Curious Goldfish Podcast

He hated being called a Rising Star. Twenty years in, he finally stopped chasing it.

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

Griffin House sits down with Jason at the 30A Songwriters Festival, a stretch of Florida coast he has been coming to since he was eleven. He talks about the documentary that followed his early grind: the van, the merch box, the nights playing to forty people, and the title "Rising Star" he never wanted. Two decades and more than a dozen albums later, he has traded the hunger of a young artist for something quieter, three songs a year, sobriety, and a front-row seat to his daughter finding her own voice. What happens to an artist when the striving finally stops?

🎵 Griffin House's latest: Summer Dream (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
0:45 Why 30A Feels Like Home
2:44 The Pride Of Springfield, Ohio
5:09 Busking In Cincinnati
6:26 Revisiting The Rising Star Documentary
8:01 The Grind And The Empty Room
10:35 Watching His Daughter Find Her Voice
11:16 The Title He Never Wanted
12:04 Writing Three Songs A Year
16:02 Songwriting As Therapy
17:15 Living Through The Industry's Shift
18:45 Getting Sober And Staying There
20:39 Present As A Husband And Father
22:10 60 Seconds of Curiosity
26:13 The Song For His Grandfather
30:12 Live Performance: "I Remember"
35:35 Live Performance: "The Guy That Says Goodbye To You Is Out Of His Mind"

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

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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

One show stole her confidence. The other gave it back tenfold.

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

Jacquie Roar wrote her anthem "That's the Spirit" miserable and running on no sleep the morning after karaoke, because the Curb session was booked and she showed up anyway. The North Plains, Oregon singer talks with Jason English about her four-chair turn on The Voice, the six months away from her daughter, and why she's building a career from the Pacific Northwest instead of moving to Nashville. She's candid about an earlier reality show that nearly made her quit music for good, and about the relationship she had to leave before she could write her next single, "Other Side." With a debut album taking shape from songs cut in a Joshua Tree mansion, she's chasing something bigger than a zip code. What does success look like when you refuse to choose between motherhood and the stage?

🎵 Jacquie Roar's latest single: "That's the Spirit" (2025)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
1:26 The New Single and an Album Taking Shape
4:04 From Karaoke Nights to The Voice
9:22 Life During the Six-Month Taping
12:51 The American Idol Experience
22:08 Real Talk and Dinner With Reba
31:40 The Steal and the Battle With Bias
36:53 Learning to Write With Others
41:46 "Other Side" and Getting Out
47:05 Motherhood and Breaking the Cycle
51:32 60 Seconds of Curiosity
53:26 Nashville, Oregon, and Shining Brighter

📊 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

He co-wrote Jimmy Buffett's last song while Buffett was sick. Buffett wanted him to be himself.

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

Will Kimbrough has spent more than three decades as the musician other musicians call, anchoring Emmylou Harris's band and producing Grammy-nominated records for Shemekia Copeland. On this episode he sits with Jason English on the Gulf Coast to talk about his 2024 solo album For the Life of Me and the song "Bubbles Up," which he co-wrote for Jimmy Buffett's final record while Buffett was in treatment. He describes the trust that let him stop imitating and start sounding like himself, and why the energy in a live room still matters more than anything digital. He's just as moved by writing songs with veterans and trauma survivors as by sharing a stage with legends. After a lifetime as the man beside the stars, where does a long-time artist place himself?

🎵 Will Kimbrough's latest: For the Life of Me (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:16 What Keeps Him Coming Back to 30A
2:20 Take a Chance on Live Music
5:20 The Bob Dylan Movie and a Snapshot in Time
8:22 Emmylou Harris and the Grievous Angel
15:41 A Grammy-Nominated Year
20:00 First Songwriting Nod for "Blame It on Eve"
23:42 Jimmy Buffett and the Trust to Be Himself
30:00 The Meaning Behind "Bubbles Up"
31:31 Paul McCartney Hears the Song
33:42 60 Seconds of Curiosity
36:00 Songwriting With Soldiers
40:21 Where He's Going as an Artist
48:35 Live Performance: "Bubbles Up"
54:00 Live Performance: "For the Life of Me"

📊 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 made a 22-song breakup record. Then she told her co-writers: no more sad songs.

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

Twinnie grew up in a traveler family in North Yorkshire, did musical theater and soap operas, and now writes country songs in Nashville as a self-described outsider. On this episode she tells Jason English why authenticity matters more than genre rules, and why being British in country music is a superpower rather than a hurdle. After pouring a decade-long breakup into her 22-song independent project Something We Used to Say, she's turning the frequency up with the single "Worst Kind of Crush" and a forthcoming Happy Hour EP. She's blunt about the masculine energy it takes to run an independent career and the depth she wants over surface-level noise. What happens when you decide you're done being sad before the sad songs are even old?

🎵 Twinnie's latest: the single "Worst Kind of Crush," leading her forthcoming Happy Hour EP

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:00 Nashville, England, and North Yorkshire Roots
3:15 The Grammys and Country's Shifting Boundaries
9:29 "Worst Kind of Crush" and the Happy Hour Era
14:07 "Something We Used to Say" and Going Independent
19:28 The Folklore Comparison and Building a World
22:08 "Bad Man" and Why We Date Bad Boys
26:00 Masculine Versus Feminine Energy
29:28 Dating Icks and Old-Fashioned Values
31:00 60 Seconds of Curiosity
40:02 Ted Lasso and Being Yourself

📊 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

At 17 he plays the blues like an old soul, and refuses to fake the wisdom.

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

At the 30A Songwriters Festival, 17-year-old Jack Barksdale talks about playing lead guitar for Guthrie Kennard, the Fort Worth scene that raised him, and the advice that stuck: stop trying to play someone else's blues and play your own. He is signed to Truly Handmade, the label tied to Guy Clark's estate, and was deep into recording the album that became Voices with producer Mike Meadows. He holds up Townes Van Zandt as both a hero and a warning, and explains why he will not write wisdom he has not lived. What does it cost a young artist to stay honest when everyone wants to talk about his age?

🎵 Jack Barksdale's latest: Voices (2025)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome to Curious Goldfish
0:43 How Jack Got on the Show: Lindi Ortega and Jacob Furr
2:11 Inside the Fort Worth Music Scene
3:47 Guthrie Kennard and Playing Your Own Blues
7:15 Writing Honestly at 17
11:28 Songwriter or Musician?
13:41 Where He Is, Where He Wants to Be
17:08 Townes Van Zandt and the Cautionary Tale
19:00 The Truly Handmade Label and a New Album
21:00 60 Seconds of Curiosity
23:52 Live Performance: "The Willing Kind"

📊 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

On camera, a picture-perfect family band. Off camera, a daughter planning her way out.

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

Jessica Willis Fisher sat down with Jason at the 30A Songwriter Festival and described crying on stage mid-song while her family band kept smiling for the cameras. Once the centerpiece of The Willis Clan, known from America's Got Talent and a TLC reality show, she spent years inside what she calls a closed system before reclaiming her voice through her memoir Unspeakable and her solo debut Brand New Day. She talks about the 700 Club interview that still makes her angry to watch, the husband who modeled a way out without forcing it, and a faith she is still sorting through on her own terms. If nearly everything you were raised to believe turned out to be a cage, what do you carry forward?

🎵 Jessica Willis Fisher's latest: Brand New Day (2022)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome at the 30A Songwriter Festival
3:47 Where the New Music Stands
5:25 Beyond "Brand New Day"
7:47 Where She Is as an Artist Today
8:48 The Memoir "Unspeakable"
13:00 The Gap Between Image and Reality
15:26 The 700 Club Interview
20:13 Faith Then and Now
23:00 Fundamentalism and the Closed System
29:37 Glimmers in the Dark
30:16 Sean and the Trapdoor Out
35:43 Making Meaning From the Pain
39:39 The Power Has Shifted
41:30 60 Seconds of Curiosity
43:30 Live Performance: "Dogwood"
47:15 Live Performance: "Honest"

📊 FREE REPORT: Grab 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

Days after fire nearly took his home, Chris Stills sang an old song about leaving California.

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

Chris Stills came to the 30A Songwriters Festival straight out of the Los Angeles fires, after three sleepless nights watching flames climb toward his Tarzana home. On stage the day before, a song he wrote decades ago about wanting to leave California stopped him cold. Son of Stephen Stills and Véronique Sanson, he talks about the family business, turning 50, and a new album, Hail to the Road. What do you actually need when everything else can burn?

🎵 Chris Stills's latest: Hail to the Road (2025)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
0:58 Escaping The LA Fires
10:00 When "Sweet California" Turned Personal
13:00 Helping The Recovery Effort
15:30 Turning 50 And The Second Half
18:22 A Legendary Family: Stephen Stills And Véronique Sanson
21:37 Was Music Always The Plan?
22:00 The Songs That Lit The Spark
24:00 New Album: Hail To The Road
26:14 60 Seconds of Curiosity
29:35 Live Performance: "Sweet California"

📊 FREE REPORT: Read 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

Her father's last three words became the title of the record.

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

Teri Bracken titled her album with the last thing her father said before he died from cancer: I'm not done yet. Recording as Brontë Fall, the Nashville songwriter and Berklee graduate talks about building a music life against a family that expected law, medicine, or business, and about the math of streaming, touring, and merch that makes some weeks feel impossible. She walks through "Old Woman," her Bob Dylan-style take on aging in an industry obsessed with youth, and "Tennessee," her first song about finally feeling settled. She also opens up about a two-year mystery illness that nearly ended things before they began. What does it take to keep choosing a life the numbers keep telling you to quit?

🎵 Brontë Fall's latest: Not Done Yet (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
0:46 Chicago Holidays and Family Traditions
2:43 John O'Brien and the Album's Title
5:00 "Old Woman" and a Road-Trip Idea
6:50 Berklee, Friction, and Following the Dream
8:07 The Business of Music and "Worth the Money"
11:00 Streaming, Touring, and Merch
13:02 Aging in the Industry
14:48 The Brontë Sisters and the Name
16:58 Where She Is as an Artist
18:44 Nashville and the Song "Tennessee"
23:15 What the Album Taught Her
24:14 A Mystery Illness and Resilience
28:26 60 Seconds of Curiosity
30:09 Live Performance: "Old Woman"

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

📬 NEWSLETTER: Stories behind the songs, every other 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

She was trapping for real. Now she writes trap music to help people heal.

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

Rissa Vibes met host Jason English at the Ari Retreat in Nashville, fresh off two photo shoots and two new songs in a single Tuesday. The Michigan native turned Atlanta artist talks about Trap Alchemist and what she calls trap formation: the heavy 808s and the hype, minus the toxic messages. She is fourteen years clean, and she traces her sound back to a rock bottom she does not flinch from naming. What does it mean to make a whole genre feel good to sing out loud?

🎵 Rissa Vibes's latest: Trap Alchemist (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome and the Ari Retreat in Nashville
1:01 First Time in the Music City
2:58 Four Years Old and Already Singing
3:32 The Vocalists Who Shaped Her
3:53 Becoming a Trap Alchemist
5:33 Trap Meets Affirmation
6:00 Why Atlanta Called Her Home
9:14 The Gifts She Felt at Seven
12:17 Rock Bottom and the Road Back
15:24 Singing for the Newly Sober
16:25 Festival Stages and What Comes Next
17:51 60 Seconds of Curiosity
19:51 The Ted Lasso Effect
22:53 Honor Your Authenticity

📊 FREE REPORT: Read our 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

She learned to sing a whole song backward, in one take, on camera.

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

Jon and Channing Krentz are married, share a band, and are seven years removed from the Minnesota move that brought Lake & Lyndale to Nashville. They talk about the radical honesty of working with a spouse, why their single "Man Upstairs" tucks a question about faith inside a story about thin apartment walls, and the video where Channing sings "There's a Weight" entirely in reverse. With a new EP planned for 2026, they keep their eyes on the small boxes instead of the Grammy-sized ones. What does it take to keep choosing the work, and each other, after twelve years?

🎵 Lake & Lyndale's latest single: "Man Upstairs" (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
0:45 Meet Jon and Channing Krentz
1:30 What They Appreciate Most About Each Other
5:20 Marriage, Work, and How They Met
9:02 The Move From Minnesota to Nashville
11:27 The Surprise of Nashville's Community
13:57 Corporate Gigs and Funding the Music
15:49 The Singles Strategy
18:36 "Man Upstairs" and the Double Entendre
21:51 Faith, Religion, and Staying Curious
29:37 "The Sequel"
30:55 Touring Plans and Favorite Nashville Venues
32:22 Where They Are, Where They Want to Be
37:19 The Backward-Singing Video and Making Content
43:42 60 Seconds of Curiosity

📊 FREE REPORT: Read 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