Andrew Sandoval comes back to the Pods & Sods Network to discuss his forthcoming book The Monkees: The Day By Day Story! First published in 2005, it had widely been considered the last word on the story of The Monkees – an incredibly detailed chronology of all of the music, filming and tours between their creation and 1970. Now expanded and essentially rebuilt, the new version of the book contains some mindblowing content that’s never been unearthed until now, and Andrew shares some of the new research info with Craig and answers a few listener questions.
Andy Timmons shares his 10 Essential Brian May and Queen songs. Andy has been a lifelong Queen fan, even crediting Brian May with his discovery of harmony while studying songs from A Day At The Races as a young guitarist (a story he shares in this episode for the first time), but it was the recent success of the Bohemian Rhapsody film that inspired him to revisit the entire Queen catalog for a very serious, deep dive. Through sharing his ten essential Brian May/Queen songs, Andy tells great stories about connecting with these songs personally, the talent behind them and what sets these songs apart, the unique qualities of Brian’s guitar tone, playing, and singing, even personal experiences of playing with a 1947 King George Sixpence – the same coin Brian famously uses to play his Red Special.
We close out the episode with Andy’s gorgeous solo guitar rendition of Queen’s You Take My Breathe Away/Bohemian Rhapsody – a MUST hear!!
Chris Trapper of The Push Stars shares his 10 Essential Colin Hay songs. Chris has gone from being a fan of Colin’s solo work to a longtime partner on the road and a dear friend to the legendary Men At Work frontman. Through sharing his ten essential Colin Hay songs, Chris tells great personal stories about how he first discovered Colin’s solo work, how he first starting performing with him at festivals and as an opening act, firsthand memories of Colin’s struggles with lawsuits, death, life, career ups and downs, and what about Colin’s work, humility, humor and spirit inspires and influences him.
Oh, and which of Colin’s songs does Chris consider a classic on par with Imagine and A Change Is Gonna Come? Listen and find out.. it’s a good one.
Danny Vaughn of Tyketto joins Eric in conversation to take a track by track look back at the band’s 1994 sophomore release, Strength In Numbers. Produced by legendary producer Kevin Elson, their follow-up to Don’t Come Easy had a difficult journey making it’s way onto shelves following the whole wave of grunge that displaced many bands of the time. Danny shares his personal memories and all the details behind the album’s creation and journey.
A solid fan favorite, Strength In Numbers features some songs that were should-have-been monstrous AOR hits of the day – Rescue Me, Catch My Fall, Standing Alone. But the album also demonstrated the band was interested in growing and branching out. They were writing deeper, smarter, and more varied songs at the time. There are some healthy and authentic dashes of blues, Springsteen-esque singer-songwriter, mandolins, harmonicas, Bo Diddly beats, sweeping almost-progressive rockers and so much more.
For the 25th anniversary of the album, Tyketto will be doing some touring where they’ll perform the full album in its entirety – get those details here. They also have a new live CD and DVD that captures and ambitious performance featuring horns and strings. On the solo front, Danny has a new super-interesting solo album of “odd songs” in the works and well as his duet project with Dan Reed of Dan Reed Network.
If you’re familiar with Tyketto, you’ll enjoy this in-depth discussion of this classic album. If you’re new to the band, hopefully you’ll listen and discover a truly solid rock album from 1994 that you may have missed the first time around.
Dave Leslie of Baby Animals joins Eric in conversation to take a track by track look back at their self-titled 1991 debut album. Recorded at Bearsville Studios in New York, the Baby Animals album was produced by Mike Chapman, it went eight times platinum in Australia, spawned five highly charting radio friendly rock hits (Rush You, One Word, Ain’t Gonna Get, Early Warning, and Painless), won tons of ARIA awards and various accolades and sat as the highest selling Australian debut rock album for well over a decade.
In the United States, their single Painless was picked up by MTV and put into heavy rotation, they appeared on Late Night With David Letterman, and toured the country opening for Van Halen. Unfortunately, a faltering record label and distance would prove to be major obstacles for growing success in the United States.
If you’re familiar with Baby Animals, you’ll enjoy this in-depth discussion of their legendary debut. If you’re new to the band, hopefully you’ll listen and discover a truly solid rock album from 1991 that you may have missed the first time around.
Dave Meniketti of Y&T joins Eric in conversation to discuss the beginnings of his career, the early formation of Y&T, how he went from his dad’s record collection to discovering blues guitarists, early days songwriting, finding his confidence as a vocalist, the legendary Winterland 1974 show, memories of the original members that have since passed away, some anecdotes of touring with the enthusiastic partier that was Bon Scott, business struggles with A&M and Geffen in the 80s and 90s, bringing in Steve Smith on their Ten record, how Y&T kind of side stepped the grunge era and kept it together through the 90s, his solo career, discovering some classic tunes hidden in their vault, what led to their newest release, Acoustic Classix Volume 1, how he got involved in his other business, Meniketti Wines, will there be another proper Y&T album, what’s next for him and the band, and much more!
Liv Warfield of Roadcase Royale joins Eric in conversation to discuss the beginnings of her career, moving to Portland Oregon from Peoria Illinois to find her voice in a steady karaoke scene, becoming an independent artist with a charting single, how she connected with Prince, the funny story in waiting for the announced “Prince will call you” call that changed her life, how Prince influenced her confidence and songwriting on her next solo album, how the couple of songs they wrote together came about, is there anything she worked on with Prince in his legendary vault, what she wishes the world knew more about Prince, how she connected with Nancy Wilson to form Roadcase Royale, origins of their anthemic Get Loud, what it means to raise your voice as an artist, how have “Heart” audiences accepted her, what’s next for the band in terms of touring and recording, what’s next for her personally, and much more!
Danny Seraphine shares his 10 Essential Chicago songs. Spanning all eras of the iconic band Chicago, Danny picks his favorites, shares memories of early drumming influences, some childhood memories, some really detailed and wonderful stories about the formation of Chicago, colorful memories of playing a mob bar with an owner that insisted on singing Sinatra songs with the band, locking with Terry Kath as a bass player and guitarist, the very first time the original Chicago lineup played together, meeting and working with percussionist Laudir de Oliveira, what happened to Al Kooper’s video recording of the band’s first studio sessions, sharing influences with The Bee Gees and Earth, Wind & Fire, getting fired from the band, what it meant to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his old bandmates, where he is now with performing live, and much more.
Lauren Hoffman was the very first interview on Pods & Sods way back in October of 2013. The full story of her career until that point can be found there, but in this episode Lauren joins Craig for an extremely in depth conversation about the songs and stories surrounding MEGIDDO, her debut album released in 1997 on Virgin.
Jimmy Carter of The Blind Boys of Alabama joins Eric in conversation to discuss his early life connecting with his classmates to form The Blind Boys of Alabama, early memories of touring and recording, memories of contemporaries like Sam Cooke and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, experiencing the Civil Rights movement and the diversification of the Blind Boys’ audiences in the 80s, their appeal in the secular world, touring with Peter Gabriel, what it was like performing at The White House for Obama, memories of his final performance with longtime friend and partner Clarence Fountain, learning that their recording of Way Down In The Hole was used for the TV show The Wire, what his plans are for a new recording spanning the group’s 80 year career, what he plans to do in the second half of his life and much more!
Andrew Sandoval comes back to the Pods & Sods Network to discuss his forthcoming book The Monkees: The Day By Day Story! First published in 2005, it had widely been considered the last word on the story of The Monkees – an incredibly detailed chronology of all of the music, filming and tours between their creation and 1970. Now expanded and essentially rebuilt, the new version of the book contains some mindblowing content that’s never been unearthed until now, and Andrew shares some of the new research info with Craig and answers a few listener questions.
Andy Timmons Picks The Essential Brian May
Chris Trapper Picks The Essential Colin Hay
Danny Seraphine Picks The Essential Chicago
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