Curious Goldfish Podcast

Twenty years in, five labels deep, and one comeback

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

Earl (born Kate Earl) sat down with Jason at the ARI Retreat in Nashville, twenty years and five record deals into a career she talks about in chapters and incarnations. She is candid about what the major-label machine cost her, why she left the country to follow her own royalties, and the strange grace of a Britney Spears post that pushed "All That Glitters" into the billions of streams. Now settled in the Blue Ridge Mountains and re-recording her own masters, she is running the whole operation herself for the first time. What does making it even mean once you stop asking permission?

🎵 Earl's latest: Tongue Tied (2017)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome From the ARI Retreat in Nashville
1:13 Coming In as a Swiss Army Knife
4:09 The Thin Line Between Making It and Not
6:18 Twenty Years In: The Cost of the Machine
9:33 When the Deal Wanted Her Family
11:00 England, Legal Bills, and a Double Life
14:16 The Responsibility of the Gift
16:26 The Asheville Home and the Song That Paid for It
21:32 Reclaiming the Master
23:00 60 Seconds of Curiosity

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

📬 NEWSLETTER: New guests, stories, and songs 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

His family has been in one Mississippi town for 150 years. His whole life is the road.

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

Charlie Mars walks on stage without a setlist, reading the room and pulling from ten albums until something clicks. Back home in the hill country of North Mississippi, where he can see twenty miles from his back porch and his people have lived for a century and a half, he talks with Jason about place, the kind of love he is still learning to protect, and why he thinks he was born heartbroken. He describes the transcendent moment of writing a song like "Nothing But the Rain" as a feeling he spends his whole life trying to return to. His latest record, Times Have Changed, is a nod to the restless kid he used to be and the simple pleasures he is grateful for now. What does an independent troubadour ten albums deep still chase when that moment cannot be summoned?

🎵 Charlie Mars' latest: Times Have Changed (2023)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome Back to Atlanta
1:21 Four Nights of Shows and Life on the Road
2:34 No Setlist, Reading the Room
4:44 Christmas in Laurel, Mississippi
7:21 Turning Fifty
9:50 Place, Home, and Mississippi Roots
13:40 Love and Staying in the Mystery
16:14 Ten Albums and the Independent Road
17:53 Born Heartbroken
19:13 The Transcendent Moment in Songwriting
21:52 Where He Is as an Artist
24:36 60 Seconds of Curiosity
25:33 "Times Have Changed"

📊 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 summary free.

📬 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

He once busked Paris with a young Beck. The harder work came later: both feet in recovery.

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

Tim Easton has spent decades as a traveling songwriter, from busking the steps of Sacre-Coeur alongside a young, focused Beck to a solo catalog built on the road. On this episode he talks with Jason English about his 2024 album Find Your Way and the difference between being sober curious and putting both feet in recovery. He's honest about the years he let down labels and managers in a haze, and about how he pays the mortgage now through a Patreon page and song placements rather than the old machinery. He says he'd take a thirty-minute conversation with his daughter over a standing ovation. What changes when you finally stop fighting your own patterns?

🎵 Tim Easton's latest: Find Your Way (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:09 Irish House Guests and Improvised Music
3:17 Why Americana Fest Still Matters
5:51 "Find Your Way" and Both Feet in Recovery
10:32 Asking for Help and Hitting Bottom
14:25 "Everything You're Afraid Of"
20:36 Radical Honesty and Working Local
23:16 Politics and Reaching Across Division
25:47 Busking With Beck in Paris
31:54 The Commerce Problem and Twelve Managers
35:00 Patreon, Superfans, and the Mortgage
37:00 Satisfaction and Falling in Love Again
40:42 60 Seconds of Curiosity
43:32 Live Performance: "Everything You're Afraid Of"

📊 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

He played pedal steel at the Opry, then traded it to fly jets for Reba and Blake Shelton.

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

Joshua Motohashi grew up in Tokyo learning piano and violin by ear, until a six-day Grateful Dead run in Oakland on New Year's 1982 rearranged his whole life. He moved to Nashville with a student-model steel guitar, learned 250 country songs by copy, and found mentors in Buddy Emmons and Speedy West before playing the Ryman and the Opry behind Radney Foster and Lorrie Morgan. He pressed that chapter onto a solo record, Self Portrait, then walked away from music to chase a childhood dream of flying, eventually piloting private jets for Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, and Kelly Clarkson. He calls a surprise return to the Opry stage the perfect way to end a career. What does it take to put down the thing you fought so hard for and call it finished?

🎵 Joshua's solo album: Self Portrait

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 → Welcome
1:00 → Two Lives: Pedal Steel and the Cockpit
4:08 → Growing Up in Tokyo, Learning by Ear
7:37 → The Grateful Dead Call in Oakland
10:50 → Becoming a Pedal Steel Player
17:47 → Steel Guitar Shows and Speedy West
22:36 → The Working Visa Gamble
23:55 → The Nashville Entry Point
26:42 → We're All Human Beings
29:04 → Playing the Ryman and the Opry
31:06 → Self Portrait and the Nursing Home Band
33:36 → A Childhood Dream of Flying
36:00 → Flying for Country Royalty
42:15 → The Last Surprise at the Opry
47:56 → 60 Seconds of Curiosity

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

📬 NEWSLETTER: Stories, archives, and a weekly curiosity prompt → 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 folk singer's country experiment about 1976 turned into a record about everything that broke

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

Amy Speace started writing a country song as an exercise, all Bicentennial nostalgia and memories of Nixon, Carter, and Ford, and it turned into the title track of The American Dream. A former Shakespearean actress discovered by Judy Collins, she opens up about the divorce that arrived during COVID, the rage underneath 11 years of sobriety, firing the God of her Catholic childhood, and becoming a mom to her son Huck at 50. She's unflinching about owning her mess and writing the record to heal herself. What does the American dream actually mean to someone who built a life off the usual path?

🎵 Amy Speace's latest: The American Dream (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
1:45 Why "The American Dream" Now
4:16 Her American Dream in 1976
7:06 Asking Six-Year-Old Huck
13:35 Believing in Love After Divorce
16:30 Comparing "Tucson" and "The American Dream"
20:25 "I Break Things" and a Marriage Breaking
24:34 Rage, Drinking, and 11 Years Sober
25:37 A Catholic Childhood and "Firing God"
30:51 Becoming a Mom at 50
35:23 The Menopausal Mommy Blog
45:18 Where She Is as an Artist
47:00 60 Seconds of Curiosity

📊 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 solo career that's anything but solo, built between songs and service jobs

Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com

Maya De Vitry left The Stray Birds for a solo career she insists is deeply collaborative. She is frank about the economics of it, the service shifts and producing work that fund the art, and how COVID reshaped her creativity. She talks about recording "The Only Moment" and what rest and community mean to her now, and she closes with "Ribbon" and "Working Man." What does an honest music career actually look like when you add up the hours?

🎵 Maya De Vitry's latest: The Only Moment (2024)

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 The Collaborative Solo Journey
2:39 Meeting Maya in Nashville
5:21 The Reality of Being a Musician
7:49 Musical Family and Career Decisions
13:41 The Stray Birds and Americana
17:59 COVID's Impact on Creativity
20:36 Recording "The Only Moment"
27:23 Touring Challenges
37:20 From Band to Solo
44:36 60 Seconds of Curiosity
49:23 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 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