DittyTV's Insights | Music Interviews

Atlanta native Russell Carter is our guest this hour. He’s joining Amy Wright to discuss his exciting career, which began in entertainment law, representing bands like R.E.M. and Widespread Panic and led to the establishment of his own management company, working with artists including Shawn Mullins and Indigo Girls. Carter is also to thank for the Wire & Wood Songwriters Festival in Alpharetta, G...

Community is the key word for today’s show. We had the honor of catching up with Mike, Dave, and Michael of Greensky Bluegrass, a bluegrass-fueled band that’s created a unique community of its own that’s been absolutely thriving for the last two decades. Amy Wright connected with the guys on video call to learn about how Greensky initially got together and built its fanbase, how the band decided w...

Our guest today is Barry Waldrep, an acclaimed Bluegrass, Americana, and Jam Band artist, bandleader, and record producer who's just released a new tribute album, Barry Waldrep and Friends Celebrate Tony Rice, which features a long list of luminaries, including Larry Campbell, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Kim Richey, Emmylou Harris, Warren Haynes, and many more. Truly an all-star cast of players. I...

We're really excited to share a conversation that Amy Wright recently had with sisters Eleanor and Bonnie Whitmore, two highly accomplished singer-songwriters who are releasing their first album together as The Whitmore Sisters. Titled Ghost Stories, the album is inspired by the loss of family, friends, ex-boyfriends and, on the title track, people who have died by police violence. These “ghosts”...

We're excited to share a conversation that Amy Wright recently had with acclaimed Americana singer-songwriter, Cedaredge, CO’s own, David Starr. Unable to tour his 2020, John Oates-produced album, Beauty & Ruin, Starr decided to record a set of cover songs that have inspired him over the years. Starting in November 2020 with a cover of “Every Kind of People” (by Robert Palmer), Starr consistently...

We're excited to share a recent conversation that Amy Wright had over video call with Oklahoma native Jason Boland, who along with his band The Stragglers recently released their UFO-inspired, and Shooter Jennings-produced concept album The Light Saw Me. In today’s talk, we dig into the origins of Red Dirt music, the state of pop music today, and of course the writing of The Light Saw Me. This inc...

Our guest today is singer/songwriter Chris Roberts. Chris is a man who is most alive when he’s creating and expressing himself through music and art, art which includes hat making, a craft he’s quite good at, and that he shares with other artists, cowboys and celebrities alike. In today’s conversation, Amy Wright and Chris discuss everything from the writing and recording of Chris’s new EPs during...

Welcome to Insights, everyone. Our guest today is Kansas City native Samantha Fish, the magnetic and original blues-rock and Americana artist behind the new studio album, Faster, which is available now via Rounder Records. If you know Samantha, you know she has a great sense of fashion and great musical taste, and she loves performing, especially her new songs.  She recorded the new album, on whic...

Welcome to Insights, everyone. Today, we’re excited to share a recent conversation between Amy Wright and acclaimed Nashville-based Americana rock artist, Andrew Leahey. In today’s talk, they dig into Andrew’s musical journey, which started when he was just a little a kid, and they work their way up the present where Andrew stays very, very busy, touring as a hired gun for artists like Elizabeth C...

Welcome to Insights, everyone. Today, our guest is one of the most acclaimed female country artists of our time, West Virginia native and multi-Grammy award-winner, Kathy Mattea. When chatting with an artist of Kathy’s caliber and who’s been at it as long as she has (the early 80s to be exact), there’s obviously so much ground to cover and so many roads to go down. Today, what we focus on mainly i...

Welcome to Insights, everyone. Today, our guest is West Virginia native and alternative-Americana artist Christian Lopez, a high-energy, whole-hearted performer whose new third studio album, The Other Side, was just released back in October. Lopez says that if he wants his music to last in the world, he has to stay as authentic as possible, and that means not compromising or being boxed in. That a...

Welcome to Insights, everyone. Today, our guest is the Grammy-winning and often emulated musician Warren Haynes, a truly gifted guitar player, singer-songwriter, record producer and bandleader who’s worked with some of the most notable acts of our time, including The Allman Brothers Band, The Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, Garth Brooks, Marcus King, and the list goes on. And let’s not forget...

We're excited to share our recent conversation with Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer Karl Wallinger, best known for his band, World Party. We caught up with Karl from the control room of his new studio in Hastings in Southern England, where he's overlooking the sea – the English Channel, to be exact. In the 80s and 90s, Karl released a series of chart-topping albums, his first being...

Today, we're excited to say that we’ll be entering the world of one of today’s most extraordinary blues artists, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. We had the honor of chatting with Chris recently about his new album 662, while uncovering his roots, which run deep in the profoundly prolific music city of Clarksdale, MS.  As you’ll hear, 662 was recorded in Nashville and co-written and produced by Grammy...

Today, we're excited to share a recent conversation that we had the pleasure of having with Nate Hilts of Canadian folk and bluegrass ensemble The Dead South, a gold-certified group that’s gained a cult following over the last decade for songs like "In Hell I'll Be in Good Company,” "Banjo Odyssey," and many more. And now, featuring some of their favorite bluegrass and rock covers like “People Are...

Welcome to Insights, everyone. Today, we're thrilled to get to share our recent conversation with legendary drummer, songwriter, artist, and photographer, Gina Schock. Schock has just published a new book titled 'Made In Hollywood: All Access with the Go-Go’s'. It’s a wonderfully vivid photographic journey as told by Gina, drummer of the groundbreaking, all-female rock band the Go-Go’s. The book f...

Our guest today is acclaimed filmmaker, composer, producer, and all-around creative, Chris Gero. Chris is a mover and a shaker. He’s a 12-time Emmy-winner and a Grammy-nominated record producer. Today, we’ll get started by digging into his background, which points back to Paris, Ontario, Canada, and we’ll work our way up to the present, which is focused on his new music documentary, The Sound of U...

Our guest on the podcast today is acclaimed songwriter and Texas-bred luminary, James McMurtry. James has just released his first full-length studio album in seven years via New West Records. It’s titled The Horses and the Hounds, and today, we get into the making of the record, and other topics that show us just what makes this celebrated tunesmith tick. McMurtry recorded the new album with legen...

Our guest on the podcast today is renowned singer-songwriter and longtime activist Billy Bragg. Bragg is a quick-witted artist and productive generator of change. He’s been a fearless recording artist and political campaigner for over 30 years, and as of this week, he’s released 10 solo studio albums. The latest of which is titled The Million Things That Never Happened. Declared “the first pandemi...

Our guest today is Justin Osborne, front man of the Charleston, SC-founded band SUSTO. SUSTO will return at the end of this month with a new record titled 'Time in the Sun' via New West Records. It follows their critically acclaimed 2019 studio album 'Ever Since I Lost My Mind'. The joy of birth, the closure of death, the warmth of true friendship, and the future rotate on the axis of this new rec...

Our guest on the podcast today is Martin Sexton, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., and the tenth of 12 children. He’s been praised for his down-to-earth songwriting and otherworldly voice by everyone from Rolling Stone to the New York Times and Billboard. A friend of his, someone you might’ve heard of named John Mayer had this to say: “Martin Sexton is the best live performer I’ve ever seen. I may just...

Our guest today is renowned singer-songwriter Amy Ray, a longtime activist as well as co-founder of one of our favorite groups, Indigo Girls. Today, we chat primarily about the formation of the Indigo Girls, her and Emily Saliers’ coming up in Georgia and signing to Epic Records, her love of vinyl and its recent resurgence, her passion for activism, her solo career, her recent single featuring The...

Our guest today is Jimmie Dale Gilmore, a Texas music icon who’s been writing and playing songs for more than 50 years. Most folks know Gilmore best from his work with The Flatlanders, the legendary trio of Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, and, of course, Jimmie Dale Gilmore. The Flatlanders just released a new country music album called Treasure of Love, their first album of new recordings in more than 12...

Our guest this hour is award-winning singer, songwriter, and musician, Sean McConnell. Sean is considered a top tier collaborator in the Nashville Country and Americana music scenes, and well beyond for that matter. His latest album, A Horrible Beautiful Dream, features thirteen songs marked by emotional depth, world-weary tones, and a tongue-in-cheek quality that most songwriters can only attempt...

Today our guest is Easy Eye Sound recording artist and Bristol, England native, Yola, a 4-time Grammy nominee with so much spirit and so much determination that you’re undoubtably going to walk away from this conversation feeling inspired. We're so excited to take you behind-the-scenes to a very special place, Memphis Record Pressing plant, where Yola was visiting to listen to her beautiful new re...