Our guest this week is the kind of person who knows pretty much everybody, and pretty much everybody knows him. He has worked with household name artists from Miles Davis to Dave Matthews, and he’s spent a lifetime studying music and passing it along. John D’earth is a performer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and educator, and he’s got a nearly 40 year run playing a weekly gig at Miller’s in Charlottesville, Virginia — presumably some kind of world record. And we’re in luck ...

If the music business is an automobile our next guest is a mechanic, and we’re going to take a look under the hood. That means getting into the nitty gritty, so hunker down. Edwin Cox is the global CEO of West One Music Group, a production music company with offices and clients all over the world. He lives in Los Angeles but he grew up and started his career in the UK. So we’ll talk all about the UK licensing collectives and play the acronym game where we’ll have Edw...

Thank you Jim Dudukovich! In this episode we talk about cool bands and stories, like how our guest sat in on drums with the Circle Jerks in New York because Chuck Biscuits, the drummer, wasn't able to play and our guest knew all their songs. Jack Rabid is the publisher and creative genius behind "The Big Takeover," a bi-annual music magazine published out of New York City, going on 42 years now. It reads like a music encyclopedia or mix tape guidebook, including 60-80 pages of album r...

OK, buckle up. We’re about to find out how being a music lawyer is like being a NASCAR driver. And we’ll learn how, in music law, “your adversaries are your friends and your friends can sometimes be your adversaries.” Our guest in this episode is Kenny Steinthal. He’s a 40 year veteran music lawyer, specializing in music and media on both the litigation and deal making sides. His clients include household name companies like Google, Netflix, Pandora, Via...

Our next guest accepts that he has become “The Loudness Guy.” So buckle up! This is an audiophile master course where we’ll discuss everything from what the heck is “U-matic” to did Metallica make the loudest record ever? Ian Shepherd is a professional mastering engineer, owner of Mastering Media Ltd., and host of “The Mastering Show” podcast. Over twenty some years he’s worked on thousands of CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays for all of the major record labels, TV stations and indepe...

Today’s guest has rubbed elbows with some of the greats, from Clapton to Neil Young. He started with an unpaid internship at the famous Criteria Recording Studios in the 70s and would eventually become CEO of his own successful A&R music company. Michael Laskow is no stranger to hard work. And he’s got a sixth sense for recognizing an opportunity and going for it. His stint at Criteria would become life changing, informing the person he is, and his work ethic. He ...

Our next guest has a super power. He can take 100 eleven-year-old kids who have never played music, give them instruments, and transform them from squawking, off key, off rhythm noise makers into award winning orchestras. Gary Fagan is a legend in my life. He was my band teacher at J.T. Henley Middle School in Crozet, Virginia. He taught me how to read and play music, and started me on my musical journey. And over his 32 years at Henley, he passed on his love o...

Let’s pull the curtain back and take a look at what happens behind the scenes in the production music business. Cue the alien action sequence, insert epic music, and watch the magic happen. In this episode we’re talking with Brian Brasher, CEO of of Pitch Hammer Music, a high-end film and television music company. Pitch Hammer specializes in music for motion picture advertising, and has provided music for iconic film and TV franchises such as Star Wars, Black Panther, Alie...

Here’s a quote for you: “I had two suitcases, an acoustic guitar, a bible and $170 and I moved to New York. And that was the beginning of it all.” Our guest in this episode is Celisse Henderson. Through grit, determination, and honing her skills, along with a personality that is infectious and generous, she’s made a career on Broadway, on television, and in music. Her Broadway days saw her in touring productions of the hit musical Wicked, and Godspell and others. ...

Today you and I sit down with the original voice of Siri. Starting in 2011 she was the voice we all became acquainted with, a voice that needed to be “otherworldly with a sense of humor” according to the original engineers. Our guest is Susan Bennett. Susan’s first love was music -- learning to play the piano by ear. She’s also a vocalist and played in a number of bands. Her winding career brought her gigs singing jingles before she dabbled in voiceover work, for which she w...

What's it like sitting in the hot seat, the witness stand, testifying as the musical expert at one of the most talked about music infringement cases in recent memory? Let’s find out... Our guest in this episode is Judith Finell. Judith testified on behalf of the Marvin Gaye family in the milestone “Blurred Lines” case in federal court as an expert witness, something she’s been doing for 25 years. She is president of Judith Finell Music Services Inc, a boutique consulting fi...

Imagine you are backstage coaching Rob Thomas before he goes on to sing with Santana at the Grammy's. Or getting Usher ready to sing with Ray Charles. To our next guest, this is just called "Tuesday." Jan Smith is known affectionately as "Mama Jan," so dubbed by John Hopkins of the Zac Brown Band, but as Jan puts it, it was Usher who took it public. She is a vocal coach to the stars, with the largest roster of charting artists of any artist development facility in Am...

In this episode John Morand takes us behind the scenes of the recording studio, from cutting edits on an analog Studer 16 track tape machine (like the kind Led Zeppelin used back in the day) to running a drum set through a “Big Muff” distortion pedal. From mediating between band members to doing audio production on "Corn Warriors," a competitive corn growing reality television show, John has a treasure chest of hilarious stories to tell. John has worked with everyone from Sparke...

In this episode you and I sit down with Tiffany Ashton, one of the “New Faces of Country” (Renegade Radio in Nashville), a “Rising Star” (Nashville Universe Awards), and "Country Artist of the Year" (Hollywood Music in Media, prior recipient). She’s performed stages from the legendary Viper Room in Hollywood to the Opryland Resort Big Night Nashville New Year’s eve concert. Tiffany’s new single, “Cowboy”, is out, to critical praise. Tiffany talks about songwriting, upcomin...

Steve Van Dam is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and founding member of the band Everything. He co-wrote the hit song “Hooch” which cracked the top 10 in Billboard’s Pop and Adult Contemporary charts in 1998. Steve and Everything played 200-250 shows a year for a decade in the 90s and Everything sold 30,000 records out of the trunk of their car in college before they were ever signed. Steve is also a music engineer, producer and composer. He’s written hit jingles l...

Curtis Daniel III is the Co-owner and Co-founder of Patchwerk Recording Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. Some have called Atlanta the “Motown of the South” at least in good part due to the work Patchwerk has done. Patchwerk has been responsible for recording one groundbreaking record after another, starting with Outkast, and including artists like Goodie Mob, Ludicris, T.I., Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Nas, and others like Ciara, Whitney Houston, Beyonce, Usher, John Legend, Mariah ...

Guest: Stephen Hund: Stephen is a veteran drummer and musician who has played in numerous bands and toured the country. His stack of skills, perspective and story are awesome. He’s a business owner - he started Manhattan Drum Studios, a drum school in New York and Barcelona, and has taught over 25,000 drum lessons.He's a singer, songwriter, self taught guitar player, and union actor. He has a degree in psychology and worked as a strategy consultant at a major consulting fir...