The Sharp Notes with Evan Toth

Who didn’t love hanging out in grandma’s basement? There were always a lot of fun things down there. If you were lucky, there might have been an old stereo console crafted out of impossibly heavy wood tucked between the air hockey table and a dart board. It’s possible too, that it still worked. The dials would light up and a DJs voice wafts in from across the airwaves: these are magical and musical moments. Those consoles were great, and maybe a new generation of listeners might appreciate such a unit in their own living environment.

Enter Debra and Scott Salyer who began their journey as furniture makers in the early 2000s in San Diego. While balancing their day jobs building custom furniture, they started developing early concepts for a modern record console.

In 2016, their passion turned into a full-time venture after meeting Greg Perlot, a former senior executive at Sonos. Greg, who had experience in wireless HiFi, shared their vision of combining the convenience of streaming with the timelessness of vinyl, and together they set out to reinvent high-fidelity audio for a new generation. It’s at this point that the three of them founded Wrensilva.

What began as a simple idea grew into a pioneering company focused on merging analog and digital music experiences. With a talented team based in San Diego and beyond, they are reviving HiFi audio with cutting-edge design. Today, from their updated workshop, they create beautiful pieces that blend art and technology and they endeavor to redefine the future of HiFi for music lovers worldwide.

I recently wrote a piece for Michael Fremer’s Tracking Angle site where I explored - first-hand - one of Wrensilva’s console models. I encourage you to check it out, but on this episode, we sit down to Scott Salyer and hear - first-hand - the story of how he and his team are creating what is no doubt the best hifi console on the market today. 

Light and dark have been engaged in an eternal dance since the earliest of times. You’ve all seen the yin and yang which - if nothing else - illustrates that complicated symbiosis between good and evil: you can’t have the hero if you don’t have the villain. It’s just one of those conundrums of humanity. Writers, poets, filmmakers, artists of all ilk have explored this deeply, and will continue to do so as it’s a concept that’s hardwired into the human experience.

You can look at the balance of values through many different lenses. Anastasia Minster has decided to explore light and dark through the experience of love. Her latest album, Song of Songs peels back the layers of common experiences when it comes to that most confounding of human feelings: there’s no greater experience than being in love with someone who loves you back, but there's possibly no worse feeling than unrequited love, or losing your kindred spirit.

Anastasia joins us on this episode to explain how she perceives love, but she also shares the details of this new album, recorded in Canada with the support of the Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Song of Songs is a fusion of classical and jazz elements that satisfyingly dovetail with Anastasia’s artistic, scholastic and psychological intellect. You might want to sit in the front of the class so you can keep up. Here, there’s an empty chair right next to me.

Technology’s growth in the last decade has been astounding. I don’t have to tell you how AI has just begun to impact our lives, and we all grit our teeth peeking to witness its evolution. But, though it all, there’s a timeless beauty to the still photograph. Even our 21st century blogs and social media are - in many ways - simply a digital photo book for us to flip through. Humans love looking at pictures and - as with vinyl records - we enjoy that experience even more when it is coupled with a tactile element: the paper, the saturated color, the feel, the smell, and - of course - the artistry behind the lens.

Eilon Paz isn’t so much a record collector, he’s more a collector of record collectors. Paz is a photographer who noticed the uniqueness of record collectors, just as the new wave in vinyl popularity was taking hold. He took his profession and his passion and pointed his camera at record collectors and their collections. First on the web as a blog, his project became a well-regarded book titled, Dust & Grooves which was first published in 2014.

Now, Eilon has released Dust and Grooves, Vol. 2: Further Adventures in Record Collecting, and he’s also expanded his online presence and offerings. Believe me when I say I did not realize the size and scope of the book until I held a copy in my hands. Eilon has outdone himself with a collection of photographs of collectors from around the globe, paired with interviews that describe their methodology and allow a reader into their thought process when it comes to vinyl.

Sometimes, it’s more fun to see someone else's collection of something rather than have it yourself. In this way, the book and Eilon’s photographic journey is appealing to those outside of the record collecting world as well: it’s an opportunity to see the passion and care that these collectors dedicate to their libraries and the humanity intertwined within. Eilon loves a good record collection, but it’s the collectors themselves that really catch his interest. 

Some guys just do it all. Today we speak with Andy Babiuk about the newest release from the Chesterfield Kings who have been rock and roll torch-bearers over the last forty plus years. The album is titled, We’re Still All The Same. Take that musical pathway, connect it with Little Steven - and his Wicked Cool Records label - and first you’ve got a story about a meat and potatoes rock band that continues to preach the garage rock gospel in the 21st century with the help of one of the day’s most active rock and roll champions.

Or, the conversation could shift into Andy’s exhaustively complete authorship of the incredibly successful books: Beatles Gear, Rolling Stones Gear or The Story of Paul Bigsby. These books delve not into the minutia of famous musicians’ lives, but instead tell the tales behind the instruments that they held in their hands while making the timeless music that they made: the guitars, the amps, the effects, and the studio tools. How’d they get them, what’d they do with them, and where’d they go. All of them, fascinating reads.

There’s even another path available when speaking with Babiuk. It’s possible to simply discuss a day in his life running his own guitar shop in Rochester, NY, Andy Babiuk’s Fab Gear. It’s not just any guitar store, the shop specializes in the vintage instruments that were responsible for the sounds you hear on some of your favorite records recorded in the 20th century. They do repairs too. They worked on the 1964 Fender Stratocaster that Bob Dylan used to “go electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and change the course of music history. You know, stuff like that.

As you can see, there’s no shortage of angles I can take in this chat with Andy and - as you’ll soon hear - I did my best to get to it all, and we even went to a few unexpected places. Luckily, for us, Andy is ready to share his unique insights on his involvement in several aspects of a life spent in rock and roll: you could say he’s an open book. Perhaps the next story he writes will be about himself. There’s certainly plenty there to explore.  

I don’t know when you first found out about the role of a session musician, but for me, it was associated with The Monkees. I remember not quite understanding how a band could make music, yet still not play all of the instruments on the record. Well, my youthful naïveté was obliterated when I learned that there exists a highly skilled, dedicated, professional group of elite musicians who slip in the studio to lay down tracks that uplift whatever the star performer may have created.

On keyboards, there’s one session musician who stands above many others: he’s played extensively with the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and even the Beatles. Not only did he share that rarefied air with those heavyweight champs of classic rock, but his keyboard parts were sometimes integral to the artistic and commercial success of the song.

You’ve heard the wild electric piano solo on the Beatles’“Revolution”, you know that haltingly beautiful piano part in the Rolling Stone’ “She’s a Rainbow”, and you’re familiar with the majestic grandeur of the piano part that supports Joe Cocker‘s “You are so Beautiful”.

So when you learn about a musician such as Nicky Hopkins, who’s reputation may be a bit unsung, what are you to do? Well, if you’re a filmmaker like Mike Treen, you make a documentary about him. And you gather as many first hand witnesses to Nicky‘s expertise as possible, including Peter Frampton, Dave Davies,and even Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

Mike Treen joins me to talk about his film titled, The Session Man. We explore how he pieced together different elements from Hopkins‘s life and presented it in a cogent and easy to follow narrative that showcases the ups and downs of this special musician's life.

As Bruce Springsteen once sang, “two hearts are better than one” and that certainly is the case with The Heavy Heavy. Not only does the name of the band have a second helping of Heavy, but the group is fronted by two musicians who, you’ll soon find out, act as a team when it comes to decisions about the group’s sound and direction.

About a decade ago, Georgie Fuller and Will Turner met under musical circumstances and haven’t looked back since. While their first musical collaboration leaned toward an acoustic Laurel Canyon sound, this new iteration is different. Will works hard to find the initial spark for his tunes, rummaging through his mental database of vintage rock, pop, soul, and Motown. He brings the composition and riff-laden guitar chops and everything is great, but then there’s Georgie. Georgie packs with her a commanding voice and knows how to employ those vocal dynamics correctly for full effect. But she also knows how to nudge her partner along when it comes to his compositional creations and she is an integral part of shaping the group’s sound in the studio.

The band has found critical success and also have landed plum gig after plum gig. These elements combined allow the group to find an audience for their retro modern sound. In this episode, we discuss their genesis and working relationship and also how they are riding the roller coaster that they’ve recently been on. Luckily for us, I’m able to speak with both Will and Georgie because as Bruce Springsteen sang. Well, you remember what he said.

Sometimes, the only way to find yourself is by getting a little bit lost. Israel Nebeker - lead singer of the band Blind Pilot - experienced this first hand. The band came strongly upon the music scene in 2008, gaining particular media attention for their “bike tour” which brought them from Bellingham, Washington all the way to San Diego, California with nothing but their instruments and bicycles in tow.

Noteworthy activities like these - and two well-received albums - placed them in front of viewers of Last Call With Carson Daly, before audience members at Lollapalooza, and even all the way to Late Night with David Letterman where Dave mistakenly referred to the group as “Blind Spot”. It was a good time to be in an indie-folk band from Portland.

However, after the release of their last album in 2016: radio silence. The band went on hiatus as they reconfigured their relationships, struggled with writing, and - of course - made it through that pesky pandemic where no one did much of anything.

However, after a trip to Scandinavia, Nebeker tapped into a well of creativity and inspiration leading him to write enough material for his first solo album and a brand new Blind Pilot record which has just been recently released, In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain. As they say, when it rains, it pours.

So, join Israel and me as we dig into the long spiritual and creative journey he’s been on and how Blind Pilot regained their vision.

Imagine hearing a style of music that has become very popular; a genre you might hear on a TV commercial, or maybe on your favorite streaming program, or perhaps coming from a car window as it passes you by the street. Now, try to pretend that the style of music you’re hearing was popularized by your dad.

Seun Kuti goes through this process often and - along with his siblings - have become the next wave of afrobeat music makers who have followed in the footsteps of their famous father, Fela Kuti. Fela was the architect of the afrobeat sound. Its infectious rhythms lifted African sounds to another level, but also redirected those influences as heard in American music back to the homeland.

Seun - with Egypt 80 - have released a brand new album titled, Heavier Yet. The project finds Lenny Kravitz acting as executive producer and also features Fela’s original engineer Sodi Marciszewer; he is behind the board on this album in the role of artistic producer. But, wait, there’s more: the son of an Afrobeat pioneer joins together with the son of a reggae pioneer. Damian Marley and Seun collaborate on one of the album’s penultimate tracks: “Dey”.

Seun and I were both a little excited to be having our international chat between New Jersey and Lagos, Nigeria. We both hope you’ll find the technology as enthralling as we did. We discussed his new album, of course, but as you’ll find, Seun is up for talking about anything. Settle in to hear about some history, a few surprises, and some really exciting music. 

You don’t need to be using your vocal cords to sing. There are other ways to do it, you don’t even need to be a human being! Birds sing, the wind sings while you’re standing on the beach watching the surf, and maybe you could even say that an air conditioner sings in the background as it cools your room on a hot Summer day. Just because something is singing doesn’t mean it has to come from vox humana. In the case of Delicate Steve, it’s his guitar that does the singing, and it’s a distinctive voice that his instrument has.

On his recently released new album Delicate Steve Sings, Steve Marion takes the voice of his guitar and applies it to mostly an original cadre of songs, however, he throws in a few covers for good measure, some you’ll definitely know, and a few that may be new to you. But no matter what song he’s playing, he’s working hard on this album to make sure that those songs have the unique singing voice that his guitar has exhibited over the last 8 albums that he’s released.

On this episode, we of course talk about his new record, and about how some critics may have misunderstood what he was trying to do on this album, but how it only goes to prove to himself that he’s on the right track. Do you know what your voice sounds like? You don’t have to use your vocal cords, or a guitar. What is it that you use when you really sing?

It’s amusing how certain traits and talents seem to run in families—like an unbreakable thread woven through generations. Perhaps you hail from a long line of carpenters or artists, each passing down their skills. Music, in particular, has a remarkable way of flowing through bloodlines. While styles may evolve, the gift of rhythm and melody remains timeless, transcending the boundaries of space and time.

Nikka Costa understands this instinctively. Drawing on the rich legacy of her father, renowned arranger and producer Don Costa, she has infused his best qualities into her own vibrant blend of funky, soulful rock and roll. Though she was young when her father passed away, she carries with her a treasure trove of musical memories—most notably, a hit recording from 1981, “(Out Here) On My Own,” and an unforgettable duet with her father’s longtime collaborator, Frank Sinatra, performed on the White House lawn, no less!

Throughout her extensive career, Nikka has explored various musical styles, but on her latest album, Dirty Disco, she takes a deep dive into the propulsive sounds of the dancefloor. In this episode, she joins me to discuss her new record and how those familial musical influences continue to resonate in her work today.