A country veteran on saying yes more at 55, and enjoying the work more than she ever has.

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Kelly Willis has been in country music a long time, and she says she's enjoying it now more than ever. She talks about saying yes to more of what comes her way, the move from rockabilly to country, and the social anxiety she's worked through along the way. She also gets into her new trio, the Wonder Women of Country, and a forthcoming EP. What changes when you stop bracing against your career and start having fun with it?

🎵 Latest project: Wonder Women of Country (trio)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 The Power of Saying Yes
1:44 Meeting Kelly Willis
2:31 Austin and the 30A Festival
5:11 Songwriting and Co-Writing
9:25 Affirmation and Taylor Swift
12:59 The Wonder Women of Country
17:33 Working Through Social Anxiety
20:37 The Pressures of the Spotlight
21:30 60 Seconds of Curiosity
27:04 Future Projects
29:02 The Changing Industry
32:05 Live Performance

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

📬 NEWSLETTER: Chords of Curiosity goes deeper on every episode: the moments that didn't make the clips, what I'm learning running this show, and one curiosity prompt every issue → 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 blind singer-songwriter on building a business and a brand the music industry didn't make room for

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

Wyatt Edmondson has built an independent career on his own terms, and he is candid about both halves of it. The first half is business: the revenue streams and marketing that keep an independent musician afloat. The second is the art, and how his visual impairment has shaped the way he connects with a room. Faith runs through both. How do you build a living in music when the usual paths weren't designed with you in mind?

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:53 The Business of Independent Music
2:13 Vision and a Music Career
2:35 Live Performance and Conversation
5:12 Revenue Streams and Marketing
23:09 Music and Personal Growth
29:46 The Role of Faith
31:46 Future Goals
33:31 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

She wrote her album's title track from a true 1800s story, and now she's deep in her own family tree

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

Amanda Donald builds songs out of other people's lives and her own. She talks about writing "100 Roots," the title track of her first album, from a true story set in the 1800s, and where her ear for narrative comes from. The conversation runs from songwriting to a fast game of red-flag-or-deal-breaker before she gets into her current rabbit hole: tracing her family tree on Ancestry. What pulls a songwriter toward other people's stories in the first place?

🎵 Amanda Donald's latest: 100 Roots

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Attraction Theories
1:14 Meeting Amanda Donald
2:25 Festivals and the Road
3:30 The Debut Album, 100 Roots
5:55 The True Story Behind "100 Roots"
8:11 "When I Leave Alabama" and "Red Flags"
11:53 Red Flag or Deal Breaker?
17:05 Into Music and Songwriting
22:21 60 Seconds of Curiosity
23:34 Current Obsession: Ancestry
24:28 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

An Irish songwriter on the therapy that rebuilt her voice, and the silence she grew up in

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

Clare Cunningham grew up feeling silenced, and cognitive behavioral therapy is part of how she found her way back to her voice. The Irish singer-songwriter talks about building an independent career, writing through her mental health, and the cultural roots that run under her music. She closes the episode with her anthem "I Swear," a song built to hold someone else up. What does it take to turn the hardest parts of your story into the thing that helps other people?

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:11 Personal Struggles
1:52 The Independent Artist Path
3:04 The 30A Songwriters Festival
3:54 Highlights of 2023
5:23 Mission and Transformation
7:51 Growing Up Silenced
8:54 Finding Therapy
15:47 The Thunder Mother Moment
22:03 Songwriting and Irish Roots
28:40 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

A Nashville songwriter on the stage fright he writes around, and the South that pulled his songs out

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

Matt Killough moved from Denver back to the South, and the homecoming cracked his songwriting open. He traces the family ties across Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, the American roots and British folk that shaped his debut album, and the storytelling instinct at the center of his writing. He is also candid about the performance anxiety that sits oddly next to his love of making records. How do you build a music career around the part you love when the stage is the part you dread?

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:36 Meeting Matt Killough
2:47 The 30A Songwriters Festival
5:56 Musical Influences
12:19 Making the First Album
18:11 The Stories Behind the Songs
26:26 Stage Fright and What's Next
34:02 Ted Lasso and Belief
37:04 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

A 23-year partnership, a five-year silence, and why they still play to any size room

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

Bradley Cole Smith and Nelson Nolen have made music together in Atlanta for 23 years. They talk about adapting to any room, from Smith's Olde Bar to songwriter festivals, why they are finally ready to release new music after a five-year hiatus, and how positivity and lived experience shape the songs. Ted Lasso keeps coming up as a metaphor for the whole thing. What keeps two musicians going long after audience size stops being the point?

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Love for Singing
1:49 New Year, New Musical Goals
2:54 The Craft of Songwriting
3:30 A 23-Year Band History
4:23 Memorable Road Stories
6:21 How the Partnership Writes
10:11 Georgia's Influence on the Sound
12:58 From Band to Solo and Back
14:06 Writing from Positivity
19:12 The Pandemic's Toll
20:27 Venues and Festivals
26:50 60 Seconds of Curiosity

📊 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