Tell You What! the Podcast

Dylan MacDonald is the artist who creates under the name Field Guide. He sat down with me at the fabulous Mile of Music Festival in Appleton Wisconsin, we talked about Field Guide’s latest, most excellent record Rootin’ For Ya. It turns out that Dylan was in a band for many years with my previous guest Boy Golden (Liam Duncan), they were high school associates.

We spend some time talking about the contrast between making music by yourself vs. working with others; and performing solo vs. with a band. Also covered- classical guitar lessons, how Sweet Home Alabama changed his life, and does the cuckoo clock know what time it is?

Be sure to check out Field Guide’s album Rootin’ For Ya, it is one of my favorites of the year.

Jamie McKeogh plays guitar and sings lead vocals for the Irish band JigJam. We sat down at the DelFest music festival in Cumberland Maryland where JigJam had played two fiery sets to a legion of newly won-over fans.

We discuss JigJam's recent excellent album Across the Pond, and how their music is a fascinating blend of the traditional Irish music the band grew up playing and the American bluegrass they discovered along the way. Throw in some excellent songwriting and you have a powerful mix.

We hear about playing with two banjos, the Wild Rover Tik Tok incident, and how you can bus tour through Ireland with the band.

Our guest for episode number 57 is Portland based musician and songwriter Jeffrey Martin; we discuss his most excellent 2023 album, Thank God We Left the Garden.

Recorded in an 8 x 10 shed he built in his backyard, these songs explore religious/spiritual/existential questions, contradictions, mysteries and paradoxes.

Jeffrey tells us about making the difficult decision to leave his position teaching high school English to pursue music full time, the fascinating way these songs came together as he wrestled lyrics from melodies, and interesting reactions the songs have gotten as he plays them on the road.

We also make plans for our spin-off podcast, in which Jeffrey and I will break down the classic song, “That’s the Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”-stay tuned!

Abe Partridge is a talented songwriter/musician, visual artist, podcast star, former preacher, Air Force veteran, and so on. Hear Abe tell his own long and winding story; it is a fascinating tale told with honesty, incredible insight, and good humor. This conversation was one of my favorites of all time. Check out all things Abe at abepartridge.com including his latest record, Love in the Dark, and the excellent podcast Alabama Astronaut.

Willy Tea Taylor is a gifted songwriter: a storyteller, a truth teller. His recent record, The Great Western Hangover, features an all-star cast of musicians who bring rock and roll energy to Willy’s superbly crafted songs.

Willy sat down with us at Tell You What! Studios for a wide ranging, highly entertaining, and insightful conversation. We hear about Willy’s early years writing poetry and fronting high school rock bands, then learning mandolin and banjo on a winding and adventurous path that eventually led Willy to his instrument of destiny: the four-string tenor guitar.

Willy discusses how important connecting with people is to him, how music done right can be physically healing, and the unorthodox ways he comes up with his songs.

Also covered: heroic doses of LSD, dashboard percussion, barstool wisdom, taxidermy.

Gabe Lee, Nashville born and raised, joins us to talk about his latest record, the excellent Drink the River. His fourth album, Gabe chose a more stripped down sound, and assembled a killer set of musicians to create beautiful soundscapes for the story songs he wrote. We discuss Gabe's training as a classical pianist and his resulting love affair with melody, and how he thinks about perspective in his writing. Also covered: avoiding an Ed Hardy future, and learning the Smoke on the Water riff.

Also: new podcast theme song! Composed and arranged by Shane McLaughlin of Buffalo Rose. Reach out to Shane for more at shanemclaughlinmusic.com

Siri Undlin is the musician who records and performs as Humbird. I sat down with Siri (and a mysterious cat) at the most excellent Mile of Music festival in Appleton Wisconsin. We take a trip through Humbird’s varied song catalog as a way of learning about Siri’s creative journey, which included time spent on a post-grad fellowship studying folklore in northern Europe. Siri tells us about the place of story in her songwriting and her other creative pursuits, working with bad ideas, and how an excruciating decision in the recording studio led to Humbird’s first breakout hit song. Also covered: ice hockey leads to Irish trad music, and how it sucks to pretend.

Jobi Riccio is a Nashville based musician and songwriter. Jobi was born and raised in the mountains of Colorado before heading to Boston and The Berklee College of Music; eventually finding her way to her current musical home of Nashville. Jobi has just released her debut album, Whiplash, on Yep Roc Records. We discuss the origin stories of some of these excellent songs, as well as the winding road story of the album's creation itself. Also covered: Jobi’s adventure at Newport Folk Festival, water glass sounds, and our mutual admiration for Jonathan Richman.

Chris Pierce is an L.A. based musician, singer, and songwriter. He has released a number of solo records, is a part of the duo War and Pierce with Sunny War, the trio Leon Creek, writes songs for television and movies, teaches songwriting and the business of music. I got tired just typing that and I missed a number of his projects. Chris’ latest record, “Let All Who Will” will be released in September; he joins us to talk about his songwriting, his lifelong passion for music, and his thoughts around a few of his excellent and powerful songs.

Idaho based musician and songwriter Eilen Jewell discusses her latest record, Get Behind the Wheel, and her difficult personal journey of the last few years that shaped this collection of songs. Eilen went through a divorce from her husband, who was also her drummer and manager, and the untimely deaths of some close friends and family. We hear about how through meditation practices and beneficial use of psychedelics she came out the other side with this excellent album and a renewed approach to her life and her music.