For nearly two decades, Americana band YARN has built its reputation the old-fashioned way: one show, one song, and one audience connection at a time.

On this episode of The Loadout Music Podcast, we welcome YARN frontman and songwriter Blake Christiana for a conversation about the band's unlikely beginnings in New York City's Greenwich Village, the grind of life as a touring musician, and the evolution of an artist who continues to find new meaning in songwriting.

Formed in Brooklyn in 2006, YARN grew out of a weekly residency at Kenny's Castaways, where songs were written, musicians rotated in and out, and a band slowly emerged on stage in real time. Since then, the group has become one of Americana's most respected road warriors, earning four appearances on the Grammy ballot while building a loyal following through relentless touring.

Christiana reflects on the band's journey from playing nearly 170 shows a year to finding a more sustainable rhythm, as well as the personal growth that has shaped his songwriting. He discusses how his early work centered around "whiskey and women," while his current music is focused on connection, gratitude, and bringing people together.

The conversation also explores YARN's latest album, Saturday Night Sermon, a record that expands the band's sonic palette with gospel choirs, horns, and richer arrangements while maintaining the storytelling foundation that has defined the band for years.

Neil Salsich didn't set out to become a St. Louis music icon — he just never stopped loving music long enough to do anything else. The founding member of The Mighty Pines, a soul-inspired roots rock band shaped by the wide rivers and red-brick streets of their hometown, Salsich turned a lifelong obsession into a full-time career in 2014 and hasn't looked back.

His Season 23 appearance on The Voice — where he earned a rare four-chair turn opening with Hank Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues" — elevated the band to a new level of visibility. But Salsich is quick to put it in perspective: "The wave brought us up, dropped us at another level, and then it went away." What remained was a sharper, more confident band with a growing national footprint and, now, a new album — Good Luck Nice to Meet You — produced by Los Lobos' Steve Berlin and dropping July 31st.

Equal parts humble and fiercely opinionated about where music is headed, Salsich is exactly the kind of artist St. Louis deserves to claim.

He's a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, one of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists," and at 85 years old, he's still riding motorcycles, producing his own CBD oil, and regularly has more gigs on the books than most musicians half his age.

We sat down with the great Jorma Kaukonen for the latest episode of The Load Out Music Podcast, covering the entire span of his unbelievable career—from his father's initial dismissal of his musical ambitions to the "you suck" teaching method of his first fingerstyle mentor.

Jorma shares the inside story of how he casually named Jefferson Airplane, what it was like playing Monterey, Woodstock, and Altamont, and the secret to sustaining his 55-year partnership with bassist Jack Casady in Hot Tuna. We also discussed his recent archival album, Wabash Avenue, and what it was like to hear his 24-year-old self playing on a tape he thought was lost forever.

This was a truly special conversation. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

Rising singer-songwriter Amelia Day joined host Aaron Perlut on The Load Out Music Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about her journey from Sumner, Washington — the self-proclaimed "Rhubarb Pie Capital of the World" — to Nashville, where she's been building a reputation as one of indie folk-rock's most compelling rising voices. Day discussed her musical evolution, her refusal to be boxed into a single genre, and the deeply personal heartbreak that fueled her latest EP, Ego Trip. Drawing comparisons to Brandi Carlile and Norah Jones, Day brings a storyteller's instinct and raw emotional honesty to music that defies easy categorization — and she's clearly just getting started.

In the 1980s, popular music in Georgia started to once again find its footing. There was a burgeoning hip-hop scene, an exceptionally talented group of up-and-coming R&B artists, and a collection of rock 'n' roll bands that included the B-52s and R.E.M. out of Athens, as well as the Black Crowes and Drivin' N' Cryin' in Atlanta, among others.

While the success of the B-52s, R.E.M. and Black Crowes has been well documented—Drivin' N' Cryin''s track record of producing exceptional music has often fallen through the cracks. Perhaps that's why the band's founder and frontman, Kevn Kinney, told us he has "no idea how to be famous."

But the Kinney and his band forges on. Drivin' N' Cryin' just released its first new studio album in six years, Crushing Flowers—and the critics are raving. One said it was, "as sharp and concise a collection as they have recorded."

Thus, we welcome Kinney to the Load Out Music Podcast to talk about the band's 40-year track record, the missing "i" in his name, and the new record. Enjoy!

We kick off Season 7 of The Load Out Music Podcast with the GRAMMY-nominated, multi-instrumentalist and PLATINUM-selling artist—Hunter Hayes. He's an embodiment of a musician that embraces evolution and redefines boundaries who burst onto the scene with his PLATINUM-certified debut album and charted a unique course through the genre-bending course he was destined to explore. His latest album Evergreen completes a three-album arc that began with 2019's Wild Blue, continuing through Red Sky—a conceptual journey exploring optimism, tension, and resolution.

The Load Out Music Podcast returns for our final show of Season 6! We finish up a tremendous season strong, as we are joined by Lee Henke and Vinnie Donatelle of The Last Revel. The highly acclaimed band was formed in Minneapolis in 2011 and has a tightly harmonized sound that's one part folk, one part bluegrass, and a little alt-country. The band's sound harkens to the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of what it means to pursue your dreams in real time—the foundation of which is conjured by a deep appreciation and genuine respect for the vast landscape and sometimes-harsh realities of what it means to emerge from the Midwest. After years of heavy touring and a hiatus in 2019, the group reconvened with a refreshed perspective and stronger bond to produce its latest album, Gone for Good. Reflecting on Gone for Good, the trio (the band also includes banjoist Ryan Acker) feels a real, tangible, more so positive shift in what it is The Last Revel aims to do moving forward. It's this collective realm of collaboration, all in hopes of connectivity not only between the bandmates, but also the audience itself night in and night out—from coast-to- coast and back around to Minnesota. We dig into The Last Revel's history, the new record and more during a terrific conversation. Enjoy!

Singer-songwriter Kai Crowe-Getty has spent more than a decade fronting the rock 'n' roll band Lord Nelson. But in recent years, he's been quietly crafting a more thoughtful style—very much along the lines of the exceptional James McMurtry—that stands in stark contrast to his rowdier rock catalogue. His new foray is on full display throughout his strong debut solo LP, The Wreckage.

"I've played in big rock 'n' roll settings for a long time, and I do enjoy that," he says. "But this is a vehicle for a different avenue of songwriting that explores different things. I wrote this album's songs while working through some catharsis. I'm not overly nostalgic, but a lot of these songs seemed to end up in that vein where you're simultaneously looking back and forward."

The record's opener, "A Southeast State," is a nostalgic reflection on family, home, and mortality, followed by the heartland rock imagery of "American Radio" and the journey from hopeless to hopeful in "Heavy as Heaven."

Growing up and making a life in Nelson County, Virginia—about 40 miles southwest of Charlottesville—Crowe-Getty has carved out a career writing about the people and landscapes around him. His first show was in middle school, and he's been playing music ever since, fronting Lord Nelson and supporting artists such as past-guest BJ Barham of American Aquarium and many others.

Crowe-Getty's output in this new solo era finds the frontman digging a little deeper, and we discuss his career and more on the latest Load Out Music Podcast.

Enjoy!

Pop. Funk. Soul. Rock. Blues. Call him whatever you want, but Andy Frasco is an exceptionally talented and exciting independent singer-songwriter and performer from Los Angeles who has built a solid career through relentless touring and an energetic performance style. After teaching himself piano at 17, he used his bar mitzvah savings to buy a van and started touring independently, picking up musicians along the way to form his backing band "The U.N."

He occupies a niche in the jam band and festival circuit rather than mainstream fame, playing more than 200 dates per year at major festivals like Electric Forest, Summer Camp Music Festival, and Wakarusa---sharing stages with artists like Leon Russell, Galactic, Gary Clark Jr., and John Mayer.

He also hosts "Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast" which launched in 2018 and has featured guests like Tony Hawk and Melissa Etheridge

We welcome Andy to the latest edition of the Load Out Music Podcast!

Experimentation sparks creativity. When Colorado-based country music band The Barlow buckled down to write and record the new album High Spirits—the band's follow-up to 2022's New Year, Old Me—there were no constraints, no boundaries, and freedom to explore and create songs that endeavor to connect with people in a meaningful way.

"We tossed the rule book out on this record," according to Shea Boynton, The Barlow's lead vocalist and guitarist. "Our goal was to create great songs, regardless of genre. This time around, we made a point to be more open to different sounds and approaches."

Boynton—who joined us for the latest episode of The Load Out Music Podcast—leads the hard touring Red Dirt country act which has spent time on the road with Big Head Todd & The Monsters, Whitey Morgan, and The Steel Woods. His bandmates include

Ben Richter on drums, Jason Berner on bass, and Brad Johnson on guitar, with an assist from Craig Bennington on pedal steel and banjo and Andy Schneider on keyboards.

Boynton gets raw and real in our conversation, not mincing words about the industry and life in today's music industry.