13:44 The Underground Scene
14:44 The Melancholy Behind the Music
16:41 Wrong Person, Right Time
17:32 60 Seconds of Curiosity
19:14 Live Performance: "2003"

📊 FREE REPORT: Grab the State of Music summary

📬 NEWSLETTER: Subscribe free

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

His angsty breakup songs aren't about a person. They're about leaving the religion he grew up in.

Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity

Tawnted spent a year sidelined by injury, lost a relationship, and moved to a new city, and he turned every bit of it into songs. On this episode he tells Jason English about growing up a gay Jehovah's Witness, working as a missionary at nineteen, and walking away at twenty into a kind of shunning. He explains why so many of his tracks sound like breakups but are really about leaving a faith, and how his Seven Deadly Sins project, including the single "You're So Fake," channels anger into something he can release rather than become. Raised to be certain about everything, he's now most at home being unsure. What happens when you're finally allowed to ask the questions you were never permitted to?

🎵 Tawnted's latest: the single "You're So Fake" (2024), from his Seven Deadly Sins project

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:43 A Year of Setbacks: Injury and a Breakup
3:07 Anger as Fuel for Songwriting
3:56 "Unwell" and the Jenga Video
5:41 Raised a Gay Jehovah's Witness
7:53 Leaving the Religion at Twenty
10:25 Writing From the Dark, Not the Happy
11:13 Going Independent and the Seven Deadly Sins
15:42 60 Seconds of Curiosity
19:00 Live Performance: "Start a War"

📊 FREE REPORT: Our research on how artists really make money in the age of AI and streaming → State of Music summary

📬 NEWSLETTER: Stories behind the episodes, in your inbox → Subscribe free

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

She went viral with one song, then chose to build a career with no backup plan.

Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity

Kaia Jette dropped a single called "Medusa," watched it cross twelve million streams, and used the momentum to chase a sound she calls Fantasy Rock. Recorded at a Nashville songwriter retreat, this conversation traces her path from Utah's underground venues through LA to Music City, and gets into why she runs the whole operation, marketing included, on her own. She is blunt about the cost of going all in: she refuses to keep a backup plan, because a backup plan is where you end up. Her EP Apollo turns Greek myth into something cinematic and loud. What does it take to bet everything on the one thing you can't not do?

🎵 Kaia Jette's latest: Apollo (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Meeting Kaia at the Ari Retreat
1:04 How She Landed at the Songwriter Retreat
2:11 What "Fantasy Rock" Actually Means
2:54 Greek Mythology and the Rise of "Medusa"
3:05 Growing Up in Utah's Underground Scene
4:11 Utah to LA to Nashville
7:13 Dating and Settling Into Nashville
8:35 Where She Stands as an Artist Today
8:42 Going Fully Independent and Learning Marketing
10:56 The "No Backup Plan" Philosophy
11:54 60 Seconds of Curiosity
12:19 Where Her Songs Come From
12:53 What's Next

📊 FREE REPORT: The state of music in the age of AI and streaming → State of Music summary

📬 NEWSLETTER: Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe free

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

He has a million followers. The break that mattered most was a call he nearly ignored.

Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity

Philip Bowen sat down at Eddie's Attic in Atlanta, between tour stops and just off a run of late-night recording sessions back home in West Virginia. He talks about building an audience of more than a million through years of nightly livestreams, and why the invitations that meant the most were the Bluebird Cafe and NPR's Mountain Stage. His debut album Old Kanawha is named for the river near his childhood home, holding both the beauty of Appalachia and the weight of the opioid crisis. He is candid about burnout, about a December when he nearly walked away, and about the phone call that came two days after Christmas. What does success look like once you already have the thing everyone else is chasing?

🎵 Philip Bowen's latest: Old Kanawha (2023)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
1:02 Mid-Tour and What Success Looks Like
3:50 Making Space to Write on the Road
5:10 Finding Balance with Family
6:42 Beyond the Follower Count
9:00 The Bluebird and Mountain Stage
12:16 Leaving the Corporate Job
13:00 The Daily Create and the Lockdown Livestreams
16:42 60 Seconds of Curiosity
21:40 Almost Quitting and the Call That Changed Everything
25:00 Old Kanawha and the Stories of Home
28:14 Getting the Americana Fest Spotlight
29:00 The Misconceptions About Appalachia
33:00 "A Murder" and "Vampire in Appalachia"
40:00 The Story Behind "Sweet Honey"
44:48 Live Performance: "Sweet Honey"

📊 FREE REPORT: Get the State of Music summary.

📬 NEWSLETTER: Subscribe free to Chords of Curiosity.

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