The Volume Knob

What a treat to hang out with Catherine without the burden of a stack of legal paperwork between us. Many thanks to her for her time and her vulnerability. 

If you're interested in Catherine's writing you should check out her website  where you can get links to her Facebook , Twitter and Instagram accounts. While you're there, don't forget to check out info about all of Catherine's novels including a pre-order link for her next book Six Weeks to Live which will be released on May 4th, 2021.

Full confession: even though my sister-in-law was a producer on the Canadian version I have never watched an episode of American Idol.  As such, I have very little pithy to say about Daniel Powter's worldwide smash hit.  While researching it, however, I learned that the song first reached the public consciousness after being used in a Coca Cola commercial, so there's that.

Make sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net.

And if you have a story about the song that saved your life be sure to send it to me at [email protected].

In case it wasn't obvious, Leslie and I had a fantastic time working on this week's episode. Many thanks to her for her good humour and fantastic TALENT. 

You can learn more about Leslie (and see her wide range of work) on her website. You can also follow her on twitter and instagram.  While you're learning more about Leslie, make sure to check out her weekly virtual karaoke nights every Saturday at the virtual piano bar of Sid Gold's Request Room.

I've always found it kind of wild that John Waters went from producing Female Trouble (a dark comedy partly inspired by Waters' friendship with a member of the Manson Family) in the 1970s and advocating on behalf of Salo to being the source material for a musical that my kids know all the words to.  Waters' original 1988 film (upon which the musical was based) was his first to receive a PG rating. Most of his previous work was rated X by the MPAA. 

As always, I strongly encourage you to listen to the full version of the song before and/or after you listen to this week's episode. You'll be glad you did! 

Make sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net.

And if you have a story about the song that saved your life be sure to send it to me at [email protected].

I wasn't just blowing smoke when I said that Ben's podcast 20 Square Blocks is  great stuff.  As soon as I heard it I reached out to him to see if we could work together.  The humanity of the stories told and the silence Ben uses to listen to his guests is really worth seeking out. Once again, many thanks to him for appearing on my show. 

It was pretty interesting to hear how Por Jud is Daid has been treated by different productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic over the years. From the "straight up" version from 1955 featuring Gordon MacRae and Rod Steiger. To this almost Lyle Lovett-esque  version from the 2019 Broadway cast recording. The clips that you heard in the show were from the London cast recording from 1998 featuring Shuler Hensley as Jud and Ben's fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman as Curly. As always, I'd encourage you to listen to the whole track either before or after you listen to this weeks show (or both!)  

Make sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net.

And if you have a story about the song that saved your life be sure to send it to me at [email protected].

I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of the Rush rabbit hole I went down while editing/mixing Jake's story.  I, for example, had no idea that they had recorded most of their biggest hits at Le Studio in Morin Heights (just a short drive up the road from here in Montreal).  In fact the videos for Tom Sawyer and  Limelight  both feature the Laurentians quite prominently. 

There is no official video for YYZ though this live concert from Rio in (I think) 2002 is definitely a trip (not every day you see a crowd of 10s of thousands of people singing along to an instrumental). 

Jake did a fantastic job of telling some of the story of YYZ but did you know it lost out on the 1982 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental to Behind My Camel by The Police?  (And that Sting refused to play on Behind My Camel?)  The more you know... 

If you want to hear the original studio version, you really ought to to check it out here either before or after you hear Jake tell his story!   

Be sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net. The newsletter will be especially interesting over the next few weeks if you're interested in getting details about the launch of Season 2 in the new year.

If you have a story that you think might be interesting for Season 2 please feel free to send an email to [email protected]!

Happy Holidays! I'll see you in the new year.

What a treat to have Sage on the show this week. 

To be honest, when I started the show earlier this year, there were three lists of people that I wanted as guests: 

1) The people who knew me well enough to say yes; 

2) The people I kinda knew, but wanted to get to know better; and,

3) People who I had never met, but had admired as storytellers/artists/others. 

This 3rd group features the folks that I wanted to reach out to once I was confident enough in the show to feel that it merited their talents. Sage is one of the first guests from that list. She's a very experienced storyteller having taught storytelling at The Second City in Toronto and having won the Moth Grand Slam earlier this year. (Trust me non storytelling geeks, that's kind of a big deal). 

If you're interested in learning more about Sage and her work you should definitely check out her web site and follow her on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or check out one of these videos of her telling stories at different events.

Though I am, like Sage, a child of the 70s, I had not heard Free to Be you and Me before recording this podcast (check out that BANJO, tho). 

It's an interesting project, though. As Sage describes it was a feminist, children's entertainment project conceived and executive produced by Marlo Thomas which featured some HUGE names (including Michael Jackson and Roberta Flack). The New Seekers were also a mystery to me before my interview with Sage but I WAS interested to find out that they were responsible for I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (which was a number 1 hit in the UK  but only after being a Coca Cola commercial). The more you know...

Anyway, as always, I encourage you to listen to the whole song either before or after you listen to the storyteller do their thing!

Be sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net. The newsletter will be especially interesting over the next few weeks if you're interested in getting details about the launch of Season 2 in the new year.

If you have a story that you think might be interesting for Season 2 please feel free to send an email to [email protected]!

Happy Holidays! I'll see you in the new year.

What a pleasure to have John on the show this week. Many thanks to him for his time, good humour and vulnerability. As I mentioned in the show, Tomato Tomato has a new record out called It'll Come Around. Check it out if you love sweet harmonies. Also thanks to Tim at Sound of Pop (Tomato Tomato's publishers) for permission to use Chasing Rainbows at the end of the show.  

Iron Horse's cover of Float On (as always, I'd encourage you to listen to the whole track either before or after you listen to this week's show!) is part of a remarkably large sub-genre I'd broadly label as "bluegrass covers of pop music". Though I'd always loved some of these things as novelties (The Gourds' cover of Gin n Juice comes to mind) I had no idea of how much of this stuff was out there before researching John's story! 

Iron Horse alone have recorded two separate Metallica tributes, a Guns n' Roses record, as well as tributes to Nirvana and The Shins.  What I like about Iron Horse is that they seem to come by their practice of bluegrass honestly rather than playing it for "let's laugh at the poors" yucks as some of the bigger bluegrass "tributes" like this cover of Thunderstruck by Finnish band Steve n' Seagulls does.  

Anyway, if you want to keep digging, there's a spotify playlist  or (even better IMHO) you can just google "bluegrass cover" of any great pop song - the harmonies and musicianship of great bluegrass players really pull out the sweetness of good pop music.

Make sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net.

You don't have to be someone Keith knows to have your story on the show! John's story was pitched via [email protected]. You should send me the story of the song that saved your life, too!

An honour to have Emira give of her time and vulnerability this week. I have to admit it, I was surprisingly moved by listening to What a Feeling, while mixing the show. 

I found it really strange to hear something that I'd heard so many times associated with true emotion rather than mocked for being ubiquitous or silly (even if it might actually be both).  As always, I'd encourage you to spend a few minutes listening to the entire song either before or after you listen to the episode (or even both).

As Emira mentioned, she is a writer in addition to being a lawyer. Her essays can be found on her blog Montreal Murmurs  or in the pieces she wrote as the the CBC/Quebec Writers' Federation Writer in residence.  Her work has also appeared in The Montreal Gazette  and  The Globe and Mail.  Emira's storytelling has also been featured at a Montreal Confabulation show that you can listen to here. Check out her stuff!

Make sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net.

And if you have a story about the song that saved your life be sure to send it to me at [email protected].

So outstanding to have Laurel on the show this week. Many thanks to her for her time and her vulnerability. Laurel's latest album as Little Scream came out on Merge Records last fall. It's is called Speed Queen and it's fantastic. Check out the video for Dear Leader and tell me Laurel hasn't achieved her goal of making political art.  While you're at it, you might want to listen to the final, recorded version of the Heron and the Fox which came out on the first Little Scream album The Golden Record.  I think it's remarkable to hear the difference between the "skype-mic'd" demo and the final, lushly-produced (but still intimate) version.  Thanks again to Laurel and Third Side Music for permission to use the demo.

I'm going to fail miserably if I attempt to say anything new about the genius that is Patti Smith and her 1975 debut Horses. It's a landmark how about I stop at that?

That said, I was pleased to read that Laurel's song pick from Horses, Birdland was based A Book of Dreams a childhood memoir of radical Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich which was also the inspiration for my favourite Kate Bush song Cloudbusting.

As always, I'd encourage you to listen to the whole track either before or after you listen to this weeks show (or both!)  Even if Katie is glad she never has to do it again... 

Make sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net.

And if you have a story about the song that saved your life be sure to send it to me at [email protected].

Once again, many thanks to Amanda for her time and her vulnerability this week. You can find an example of Amanda's stand up here.  Funny stuff and I'm not just saying that because I'm a sucker for a good WNBA gag.

I won't link to the California Raisins' cover album of Motown classics but were you aware that their (huge hit) album was released on Priority Records which was later described by Billboard as one of the most important West Coast Hip-Hop record labels of all time? (The home of NWA, Ice T and Snoop). Weird, right?

As promised, you can hear The Mountain Goats' Dance Music right here.  If you haven't listened to the rest of the album of which it is a part (2005's epic The Sunset Tree) do yourself a favour. 

And finally, Doctor My Eyes is not, as Katie suspected, a proposal song to a Dr. that Jackson Browne may have been dating in 1971. Lyrically, it's pretty dark. That said, according to The New York City Tribune's William Ruhlmann , an earlier draft of the song was even less optimistic lyrically.  Despite the pessimism, it was  Browne's first every hit, peaking at 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. As always, I'd encourage you to listen to the whole track either before or after you listen to this weeks show (or both!) 

Make sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net.

And if you have a story about the song that saved your life be sure to send it to me at [email protected].

Once again, many thanks to Julie for her time and her vulnerability this week. The complexity of her feelings towards her decisions and her partner and his kids were fascinating to me, and deeply human. I'm really proud she felt comfortable enough to express her thoughts, even if some of them may have seemed taboo.

I'm also really (really!) glad that Julie introduced me to Lucy Dacus. Since Julie told me that Night Shift was the song that she wanted to talk about, I've been listening to Dacus' 2018 record Historian on pretty heavy repeat. I'm not keeping as close an eye on these things as I used to, but is "big" sounding indie rock now pretty much completely dominated by amazing 20-something queer women? (Dacus, Courtney Barnett, Phoebe Bridgers and  Lindsey -- Snail Mail -- Jordan). Worth a ponder and definitely worth a listen to Night Shift before and/or after you hear this week's show. 

Oh, and if you like stuff that sounds like that, be sure to check out this duet of Phoebe Bridgers and Courtney Barnett covering Gillian Welch's Everything is Free. The guitar tone on that recording hits me. Right. There.

Make sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net.

And if you have a story about the song that saved your life be sure to send it to me at [email protected].