Badass Records

When Tisha Cash told me she was on board to do an installment of Becoming a Swifty , I thought, Well, how cool is that ?! This is the third episode of this series and I've now done talks with someone from my personal life, a complete stranger, and now -- thanks to Tisha -- someone from the professional world. And what a fun chat it was. Tisha and I go back roughly a decade ago to the time when I w...

David Regnier was kind enough to share a portion of his Saturday with me, and together we recorded Episode #114, in which we talked a little bit about life, a little bit about doin' that live-music thang, and a little bit about a few of David's favorite records. Those were these: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol II (1971) Exile on Main Street (1972), The Rolling Stones Ozzy Osbourne's Diary of a Mad...

I'm very pleased to welcome Sammy Sanchez back to the program for a record-setting fourth appearance on the Badass Records podcast. And none of our chats have been brief ones. Sammy initially came around for Episode No. 44, in which we discussed a few of his favorite records: Pink Floyd's Animals (1977), Rain Dogs (1985) by Tom Waits, and LCD Soundsystem's This Is Happening (2010). For his second...

Zach Bauman joins me for Episode No. 112 of Badass Records , and we discussed a number of things in the world of photography. Please check out his Web site here , and consider giving him a follow on Instagram and/or Twitter . It was a pleasure meeting Zach and getting to learn a little bit about him, and -- while we were at it -- we talked about a few of Zach's favorite albums. They were these: Th...

Pleased to've met Brooke Kakfa as we sat down for Episode No. 111. Brooke is a daughter, a sibling, a friend to many, a lifelong musician, and a member of many bands. Find either her personal or her professional page on Facebook, give her a follow on Instagram , and be sure to check out her primary outfit's Web page , which -- if you happen to be reading this on the day it drops -- includes a Dame...

Mark Manning is a son, a brother, a partner, and -- based on the chunk of an evening I spent with him for Episode No. 110 -- one heck of a fine human being. He's also the host of the Wednesday MidDay Medley on KKFI, 90.1 FM here in Kansas City, so please consider tuning in to his progrum. This came up in our conversation and bears repeating here: Mark gets it. He understands what good content shou...

It's Episode #109 and -- as is often the case -- I'm very excited to have a return guest join me for a conversation. Not only was this time no exception, this time was a visit I was really thrilled about, in that it was MABkc back to chew the fat with me about his new release, 90's Baby . If you missed the first go-'round with MAB, please consider checking out Episode #49, and if you like(d) what...

Brad Smith stopped by to record Episode No. 108 with me, and it was an absolute treat to meet/get to know him. I'm excited for you to get to know him a bit, too, but before you dive in to our lovely conversation, please know that you can catch his band, Eggs on Mars, tomorrow (Friday, March 8th, 2024) at Hillsiders in KCK. That's in Strawberry Hill, specifically at 403 N. 5th Street. And if you ca...

Thirty episodes ago, that week's guest discussed with me the notion of this podcast being a one-man weekly endeavor. "That's a grind, man," he said. "That's a grind." He was right when he made that comment, and it made me realize that that was a good summation of what the thing had been to that point. And it hasn't changed. It really is a grind to do the outreach and the scheduling, the interviewi...

Pleased as punch to have had Kirstie Lynn join me for Episode No. 106 of Badass Records , and I'm just as excited to have you check out our conversation. I ran into Kirstie in the ol' downtownage, and -- before I knew it -- we were swapping e-mail messages in order to get this chat on the books. She's a classically trained opera singer, a songwriter, a musician, a live-music performer, a veteran o...

Sid Sowder! Episode No. 105! Too Much Rock! Wow! So much coolness. I was honored to meet and visit with Mr. Sowder, who has been doing his Kansas City music-community thing for a quarter of a century! Insane! Too Much Rock is his Web site , and I would really appreciate it if you would check it out. Even if just for a moment. He shoots concerts and curates his footage and images from numerous loca...

Richard Davis is a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a veteran, and a local musician. He's also a fascinating dude with a fascinating story, and he's my guest for Episode No. 104. I'm thankful that our paths crossed when they did, and I was able to talk him in to swinging by to sit down for a bit. We chatted life, growing up, recording music, and of course, a couple of Richard's favorite albums...

Fritz Hutchison trekked over on a January snow day and sat with me for two hours to bullshit about music and life, and I gotta tell ya' -- it was one of my favorite conversations in recent memory. I couldn't put a finger on it until several days after we recorded, but there were a number of reasons why I was -- more so than others -- looking forward to this interview. My son -- perpetually eyeing...

Delighted to've had the lovely Autumn Hayes join me for Episode No. 102. Stream her single, "If You Stay" wherever you get your digital music, and be sure to check her out on Facebook and Instagram . In our conversation we talked about growing up with music, developing relationships with stringed instruments, plus recording and gigging. We also talked about a few of Autumn's favorite records. Thos...

Ethan Brown is one of my favorite human beings on the planet. He joined me 20 months ago for Episode No. 14 (which you should totally check out), and he's back again for the second installment of Wu-Tang 101, in which we examine the solo work of the Rebel INS. Yes, indeed. It's Episode No. 101, and we're talking Inspectah Deck. Under zero pretentiousness and -- in my case -- even less than zero kn...

Reaching this milestone shouldn't go unmentioned and so it shan't; I'm pretty gosh-darn jazzed. The year it took to get this thing alive and breathing felt like two, and the two years of recording episodes I'm closing in on have flashed. And I'm embarrassingly proud of the whole thing. I've had upset and disappointment, frustration and humiliation. I've laughed and smiled more than I knew was imag...

Mike Garry is a son, a brother, a dad, a businessman, a podcaster, a friend to many, and he's my guest for The Wayne Gretzky Episode, a.k.a., #99. Mike and I connected via a pair of mutuals, and sitting down to chat with him about his journey was a pleasure and a treat. We talked about The Kansas City Chiefs Football Club, microdosing, life, family, and his adventures with the Let Freedom Trip pod...

Christie Smerchek is a daughter, a sister, a friend, a wife, a mom, a dental hygienist, and a top-notch Taylor Swift fan. I'm absolutely thrilled that she was willing and able to join me for the second installment of Becoming a Swifty , and -- much like my inaugural guest in the series -- she killed it. We talked a little bit about a few of her non T. Swift favorites, i.e. The Postal Service's Giv...

Peregrine Honig is a daughter, a sister, a wife, an aunt, a friend to many, and an artist (or so she's told). She's also my guest for Episode No. 97. And before you read any more about her, please know that she has a solo show on display right now in two spaces. And before I tell you where they are, know that one of them closes this Saturday, December 23, 2023. So you literally have to go today, t...

I had the pleasure of meeting Shawn M. Stewart when we convened to record Episode No. 96 of Badass Records , and what a delight our conversation was. Shawn is a son and a brother and a husband and a father and a musician and a fantastic fat-chewing partner. Please consider checking out his musical endeavors on Soundcloud , Spotify , or on his Web site , and thank you in advance for tuning in to ou...

I'm so very excited about this episode for a variety of reasons. For starters, it's the first installment of the Becoming a Swifty series that I hope has a number of future guests ( Note: Number two's already on the books! ). This is an idea that's been cooking in the back of my brain for a good little bit, and it's always nice to see an idea come to fruition, whatever that may look like. And -- b...

Mr. Mojo Risin'! Yes, yes, it's Episode #94, featuring the astute-and-talented Andrew Morris, ladies and gentlemen. What an absolute treat. I can't tell you how excited I was to become acquainted with this perfect stranger and rap the evening away talking life and music. Many thanks to Andrew for being so giving of his time. We talked road life, life in Germany, the craft of musicianship, instrume...

Please give it up for #KCgirl, April Lemon, y'all! Yes, yes. It's Episode No. 93, and it's one heckuva party, for sure. April and I go back a few clicks to the early 2000s, when we were doing the hospitality-industry thing together, which -- for the record -- were such good times. Thank you, Mark & James, for opening cool joints. Anyway...April is in the event-planning/P.R./promotions world th...

Dan Jones, Dan Jones, Dan Jones. What an absolute treat it was to meet the Squidmaster himself and chat a little bit about his life, his journey as a musician, and a few of his favorite records along the way. Dan and I had a fantastic phone call at some point over the summer, and my gratitude for him seeing our conversation through is really firing on all cylinders. Even now, three weeks after we...

What's crackin', y'all? If you read these on the reg', thank you. I appreciate you. You might know that I'm prone to screw things up from time to time when a) interviewing, b) recording, c) producing, and d) all of the above. Nothin' sweeter than doing it on consecutive episodes, though. Yep. I goofed. Again. And as a result, the guest video comes in late. So...my apologies to Will Moulthrop, my p...