Tasty Brew Music

This episode of the Tasty Brew Music Podcast is a conversation I had with Texas Songwriter and author Radney Foster…. Initially a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, Foster made his recording debut as part of the Foster & Lloyd duo, recording three studio albums and with nine singles on the country charts. Foster began his solo career in 1992 and his album Del Rio, TX 1959 produced four consecutive Top 40 hits. Overall, Foster has had thirteen songs on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including the Top Ten hits "Just Call Me Lonesome" (#10, 1992) and "Nobody Wins" (#2, 1993). His songs have been recorded by Gary Allan, Sara Evans, Keith Urban, Hootie and the Blowfish and Jack Ingram. He is now producing, writing screenplays, short stories and novels. He’s been one of my favorites since I discovered him nearly 20 years ago on a KGSR Radio Compilation CD.

I was in Red River to attend Larry Joe Taylor’s Annual Hot Chili Days and Cool Summer Nights Music Festival featuring Texas Singer/Songwriters. Radney was the featured performer at a kick off event on a mountaintop currently serving as Michael Martin Murphey’s Bitter Creek Ranch and through the kindness and tenacity of his manager (and wife) Cyndi Hoelzel, we were able to find a precious block of time before Radney had to leave for sound check. Although Radney, via Cyndi, had agreed to the sit down weeks in advance, with no cell service in town, unknown daily schedule until the day of and limited internet connectivity, it was very challenging to find a suitable venue for our conversation. We settled on the second floor lobby of the rustic Red River Lodge next to the Mother Lode Saloon, windows wide open to the street during an ongoing rain shower. Radney has done yeoman’s work with SongwritingWith Soldiers, a non-profit transforming veterans’ lives by using collaborative songwriting to expand creativity, connections, and strengths. As the mother of a Marine suffering from PTSD, it was an honor and privilege to spend this precious time with Radney Foster….enjoy!

Tim Easton, American songwriter and fellow Buckeye, has learned the ways of the hardcore troubadour…making his way around Europe and America by busking in the streets and playing the clubs. Although Rolling Stone Magazine praised him as “having a novelist’s sense of humanity” I believe his education as a Poetry Major at Ohio State University is the not so secret ingredient to his lyrical life. When I saw he was on the roster for the 2019 edition of the Woody Guthrie Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma, I knew I had to try and have a sit down conversation with him. Although my familiarity with his work was on the fringe, I wanted to dig deeper. 

As soon as I hit the registration desk at the Okfuskee County Historical Society in Okemah, (incidentally the recording site for Tim’s latest CD “Exposition” )I asked the volunteer staff for help in contacting Tim. Within two hours I had a text. We met shortly thereafter in front of the Crystal Theater but where to record a conversation? There was no media room and no readily available space to sit down and chat. A Woodyfest volunteer AGAIN to the rescue…”I live at the rock house down at the corner of Woody Guthrie Boulevard and Broadway. The back door is open, the air conditioning is on; there’s nothing but two chairs and a table in there but you’re welcome to it.” Tim was game and so was I. We had the following conversation in a virtually empty house sitting in two velveteen rockers facing each other with my lavalier mic attached to my water bottle handle. As you’ll hear, Tim talks about growing up in Japan, opening for the Flatlanders and Townes Van Zandt, busking the streets of Europe, heading his own record company, traveling to Alaska to teach songwriting workshops so you can fish and an upcoming State Department sponsored trip to Russia. Woody Guthrie would have loved Tim Easton. Now THAT’s Americana!

One of my favorite features of the annual Folk Alliance International conference is the Folk DJ reception. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet Roots Music Artists and their representatives up close and personal. At that reception in 2018, I was approached by a British gentleman, Graham Jackson, asking if I would be willing to meet an Americana artist from the UK,  Danni Nicholls. We made arrangements to have a sit down conversation with Danni in the KKFI suite the next day. It was a lovely introduction to her special brand of roots music… that to date has garnered her two consecutive Americana Music Association UK Award nominations… one each for Album and Artist of the year. Danni has played shows with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Sturgill Simpson, and The Secret Sisters and been invited to play at festivals around the world including Cambridge Folk, Americanafest and Folk Alliance International. She is a beautiful and elegant woman and it shows in her music. Her most recent work, The Melted Morning, is very personal but widely relatable… the pain and darkness of rejection, the fear of losing your own identity and the power of human connection to offer up hope in the face of life’s many challenges. Enjoy these few stolen moments with the very talented Danni Nicholls. Now that’s Americana….UK Style! 

This episode of the Tasty Brew Music Podcast is a conversation my dear friend, Art White, and KKFI listener and supporter Joel Weir and I had with multi-instrumentalist and songmaster Darrell Scott. Darrell had just released the epic Couchville Sessions project and was playing his very first show EVER in Kansas City. I remembered it as a solid conversation but until I re-visited it for the first time since it occurred, I had not envisioned it as a podcast, but rather something I would somehow, some way play on my morning radio show. That didn’t happen. I am so happy conversations like these I have had over the years are going to be able to see the light of day; it is giving me the courage and desire to turn my creative energy in this direction for this podcast. This particular conversation would not have happened without the assistance of Art White who recorded and preserved it on an old Iphone and Joel Weir who was instrumental in getting us the opportunity. Art had brought a cooler full of crappie he had caught in a pond on his farm up to Knuckleheads Saloon kitchen…we cooked it all up, added some potato salad and other fixins and had us a community meal with Darrell and his family before we recorded this conversation and subsequently Darrell’s Show in the Gospel Lounge. Darrell waxes eloquently about Peter Rowan, John Cowan and New Grass Revival, his gig with Robert Plant and The Band of Joy, the legendary Guy Clark, his own father's obsession with Hank Williams, Sr. and many other topics related to leading a lyrical life. This man has written hundreds of songs....some of the best songs in the Americana music songbook..."You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive," "River Take Me," "It's a Great Day to be Alive" and of course his co-write with Guy Clark..."Out in the Parking Lot." I'm so honored to have been able to have this conversation and to share it with you here. Darrell Scott...now THAT's Americana AND Food for your Soul!

This episode of the Tasty Brew Music Podcast brings a conversation with Canadian born, Austin based Roots Musician Ray Bonneville. Ray had a former life as a Marine in Viet Nam, a bush pilot in the Canadian wilderness and the leader of a garage blues band. Ray’s music came to me at the suggestion of fellow KKFI DJ John “Junebug” Stuerke, host of the weekly Blues Kitchen Show. He said I should check out Ray’s “Bad Man’s Blood;” that it would be a good fit for The Tasty Brew. He was right! Some years later,  I wrangled Ray into the radio station for a live interview and performance in between private showcases during a Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City. I don’t think I’ve missed a Ray Bonneville performance in Kansas City since. His music is blues informed but greatly influenced by the musical gumbo found in his former home of New Orleans. The tones he accomplishes with just a guitar and harmonica are uniquely his own. Before a recent Kansas City show,  we had a wide ranging conversation in the Green Room, next to the railroad tracks, at Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City…that at times was accompanied by train whistles, steel on the rails,  horns and the country band doing sound check in the Gospel Lounge below us. Now THAT’s Americana! Enjoy a conversation with the incomparable Ray Bonneville. 

I am a latecomer to the world and talent of Jim Lauderdale...I "discovered" him in 2010 in Nashville at my first Americanafest (the annual conference of the Americana Music Association); he hosted the Annual Awards Ceremony at The Ryman Auditorium and I caught his official showcase with a full band at The Mercy Lounge.  Shortly thereafter he was on a bill with Carrie Rodriguez at Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City and I try to make every performance in my home town.  I've become a true fan of his music and his amazing work ethic.  He has released dozens of albums, been nominated for Grammies,  is one of the most prolific collaborators in American music and yet still flies under most of the American public's musical radar.  In this "phoner" into the Production Studio at 90.1 FM in 2015 during the release of Jim's "I am a Song," you'll hear a wide ranging conversation of his early musical beginnings as a banjo player in New York City's country scene, his love affair with the Eastern mind/body discipline tai chi, and a recounting of just a few of his collaborations...oh the collaborations!   Dr. Ralph Stanley, Buddy Miller, Robert Hunter, Nick Lowe, Roland White, Lucinda Williams, Rodney Crowell and many more.  Enjoy my conversation with the King of Americana Jim Lauderdale!

Episode 2 of the Tasty Brew Music Podcast is a conversation with American music icon, John Oates (Hall & Oates), recorded in Kansas City in February 2018 during the Folk Alliance International Conference.  John was at the Conference to promote his latest musical release “Arkansas” and his written memoir “Change of Seasons.” There was a bit of background drama before the conversation started as there was a mix up with John’s staff as to what time the interview was to start. Long story short, when I arrived in the suite, John was already there talking to the sound engineer who astutely kept him in the room, conducting an interview well enough John thought it had already begun. He was a bit taken aback when I walked into the room and the sound engineer announced…oh here’s Diana Linn…she will be interviewing you. John took it all in stride, as you will hear; we had a lovely conversation about his full circle journey with Roots Music….feeling compelled in his later years to curate content from the 1920’s and 30’s American music catalogue and sharing some details on his recent infiltration of the Nashville music scene…all the while being warmly embraced by the Americana/ Roots Music Community. You will also hear a thoughtful duo of questions posed by my sister DJ at 90.1 FM KKFI, Kasey Rausch. Enjoy Episode 2 of the Tasty Brew Podcast with my very special guest John Oates!   #johnoates #americanamusic #tastybrewmusic #folkalliance

Welcome to Episode #1 of the Tasty Brew Music Podcast!  Host Diana Linn met and had a conversation with Singer/Songerwriter  Ilona Pal in Montreal, Canada during the 2019 Folk Alliance International Conference.  They quickly established a connection not only via Ilona's music, but through the spirit of Hollywood icon James Dean.   

Ilona Pal has traveled the rails between Montreal and Ottawa many times over, but in November of 2017, that train ride, and a movie about friendship, love and loss inspired a song that gave her wings to fly.

The movie was the 2015 feature film “Life”: the story of photographer Dennis Stock’s historic 1955 photo shoot of iconic actor James Dean in Fairmount, Indiana, for that still famous spread in Life Magazine.

“The song was a gift,” says Ilona. “I wasn’t looking to write a song about James Dean that day, the song was looking for me”. But when the last frame of the film faded to black and the words ‘James Dean died 6 months later’ appeared on the screen, she felt a wave of emotion well-up in her chest. That wave soon reached her creative spirit, and all at once, most of the lyrics and melody that would become A Farm In Indiana were born.

Pal first emerged as an independent Canadian New Country artist with her debut single Hold On Heart and self-titled album. She landed a spot on the roster at Peter Asher Management in LA, alongside such notable artists as Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. French recordings of her songs have ranked #1 in Quebec and received ADISQ award nominations. Film credits include the closing theme song for Time At The Top (Showtime, HBO).  Learn all things Ilona Pal here.