The Show On The Road with Z. Lupetin

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Hayes Carll Nov 18, 2021

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This week, we get on the horn with renowned Texas-born singer and deeply observational songwriter Hayes Carll, who is celebrating the release of his seventh LP, the atmospheric country-tinted You Get It All.

While some may just be discovering Hayes’ lived-in songs which are often spun with dark humor (he admits John Prine and Jimmy Buffett were early inspirations), next year marks the twentieth anniversary of his first album Flowers and Liquor which he wrote while still in college in Arkansas. His acclaimed follow-up Little Rock (2005) remains one of the only self-released albums to make to #1 on the Americana chart.

Hard-charging years on the road and humble years before, getting by working long nights at Chili’s, Red Lobster and more, made Hayes truly appreciate when his star in the roots circuit began rising. His tongue-and-cheek country kiss off “She Left Me For Jesus” off his breakout major label debut Trouble In Mind (2008) might have shocked mainstream radio programmers, but it brought in a whole new wave of fans who have been diligently following him across the world ever since. KMAG YOYO & Other American Stories came in 2011 and pulled even fewer punches - showing his knack for a devastating hook. "KMAG YOYO" is army-speak for "Kiss my ass, guys, you're on your own."

Some artists may bring their wives into the studio as a cute cameo now and again, but Carll is lucky enough to have artist and sought-after producer Allison Moorer on the home team. Together with Kenny Greenberg, she helped bring out a softer, deeper side of Carll on the newest You Get It All - with the standout heartbreaker “Help Me Remember” centering on his experience watching his grandfather in Texas drift away with dementia.

Maybe the most fun on the new record comes from the rollicking opener “Nice Things” - which reveals why Carll may not be getting on right-leaning pop-country radio anytime soon, while still winning legions of listeners anyway: it’s a countrified conversation between God and her screwed up human subjects on earth... and God is a frustrated (and rightly so) lady.

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The Felice Brothers Nov 11, 2021

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This week, we call into the Catskills of New York for a deep conversation with James Felice: accordionist, pianist, songwriter and co-founder of fun-house-mirror Americana group The Felice Brothers.

James started the band with his brothers (poet lead singer Ian) and percussionist Simone in 2006 as a busking folk pop experiment with a literary rebel streak within the subways of New York City. They’ve joined roots-pop luminaries like Bright Eyes at venues as storied as Radio City Music Hall - but somehow the gritty, back-alley bar seems like their natural habitat. Ian, James and their longtime quartet (Will Lawrence and bassist Jesske Hume round out the band) returned after years of hibernation to release their daring party-through-the-apocalypse rollercoaster of a new LP From Dreams To Dust in 2021 on Yep Roc Records.

Some bands record at home, or maybe in tricked-out cabins or plush studios, but The Felice Brothers seem to make records that use their unique and often bizarre surroundings as an added character in the band. Their beloved self-titled record, which came out 2008, feels like a gin-soaked saloon party where Hemingway and Lou Reed and Sly Stone would join in on swaying sing-alongs besides a sweat-soaked piano. It was somehow recorded in a converted chicken coop, while their brassy, bizarro-rock romp Celebration, Florida (2011) was recorded in a booming high school gymnasium. “Honda Civic” is a musical-theater-esque favorite, with an explosion at the local Wonder Bread warehouse taking center stage in the narrative. Does any of it make sense? Does it matter?

Their newest work is a more emotional, sonically lush, storytelling driven operation, having been recorded in a church in Harlemville, New York with award-winning mixer Mike Mogis at the helm. Mortality takes the spotlight. Ian Felice is in rare form here, spitting more words and setting more strange scenes per song than most slam-poets or absurdist playwrights. The lead song “Jazz On The Autobahn” has become a staple on Americana radio, showcasing what TFB have always done best: taking their listeners on a white-knuckle ride that has no predicable end or resolve in sight.

Pokey LaFarge Oct 28, 2021

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This week, we bring you an in-depth dive with vintage roots-n-soul excavator and beloved Illinois-born songwriter Pokey LaFarge. With his trusty guitar on his lap during the talk, taped in his LA breakfast nook, we go through the making of his funky and cheerful new LP In The Blossom of Their Shade.

For the last decade and change, Pokey LaFarge (born Andrew Heissler in Bloomington-Normal) has criss-crossed the globe making his own brand of historic-minded, literary-tinged folk blues. Europe, especially, has become a second home. From his fashion sense, to his high-cutting delivery, LaFarge seems like he could have stepped out of a road show with Hank Williams and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and yet, rock luminaries like Jack White saw something deeper than just a player of old-time covers. Opening for White got LaFarge in front of huge crowds, and standout records like the danceable Something In The Water (2015) and the darker Rock Bottom Rhapsody (2020) saw him transition from front-porch country folk to muscular jangly rock-n-soul.

Out on his own from a young age, Pokey began busking to get by and soon teamed up with the South City Three to create his first run of albums in 2009.

If there’s a few things that helped his more uplifting 2021 LP In The Blossom of Their Shade come to be, they may have been falling in love again, rediscovering his faith in a higher power, and taking plenty of power naps during his songwriting sessions. During the pandemic, Pokey also began helping the local homeless community in LA.

Stick around to hear an exclusive acoustic performance of his single “Get It ’Fore It’s Gone”.

Silvana Estrada Oct 14, 2021

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This week, to help celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we bring you conversation with a rising star in folklorico-pop hailing from Veracruz, Mexico: Silvana Estrada.

Currently on her first tour of the United States opening for Rodrigo y Gabriela, Estrada has already made a name for herself in Mexico, renown for her deft finger-picking on the Cuatro, and her ever-bending, darting vocal mastery. Songs from her first EP including the soaring electronic-beat driven “El Guardo” have been listened to over twenty million times and counting - and a collaboration with Mexican roots-rock hero Natalie Lafourcade came last year too.

At only 24, Estrada, the daughter of two instrument makers, is just coming into her own as a songwriter, dipping into her love affairs and private passions with a true clear-eyed poet's pen. Singles off her debut album Marchita for Glassnote Records have already landed to great acclaim, and she’s the label's first Spanish-language signing ever. Look no further than the heartbreaker “Tristeza” for a first taste of her rustic, primordial sound.

Asleep at the Wheel (Ray Benson) Sep 30, 2021

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This week, we bring you a half-century-spanning talk with the Grammy-winning ringleader of one of American roots music’s most durable and iconic bands, Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel. The episode is a celebration of their fifty years of diligent song collecting, Western swing camaraderie and epic genre-spanning collaboration - and features first listens of their new record Half a Hundred Years which drops on October 1. The record covers old classics and tells new stories, with spritely cameos from fellow Texans Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson. Aligning behind Benson’s commanding, deep voice and impeccable song-historian’s taste, Ray has managed what few bandleaders in country music - or any genre - have: keeping a talented rotating band of mostly-acoustic players together from 1972 on, with little break from the road. Willie Nelson and others have long championed their work, and indeed the band had fans in even higher places: on September 11, 2001, the group was set to perform at The White House. Asleep at the Wheel’s story is really one of perseverance and transformation. How did a Jewish kid from the the Philly suburbs end up as a Texas cowboy music icon who toured with Bob Dylan and George Strait (just ask Bob about changing identities), wrote songs and acted in movies with Dolly Parton and Blondie, and became the foremost interpreter of the rollicking music of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys? Only in America, you could say - but Ray would just tell you that he loves the music deep in his bones, and it’s what he wakes up every day to create and save. One of the most forward-thinking things Ray did from the very beginning was share the mic with a myriad of talented female vocalists, which maybe confused some radio programmers (who is leader of this outfit?) but made the road shows eternally entertaining and unique. That tradition continues. Also featured on the new record are lovely collabs with Lee Ann Womack and Emmylou Harris.

Sammy Rae & The Friends Sep 16, 2021

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This week, we talk to Brooklyn-based bandleader and jazz-roots singer extraordinaire Sammy Rae, who for the last four years has barnstormed the country with her kinetic octet The Friends. Look, when you’re young and inspired, you drop out of college, you’re waiting tables and you think about starting a jazzy pop band - most people (as well as common sense and basic economics) tell you to start small. Get a few like-minded musicians in a room, work and work your best songs, try packing out a few local shows, put some radio-ready singles on the internet, do a music video or two. See what happens. But Sammy Rae does her own thing and has done pretty much the opposite. Much like your host of this fine program (who went against all advice and began Dustbowl Revival as an 8-10 piece genre-bending New Orleans-string band mashup in 2008), Sammy has harnessed the open-minded, countercultural energy of Broadway musicals, the slinky funk-pop of the 1970s AM radio and her own rapid-fire poetic style to create a massive sound that could only be made with three singers, two saxophones, and a fearless, seasoned rhythm section. And they all are friends who don’t just treat this as a temporary weekend gig. Too much too soon? Well, ask the packed houses up and down the Eastern Seaboard if they care about playing it safe. Sammy knows the road ahead for The Friends won’t be easy - but so far, the response from listeners has been undeniable. Starting at tiny supportive clubs in New York like Rockwood Music Hall and graduating to the biggest rooms in one of the hardest towns to impress, the group struck a nerve with their debut EP The Good Life in 2018 - with the standout jazzy experiment “Kick It To Me” gaining nearly ten million steams and counting. "Don’t record songs over four minutes long," they keep telling us. "No one will pay attention!" Yet their most listened to track clocks in at nearly seven minutes. What’s the lesson here? For Sammy it’s finally learning to trust her instincts and be herself. Their upbeat EP Let’s Throw A Party dropped in 2021 - and make sure you stick around to the end of the talk to hear how Sammy’s experience as a queer teenager in a Connecticut girl's Catholic school informed their new track “Jackie Onassis.”

Madi Diaz Sep 02, 2021

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This week, we go on a deep dive with Madi Diaz, a sought-after Nashville-based songwriter who may have dropped among the most devastating and powerful break-up albums of the decade with her newest LP History Of A Feeling, a searing debut on Anti- Records. If you’ve made it to the doldrums of your mid-thirties, you’ve probably had your heart broken once or thrice. Diaz is no exception, except unlike the rest of us who may try and forget all about those lost love affairs, Diaz does the opposite. She chronicles the destruction of her last relationship with a craftsman’s precision, creating a series of unvarnished, seething, diaristic songs about an ongoing and fractured grieving process. Diaz opens with the gut-puncher “Rage,” which says a lot even if it's under two minutes long. Is it ok to not be ready to move on? To hate that you HAVE to move on? Soon after she’s “Crying In Public” and immediately after that she’s baring her teeth in the standout acoustic single “Resentment” - which was initially covered by moody pop hero Kesha. Does it get brighter from there? Not exactly, but it’s better that way. It could be way off base, but maybe History Of A Feeling is our updated Jagged Little Pill without the pop artifice. Not that Diaz sings at all like Alanis, but a similar hope for heartbroken catharsis weaves its way throughout. Working with Big Thief collaborator and soulful producer Andrew Sarlo surely helped capture the intimate vibe, with certain songs barely needing more than a guitar and her direct, cutting voice. Without an army of synths or the armor of an orchestra behind her, or the security blanket of a band smoothing out the edges, the rawness of the emotion in each song sings out louder. Diaz, who grew up in Lancaster, PA with a dad who had his own Frank Zappa cover band (she mentioned that she indeed had her own teen version) and then later dropped out of Berklee College of Music to hit the road with her own work, has never been afraid to pick at the shrapnel in some of her deepest wounds to create songs that leave their own mark after you listen. She’s put out more atmospheric pop-forward work - like We Threw Our Hearts In The Fire (2012) and Phantom (2017) - for a decade, but this quieter, more personal record feels like she’s finally found her sound. Pulling no punches, Diaz bravely includes songs like “Man In Me” which hints that she lost a long-time partner who also then transitioned. In a way, it was almost a double-loss that left her feeling confused and guilty for feeling angry at all. And yet - when we reach the end of History Of A Feeling, the feeling we get isn’t bitterness or rage any longer - it may be that most elusive of the grieving steps: acceptance. And maybe even forgiveness.

Hiss Golden Messenger Aug 19, 2021

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This week, we dial into North Carolina for a comprehensive conversation with Grammy-nominated songwriter MC Taylor, who for the last decade and a half has created heart-wrenchingly personal and subtly political music fronting the acclaimed roots group Hiss Golden Messenger. With his newest release Quietly Blowing It, Taylor continues to tell stories that are at turns hopeful and devastating – as if deeply examining his own faults and features as a father, husband, citizen and artist can help us understand our own struggles during this deeply strange time. Despite the often delicate delivery of his vocal performances, it isn’t a shock to see that Taylor, who grew up in California before heading to the south, did start in the hardcore and punk worlds before he became one of the faces of the Americana resurgence. While a song like “Hardlytown” feels like a jangly lost Basement Tapes take from The Band, Taylor subtly mines his own confusion about how broken our once-ambitious country has become. Why can’t we come together to address climate change, gun violence or systemic poverty? Is he doing enough? While Taylor has been open about examining his own depression and doubt over the last few years, it’s through these songs that we can see a light at the end of the dark tunnel forming. Maybe it’s the personal acceptance of the confusion and helplessness that makes Quietly Blowing It pack such a quiet punch and seem somehow sonically uplifting. During our conversation, Taylor would be the first to tell you that while folky slow-burn songs like “Way Back In The Way Back” seem to exalt the healing power of nature while questioning the broken bureaucracies that govern our unique American way of life (“up with the mountains, down with the system!”) he isn’t trying to make a statement. One thing that we all learned to do during our ongoing lockdowns in 2020 and beyond is to think smaller. We don’t have to change everything from the moment we wake up. Maybe it’s about going within and seeing the world just from the scope of your own neighborhood, your own family, your own green growing hissing backyard. A song doesn’t have to solve it all in one go. Gathering confidence from in his previous standout records Heart Like A Levee (2016), Hallelujah Anyhow (2017) and the Grammy-nominated Terms Of Surrender (2019), it’s clear that while the last few years haven’t been easy for Taylor, he’s reaching new heights creatively. Quietly Blowing It may seem like a defeatist message – but actually its more like laying all the cards on the table. Honesty is freeing. Taylor will be embarking on a rare solo tour coming up, which would be an amazing way to see his intimate brand of songwriting up close.

The Ballroom Thieves Aug 05, 2021

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This week, we bring you an intimate conversation with avant-folk instrumentalists and songwriting team Martin Earley (guitar, vocals) and Callie Peters (cello-vocals) - the driving forces behind New England’s The Ballroom Thieves. Beginning as a hard-traveling duo, also featuring longtime percussionist Devin Mauch, over a decade ago at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, the band began to turn heads and fill rooms when they added Peters and her fierce and poetic singing-style around eight years back. The Queen-meets-Wings stacks of harmonies, gorgeous string arrangements and slam-poetry off-kilter lyrics instantly made them stick out from their gentler rootsy peers. They recorded the beloved harmony-drenched debut A Wolf In The Doorway in 2015 and followed up with their soulful, expansively electric Nettwerk debut Deadeye, which has been streamed over 50 million times and counting. A tasteful covers record followed as they established themselves as international festival favorites. 2020 was supposed to be a triumphant year for the group, but of course that’s not how anything went last year, for anybody. Their playfully experimental and fearlessly political release Unlovely (your host Z. Lupetin’s new favorite record of this fractious era) got buried in the late winter tumult of the new pandemic, forcing the group to call off all touring and shelving all promotion. Holed up at home, the chastened group hoped the world might discover the deliciously angular anthems like “Vanity Trip," “Homme Run” and the epic tempo-jumping opening title track (featuring fellow New England harmony-masters Darlingside) at a later, calmer date. The world has not gotten calmer of course. Earley and Peters had to push off marrying each other and percussionist Devin Mauch had to make the tough decision to leave the group and focus on his art career after a decade sharing stages across the world with his friends. Despite all this, our talk was an upbeat one. The group recently returned to performing live and sold out their hometown venue the Sinclair in Boston with an expanded group of musicians backing their ever-evolving sound. New music is on the way - but in the meantime, give yourself a day to sit with Unlovely: one of the true lost gems of the 2020 musical year.

Lake Street Dive Jul 22, 2021

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This week, we bring you a conversation with members of the internationally loved soul-pop pioneers Lake Street Dive. Starting out as jazz nerds storming local folk festivals and tiny rock clubs around Boston, they’ve since become a well-oiled touring phenomenon, headlining Red Rocks, touring Europe, playing late night on Colbert and Kimmel, all while never settling into an easily nameable genre. In 2021, after three years since their last, they celebrated the release of their much-awaited seventh studio album 'Obviously.' Most notable bands are like sunsets: they flash their colors, they create a few memories and fade away. And most groups that attempt somehow to connect virtuoso players in the jazz, roots and rock ‘n’ roll scenes never actually live in the same town and each have a Beatles-esque knack for singing sublime harmony and writing effortlessly killer hooks (see fan favorites like “Go Down Smooth,” “Good Kisser” or their new Tik-Tok earworm “Hypotheticals”) and also have their own solo groups? Maybe they last a few fiery tours and finally disband. And yet Lake Street Dive have become a steady standard-bearer in the nascent Americana world – and only seem to be getting tighter and more creative 17 years in. Founded in 2004 by luminous singer Rachael Price, upright bassist-songwriter Bridget Kearney, high-energy drummer Mike Calabrese, and the recently departed guitarist-trumpeter Mike “McDuck” Olsen at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, the group caught new wind and inspiration after adding kinetic keyboardist/singer-songwriter Akie Bermiss in 2017. After months of planning, we finally caught up with Calabrese and Bermiss on the Zoomways to discuss how they are forging a fresh path forward after a tough year and a half away. Make sure you stick around to end of the episode to hear how they meticulously created their knockout a-cappella pop gem “Sarah” which closes out their new LP.

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