My guest this week is author Dan Gutstein, who joins me to chat about his book 'Poor Gal: The Cultural History of Little Liza Jane'. The book traces the history of one of America's most recorded folk songs, from its origins amongst enslaved people on southern plantations, through the Civl War and minstrelsy, to the…
Read MoreMy guests on the podcast this week are Lillian Werbin and Kristina Gaddy. I caught up with them at IBMA to chat about Roots Revival : A Black Stringband Symposium, a collaboration between IBMA and The Banjo Gathering. Hosted at IBMA's World of Bluegrass, the symposium celebrated and explored Black contributions to Bluegrass and other…
Read MoreThis week’s episode is all about learning to play music. I’ve been listening back to the interviews I’ve done over the past 3 years and so many of them touch on some really core stuff when it comes to being a musician. All of it has helped me at one point or another, so I…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Fretboard Journal's Jason Verlinde. Jason shares the story of how Fretboard Journal started, back in 2005, and how it's grown from a print magazine to include a series of great podcasts and The Fretboard Summit events. We also chat about the current state of the acoustic instrument market and how…
Read MoreMy guest this week is Oliver Burkeman, best-selling author of the book 'Four Thousand Weeks – Time Management for Mortals.' 'Four Thousand Weeks' isn't a book about bluegrass, or American acoustic music…or even about music. But, it addresses so many of the the things that can trip us up and stop us from making the…
Read MoreKristina R. Gaddy joins me again to celebrate the paperback release of her fascinating book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”. We chat about the reception to the book's publication in hardback, what information has come to light since publication, Kristina's hopes that her book will inspire others to pick up where she…
Read More**This interview was originally posted in September 2022** My guest this week is Kristina R. Gaddy, who joins us to discuss her fascinating book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”. We chat about how she came to write the book and some of the key discoveries she made along the way, in particular…
Read MoreFor this week's episode I'm doing something I don't normally do – reposting an old interview. In fact, I don't think I've ever done it before. The reason I'm doing it is that so many of us make resolutions at this time of year to practice more, play better or just improve on our instruments….
Read MoreMy guest this week is Kristina R. Gaddy, who joins us to discuss her fascinating new book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”. We chat about how she came to write the book and some of the key discoveries she made along the way, in particular the banjo’s unknown history as an instrument…
Read MoreHere's the final interview of the year! My guest for this one is Josh Turknett, author of the fantastic book 'The Laws of Brainjo – The Art & Science of Molding a Musical Mind’. Josh's book is all about how our brains work and, specifically, what that means for learning to play an instrument (any…
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