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On Episode 122, I'm joined by singer-songwriter Mike McClure. The Oklahoma legend is releasing Looking Up, his first album in five years, this Friday, September 25. It finds the storied storyteller in a really great mindset and place. Over the course of the 10-tracks, McClure is instrospective and reflective. In many respects, these past few years, McClure has been a been of a reset and has recalibrated back to center and the first-person narratives are a testament to that. The opening number, "I Am Not Broken" is a necessary reminder that you're allowed forgiveness--especially from yourself. The past can be a tool and not a burden. The late night spacy hymnal "Orion" is prime McClure while "Holiday Blown" is a heartaching character sketch about addiction, family strife & dynamics, military PTSD, and depression.

During this interview, we talk about recording Looking Up in early 2020, how yoga & gardening have helped his songwriting process, his early days with The Great Divide, running from their legacy, Lloyd Maines, producing albums, and how becoming a mentor for young singer-songwriters has been rewarding and necessary.

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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On Episode 121, I'm joined by Tony Kamel of Austin band Wood & Wire. The bluegrass Americana outfit just released their fourth studio full-length, the excellent No Matter Where It Goes from Here, a few weeks back. Working out of The Zone out in Dripping Springs, Texas with co-producer/engineer Pat Manske, the quartet has been able to stretch their legs. Mainly by having ample time to experiment with fresh and new recording setups and utilize the studio's vast array of vintage analog gear. With that in mind, Wood & Wire's latest sees the band pushing their boundaries creating a dynamic, robust, and vibrant sonic punch. Songs like "Pigs" and "Home and the Banjo" offer clever, introspective commentary on society while the epic closing rambler "Clamp's Chute" scratches that bluegrass instrumental jam itch.

During this conversation, we talk about the recording and writing of the album, how the pandemic has affected Kamel's creative process, the joy & frustration of that creative process, recording at Bruce Robison's The Next Waltz, and Wood & Wire's democratic approach to creating songs and albums.

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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In this episode of New Slang, I’m joined by singer-songwriter Brennen Leigh. At the end of this week (Friday, September 18), Leigh released Prairie Love Letter, a worthy ode to her roots and childhood home, the rural open plains of Western Minnesota and Eastern North Dakota. Part Will Cather and part Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, Prairie Love Letter has an earnest pioneering spirit--a balanced blend of tough and tender. Songs like "I Love the Lonesome Prairie," "The John Deere H," and "There's a Yellow Cedar Waxwing on the Juneberry Bush" are soaked with family tradition and lore. They're for dinner tables in your grandmother's kitchen or while huddling around wood-burning stoves. You get a sense of time and place in songs like these. Other songs like "Prairie Funeral" and "Billy and Beau," while most certainly given the same warm touch from Leigh and most certainly are a valuable piece of Prairie Love Letter, they transcend time and place. They're beautiful, and somewhat bittersweet, love stories that feel no boundaries. Still, Leigh doesn't just capture the nostalgic glow of home on Prairie Love Letter. "You Ain't Laying No Pipeline" and "You've Never Been To North Dakota" are necessary examinations and filled with hard truths. There's struggle and strife--and again, that enduring pioneer spirit.

During this interview, Leigh and I talk about the specific traditions, roots, and inspirations nestled within Prairie Love Letter, anecdotes from home, the stories behind some of the album's most poignant songs, her songwriting routines, and stories about Guy Clark.

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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On Episode 119, I'm joined by singer-songwriter Jaime Wyatt, who released her excellent full-length album, Neon Cross, this past May. So much of Neon Cross is shaped by Wyatt's time living out in Los Angeles and coming to terms with addiction, relapse, & eventually, her current sobriety. There most certainly is heartache, grief, and self-loathing throughout Neon Cross, but Wyatt's strength, beauty, grit, and humanity are often shining beacons within the midst of that hazy fog as well. Throughout, Wyatt is as genuine a storyteller as they come, often mixing in that grief and heartache with tongue-in-cheek winks, gems of wisdom, and moments of clarity, hope, and resolve. The daring "Neon Cross" is a charging thunderhead that acts as Wyatt's anthem while "Mercy" is a wind and desert swept prayer. The hard-living "L I V I N" is an instant Wyatt classic that sees her at her most Roger Miller while the likes of "Hurt So Bad" is pure country gold.

During this conversation, Wyatt and I talk about the writing of the album, working with Shooter Jennings (who produced the album), the stories & emotions that shaped these songs, the genuine honesty & humor in her lyrics, dealing with the outdated gatekeepers of Country music, being both rooted in traditional country & bold enough to break into new territory, moving from LA, and our favorite albums and songs by the likes of Leon Russell, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan.

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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On Episode 118, I am joined by singer-songwriter Waylon Payne. At the end of this week (Friday, September 11), Payne will be releasing Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher and Me, the long-awaited follow-up to his 2004 debut album, The Drifter. This new album is quite the opus for Payne as he details the struggles, pain, heartache, relapse, growth, beauty, and strength of the past decade (and really, his entire life). Like the greats before him, Payne is a sharp-witted poet and gifted storyteller who can turn a phrase with the absolute best of them one minute and deliver genuine gut-punches and teary-eyed ballads the very next.

During this interview, we talk about the writing and recording of Blue Eyes, creating cinematic moods, processing grief, the strength & beauty found on Blue Eyes, his time out in Los Angeles, writing with the likes of Pat Green, Lee Ann Womack, Wade Bowen, & Ashley Monroe, old notebooks of songs, essays, new country artists like Logan Ledger & Zephaniah OHora, and a few great stories about his mother, the late Sammi Smith (Which, he mentions listening to "Today I Started Loving You Again" so listen here).

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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On Episode 117, I catch up with country singer-songwriter Tennessee Jet to talk about his excellent new album, The Country, due out Friday, September 04. As the title suggests, it's a sprawling ode to American music with road-weary ramblers, lonesome highway ballads, and rewarding pit stops on the superhighway we call American Country music. The Oklahoma songwriter is no stranger to life on the road and those memories, recollections, and thoughts are the genesis and genius behind The Country's raw beauty and harsh realities.

During this interview, we talk about the writing of this album, the inspiration behind songs like the gorgeous album closer "Sparklin' Burnin' Fuse," his growth as a songwriter, reinterpreting songs like "Pancho & Lefty" & "She Talks to Angels," co-writing and collaborating with the likes of Cody Jinks, jazz bandleader Brian Newman (Lady Gaga), Paul Cauthen, & Elizabeth Cook, discovering Bob Dylan, protest songs, and why women songwriters & artists are leading the charge in country music with substance.

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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I'm joined by singer-songwriter Karen Jonas for Episode 116. Jonas just recently released The Southwest Sky and Other Dreams this past Friday (August 28). As the title alludes, 10 songs of The Southwest Sky are character-driven vignettes largely inspired by the vast landscapes, small Interstate towns, and hardened individuals who claim the land as their home. Songs such as "Farmer John," "Pink Leather Boots," and the opening "The Last Cowboy (at the Bowling Alley)" feel like snapshot stories. Jonas lets her imagination run wild as she's counting up the mile marker signs, letting these robust characters come to life with engaging storytelling and encounters. Anyone who has been bored on a long trek of highway knows, a strange billboard, abandoned building, or roadside stops can set your mind to wander as you try and fill in background settings. Jonas very much does the same as she leads you through this traveling album.

During this interview, Jonas and I discuss the songs and stories that make up The Southwest Sky and Other Dreams, knowing when inspiration hits, our mutual love of coffee, Bob Dylan, reading, & daydreaming, releasing an album in the midst of a pandemic (and adapting to our current situation), finding space and time to let songs and stories come to life, and how she's grown and evolved as an artist.

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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On Episode 115, I'm joined by singer-songwriter Justin Wells, who is releasing The United State this Friday, August 28. Wells leads us through various watershed snapshot moments during life that we all experience and share. During these innate moments, Wells explores the multitude of emotions that often come hand in hand with them. He balances the carefully orchestrated details with broad themes about joy, sorrow, pain, fear, hope, love, and lonesomeness. Songs walk a delicate line as they balance both a sense of the raw, fresh present and the calm wisdom and hindsight of memory and reflection. Wells acknowledges the rushes of vibrant emotions we all know and taps into the unexplainable strangeness of things we rarely talk about. There is an intense beauty and layers of fear, loneliness, confusion, and reassurance in songs like the lead single "The Screaming Song," which kicks off The United State and comes once more during the closing moments of "The Bridge."

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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On Episode 114 of New Slang, I'm joined by country singer-songwriter Zephaniah OHora. The country crooning OHora is releasing Listening To The Music, his stellar follow-up to 2017 standout This Highway, this coming Friday, August 28. With the late great Neal Casal (The Cardinals, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Hard Working Americans) at the producing helm, OHora, Casal, and company create a distinct, elegant, and lush sonic palette. Taking cues from some of the greats of the '60s and '70s, OHora blends the gentle, light airiness of Countrypolitan with the hard rolling rhythms of trucker country. Ever the crooner, OHora's gleaming vocals are as beaming with power as they are delicate and nurturing. Throughout Listening To The Music, OHora pairs that iconic voice with nuanced and thoughtful lyrics about everyday life, tragic heartbreak, and late nights. Songs like lead single "All American Singer" is a modern-day common man anthem while the likes of "It's Not So Easy Today" and "We Planned To Have It All" are dejected tearjerker ballads. The rollicking "Living Too Long" fills in as a highway humming pedal stomper.

During this interview, we talk about releasing an album as an independent artist in 2020, recording the album with Neal Casal (and other Casal stories), the background on this crop of songs, OHora's songwriting process, music (and life) philosophies, becoming a father, the unknown effects of Social Media, and several other topics.

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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Episode 113 is with Canadian singer-songwriter Colter Wall. Wall will release his third full-length album, Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs, this coming August 28. The 10-track self-produced effort finds Wall delivering a strong and sturdy ode to Western culture & rural ranch life of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Wall's Western Swing & Waltzes is a rich blend of iconic traditionals, prairie & trail songs from fellow Western songwriters, and a batch of new, fun-loving Wall originals. There's a definite loose and natural tone throughout that feels organic and genuine. Wall and company capture these perfectly imperfect moments and let them breathe and occupy the entire room. At times, Wall is raw and coarse as the feral grazing pastures, mountain overlooks, and the rolling prairies that are often the backdrops of Western Swing & Waltzes. At others, like the gorgeous sway found on the Stan Jones prairie classic "Cowpoke," Wall and company are delicate and precise on the harmonica laden and pedal swept ballad.

During this conversation, Wall and I talk about the recording of the album (at Yellow Dog Studios in Wimberley, TX), the rich, epic lore of Western & rural culture, creating the perfect mood and setting for classic traditional ballads and newly written originals, songwriting contemporaries such as Vincent Neil Emerson and Blake Berglund, and how we can learn from and support our local/regional rural agriculture neighbors during these trying times.

This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and The Blue Light Live.

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