My Favorite Album with Jeremy Dylan

The brilliant Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville ('Won't You Be My Neighbor?', '20 Feet From Stardom', 'Man on the Run') joins me today to talk about the epic insanity of The Clash's legendary triple album 'Sandinista!'. We talk about the album as 'the ultimate onion to keep peeling back', the ahead-of-its-time meta commentary and self-deconstruction on the album, how the band recorded the album during a frenzy of activity around the world, the album's status as The Clash's 'White Album', the political underpinnings of the album and its title, the wild diversity of music influences that come together on the album, and much more. Plus, we touch on Morgan's recent Paul McCartney documentary 'Man on the Run'.

Today, Nashville-based Australian country hitmaker Melanie Dyer joins me to talk about the modern classic album from Kacey Musgraves that redefined the borders of country music for a generation, 2018's 'Golden Hour'. We talk about how the album represented a major sonic shift from Musgraves' first two albums, the fork in the road she was faced with in her career, how some of the songwriting harkens back to early 20th century American standards, the importance of space in the production, the story of the glass slipper shooey and how Musgraves continues to face forward and break new ground with each record.

Today, emergent honky tonk hero Alicia Blue joins me to talk about her hero Waylon Jennings and his seminal album from 1975, 'Dreaming My Dreams'. We talk about how Waylon puts himself in the context of his country forebears with songs like 'Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?', 'Bob Wills Is Still The King' and 'Waymore Blues', the outlaw movement and how artists like Waylon and Willie reinvented themselves after the earlier Nashville chapters of their careers, how Alicia navigated bringing Waylon's influence into her own Shooter Jennings produced new album, the different interpretations of the meaning of 'Bob Wills Is Still The King' and much more.

It is rare for a character to have survived and thrived through almost 90 years of continuous reinvention, adaptation and exploitation. It's even rarer for a consensus to emerge as to a definitive incarnation of such a character. Well, Batman: The Animated Series is that unicorn, a coming together of incredible talent to produce the most elegant distillation of decades of storytelling, along with its own innovations and contributions to the mythos. 30 plus years since it premiered, the reputation of the series has grown even further and now the behind the scenes story has been told in a fantastic new book by my guest today, Daniel Dockery, in I Am the Night: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of Batman: The Animated Series. We talk about how Daniel finds the nuances and untold stories in shows' creation myths, celebrating the unheralded behind the scenes heroes, the pro-social humanist version of the Bruce Wayne character, how the show captured the storytelling elegance of classic Hollywood and film noir, how limitations breed creativity, the difference between darkness and maturity, Paul Dini's 'misplaced love' theory of Batman villains and his case for the most underrated episode of BTAS.

Americanoir singer-songwriter Ben de la Cour joins me to dive into Warren Zevon's iconic self-titled album that relaunched him as a solo artist after years toiling away as a songwriter and sideman. We talk about how the album served as a sort of re-debut album after the little-heard 'Wanted Dead or Alive', Zevon's Forrest Gump-esque early life and career, the autobiographical nature of the songs, Jackson Browne as Zevon's guardian angel, Dylan vs Zevon, the superstar guests that populate the record, the unlikely cover versions, the pitch black humour of Zevon's lyrics and more.

We finally bury the classic 60s rock'n'roll feud as the most acclaimed man in Beatles broadcasting Steven Cockcroft returns to the show to sing the praises of The Rolling Stones and their TWENTY-FIFTH (!) studio album 'Foreign Tongues'. We discuss the incredible hot streak the Stones are on following years of inactivity, the incredible creative stamina of Mick Jagger and his shifting dynamic with Keith Richards, the crucial role Steve Jordan has played in revitalising the band following the death of Charlie Watts, the unsung hero Matt Clifford, how the record captures the chemistry of the current era of the band better than Hackney Diamonds, whether the band will ever tour again, the unexpected joyfulness of the album and much more...

Singer-songwriter Caitlin Cannon shares a knack for quotable lyrics with her album of choice, and lyrics are quoted liberally through this celebration of Jason Isbell's seminal 'Southeastern', as Caitlin discusses how the album's closing song 'Relatively Easy' hit her for six and led her to the record, an early encounter with the Drive By Truckers, the excitement of loving a contemporary artist like a classic music hero, how Isbell's singing voice has evolved over the years, the difference between poetry and song lyrics, and much more.

Singer, producer and the songwriter behind iconic songs of Carrie Underwood, Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, Keith Urban, Faith Hill and many many more, Gordie Sampson joins me this week to talk about the 1985 Dire Straits classic 'Money for Nothing', how Mark Knopfler and co chased the edges of new digital music recording technology, the stories behind 'Money for Nothing' and that signature guitar sound, the personnel changes in the band during recording, how Gordie connected with the album as a Canadian teenager, how 'Brothers in Arms' has found a second life in some of TV's greatest moments and more.

With a new Paul McCartney album on the horizon, I'm joined once again by Steven Cockcroft of the great Nothing is Real podcast to delve into the 21st century albums of a 20th century icon. We look back on McCartney's underdiscussed and to varying degrees underappreciated output from Driving Rain to McCartney III and everything in between, looking at the music, the critical narrative around these albums, what they say about McCartney and what McCartney is trying to say about himself and what we're hoping for from The Boys of Dungeon Lane.

My guest today is Texas country artist Angel White, who joins me to discuss the debut studio album by Ray LaMontagne, 'Trouble'. We chat about how the album went on to shape the kinds of music Angel still listens to and is inspired by today, the way a great album reveals more of itself the more you grow with it, the tone of LaMontagne's voice and how it makes you hang on every lyric, the ways in which the artist's voice has influenced Angel's own singing style, and the album's original intention as a collection of songwriter demos to pitch to other artists.