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Valerie June is a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter whose music has been praised by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, NPR, and Bob Dylan himself (who is a self-proclaimed fan). She has performed with John Prine, Norah Jones, Booker T. Jones, Robert Plant, Meshell Ndegeocello, Dave Matthews, Angelique Kidjo, Willie Nelson, Brandi Carlile, and Elvis Costello, written books of poetry and on art, and is a certified yoga and mindfulness instructor. We talk to Valerie about intention setting and the law of attraction, learning to live with chronic illness, testing different approaches and your creative limits, manifesting, rituals and routines to get ready to be present for people, and a whole lot more.
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All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
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Marla Frazee is an illustrator and author who is a 3x Caldecott Honors recipient (for distinguished American picture book for children), the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, is a NY Times Bestseller, she illustrated Hillary Clinton's children's book ("It Takes a Village"), and her own book "The Boss Baby" was the basis for the Oscar-nominated animated film of the same name (made by Dreamworks). We talk about getting into your childhood mindset of why you wanted to make art, narrowing in on what is vital in a project vs tackling everything, cracking the code and "figuring out" what a project/piece of work is, functional art versus art for arts sake, trust, and more.
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All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.
Rosanne Cash is a 4-time Grammy-winning member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, who has released over a dozen albums and published 5 books, has had her (prose) writing featured in the likes of Oxford American, The New York Times, and The Atlantic, was the 2020 recipient of the Edward MacDowell Medal for outstanding contributions to American culture, and holds an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music. We talk with Rosanne about navigating insecurity and imposter syndrome, measuring your own success by your talent and not your validation, allowing yourself to be called an artist, prose vs songwriting, respect for yourself and for the audience, and a whole lot more.
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All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.
Tift Merritt is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and practitioner-in-residence at the Franklin Humanities Institute and Duke University, she has released records via Lost Highway, Fantasy Records, and Yep Roc Records, performed with Joan Baez and Kris Kristofferson, and had a (pre-podcast type) show on Marfa Public Radio about the artistic process and integrity, called The Spark. We talk with Tift about intentionally stepping back from touring and the full-time music industry, seeking the growing edge, surviving without social media, the fallacy of constant flowering, and a whole lot more.
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All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.
Courtney Hartman is a singer-songwriter and guitarist, formerly of the Grammy nominated bluegrass band Della Mae who now performs and releases solo records featuring collaborations with Bill Frisell, Anais Mitchell, Sam Amidon and an entire record of duets with a past guest of ours, Robert Ellis. We talk with Courtney about her very intentional regrounding and reaffirmation of her commitment to make music her career, learning to love the little things in life and creativity, showing up in love no matter the season, inspiration in routine, releasing the ego from craving overly-complex music, constantly changing perspectives, and a whole lot more.
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All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.
Fancy Hagood started his career as a writer in Nashville before because 'discovered' by Scooter Braun, signing to Republic Records, releasing 2 singles - one of which cracked the Billboard top 30 - and then he was dropped by his label, agent, and manager, almost all on the same call. He has been featured on The Today Show, Fallon, and performed with Meghan Trainor, Kacey Musgraves, Ariana Grande, Elle King, and Kaitlin Butts, and since has released 2 critically acclaimed independent records, hosted Trailblazers Radio on Apple Music, and was recently honored with the Visibility Award by the Human Rights Campaign Nashville. We chat with Fancy about creating your own lane when the industry doesn't value you, inviting more people to the table, the optimism and opportunity in getting dropped from you label, the magic all around, the gift of delusion, and a whole lot more.
Get more access and support this show by subscribing to our Patreon, right here.
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All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.
Maggie Smith is NY Times bestselling (her memoir “You Could Make This Place Beautiful”), numerous award-winning poet and author who has been considered one of the first viral poets after her 2016 poem "Good Bones" was read in the hit CBS show 'Madam President', as well as by Meryl Streep at the Academy of American Poets gala. As our first non-musical guest, we seize the opportunity to go deep with Maggie on the creative process in general - a very apt topic with her latest book "Dear Writer: Pep Talks and Practical Advice for the Creative Life" hitting shelves on April 1. We talk about keeping the purity of your creativity, being integrated as a human, trusting yourself to do what’s needed to keep this career going and being your own safety net, being open to completely revamping work, and a whole lot more.
Get more access and support this show by subscribing to our Patreon, right here.
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All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.
JD McPherson is a singer-songwriter and guitar player who's put out records on Decca, Rounder and New West, toured or collaborated with Dan Auerbach, Nick Lowe, and Lucius, is the guitar player for Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, as well as opening the shows with his own band, and is the producer of the recently-announced Jessica Simpson (comeback?) record.. We talk to JD about all modes of touring - from bus to plane to our shared affinity for van and trailer, touring to experience different cultures and meet new people, the long game of building a body of work and the value of word of mouth, Tulsa Oklahoma, and the advice that Nick Lowe shared with him backstage.
Get more access and support this show by subscribing to our Patreon, right here.
Links:
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All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.
The War and Treaty are a Grammy nominated duo who have released 6 records and EPs, starting out with independent releases before moving on to Rounder and now Mercury/Universal Nashville. They are the first black duo to be nominated for duo of the year at both the CMA's and the ACM's, where they've also performed, as well as performing and/or collaborating with the likes of Zach Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Brothers Osborne, Jason Isbell, John Legend, and Chris Stapleton.
We talk with them about the importance of letting your own art move you, knowing your place in the history that you are making currently, starting their own management company - and even signing other artists, giving yourself the grace permission to come undone, and a whole lot more.
Get more access and support this show by subscribing to our Patreon, right here.
Links:
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All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.
This is the 4th and final episode of our thematic mini-series, and this week we are looking at the ways some of our Patreon's favorite guests have found to balance their family lives and their creative lives - from reevaluating what a meaningful approach looks like as your family grows, or juggling family life while both parents are creatives (ala Robert Ellis), to touring with kids and understanding your place as a creative in the broader fabric of society (ala Leyla McCalla), or budgeting and optimizing your creative time while being the primary care taker (ala Joe Henry). If you want to hear our full conversations with each of these guests they are linked below, and you can find a playlist with more conversations touching on balacing family + creative life on our YouTube page (also linked below).
Get more access and support this show by subscribing to our Patreon, right here.
Links:
Click here to watch this conversation on YouTube.
Social Media:
All music written, performed, and produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss.
Become a subscribing member on our Patreon to gain more inside access including exclusive content, workshops, the chance to have your questions answered by our upcoming guests, and more.
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