All Your Days

Just before the pandemic, there was this restaurant, our neighborhood local. Chef Camille Rodriguez ran its kitchen, and she kept us well fed, well poured, and just plain happy at our end-of-the-bar dinner spot. Then, when the quarantine locked down New York, Chef Camille transformed her talents into a lifeline for those of us stuck inside. From her apartment kitchen, she emerged with a full bistr...

Join us for a story of survival and guarding a cultural treasure in the face of terrible odds. Matt Smith is the managing director of Passim, the legendary folk club in Harvard Square, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The room saved my life more than once in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And then, in 2020, Matt faced an incredible dilemma — how to keep the 60-plus-year-old venue alive during the loc...

At the turn of the millennium, I learned to mix sound for an Arabic music series at a famous folk club in Massachusetts. Every month was a musical challenge; every month a personal reward. And then, in the middle of our work together, 9/11 changed everything. Joining me on this episode is the remarkable Karim Nagi — one of the great culture bearers; a masterful musician — who created and shap...

A powerful painter with a very personal perspective, Annie Leist takes us into the mind, the oils, and the brushes. We talk about her eyes, which deliver visual information differently than the typical pair, and her advocacy for accessibility and equity. Hot and cool times at the canvas. New work with photos at the Mall of America. The artist and advocate at large; please meet Annie Leist. Clips i...

To put it mildly, it's a raging Season 3 kickoff episode with the unbelievable guest presence of Hamell on Trial. We get into the records, the stages, the wages, and what's next for an artist who's seen a lot, done more, and earned the right, night after night, to give us all a couple pointers on the unbelievable shit that's going down. Clips in this episode: Big As Life (Hamell on Trial, 'Big As...

'All Your Days' returns on September 6. Here's a bite of the apple, a sample of the ample, a bit of the wit that's on the way next week, as we get back into the mix and hear from our new season's guests, including Hamell on Trial, Michael McDermott, Andras Jones, and more. Nine-six-twenty-two: Get yer pod!

It’s the season finale of ‘All Your Days,’ part two of my conversation with Dan Bern. We talk about the ways songs come into being, and sometimes try to slip away, the difference between the big ones and the topical singles, fatherhood, the pandemic, ‘Hunkered in the Bunker,’ and more. Clips in this episode: Dan Bern: Art On the Run - Joe's Pub, 2011 Dan Bern: I Get My Money From the NRA - 2022 Da...

In the first part of a two-episode conversation with Dan Bern, we get into early days, the lure of the vanishing act and the power of vulnerability, about north stars and big moments, and what to do about following them — both the north stars and the big moments. I offer a (partial) biography of the artist. We talk about time.  Clips in this episode: Linda Wertheimer interview - NPR, 200...

Lauren Eileen has just published a vital and tender LGBTQIA+ inclusive book for kids, but I met her long before this milestone. Her journey into identity — navigating her college years not yet out of the closet, running away and becoming a club kid in Miami in the roaring ‘90s, life as a not-yet-out suburban wife and mother in the 2000s, and then fully owning her world at age 45 as an out-and...

Take an epic and deep dive into a pair of albums Karaugh Brown created in the early 2000s, one produced by Bill Morrissey (the Grammy-nominated songwriter and genius) and one by Billy Conway (of Morphine, and Dana Colley of that band plays sax on the sessions). What happened then. What happened after. Big life talk. Clips in this episode: Gone (James O'Brien, 'All Your Days' - 2022) Early to Bed (...

What if a psychic said you’d never make it in music? In this episode, Jim Infantino — songwriter, Jim’s Big Ego frontman, and novelist — tells us what happened next, along with stories from the early days and the road, the bubble-world of the creative mindset, a very special carriage house located in the Paris of the '90s, surprise studio visits from Aimee Mann, and how knowing your Friends f...

Jordan Tishler was living a kind of double life, even as he produced my first two albums, ‘Life Underwater’ and ‘Church of the Kitchen Sink’ … truth is, he’s always been a doctor on top of being a music producer. Now, he’s a vibrant voice in the medical cannabis industry. We go deep on the music days (with shout-outs to Mission of Burma, The Neighborhoods, U2, Midnight Oil, The Motion Sick, Vishnu...

From stumping Cheap Trick to partying with Perry Farrell and gigging with Cherrie Curie of The Runaways, to landing a job with The Guess Who — to wedding bells, finally, at the end — this is the third episode of the three-parter with the first bassist in my first band ... it's the Michael Devin finale. Clips in this episode: No Time (The Guess Who, 'American Woman' - 1970) Haunted (The Guess...

What if you got to live your teenage rock-and-roll dream? Michael Devin returns to take us into a life of unreal encounters and, well, incredible networking. The pod may never top these namedrops: the Manson ranch, Henry Rollins, Billy Idol, Slash, Jimmy Fallon, Jason Bonham, George Lynch, Mike Love, David Coverdale and more. It's part two of the Michael Devin conversation on 'All Your Days'. Clip...

A deep dive into adolescence interrupted. James talks with Michael Devin, one of his first musical collaborators, bassist for Whitesnake, The Guess Who, Jon Bonham's Led Zeppelin project (and more) about first bands and escaping from a very difficult situation that almost derailed everything that would follow. Clips in this episode: Immigrant Song (Live: Nicko McBrain, Michael Devin, et.al., 2013)...

In the final installment of Season 1 of ‘All Your Days - The Podcast,' there’s a new song in the works. Follow along as “Tomorrow” gets to its first stages. More to come, for that one. And catch a preview of what Season 2 will bring; big moments headed our way. The end of one chapter and the edges of a new story.

At last, the making of the 2022 album ‘All Your Days’ — featuring Matthew Girard (bass, engineer, mixing, mastering) and Richard Adkins (drums and rhythm sequencing). Good chat, including some notes about Joy Division, Stevie Nicks, Karaugh Brown, Frank Ocean, and more. We go all the way down, surfacing the steps, ideas, challenges, and triumphs that came with putting the trio together remotely an...

This week we are in New York in the heart of the pandemic and the national election in 2020. The birth of a record called ‘You Get Your Own Parade’. The birth of a band in a remote world. The conception of a record called ‘All Your Days.’ And just survival in general. Words, sounds, and experiences from deep in the shit. Get yer pod! If you dig this, find my music at Bandcamp . The following songs...

We go deep on the strange and powerful journey that was ‘Careful in the Future - The Film’ and then dive into the edges of the precarious project that almost wasn’t — the early recordings for ‘All Your Days,’ which would end up being a different (and sort of) “lost” record entirely. Clips from the sessions that never made the album, plus behind-the-scenes audio from the making of the film, al...

Dig into the making of the 2018 album ‘Careful in the Future’ and a return to the stage for the first time in more than a decade. The genesis of a movie. The edge of great transformations. Clips from the recording sessions and live cuts. If you dig this, find my music at Bandcamp . The following songs and sources are included in this episode: Clip: 7 o'clock cheer, NYC (2020) Careful in the Future...

Leaving the orbit of guitars and stages, the rise and fall of DJ James and a DJ named Dalkesh, the unexpected musical role of one kitchen counter in Manhattan, and a series of 'Bothersome Injuries' brings the songs back around. If you dig this, find my music at Bandcamp . The following songs and sources are included in this episode: Clip: Rhymes Against Humanity with Adam Brodsky (Podcast 2012) Cl...

Unearthing the mystery of Friedman, the music of Television, a band called Bikini Radio, unpublished Dylan and more. If you dig this, find my music at Bandcamp . The following songs are included in this episode: Lizard Link (Friedman, 'Lizard Link' - 2009) Birth of Fury (Friedman, 'Introducing the Soviet' - 2000) Barbed Wire ('A Bothersome Injuries Forty, Vol. 3' [2017] - Demo c.2008) To Have and...

Episode 1 starts with a guitar and ends with a sing-along — a brief history of the early days, the first days of tours and bands, two albums ... and how it all came to a stop in 2004. If you dig this, find my music at Bandcamp . The following songs are included in this episode: Jupiter Falling (Live 1996) America ('Spirit Days' 1998) Tattoo City (Live 1998) Throat ('Life Underwater' 2000) Las...