For Songs

I’ve been doing this long enough to say that it’s kind of a big deal to hear a song that stops you dead in your tracks. A song so urgent, fresh and timely that you remember where you were and what you were doing when you first heard it. Well, Reckoning by the Havana-by-way-of-Nashville based Sweet Lizzy Project is such a song. In this episode, SLP singer/songwriter Lisset Diaz makes her annual app...

Can you believe it! Six years ago I started this podcast at the height of COVID on a complete whim. Never thought I’d be doing this for more than a few weeks let alone six freaking years! And what a way to celebrate by bringing back my first-ever guest, Staunton, Va.-based singer-songwriter Scott Miller. Scott cut his teeth in the mid-90s during the burgeoning alt.country or no-depression or insur...

“What’s missing…is Shane.” Buckle up for a special episode of For Songs Singles! In this episode, James Fearnley, original accordion player for the legendary Irish/English punk band the Pogues, returns to talk about the band’s recent run of reunion shows celebrating the 40th anniversaries of their first two records, Red Roses for Me and Rum Sodomy and the Lash. Together with founding Pogues member...

There are folk records, and then there is the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ debut album Genuine Negro Jig. Released in 2010, Genuine Negro Jig not only blew peoples’ minds, it also laid waste one of the oldest myths in music—that bluegrass and folk were largely played and created by white musicians. In this episode, multi-instrumentalist and Carolina Chocolate Drops founding member Dom Flemons brings...

Live albums can be a tough lot. Too much crowd noise can block out the best parts of your favorite songs. A rough mix can dilute the sound. Slick production can make it seem like the crowd isn’t even there. On so on and so forth. But when you get it right, you’ll never put it down. As is the case with Zydeco master Corey Ledet’s newest album, Live in Alaska. Released in December 2025, Live in Alas...

You know that feeling when you rediscover something—a sound, a feeling—that makes you feel young again? Takes you back 25-plus years? Just hits you right between the eyes? I do, because it happened the second I heard the opening riff of “Irish Goodbye,” the first single from latest album by the Minneapolis-based band the Honeydogs. That jangly guitar took me back to 1996/97, when the so-called alt...

Sit down everyone as school is back in session. Your teacher for this episode is one of America’s best storytellers, Louisiana-based singer/songwriter/fiddler/guitarist Louis Michot. Louis is truly a national treasure, a student as much as he is teacher. In his "day job" he fronts the multiple Grammy winning traditional Cajun band the Lost Bayou Ramblers. Here, Louis returns to For Songs to discus...

Every album is important to every band, but some have greater impact than others. Look no further than the [Sweet Lizzy Project]( www.sweetlizzyproject.com ). The now Nashville-based band’s first album Heaven, was released 10 years ago this year and literally changed their lives. Recorded in a humble studio in Havana, Cuba, Heaven ended up in the hands of Raul Malo, lead singer/songwriter for the...

If nothing else, music is healing. Look no further than my guest on this episode—Dan Murphy, former lead guitarist from the 80s-90s cowpunk band Soul Asylum and the alt.country super group Golden Smog. The Minneapolis-based Murphy, who thought he had quit the music biz for good roughly 13 years ago, is in the midst of an unexpected musical renaissance. In this episode, Dan and I discuss his band t...

It’s a For Songs first! Join me in the studio for this fabulous conversation with Kevin and Jarrett from the rock/pop/indie rock trio Franklin Gotham . This interview was recorded at Jarrett’s Mixtape Studios in Alexandria, Va. We talk about the band’s latest EP Good Times, Bad Times, and three brilliant songs: the rock-pop gem Caroline, their brilliant cover of Life in a Northern Town, and then,...

Prepare to be transported. Destination? Who knows, somewhere peaceful no doubt. Just get ready and enjoy the ride. My guest for this episode is making her fifth appearance on the show—[Yasmin Williams]( www.yasminwilliamsmusic.com ), one of the most innovative and talented musicians I’ve ever heard. Yasmin is here to discuss her latest album Acadia, released in October 2024. Coming on the heels of...

If you are looking for an album so definitive of our times—an album that exquisitely captures the chaos, the churn, the despair, and ultimately the hope of our world—look no further: LA-based Sons of Silver’ s newest release Runaway Emotions is absolutely the one. Lead singer/songwriter Peter Argyropoulos has always been a bit of a soothsayer, as the band’s first two EPs so clearly demonstrated. O...

Happy Halloween! Here’s a special edition of For Songs Singles! This time we bring back old friend Lisset Diaz, singer/songwriter for the Havana-by-Nashville-based Sweet Lizzy Project , probably one of the hardest rocking and hardest working bands around. Lisset joins me to talk about the band’s latest single, Tales of Never-Ending Rage and a Beautiful Disaster, released just in time for Halloween...

Buckle up everyone—it’s milestone time! This episode of For Songs is the nice, big, round number of 70! That’s right, 7-0! And helping me celebrate is the most popular guest I’ve had—Minneapolis singer/songwriter/guitarist Dan Murphy. A co-founding member of one of Minnesota’s biggest rock band Soul Asylum, Dan is making his third appearance on the show. In this episode of For Songs Singles, Dan d...

Sometimes the simplest words say the most. For proof, look no further than my next guest, Richmond, Va.-based singer/songwriter [Mighty Joshua]( www.mightyjoshua.com ). Mighty Joshua is one of the hottest, sought after reggae acts along the East Coast, and his new album Dreaducation demonstrates why. In this episode, Mighty Joshua talks “Beware,” the first single from the new record. The song is a...

Every now and again I pinch myself when doing this show. It’s been four years and I’ve had some amazing guests. Yet this one—with all due respect to everyone who’s been on—this one has been more than 30 years in the making. Because my guest is Ian Hunter, hands down my favorite singer-songwriter of ‘em all. Ian is best known for his time fronting the early to mid-70s band English band Mott the Hoo...

Some folks are just a natural for this show. Nashville-based veteran singer/songwriter Tim Easton certainly fits the bill. A renowned tunesmith, Easton has lived a quintessential troubadour life—busking in Europe and living in L.A., New York, and many places in between. Now calling Nashville home, Tim is back with a new album Find Your Way. Tim’s solo work dates back to the late 90s, back when the...

If there’s one lesson songwriters learn over and over again, it’s that sometimes you just gotta let go. Sometimes you just gotta let the song work its way out on its own schedule. Just let it go. That’s the trick my next guest leaned on for his band’s latest single. Peter Argyropolous, lead singer and songwriter for LA-based rockers Sons of Silver, joins me to discuss Tell Me This, a classic, 70s-...

If there’s been one constant chronicled on this podcast, it’s that no one knows the future of the music industry. Hell, no one even knows what the next few days are going to be like in the industry. Certainly my next guest, Seattle-based singer/songwriter Ian Jones, is doing all he can to crack the code. Ian is making his third appearance on this show, this time to discuss his latest single, I Can...

Lest anyone doubt the power of music, I give you the life of Barry Lynch. I met Barry while on vacation in May 2012 at a small pub in the small town of Moy, Northern Ireland, after he led a brilliant Irish session in which he sang and played just about every stringed instrument known to man. I finally brought him onto this show in July 2022 to discuss an album he’d just produced by a band called t...

When we last caught up with Yasmin Williams , her life was just about to change. It was February 2021, the pandemic was slowly but surely starting to ease, and the DC-based acoustic guitar maestro released her groundbreaking album Urban Driftwood. Full of spellbinding, mesmerizing, uplifting acoustic-guitar driven instrumentals, Urban Driftwood took Yasmin from her parent’s house to all around the...

Thirty years ago, I popped in If I Should Fall From Grace with God by the London-Irish punk band the Pogues, and my life changed forever. I was 17, socially awkward, and a bit of a loner, but discovering the Pogues opened a whole world for me. Finding their brand of traditional Irish music blended with punk rock was like discovering a new home—comfortable yet dangerous, familiar yet mysterious. So...

If you’ve ever felt like there’s just not enough time in the day, that the world is crashing down and you’re feeling more pressure than you can handle, have I got the song for you. In this episode of For Songs Singles, I welcome back Lisset Diaz of the Havana-by-way-of-Nashville-based [Sweet Lizzy Project]( www.sweetlizzyproject.com ). Lisset discusses the band’s dynamite new single, Somebody Wake...

Sometimes life comes full circle. In this episode of For Songs, I welcome back Louisiana-based singer/songwriter Louis Michot of the traditional Cajun band the Lost Bayou Ramblers. Louis first appeared on the show in Fall 2020, at the height of the pandemic. He didn’t know it at the time but he was in the midst of writing and recording his first solo album. Three years later, Louis has just releas...

The sun is out, life is returning to normal and our favorite bands are back on tour. Not even two years ago this seemed like an impossible dream, as I’ve chronicled on this show. But here we are, in Summer 2023, and things seem, well, pretty good. A new day is dawning. Just ask acclaimed multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter [Dom Flemons]( www.theamericansongster.com ), who released his brillian...