Sitting With Gianluca

Sitting with Gianluca will be Manu Therón, multi-lingual musician and journeyman. Manu is at the forefront of the Southern French musical movement to reclaim the Occitan indigenous language banned by Paris after the French Revolution. Manu explains the history, the resurgence of the language and the different bands that are reclaiming it - from reggae and ragamuffin to psychedelic rock and will play a song in the Occitan language. 

Sitting with Gianluca Peter Blackstock who has just published a book on late Texan songwriting legend (and former Sitting With Gianluca guest) Guy Clark’s ground-breaking debut LP Old #1. Clark was at the center of a 70’s Nashville songwriting scene that included Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle & Texan Jerry Jeff Walker that ushered in a grittier, road-weary type of roots music. Clark’s Old #1 re-wrote the rules of Nashville songwriting and has become a go-to source for artists looking for songs to cover for the last 50 years. 

Sitting with Gianluca is writer, historian and musician Banning Eyre. Banning & Sean Barlow co-run afropop.org, the go-to music resource for any global non-western music. He’s also written books on African guitar styles and will take us on a journey through the African “guitar regions” and demonstrate the different styles from different regions on his guitar. From Detroit house music & hip-hop, old time banjo music, New Orleans rhythm & blues, rock & roll, jazz, flamenco, Mediterranean folk music and even some classical music - it all leads back to Africa. It was a real delight to have someone so knowledgeable connect the dots through the years and I’m sure it will set your mind on fire as much as it did mine.

Sitting with me is veteran traveling musician, Ray Bonneville. Ray has spent the last few decades in a van performing anywhere and everywhere. He’s also been nominated for several awards and has won a few as well. I don’t use the term “journeyman” lightly, Ray has had a long journey – from Juvenile delinquent, marine in Vietnam, bush pilot, taxi driver all before his first record. Here he performs especially for Sitting With Gianluca music podcast. Subscribe for more sit-downs at SittingWith.com

The Mini-Mekons - a scaled down version of 70s UK musical art collective The Mekons is lead by Jon Langford & Sally Timms. They join me in an apartment in New York City for a fun conversation and three exclusive performances.

From Foot-tapping secrets, a peek behind the curtain of your favorite and soon-to-be favorite artists.

Listen some exclusive, never-been-told recollections from people that worked with him on his last two records along with an audio documentary on the closing Magic Shop recording studio he recorded in. I was granted complete access to the iconic studio in its final days and the documentary also includes some David Bowie recollections as the engineers show me where he recorded and what set-up he used. Originally aired in March 2020

Sitting with Gianluca is musician and museum curator Fabio Fantuzzi who has written 2 books on Bob Dylan. We discuss Bob Dylan and his connection to visual arts as well as his off-kilter humor and why Dylan can be as good a comic as a songwriter. 

Sitting with Gianluca celebrates the life of singer Terry Reid who passed away at 75. Terry Reid may have turned down being Led Zeppelin’s singer, but he suggested Plant & Bonham. He also made one of the most influential albums of the 70s. Rock photographer, former label head, tour manager and terry Reid confidant sits with Gianluca to discuss the life and work of this exceptional “artist’s artist”.

Sitting with me from Radio Grenouille in Marseille is Benjamin Minimum former 80s singer and editor of music magazine Mondo Mix. We talk about the new movement of French musicians to reclaim the indigenous Provence language of the Provence region that had been outlawed since the French Revolution. You can read an article I wrote about it in The Guardian website or the "About Gianluca" section at SittingWith.com