An Austrian-Irish band whose Americana roots run deeper than the map suggests

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

The Belgian Blue formed out of Ireland, Austria, and a reunion in Montana, and somehow the Americana in their sound feels earned. Padraig McMahon, Ian Strawn, and Moritz Colin Bauer talk about how the band came together, what streaming does to independent artists, and the story behind "The Bare Minimum." How does American roots music end up sounding most at home in voices from across the ocean?

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:39 Streaming, a Double-Edged Sword
2:13 Meet The Belgian Blue
3:51 Reuniting in Montana
7:36 The Origin of the Band
16:10 Influences and Genre
27:35 The Songwriting Process
31:00 The Story of "The Bare Minimum"
42:17 Intention and Curiosity
53:07 Closing Thoughts

📊 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 married duo re-recording ten years of songs to strip out the fear they were written in

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

Kyle and Gretta Miller of TOW'rs mark ten years together with "Versions," an album that revisits their own catalog. They talk about how their sound and their faith have both changed, moving from certainty toward something more open, and how parenthood reshaped the writing. It is a real conversation about a marriage and a band evolving at the same time. What do you keep, and what do you rewrite, when you look back at who you used to be?

🎵 TOW'rs' latest: Versions (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
2:51 Discovering TOW'rs
4:38 Kyle and Gretta's Pros and Cons
10:04 The Evolution of the Sound
18:38 Faith and Personal Growth
29:28 Embracing Uncertainty
37:15 The Evolution of Songwriting
46:33 Parenthood and Music
54:42 The New Album
56:18 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

He hitchhiked to Nashville at eighteen to be the next Bob Dylan. It took ten more years to stay.

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

Dean Harlem hitchhiked from New Jersey to Nashville at eighteen, certain someone would hand him a record deal. Instead he spent a decade busking everywhere from San Francisco to Ireland before moving back to stay. Now he plays original songs at Chief's on Broadway, keeps bees on an acre and a half, and traces his path across the Northeast on his EP Red Oak Hill. He talks about being born in Ukraine, the pull of Irish storytelling, and a definition of success measured in one filled stadium section a night. What does it cost to keep choosing the life you chose?

🎵 Dean Harlem's latest: Red Oak Hill (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Meeting Dean Through Matt and Jacob
2:00 The Dream of Filling One Section a Night
3:00 A Dollar in the Tip Jar in San Francisco
5:00 Hitchhiking to Nashville and the Long Road Back
6:15 Why Nashville Still Matters
7:00 An Original Songs Residency at Chief's on Broadway
8:40 Touring and Busking in Ireland
12:00 Born in Ukraine, a Subconscious Home in Europe
13:28 The Red Oak Hill EP
14:30 Heroes and the Life He Wants
16:09 Dean's Tennessee Honey
17:35 What the Bees Teach About Design
21:14 On the Road With the Jaybirds
22:24 60 Seconds of Curiosity
24:11 Live Performance: "Rock Bottom"

📊 FREE REPORT: The State of Music in the Age of AI and Streaming, free summary → 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

A Zac Brown Band founder on living, and fighting, with ALS

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

John Driskell Hopkins helped found the Zac Brown Band, and he is facing ALS with a clarity that is hard to look away from. Recorded live at Rock 'n Taco in Roswell, he talks about the early grind, the breakthrough years, his diagnosis, and the Hop on a Cure foundation he started to fight the disease. He is honest about the hard parts and stubbornly hopeful. What does it look like to keep showing up when the clock is loud?

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:48 Understanding ALS
2:53 Meet John Driskell Hopkins
3:38 Early Career and Meeting Zac Brown
11:44 The Grind and the Breakthrough
14:11 Songwriting and Insights
20:14 Living with ALS
23:54 Hop on a Cure
27:59 Closing Thoughts

📊 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

No following, no venues, so she booked her first tour playing for shelter cats.

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

Rachel McIntyre Smith passed out cold when her keyboard collapsed on her hand at soundcheck, then got up and played the show anyway. The East Tennessee native sits down with Jason at AmericanaFest to talk about bypassing the industry's front door with a ukulele and a circuit of cat cafes, funding her music with a full-time multimedia day job, and her second EP, Honeysuckle Friend. Her song "Grow Up Slow" pushes back on the pressure to have life figured out before thirty. What happens when you stop measuring yourself against everyone else's timeline?

🎵 Rachel McIntyre Smith's latest: Honeysuckle Friend (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
0:45 Meeting at AmericanaFest in Nashville
1:32 What Tennessee Does Best
2:47 Building a Dream AmericanaFest Lineup
3:31 How a Collapsing Keyboard Won Over Gabe Lee
5:32 Life in East Nashville
7:10 The Day Job and the Leap
8:42 Small-Town Roots and Classical Piano
10:55 The Cat Cafe Circuit
13:13 Finding a Producer and Moving to Nashville
14:55 The Honeysuckle Friend EP
16:31 "Grow Up Slow" and the 29-Year-Old Deadline
19:19 The Biggest Challenge
21:42 "Parentheses" and What Goes Unsaid
22:30 "Memories in the Middle"
23:47 60 Seconds of Curiosity
25:54 The Honeysuckle Friend Sessions
28:00 Live Performance: "Parentheses" and "Grow Up Slow"

📊 FREE REPORT: Get the State of Music summary, our research on music in the age of AI and streaming.

📬 NEWSLETTER: Subscribe free to Chords of Curiosity for the stories behind every episode.

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 has the following most musicians chase. She would rather you listen to the songs.

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

Erin Gibney moved from Connecticut to Nashville at eighteen to attend Belmont, and spent the next seven years learning when to speak up. She talks with Jason English about writing "Kryptonite" after kissing a guy best friend, the five-year relationship behind "Exit Signs," and why she releases her music one single at a time so no song gets lost. She has the kind of social following most artists would trade a lot for, and she has spent the last year deciding what she actually wants to do with it. What happens when the thing you are good at online is the same thing you are trying to be taken seriously for offstage?

🎵 Erin Gibney's latest single: "Kryptonite" (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
0:52 Kissing A Coworker Or A Friend
2:43 Green Flags And Red Flags
4:27 Can You Escape The Friend Zone?
6:12 From Connecticut To Belmont
7:55 Building A Platform On Real Life
9:40 Learning To Say What She Thinks
12:30 "Kryptonite" And The Guy Best Friend
14:51 "Exit Signs" And The Five-Year Relationship
15:26 "By June" And The Myth Of A Healing Timeline
17:05 Brand Deals And Influencer Management
18:23 Touring, Co-Writes, And The Bluebird
20:00 60 Seconds Of Curiosity
23:52 Live Performance: "Not Something I've Told My Friends"

📊 FREE REPORT: Grab the State of Music summary — what is really happening to artists in the age of streaming and AI.

📬 NEWSLETTER: Subscribe free for the stories behind every episode.

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

Thirty years in, Julian Taylor says the biggest obstacle he has ever faced is himself.

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

Julian Taylor sat down with Jason English in Nashville during Americana Fest, a week before his new album Pathways arrived. A Toronto songwriter of Black and Indigenous heritage, he has spent thirty years moving from the rock of Staggered Crossing to the soul and Americana of The Ridge and Beyond the Reservoir. He talks about writing "Sixth Line Road" for hockey pioneer Herb Carnegie, the prejudice he has met in the industry, and why he keeps loosening his grip on what success is supposed to look like. What does a thirty-year career teach you about the voice in your own head?

🎵 Julian Taylor's latest: Pathways (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 → Welcome
1:21 → Americana Fest and the Pull of Music City
3:00 → Building Pathways and the Songwriting Process
5:00 → Staying Connected to Yourself and the Room
8:00 → Intentionally Confused: Measuring Success After 30 Years
12:00 → Albums as Snapshots in Time
14:07 → 60 Seconds of Curiosity
16:30 → The Paralympic Race and Glimpses of Hope
19:50 → Inside Pathways: Love, Justice, and Resilience
23:43 → "Love Letters" and the Lost Art of the Letter
24:50 → "Sixth Line Road" and the Story of Herb Carnegie
27:00 → Facing Prejudice in the Music Industry
30:02 → "Weighing Down" and Being Your Own Obstacle
32:19 → Live Performance: "As We Grow"

📊 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

He built a fake album cover in 1974. Decades later, he'd worked with almost everyone he listed on it.

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

Phil Madeira has spent thirty years as the quiet engine inside Emmylou Harris's band and a long list of Nashville's most soulful records. He sits down with Jason to trace the road from his 1994 stint in Rich Mullins's Ragamuffin Band to a faith he now describes as a continuum rather than a verdict. Along the way he talks about the grandmother whose constant disapproval may have made him an artist, the records he wrote to get through heartbreak, and the Mercyland collection he calls his life's work. He ends with a live take on "Midnight Mass," co-written with Sandra McCracken. What does it look like to feel at the top of your game at 72 and still be hungry to keep going?

🎵 Phil's latest: A Mercyland Christmas (2023)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
0:43 Seeing the Ragamuffin Band in 1994
1:48 How an Accordion Led to Emmylou Harris
3:00 Why "Yes" Became His Mantra
6:00 Leaving the Christian Music World
10:00 God on the Rocks: Faith as a Continuum
14:00 Believing and Doubting at the Same Time
28:00 The Grandmother Who Shaped Him
30:00 Writing Through Loss and Anger
37:00 60 Seconds of Curiosity
39:00 At the Top of His Game at 72
46:00 The 1974 Record Cover That Came True
50:00 Mercyland and the Work of Goodwill
57:00 Live Performance: "Midnight Mass"

📊 FREE REPORT: Grab the State of Music summary for what artists really think about streaming and AI.

📬 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

A combat medic who lost three friends, now chasing country music in Nashville.

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

Omer Netzer left Israel for Nashville on what was supposed to be a three-week trip. Seven months later he is still here, knocking on doors at CMA and Whiskey Jam, introducing himself with a guitar and a story most people in country music have never heard. A combat medic who went back to serve after October 7th, he now writes songs he says are less about trucks and more about survival, faith, and the friends he lost. His first US single, "God Works in Mysterious Ways," is the one he says saved his life. What does a musician owe the people who can no longer speak for themselves?

🎵 Omer Netzer's latest single: "God Works in Mysterious Ways" (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
1:00 Seven Months in Nashville
2:04 Where the Confidence Comes From
3:20 The Only Israeli-Born Country Singer
4:00 Growing Up in Nahariya
5:00 From Pop Stages Back to His Roots
6:00 Bon Jovi's Manager and the Memphis Blues
9:00 Combat Medic at Eighteen
11:00 Going Back After October 7th
14:00 Hustling Into CMA and Whiskey Jam
19:19 "If Whiskey Was a Friend"
20:00 "God Works in Mysterious Ways"
24:00 Dreaming Big and the Music Business
25:33 60 Seconds of Curiosity
31:36 Live Performance: "Save My Soul"

📊 FREE REPORT: The State of Music in the Age of AI and Streaming. Get the summary → 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

An album written from anger, by an artist who calls anger a sign of care

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

Humbird, the project of Minnesota's Siri Undlin, made Right On out of anger, and she's quick to call that a sign of care rather than something to apologize for. A preacher's kid raised in a progressive Lutheran community, she talks about a louder, grittier record shaped by George Floyd's murder and her own Minneapolis neighborhood, the slow grind of real change, and why she holds space for people carrying religious trauma. She gets into a decade of DIY touring, an obsession with folklore and storytelling, and why she'd rather cover Billy Joel than reinvent the wheel. What happens when the anger underneath a record turns out to be a form of love?

🎵 Humbird's latest: Right On (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold Open
1:00 Touring "Right On"
2:00 A Grittier, Louder Record
3:00 Anger as Care
4:00 George Floyd, Minneapolis & Direct Lyrics
9:30 DIY Years & the Nashville Biker Bar
13:00 Preacher's Kid: Mom the Pastor
15:30 Holding Space for Religious Trauma
19:45 60 Seconds of Curiosity
22:30 Storytelling, Fairy Tales & Folklore
25:30 Covering the Men, and Billy Joel
28:30 Where the Band Is Now
31:30 The Themes of "Right On"
33:00 The Song Vault & Co-Writing "Fast Food"

📊 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