Music In My Shoes

Desert Trip still sounds like a rumor you’d hear from a friend who swears they were there: Bob Dylan opening for the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney sharing a weekend with Neil Young, and The Who somehow slotted before Roger Waters running through Pink Floyd giants. We break down what made the 2016 Indio run such a defining classic rock live music moment, from the jaw-dropping economics and VIP cul...

Two people. One shared obsession. More than 10,000 live shows. We’re remembering Lois Kahlhert after her passing on October 8, 2026. The story of Dennis and Lois, the kind of music fans most scenes only dream of having, the ones who never stop showing up, even when life gets hard. Their names might sound ordinary, but their footprint stretches from CBGB in New York to the Madchester orbit, touchin...

There’s a moment before every concert where you look at your closet and ask a ridiculous question that somehow feels important: do I wear the band’s shirt to their own show, or is that “trying too hard”? We jump straight into the unspoken world of concert etiquette, from band merch “rules” to the myth that it’s bad karma to listen to the artist on the day of the gig. We tell the truth about why we...

One tiny musical decision can change everything, and That Thing You Do is basically a love letter to that truth. We’re talking about Tom Hanks’ 1960s band movie, why it still feels sharp decades later, and how a single tempo jump turns a forgettable ballad into a song that makes a whole room move. We also dig into the movie’s best running joke, the Wonders name, and the details that make the band...

We chase the weird and wonderful corners of music history, from a star-packed tennis fundraiser that somehow happens without the Eagles to a rap-rock collaboration that permanently shifts what radio can be. We also swap boots-on-the-ground stories from Shaky Knees in Atlanta, including a perfect Strokes set, a storm evacuation, and Wu-Tang turning a festival night into a celebration.  • the Eagles...

One song can act like a wrecking ball, not because it’s louder than everything else, but because it makes the old rules feel instantly outdated. We go back to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and talk through why its 1991 rise didn’t just create a hit, it helped slam the door on the hair metal era and kick open the 1990s grunge and alternative rock mainstream. We dig into the details that built...

We connect the dots between music, memory, and the way stories around 9/11 keep resurfacing through pop culture. We swap video facts, share a song that helped the country breathe again, and then turn it all into a competitive 1980s trivia battle before we nerd out on classic tracks.  • Depeche Mode and Limp Bizkit videos filmed atop the World Trade Center and why the timeline hits hard  • “Minute...

The hardest part about 9/11 isn’t only the day itself. It’s the long echo afterward, when grief collides with everyday life and you don’t know what’s allowed to feel normal anymore. We start by revisiting the way music showed up in those first months, from America: A Tribute to Heroes to the Concert for New York City, and why certain performances hit like a hand on your shoulder. For us, it’s the...

A made for TV band that somehow becomes a hit machine. We dig into The Monkees as pop culture history, from the 1966 premiere and the cast chemistry to the uncomfortable truth that the first records were tightly controlled. Then we get specific about the music: why “Last Train to Clarksville” and “I’m a Believer” dominated the charts, why “I’m Not Your Steppin' Stone” earns respect. The conve...

We mark 60 years since The Beatles’ last tour stop at Candlestick Park, then trace how each Beatle handles touring after the band stops hitting the road. We also bounce through rock news, record-club nostalgia, and a few personal music picks that connect the past to what we still listen to now.  • The Beatles’ 1966 Candlestick Park San Francisco, CA • The rooftop performance at Apple Corps as a di...

A song can disappear for decades, then come roaring back because a movie director picked the perfect closing credits. That’s where we start, tracing how Ben E King’s “Stand By Me” went from an early-’60s hit to a late-’80s revival, and why those second lives are one of the best parts of being a music fan. We also talk about John Lennon’s take on the song and its connection to a 1987 U2 show. We al...

A single radio station can explain an entire era if you listen closely enough. We rewind to WLIR 92.7 and the Screamer of the Week, when DJs pitched their favorite new songs and listeners called in to vote, turning early 1980s rock radio into a hands-on discovery engine. That lens lets us hear 1981 the way it actually felt: unpredictable, genre-blurring, and way ahead of the mainstream curve.  We...

A sold-out arena, a humanitarian crisis, a reluctant Bob Dylan, and a rock star who decides the world can’t wait. We kick off with George Harrison’s August 1, 1971 Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden and dig into why it matters beyond the legend: the scale, the lineup, the nerves, and the performances that still hit hard decades later. From Ravi Shankar’s role in sparking the idea to H...

A lot of people love boxing stories because they’re clean: a tough kid fights his way out, the crowd roars, the credits roll. Irish Bobby Cassidy’s life is not clean, and that’s exactly why this conversation matters. I’m joined by Bobby Cassidy Jr. (longtime journalist and author of Requiem for a Middleweight: The Irish Bobby Cassidy Story) to tell the full story of a Levittown legend who kept mov...

Thirty years later, we can still hear it: the roar of Atlanta’s 1996 Summer Olympics, the crowd noise bouncing off concrete, and the way the city felt like the center of the world. We kick things off with the fun parts people love to remember, from landing tickets the old-school way to watching basketball in the Georgia Dome and soaking up the larger-than-life spectacle of the Centennial Olympic G...

A rock band is only as good as its ability to surprise you, and Anne Harris is built for surprise. She’s the fiddle player you hear with Cracker, and we talk about the first night it clicked that turned into an open invitation to sit in and stretch out. Along the way, Anne explains what makes musical chemistry real: shared taste, trust, and the kind of listening that turns solos into a back-and-fo...

Athens, Georgia can humble you fast: one minute you’re chasing a band you’ve never heard of, the next you’re packed into a legendary room watching the kind of guest appearance people talk about for years. We’re back from Athfest with a full set of field notes, from the festival’s free outdoor stages to the wristband club crawl that turns Athens into a choose-your-own-adventure for live music fans....

Fireworks are loud, but the real Fourth of July time machine is a song you haven’t heard in years. We kick off our holiday special by talking Atlanta traditions like the Peachtree Road Race, then dive straight into the United States Bicentennial vibe that made 1976 feel bigger than life. Along the way, we share the tiny details that still stick: Bicentennial quarters, the two-dollar bill comeback...

We bounce from a killer Cracker and Drivin N Cryin concert to a surreal moment where Heart’s “Barracuda” follows us through LaGuardia. The mailbag sparks stories about meeting listeners, debating concerts, and how the songs we love can turn into life lessons we don’t forget.  • Cracker plays loose and confident  • Drivin N Cryin opening run and why “Scarred But Smarter” still hits  • “Barracuda” i...

“Losing My Religion” has one of the most recognizable feels in modern rock, and a big part of that atmosphere lives in the strings. We’re joined by former Atlanta Symphony Orchestra violinist David Arenz, who played on R.E.M.’s Out of Time, to unpack what it’s like to walk into a studio, open the sheet music, listen to the track, and deliver takes that end up etched into music history. We get prac...

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off hits 40 years, and somehow it still feels like the kind of perfect stolen day you can step into whenever you need it. We rewatch it with fresh ears, from Cameron’s quiet sadness to Jeanie’s rage at always being overlooked, plus the running joke of Rooney trying way too hard to catch a kid skipping school. And yes, we keep coming back to the line that never stopped being tr...

Paul McCartney got dragged for writing “silly love songs” and then turned the criticism into a No. 1 anthem. We start with that 1976 chart run, the irony baked into the lyrics, and the way one summertime hit can glue itself to your memory, right down to the bicentennial vibe and what was playing everywhere you went.  From there we jump 50 years forward to McCartney closing out Saturday Night Live...

A band that lives in a hearse sounds like a gimmick until you hear the reasons it happened and the work it takes to keep it going. We’re joined in the studio by Shaun and Rachel from The Stifftones, a DIY touring duo that turned a full reset into a full-time musical life, complete with two dogs, a rolling home, and a schedule built around small venues, open mics, and the people they meet along the...

The fastest way to time-travel is to press play on a song you haven’t heard in years, then realize you still know every word. We pull up the Billboard Hot 100 from May 23, 1981 and take it for a spin, bouncing between classic rock, radio pop, and the kind of tracks that were simply unavoidable if you lived anywhere near a car stereo or a skating rink. Along the way, we dig into what’s actually hap...

Top Gun turns 40, and we can’t talk about it without talking about the soundtrack that still punches through your speakers. From the first seconds of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” on the aircraft carrier, we trace how 80s movie music uses needle drops to build character, tension, romance, and pure momentum. We get into the details that make the Top Gun soundtrack legendary: the way the Righteous Br...