The VVN Music Interviews

We once again have a double bill this week on the VVN Music Podcast.

First up is a brand new interview with Steve Hackett whose new album, The Siren's Call, is out this Friday, March 24.

Then, it's contemporary blues great Ruthie Foster who is releasing her tenth album, Joy Comes Back, on the same day.

Cindy Lee Berryhill started her music career in the late 80's as part of the anti-folk movement, a term which she is credited with creating. In 1987, she released her debut album on Rhino Records, Who's Gonna Save the World and followed with Naked Movie Star in 1989 and Garage Orchestra in 1994.

At the same time, she had a budding relationship with rock journalist Paul Williams, who started Crawdaddy Magazine in 1966, which was interrupted when Williams suffered a traumatic brain injury in a bicycle accident. He eventually recovered and the couple married but, a few years later, he started to show the signs of early dementia. Berryhill's life became one of an artist also acting as a primary caretaker. Since Williams' passing, Berryhill has once again begun to write with the result being her superb brand new album, The Adventurist, which is one of best released so far this year.

This week we're going back to 2012 for an interview with singer Tracy Nelson.

Tracy started her career in the mid-60's with the folk album Deep Are the Roots. After a period when she spent time in and around the Chicago Blues scene, she moved to California where she formed Mother Earth.

Over her career, Tracy has released six albums with the band and over a dozen as a solo artist. Her latest venture is The Blues Broads which also includes Dorothy Morrison, Angela Strehli and Annie Sampson. Their debut live CD and DVD were released in 2012.

Punky Meadows was a part of the music scene from the mid-60's to the mid-80's as a member of The Cherry People, Bux and Angel.

It was that latter group that brought Punky his greatest success as they followed KISS onto Casablanca Records where they released six albums over six years but the collapse of their record company sent Meadows into a nearly three decade hiatus from the music business, finally coming back last year with his first solo album, Fallen Angel.

In the 60's, Chip Taylor wrote such hits as the Troggs' "Wild Thing", Merilee Rush's "Angel of the Morning", the Hollies' "I Can't Let Go" and Janis Joplin's "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)".

By the 70's, he had signed with Buddah and became a successful singer/songwriter before dropping out of music to become a professional gambler. Lucky for fans, he returned to music in 1996 and has since been releasing almost an album a year, most of which do well on the Americana charts.

His latest album is A Song I Can Live With.

We're going back to January of 2014 this weeks for an interview with the great Paul Rodgers.

Rodgers is one of those rarities that has not only found success in a series of bands including Free, Bad Company, the Firm, the Law and Queen + Paul Rodgers, but also as a solo artist.

When we talked to Rodgers in 2014, he was about to release his new solo album The Royal Sessions which was recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis, TN.

For the first time, we have two guests this week on the VVN Music Podcast.

John Mayall is one of the greatest of the British blues men and the man who gave a start to such musical giants as Eric Clapton, Peter Green, John McVie, Mick Taylor, Andy Fraser, Jon Mark and John Almond, Harvey Mandel, Walter Trout and Coco Montoya.

His latest album, the 66th of his career, is Talk About That.

Then, it Anders Rönnblom of the Swedish rockers Killer Bee. During their original run, they played across Europe with some of the biggest names in the business and performed in both Red Square and at Olympic Stadium in Moscow.

After a twelve year hiatus, they returned in 2012, releasing a series of albums that has culminated with their latest, Eye in the Sky.

Jeannie Seely is about to celebrate her 50th anniversary of becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry, an honor that she says is one of the great achievements of her career.

Since the mid-60's, Seely has not only been a successful recording artist but also a songwriter whose music has been recorded by Irma Thomas, Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard, Etta James, Willie Nelson and many more.

Her new album, Written in Song, includes her first recordings of many of those songs that were interpreted by others but never before released by the woman who wrote them.

For most people, Dennis Coffey is best known for his early-70's hits "Scorpio" and "Taurus", but his many career highlights include studio work and production including:

• Bringing psychedelic guitar to the Motown sound on such hits as "Cloud Nine" and "Ball of Confusion" by the Temptations.
• Playing electric sitar on Freda Payne's "Band of Gold".
• Being the first white artist to appear on "Soul Train".
• Production on hits from Gallery's "Nice to Be With You" to C.J. & Company's "Devils Gun"
• Discovering and producing Sixto Rodriguez in the early 70's, the subject of the award winning documentary "Looking For Sugarman".

Dennis has just released a new album, "Hot Coffey in D: Burnin' at Morey Baker's Showplace Lounge", a live set originally recorded in 1968.

B.J. Thomas has had an impressive career with hits in Pop, Christian and Country.

In 2013, he rerecorded a number of those hits but with updated arrangements and, for a majority of cuts, with duet partners like Vince Gill, Richard Marx, Isaac Slade of The Fray, Lyle Lovett, Keb Mo and Steve Terrell. The resulting album, The Living Room Sessions, provides a unique look into the B.J. Thomas songbook.