Caropop

Impex Records has been releasing stellar audiophile recordings since Abey Fonn founded the small label in 2009. Impex’s offerings have included 33 and 45 rpm LPs (including Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco De Lucía’s Friday Night in San Francisco and Saturday Night in San Francisco) as well as deluxe 1Step releases such as Getz/Gilberto, Patricia Barber's Companion and, coming June 14, Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra. Here Fonn pulls back the curtain on how Impex chooses and makes deals for its titles, what the competition is like with the larger audiophile labels, how Impex decides which format is best for an album, whether original master tapes have become harder to obtain, whether a one-to-one analog transfer is superior to a high-res digital copy, which act has been Fonn’s white whale and which one she was happiest to land.

After co-producing R.E.M.'s Murmur and Reckoning, Don Dixon got calls from other bands, often southern and jangly, seeking his services. He produced three albums by Guadalcanal Diary, another Georgia band, but it was his work with New Jersey's the Smithereens that took him to another level. It also prompted Nirvana to ask him about producing Nevermind. Dixon was pursuing his own career as well while thinking U.S. labels had slighted his previous band, Arrogance. What happened when the head of Enigma Records approached him in a European airport about releasing the song "Praying Mantis"? What unorthodox scheme did Dixon propose to the label in lieu of releasing albums? Why does he, of all people, think recording ruined music? Dixon has enough great stories and insights to fill two episodes. This is the second.

Don Dixon already had spent 13 years playing, singing and writing with the North Carolina indie band Arrogance when he joined Mitch Easter to co-produce R.E.M.’s trailblazing first two albums, Murmur and Reckoning. He went on to produce the first two crunchy-and-sweet Smithereens albums plus music from Guadalcanal Diary, Matthew Sweet, Marshall Crenshaw and Marti Jones, to whom he remains married. His own infectious “Praying Mantis” got him some airplay as well. Did he see himself more as a soul singer, a songwriter, a bassist or producer? What are the secrets to being a strong producer? What happened when Nirvana asked him about producing Nevermind? Dixon has enough great stories and insights to fill two episodes. This is the first.

William Bell is a soul legend who scored an early hit for Memphis’s Stax Records with 1961’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water” and wrote and sang such much-covered classics as “I Forgot To Be Your Lover,” “Everybody Loves a Winner” and “Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday.” He and Booker T. Jones co-wrote Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign,” and Bell vividly recalls the story behind that one. He also recounts his friendship with Otis Redding and how Redding’s death, followed by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, affected him, Memphis and beyond. At age 84, Bell continues to make music, releasing the Grammy-winning album This Is Where I Live in 2017 and One Day Closer to Home last year. His voice and writing—as well as his wit and memory—remain impressively strong.

We were devastated to hear of Steve Albini’s death at age 61 of a heart attack. He was a titanic figure in the music world and a mensch among musicians who were not well known yet were able to book time with one of the industry’s most supportive, talented engineer/producers. Albini spoke with us for back-to-back Caropop episodes posted in January 2022. The first took place in his Electrical Audio studio on Chicago’s North Side and dug into analog vs. digital technology and preservation. The second was conducted over Zoom and zoomed in on his work with Nirvana and his refusal to take artist royalties. We’re combining these two conversations into a supersized episode so we can revisit his fierce intelligence and stubborn integrity. We wish we could hear more from him.

I spoke with Grant Achatz, one of the world's most talented, creative and thoughtful chefs, as his 50th birthday and his Chicago restaurant Alinea's 19th anniversary approached. He has received just about every possible accolade for a chef, including multiple James Beard awards, Alinea being named the country's best restaurant, and three Michelin stars being awarded to Alinea every year since 2011. Early in this spectacular run, he successfully fought stage 4 cancer of the tongue through innovative treatments at the University of Chicago. Yet despite all he has accomplished and been through, including the pandemic-time transition of Alinea to a carryout restaurant, he keeps restlessly pushing forward. What might the next culinary revolution look like, and how can he be at its forefront? Why does he wish Alinea were more like a rock band?

Madeleine Peyroux started her career busking on the streets of Paris and earned comparisons to such heroes as Billie Holliday and Bessie Smith as she broke through with the 2004 album Careless Love. Twenty years later, she is soon to release her ninth studio album, Let’s Walk, for which she, for the first time, co-wrote all of the songs. In this no-holding-back conversation, she reflects on her beginnings (the 1939 movie musical Gulliver’s Travels plays a role), her creative growth and her struggles to process the current state of our world artistically and otherwise. How does she feel about the only job she's ever had? Is she cool with turning 50 this month? How does she co-write? Does she feel compelled to communicate empathy now? Is she part of the problem or solution?

Bruce Botnick engineered the first five Doors studio albums and produced the last one that featured Jim Morrison, L.A. Woman. He also co-produced Forever Changes, the brilliant 1967 album from Doors’ L.A. contemporaries Love, and engineered some of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. Botnick continues working on Doors releases, including Rhino’s new Record Store Day entry Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm, September 20, 1968. He tells of how these performances, which feature the Doors at peak power, were recorded and recently discovered. He also reflects on the band’s dynamic, the reason the album version of "Light My Fire" is slow and flat, what prompted producer Paul Rothchild to leave the L.A. Woman sessions and the contrasting approach that Botnick took on the project. What was it like working with such unpredictable geniuses as Morrison, Arthur Lee (Love) and Brian Wilson?

Many Caropop guests are looking back on amazing careers, but Niko Kapetan of Friko is on the cusp of one. His Chicago-based band’s debut album, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here, has been garnering raves and airplay while its live shows wow audiences with their intense energy and dynamism. Kapetan’s voice and songs—and the band, anchored by his Evanston high school classmate Bailey Minzenberger on drums—cover a broad musical and emotional range: delicate and fragile one moment, fierce and roaring the next. Having returned from a whirlwind South by Southwest trip (with Lollapalooza to follow this summer), Kapetan recalls how he started learning instruments, forming bands and developing his unique approach to songwriting before a major indie label, ATO, liked what it heard and signed Friko. He's got a lot going on. Where do they go from here?

Bruce Sudano had co-written the Tommy James & the Shondells 1969 hit “Ball of Fire” and played keyboards in the bands Alive ‘N Kickin’ and Brooklyn Dreams by the time he met Donna Summer. The two of them clicked professionally and personally and soon were co-writing the smash title track and other songs for Summer’s blockbuster 1979 album, Bad Girls. They also co-wrote Dolly Parton’s #1 country hit “Starting Over Again,” based on his parents, and continued collaborating throughout a marriage that lasted until her 2012 death from lung cancer. Since then, he has rebooted his own career, recording several albums, including the new Talkin’ Ugly Truth, Tellin’ Pretty Lies. Sudano takes us from his mentorship with Tommy James through his life with arguably the disco era’s greatest artist, for whom he and his daughters recently accepted a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. Toot-toot! Beep-beep! (Photo by Amy Waters)

Cicely Balston won the 2023 Music Producer’s Guild’s Mastering Engineer of the Year Award, and when you hear the music she has mastered—and the smart, easygoing way she discusses it—you understand why. Working out of AIR Studios in London, Balston has applied her talents to the doom-punk band Witch Fever and David Bowie’s back catalog, as well as some dynamite-sounding hip-hop reissues for the Vinyl Me, Please record club, including Eric B. & Rakim’s Don’t Sweat the Technique, Gravediggaz’s 6 Feet Deep, and Madlib’s Shades of Blue. How did this young British woman become an ace hip-hop masterer, and do those albums require a specific skill set? Are people too fixated on analog vs. digital? How did she become a mastering engineer anyway, and what's the most commonly misunderstood aspect of what she does? (Photo by Silvia Gin.)

If you love music, you have loved recordings mastered by Greg Calbi. Ever hear that Bruce Springsteen album Born To Run? He mastered that and has thoughts about how it turned out. He also tells of working with, among others, John Lennon, David Bowie, Harry Nilsson and Todd Rundgren. This legendary engineer has mastered classic albums by Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, Supertramp, R.E.M., Paul Simon and the Strokes. More recently he won a Grammy for his work with Kacey Musgraves and mastered new albums by the Smile and MGMT. He shares decades’ worth of insights into how he makes great music sound even better. What’s his mastering philosophy? How does he give digital recordings the warmth of analog? And when did he get chills upon realizing he was one of the first people to hear a classic album? (Photo by Andrew Lipovsky.)

Slim Jim Phantom is the Stray Cats’ drummer, host of “Slim Jim’s Rockabilly Raveup” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage and a cool-cat storyteller. He takes us through the Stray Cats’ formation, with bassist and elementary school classmate Lee Rocker and singer-guitarist Brian Setzer, and their early days as a “rockabilly bar band” playing New York clubs like CBGB before they relocated to London. The band had recorded two British albums by the time a U.S. label released the compilation Built for Speed, which, powered by the hit singles “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut,” turned the Stray Cats into unlikely early ’80s stars. Why did the band split after the follow-up album—and reunite after solo projects? What’s happening with the Stray Cats now? And who is on Phantom’s rockabilly Mount Rushmore?

That tap-tap, tap-tap at the beginning of “Blister in the Sun” may be one of rock’s most air-drummed fills, and former Violent Femmes drummer Victor DeLorenzo explains how the song's indelible intro came to be. He shares many more stories about this Milwaukee band, including the name’s origin, the invention of his tranceaphone and the jaw-dropping tale of how the Pretenders discovered Violent Femmes busking outside the theater and invited the trio to open for them that night. Violent Femmes’ instant-classic self-titled debut sounded like nothing else, the third album was produced by Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison, and after five studio albums, DeLorenzo had had enough. He tells of his ongoing acting career that included a tryout for Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables, his reaction to the "Blister" Wendy's ad and his up-and-down relationship with his former bandmates.

As Rhino Records’ senior director for A&R, Patrick Milligan oversees ambitious packages such as the Joni Mitchell archival series; deluxe releases from Warner Music Group artists such as the Ramones, the Doors and Crosby, Stills & Nash; and the recently launched, limited-edition High Fidelity vinyl series. That last one, which features audiophile pressings mastered by recurrent Caropop guest Kevin Gray, has included acclaimed versions of the Cars’ debut album, which sold out, and Television’s Marquee Moon, which Television guitarist Richard Lloyd discussed here last week. Milligan shares his reaction to the praise and pushback these releases receive, explains the selection process of the High Fidelity titles, previews upcoming albums, and tells of how the company and business have changed during his two stints at Rhino. Is his job a crate-diggers’ dream?

If you ranked rock's great two-guitar tandems, Television's Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine would be at or near the top. Verlaine was the poetic songwriter, idiosyncratic singer and improvisatory guitarist, but Television would not have been Television without Lloyd’s dazzling counterpunches and composed solos that take melodic leaps no one could anticipate. Television launched the mid-1970s art-punk scene at the grungy East Village club CBGB and produced arguably the greatest album from that era, Marquee Moon. How did the band capture such combustible magic in songs like “See No Evil” and the epic title track? Why did Television make only two more studio albums, and why was Lloyd dissatisfied with each? Why did Jimi Hendrix punch out a teenage Lloyd? What impact did drugs and alcohol have on Lloyd’? How did he wind up making more great music with Matthew Sweet? And how did he feel when Television moved on without him? Was he in touch with Verlaine before the Television leader died a year ago?

Cheers ended its 11-year TV run in 1993, yet on the Emmy Awards in January, George Wendt showed up as his old character, Norm, and drew laughs and, yes, cheers. Even 31 years later, everybody knows his name. Wendt discusses his beginnings at Chicago’s Second City, including his firing and rehiring there. How did that ensemble work prepare him for Cheers? How did the series’ energy change when Kirstie Alley replaced Shelley Long? Was the Saturday Night Live episode he co-hosted with Francis Ford Coppola the weirdest one ever? How did he wind up in those “Da Bears” sketches and in Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” video? How did he enjoy his roast hosted by his nephew, Jason Sudeikis? Pull up a stool and grab a beer, because Wendt has stories to tell.

Brendan Canty’s work in Fugazi established him as one of rock’s great drummers, but this thoughtful, multitalented artist has done much more than that. Rooted in Washington, D.C., Canty played with the hardcore bands Deadline, Rites of Spring, Happy Go Licky and One Last Wish before Fugazi, Deathfix afterward, and he currently is stretching out his jazz-punk chops in the instrumental trio Messthetics. He’s also a soundtrack composer and filmmaker, having directed documentaries featuring Eddie Vedder, Wilco and others. Here Canty takes us deep into the music, where exploration and improvisation bang up against structure. He tells the story of Fugazi, from the breakout song “Waiting Room” and intense touring through the band’s 2003 “indefinite hiatus.” And he explains how a big reunion would—or would not—jibe with Fugazi’s values.

Our Colin Moulding conversation picks up with XTC working in Woodstock, N.Y., on what would become one of their most beloved albums, Skylarking. Moulding appreciated that producer Todd Rundgren chose to include five of his songs, though the recording experience was a bit of a minefield. XTC built on its newfound momentum with Oranges & Lemons, a bright, lively album that features Moulding’s hit single “King for a Day.” Moulding continued to be a keen observer of everyday life, but financial issues plagued the making of Apple Venus Volume 1 and Wasp Star and precipitated Dave Gregory’s departure. Moulding reveals what prompted his final split from singer-songwriter Andy Partridge as well. Moulding has since reunited, briefly, with original XTC drummer Terry Chambers as TC&I, and he continues to make music in the band’s collective hometown of Swindon, England. Might the four of them ever share a stage, a studio or just a night out again?

Bassist Colin Moulding wrote, played on and sang some of the XTC’s greatest songs, including the breakthrough singles “Life Begins at the Hop” and “Making Plans for Nigel” plus “Ten Feet Tall,” “Generals and Majors,” “Runaways,” “Ball and Chain,” “Wonderland” … and those are just in the period covered in Pt. 1 of this fun, insightful conversation. Speaking from his home outside Swindon, England, Moulding tells of his musical beginnings; his and the band’s evolutionary leap when guitarist Dave Gregory joined for Drums and Wires; the weird vibes as Moulding, and not primary singer-songwriter Andy Partridge, was writing the band’s early hits; his reaction to the abrupt end of XTC’s touring days; the jaw-dropping moment when drummer Terry Chambers quit; the joyous psychedelic side project, the Dukes of Stratosphear; and that time David Gilmour asked him to replace Roger Waters in Pink Floyd.

It's time for our third early-year check-in with renowned mastering engineer Kevin Gray. In 2023 he was more in demand than ever; your jaw may drop when he reveals how many albums he mastered. Plus, he launched his own label, Cohearent Records, with an album he recorded in his home studio: saxophonist Kirsten Edkins’ Shapes & Sound. With Cohearent’s second release, jazz guitarist Anthony Wilson’s Hackensack West, imminent, Gray discusses mic placement, what he has learned as a label owner and whether he’ll shift more energy in that direction. He also details his work on Rhino’s High Fidelity series (including his first encounter with Television’s Marquee Moon) as well as Blue Note’s Tone Poet and Classic Vinyl series, Craft’s Original Jazz Classics and Jazz Dispensary releases and more from Jackpot Records and other labels.

Janet Beveridge Bean drums, sings and writes in the great, muscular Chicago guitar band Eleventh Dream Day, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. She also sings, writes and plays guitar in the off-kilter-beautiful Freakwater, her country-folk group with singer Catherine Irwin that released its debut album in 1989. Those bands have 25 albums between them, yet Beveridge Bean, who calls herself “musically illiterate,” has applied her ever-restless artistic spirit to many other projects as well. She takes us inside the dynamics of her various collaborations, tells of how Eleventh Dream Day maintained its singular vision while working with and without major labels, and presents a life lived at peak creativity. (Photo by Iwona Biedermann.)

Joe Bonamassa, who opened for B.B. King at age 12, was a cocky 26-year-old blues-rock guitar virtuoso when he made his breakthrough third album, Blues Deluxe, in 2003—and an established 46-year-old when he released Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 in the fall. In a thoughtful conversation, Bonamassa reflects on all that has happened in between, how he has grown as a musician, taken control of the business side of his career and launched his own label and foundation, both called Keeping the Blues Alive. He also weighs the impact of artificial intelligence on music. Would the blues be the hardest kind of music for robots to fake? (Photo by Adam Kennedy)

Andrew Sandoval is a musician, producer, author, publisher, reissue compiler, liner notes writer, video director, fanzine creator, record collector extraordinaire and more. Not only did he write and publish the gorgeous The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story, but he also oversaw many of that band’s reissues and produced their shows—and still works with Micky Dolenz. Ray Davies requested that he oversee recent Kinks reissues, and he has performed in Dave Davies’ band, led musicians at the Wild Honey Foundation’s Nuggets concert and released his own albums. His many compilations for Rhino Records include the Grammy-nominated Where The Action Is! (Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965-1968) and Elvis Costello’s reissues campaign. In an inspiring entrepreneurial tale, Sandoval has created a life around the music that he loves.

Maybe you know Paul Williams for hits he co-wrote for the Carpenters (“We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays”) and Three Dog Night (“An Old Fashioned Love Song”). Or for his performances in Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise and the Smokey and the Bandit movies. Or for his Oscar-winning song with Barbra Streisand, “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born).” Or for the songs he wrote for Bugsy Malone and Ishtar. Or for his singing (and writing) on Daft Punk’s 2013 Grammy-winning album, Random Access Memories. Or for what may be his most beloved song of all, “Rainbow Connection” (plus the rest of The Muppet Movie soundtrack). Factor in the current stage adaptation of the 1977 Jim Henson TV special, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, and Williams has a lot to talk about—and he does so, delightfully.

Brilliant pianist Bill Payne, who founded Little Feat in 1969 in Los Angeles with singer-songwriter-guitarist Lowell George, takes us on this great American band’s rollercoaster ride through the 1970s. Payne wrote or co-wrote more than half of Little Feat’s self-titled debut album, but the mercurial George came to dominate as the band ascended via the albums Sailin’ Shoes, Dixie Chicken and Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, the last of which features the Payne standout “Oh, Atlanta.” By the time of the classic 1978 live album Waiting for Columbus, George had pulled back and was struggling with addictions, and tensions ran high — yet the band still cooked. What happened? And how did Payne revive Little Feat after George’s death to continue leading it through today?

The Vinyl Me, Please record club marked its 10th anniversary this year and now boasts more than 30,000 members. As senior director of music and editorial, Andrew Winistorfer chooses many of the Records of the Month and exclusive store drops. A passionate music fan himself, he has developed keen insights into the psyche of obsessive vinyl buyers (raising my hand) as well as the business of licensing music from labels and getting albums mastered and pressed to the club’s standards. How does VMP select its “Lost Sounds Found” and less obscure albums? Where did it get the gumption to try to top Mobile Fidelity with its Miles Davis box? What factors drive album pricing? How much does FOMO drive sales? Vinyl fanatics, this one's for you.

Justin Hayward joined the Moody Blues in 1966 and wrote and sang most of the band’s singles from “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon” through such ’80s hits as “The Voice” and “Your Wildest Dreams.” How much did the Moody Blues shape his songwriting, and how much did his songwriting shape the Moody Blues? Did he write to fit the albums’ concepts? Did he especially enjoy writing songs with multiple parts and tempo changes? When he performs now, does he feel more emotionally connected to material from one era or another? Will he ever again perform with the surviving Moody Blues? He still has that golden voice, whether singing or discussing his days of future passed. (Photo by Joe Schaeffer.)

Happy Thanksgiving! We're hitting the pause button on Caropop this week to say thank you and to give you a chance to catch up on some of the great conversations you may have missed. Please enjoy this brief message from the Caropop team, and we'll be back with another fantastic guest next week. Thanks!

The English Beat—or, if you live in England, the Beat—was one of the key bands of the late ‘70s/ early ‘80s British ska-punk scene. Guitarist/songwriter Dave Wakeling sang most of this interracial, socially conscious group’s songs, with Ranking Roger toasting, and he takes us inside the making of the band’s brilliant debut album, I Just Can’t Stop It (out in an expanded edition for Record Store Day Black Friday). Wakeling tells how the bass-driven “Mirror in the Bathroom” came together and digs into the band's relationship with Specials, the Beat's breakup, and songs such as “Save It for Later” and “Tenderness,” the latter from Wakeling’s and Ranking Roger’s subsequent band, General Public. Was there a rivalry between General Public and Fine Young Cannibals, the other Beat spinoff band? How did Wakeling and Roger wind up fronting their own versions of the Beat on either side of the Atlantic? (Photo by Bryan Kremkau.)

Kenny Wayne Shepherd is a blues-rock guitarist and songwriter with one foot in the future and one foot in the past. Honoring the past is something blues artists do, but Shepherd has revisited his own past by rerecording his second album, Trouble Is… (which includes his biggest hit, “Blue on Black”) 25 years after its release—thus interpreting the same material at ages 20 and 45. Now Shepherd is releasing an all-new album, Dirt on My Diamonds Vol. 1, that has a modern snap along with those big riffs and expressive solos. How have his playing and writing evolved since he launched his career at age 18 with Ledbetter Heights? How do his songwriting collaborations work? How does he keep his solos fresh? And what happened when he dreamt a great song and then woke up? (Photo by Mark Seliger)

It's time to hear about producer Ed Stasium’s acclaimed new remix of the Replacements’ album Tim, as well as his work with the Ramones, Talking Heads and the Smithereens. How did Stasium make the "Let It Bleed Edition" of Tim so much more muscular than Tommy Erdelyi’s original mix? Has he gotten feedback from Paul Westerberg? How did Stasium work with Erdelyi (a.k.a. Tommy Ramone) on the classic early Ramones albums? How did he wind up playing on the Ramones' Phil Spector-produced End of the Century and getting held prisoner in Spector’s home? Why, despite the Smithereens’ Dennis Diken’s objections, does he like drummers to play with click tracks? What happened when Madonna was scheduled to sing on a Smithereens song? And what’s his secret to making music sound so good?

Before Ed Stasium made his name as a producer/engineer of the Ramones, Talking Heads, Living Colour and the Smithereens—and before his muscular remix of the Replacements’ Tim on the new “Let It Bleed Edition” box set—he’d already experienced a career’s worth of colorful adventures. He discovered overdubbing via The Wonderful World of Disney, invested in a seafoam Strat to be played by him and Johnny Ramone, chased rock-star dreams, and engineered some key soul releases. How did Skull Snaps’ self-titled debut bond him with Living Colour’s Vernon Reid? How did he help Gladys Knight get the sound she wanted on “Midnight Train to Georgia”? Where do John & Yoko, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck fit in among Stasium’s joyfully told tales? Listen…

Drummer Dennis Diken and New Jersey friends Jim Babjak (guitar) and Mike Mesaros (bass) bonded over their love of British Invasion music and found the perfect singer-songwriter-guitarist to join them: Pat DiNizio. The Smithereens delivered catchy, crunchy power pop, with a teenage vigilante movie introducing their unexpected breakthrough song, “Blood and Roses.” Hits such as “Only a Memory,” “A Girl Like You” and “Too Much Passion” followed. Diken, who named the band and propelled its attack, reflects on the Smithereens’ rise, what rankled him about the hit album 11, how grunge affected the band’s popularity, and how they regrouped after DiNizio’s death in 2017. Will the Smithereens record new material with fill-in frontmen Marshall Crenshaw and Robin Wilson? And how did Diken become the drummer for a mini Kinks reunion?

On stage and on her album Come On & Get It, Judith Owen has stepped out from behind the piano to sing sexually charged jazz and blues songs performed by women during the repressed 1940s and 1950s. Among them: Mary Lou Williams’ “Satchel Mouth Baby,” Dinah Washington’s “Big Long Slidin’ Thing” and Nellie Lutcher’s “Fine Brown Frame.” This Welsh-born, London-raised artist says this project has given her permission to be her unapologetic self, even as she has written her share of heartbreaking songs and accompanied guitarist-songwriter Richard Thompson on several projects. Owen is an energetic, empowered storyteller as she recalls meeting husband Harry Shearer while he was dressed up as Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls, describes their life in New Orleans and asserts that “sexiness is confidence.” (Photo by Rick Guest.)

Peter Frampton played guitar, wrote and sang on four Humble Pie studio albums and a live album that outsold them all. Then he made four solo albums and a live album that outsold them all—by a lot. With Intervention Records’ stellar Frampton@50 box reintroducing listeners to the best three of those early solo albums, Frampton takes us back to those formative years when he was doing session work on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, discovering the talk box, refining his sound, writing “Show Me the Way” and “Baby, I Love Your Way” the same day and taking the rocket ride that was Frampton Comes Alive! He also reveals what he actually is saying on the talk box portion of the live “Do You Feel Like We Do.” (Photo by Austin Lord.)

There’s much more to the fiercely intelligent, multitalented singer-songwriter-keyboardist Patrice Rushen than “Forget Me Nots,” though that song, with its get-up-and-dance groove and Rushen’s sweet vocals, is undeniable. Not only was it a Grammy-nominated hit in 1982, but it served as the basis for Will Smith’s “Men in Black” (amid a tense negotiation) and in 2021 became a viral TikTok dance sensation. Just what you’d expect from a formally trained jazz pianist who began studying music at age 3, was signed to the jazz label Prestige at age 17 and moved on to record funky, genre-defying music for Elektra. She also has scored films such as Hollywood Shuffle, served as music director for the Grammy and Emmy Awards, and chairs the University of Southern California’s Popular Music Program. It’s all of a piece, she explains, and straight from the heart.

As guitarist for the impossibly funky New Orleans band the Meters, Leo Nocentelli wrote an array of indelible riffs and songs; you’ve likely heard “Cissy Strut” in movies, TV promos and hip-hop samples, and “People Say,” from the great 1974 album Rejuvenation, is another of many classics. He also played on high-profile releases as a teenage session musician in New Orleans and later, with and without the Meters, on songs by Robert Palmer, Dr. John, Labelle (including “Lady Marmalade”) and Peter Gabriel. And while the Meters were on hiatus in 1971, Nocentelli wrote and recorded a James Taylor-inspired singer-songwriter album, Another Side, that sat for 50 years before a miraculous resolution. It's a helluva story.

The first time I saw Jane Lynch, she was playing Carol Brady on stage in Chicago in Real Live Brady Bunch, but you’re more likely to know her from Glee or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or Hollywood Game Night or The 40 Year Old Virgin or Best in Show or Funny Girl on Broadway or…the list goes on. She’s a quick-witted improviser, a hard-working performer, a five-time Emmy winner and, as you’ll hear, a dynamic conversationalist. Did she know she was funny while growing up in the Chicago south suburb of Dolton? Did she have a positive experience at Second City? Does she prefer improvising or working with a script? What was her "white hot ambition"? How important is projecting confidence? And why and how is she so busy? You’ll listen with glee...

ZZ Ward has a powerful, soulful voice, a great ear for hooks and an old-school blues-rock sensibility fused with hip-hop rhythms, all playing out on a spaghetti-western landscape. Her third album, Dirty Shine, comes out Sept. 8 and is her first as a mother as well as an independent artist after two albums (Til the Casket Drops and The Storm) with Disney’s Hollywood label. Her DIY approach certainly hasn’t curbed her artistic ambitions: The new album includes collaborations with Vic Mensa and Aloe Blacc, her brother Adam William Ward directed mini-movies for several of the songs, and she even made (and sells) the fedoras she wears in them. My daughter Ruthie Caro, who turned me on to ZZ Ward’s music years ago, joins this lively conversation with one of her musical heroes.

Johnny Hickman has provided “bonehead guitar riffs,” memorable songs and a spark-plug energy to Cracker since the band debuted more than 30 years ago. Hickman and primary singer-songwriter David Lowery already were friends from Redlands, Calif., when Lowery called him after the implosion of his band Camper Van Beethoven. The ever-lively Hickman digs into the bounty of riffs, hooks and wit that went into Cracker’s self-titled debut album, which includes “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now).” How did the band raise the bar with Kerosene Hat, propelled by the hits “Low” and “Get Off This?” Why did the formidable rhythm section leave, prompting Cracker to move to the “Steely Dan model”? What’s the story behind Hickman’s arrest after wielding his 1977 Les Paul as a weapon? Listening to Hickman play or speak is a cure for feeling low.

You may know Sally Potter as the groundbreaking English director of such films as Orlando, The Tango Lesson and Yes, but now she also is a recording artist. At age 73 Potter has released her first solo album, Pink Bikini, writing, singing and playing keyboards. The songs look back on her teenage years in 1960s London, when she was discovering her own sexuality, wrestling with shame, rebelling against her mother and finding her artistic and political voices. Speaking from her studio, Potter also reflects on the transformative effect of having a film camera in her hands at age 14, the paucity of female filmmakers when she started and her unwillingness to let age limit her creative pursuits. As she puts it: “Who cares about the calendar?”

Michael Shannon is an Oscar-, Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor who, the night before this conversation, sang R.E.M. songs at the Chicago club Metro. He’s multitalented, thoughtful and fearless, with a commitment to Chicago theater that doesn't wane no matter how high his profile rises. In this probing, good-humored on-stage conversation at the club Space, Shannon couldn’t discuss his prominent film and TV work due to the SAG-AFTRA strike against Hollywood’s producers, so he went deep in other areas, such as: his early ping-ponging between Kentucky and Chicago’s North Shore; his repeated path-crossings with Tracy Letts; how his family life inspired his direction of the upcoming indie film, Eric Larue; what he did when only two audience members showed up for a Hurlyburly performance; what he thinks of the strike; and whether he preps for a concert as if it’s another role. He also performs two original songs that—spoiler alert—are awesome.

Los Lobos was doing its label a favor when it played on what turned out to be a big album: Paul Simon’s Graceland. Why did the band wind up feeling burned? Los Lobos sax/keyboard player Steve Berlin explains. Happier times arrived as Los Lobos hit No. 1 with its cover of Richie Valens’ “La Bamba.” How did they capitalize on their newfound popularity? What was so strange about the recording process for the album The Neighborhood? What key takeaways from that experience led to the Los Lobos’ 1992 masterpiece, Kiko? Berlin takes us inside that creative peak period and explains why the band was behind the eight-ball when it came time to record the groovy follow-up, Colossal Head—and how David Hidalgo may be the most unassuming great guitarist there is.

Saxophonist/keyboard player/producer Steve Berlin played with the Blasters before joining Los Lobos, and he noticed a stark contrast between how those two L.A. bands operated. He stuck with Los Lobos and still plays with them 40 years later. A call-‘em-as-he-sees-‘em storyteller, Berlin recounts a crazy Gregg Allman experience, an ordeal with a bad-decisions-prone producer, and his first experience playing what would become his trademark instrument, the baritone sax, on a celebrated Blasters song. He also discusses Los Lobos' sometimes-messy creative process and his co-production—and eventual falling out—with T Bone Burnett on early Los Lobos records. That conflict led to his being diverted to produce the band’s soundtrack for an apparent B-movie. The title? La Bamba. Berlin serves up so much tasty material, you’ll get a second helping next week.

Booker T. and the M.G.’s were an all-time great band on their own and while playing with such Stax acts as Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Albert King and Otis Redding. Guitarist Steve Cropper, who made every note count, produced many of Redding's sessions and co-wrote such hits as “Mr. Pitiful” and the landmark “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” After Redding died in a plane crash in late 1967, Cropper prepped “The Dock of the Bay” and other recently recorded tracks for a series of posthumous albums that Rhino Records has compiled in a new box set called Otis Forever. Speaking from his Nashville home, Cropper tells surprising stories about working with Redding, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, Mavis Staples, the Blues Brothers, Neil Young and more. Play it, Steve!

It's no wonder that Peter Zaremba was the star of the recent Lenny Kaye-hosted Nuggets all-star concert in Los Angeles: He has been keeping ‘60s psychedelic garage rock alive for decades through his energetic work with the Fleshtones as well as his DJ gig as the Psychedelic Count on Little Steven’s Underground Garage. (You also may remember him as host of the 1980s MTV show I.R.S. Records presents The Cutting Edge, a precursor to 120 Minutes.) With the charismatic Zaremba out front, the New York-based Fleshtones made crowds groove and sweat, and they worked to translate that energy to the recording studio. Zaremba discusses the thrills of playing live and making records, the story behind the Fleshtones’ recent Spanish-language hit, his search for Russian surf zombie songs and much more.

With Mike Peters belting out anthemic songs such as “Sixty Eight Guns” and “Spirit of ’76,” the Alarm could rouse an audience no matter the size—and it often was big. “Rain in the Summertime” and “Sold Me Down the River” boosted this Welsh band’s U.S. popularity before Peters broke up the group in 1991 and re-started it years later. In the meantime he was diagnosed with leukemia, and he wrote much of the Alarm’s new album, Forwards, during a recent, harrowing hospital stay. Now he is performing again and reflecting on the concert that changed his life, the folly of kidnapping a journalist, all those U2 comparisons, the lightning bolts of inspiration and how he has created what he calls his own little soundtrack of hope to lead him out of the darkness.

When you want to add joy and beauty to your life, listen to the Roches. There’s magic in these three sisters’ harmonies and good humor and heartbreak in their songs. They are Maggie and Terre and Suzzy, the last of whom is the little sister age-wise, the middle sister voice-wise and the glue personality-wise. Speaking from her New York home, Suzzy Roche reflects on the wonders and challenges of singing with her sisters and dealing with a music industry that thought it could make stars out of them. She also discusses the origins of their "Hallelujah Chorus" interpretation and “The Death of Suzzy Roche”; her standout acting turn in “Crossing Delancey”; and what made Maggie, who died from breast cancer in 2017, so special. (Photo by Albie Mitchell.)

The Los Angeles-based Love had one of the rock’s great first-three-album progressions, culminating in the 1967 masterwork Forever Changes, before leader Arthur Lee started over with an entirely new band. Johnny Echols, Love’s lead guitarist for that classic stretch, had known the enigmatic Lee since they were kids in Memphis who relocated to L.A.,, where Echols played with Billy Preston and backed Little Richard. Love, a rare interracial rock band, debuted with an energetic reworking of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “My Little Red Book." The explosive single “7 and 7 Is,” the brilliant, jazzy second album, Da Capo, and the darkly beautiful, acoustic-orchestral Forever Changes followed. Why did Love wind up in the Doors’ shadow? Why didn't Love tour much? Why were session musicians brought in to start Forever Changes? What role did drugs play in the band’s troubles? How did Echols reunite with Lee in the early 2000s and continue playing Love songs after Lee died of leukemia in 2006? Echols sets the scene.