Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson

Guitarist Andy Reiss joins me on the show today, the last full episode of Season 9! When I first moved to Nashville, I started going to see the Time Jumpers. They are an incredible band that plays western swing and classic country every Monday at 3rd & Lindsley. For quite a few years there, the band included Vince Gill, Paul Franklin, Ranger Doug, 3 incredible fiddle players, Dawn Sears on vocals, and Andy Reiss was always there, just calmly tackling every song, no matter how fast and crazy or slow and soulful. Usually playing elegant jazz/blues/bop licks on a Les Paul, or sometimes a 335. And while it was mind-bending to see everyone doing what they do, Andy was always a high point of any show for me. He’s still doing that gig, as he has for over 20 years now. Andy started out in San Francisco, and made his way to Nashville around 1980, where he got to watch and work with a number of the original Nashville A-Team. Folks like Pete Drake, Harold Bradley, Bob Moore, Ray Edenton, and Pig Robbins. People that I know of as legends - Andy was around them from day 1 after moving here. He spent a good deal of time on the road with artists like Reba McIntyre and Slim Whitman, and has played on hundreds of records for artists like Miranda Lambert, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and Leon Russell. He is truly one of the great guitar players in town, and has a deep knowledge of music, guitars and history. I also get to enjoy him up close and personal, since he now plays in my band The Volcano Brothers as well! Be sure to go and see Andy any time you’re in Nashville.

Enjoy my conversation with Andy Reiss.

This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following the passing of blues legend John Hammond, we’re revisiting this conversation with him from the first season of Music Makers and Soul Shakers, with the addition of a later conversation in which John recounts meeting Bo Diddley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

British pedal steel guitar legend BJ Cole joins me on the show today. BJ is a masterful steel player - very inventive and textural but with incredible chops and skills as well. He’s amassed an incredible body of solo work over the years, but has also been the top call steel session player in the UK for decades. He had a very solitary musical start, but got into country bands in England and eventually started gigging and playing sessions. Things changed for BJ when he got called to play steel on Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” in 1971. He laid down some very tasty and memorable steel parts on that hit, and the phone started ringing big time. BJ has played on records and toured with an incredible array of artists like Joan Armatrading, Marc Bolan, KD Lang, Beck, Bjork, Sting, John Cale, Brian Eno and many more.
He’s also always written and recorded his own music and collaborations, which have been all over the place musically and are a great way to delve into his musical brain. There’s a new collab with cellist Emily Burridge - cello and steel duets that’s really cool, and his solo albums like Transparent Music, The New Hovering Dog, Trouble in Paradise - all great albums well worth checking out.
We get into all it, plus some seriously nerdy pedal steel talk.
You can keep up to date on BJ’s latest projects and tours at bjcole.co.uk
Enjoy my conversation with BJ Cole!

This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Part 2 of my conversation with Brent Maher - have a listen to Part 1 from last week first and then dig in!

This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brent Maher joins me on the show today to talk about his incredible career as a producer, engineer and songwriter. This is Part 1 of our conversation, and part 2 will come out a week from today.

Brent is one of the few 1st generation of Nashville recording studio icons still active and working in town. Some of his extensive credits including recording “Proud Mary” for Ike & Tina Turner, “Dance to the Music” by Sly & The Family Stone and “Age of Aquarius” by the 5th dimension, not to mention producing every Judds record. His career began at Fred Foster Sound, which was the studio built by Sam Phillips. He learned and worked for years as an assistant to Bill Porter, one of the greatest engineers of all time. From the early 60’s, they were working on albums for Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Chet Atkins and many more. Brent followed Porter to Las Vegas, where they set up shop and that’s where Brent started his producing and songwriting career, with the first song he ever wrote being recorded by Ike & Tina. Brent eventually moved back to Nashville, where he found the Judds, produced all of their huge records and redefined country music in the 80’s. He was instrumental in bringing the recording scene to Berry Hill, where he helped design and build Creative Workshop and what eventually became Blackbird Studios. Brent continues to work at his studio in Berry Hill today with artists like Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley, Taj Mahal, as well as his latest project “Night of the Orphan Train” - which is a musical novel. We get into all of these facets of his stunning career in this 2-part episode.
Enjoy my conversation with Brent Maher!

This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.