The Fretboard Journal Guitar Podcast

Danny Barnes returns to the Fretboard Journal Podcast to talk about the making of his 2020 Grammy-nominated album, Man on Fire (ATO). The album is full of surprising twists, right down to the lineup: Bill Frisell, Dave Matthews and John Paul Jones all make appearances. We talk to Barnes about the making of the Man on Fire , how he met Jones, and learn a bit about his creative process (beyond banjo...

Jordan Tice and Kenneth Pattengale of the Milk Carton Kids join us on this week's Fretboard Journal Podcast to talk about the making of Tice's 2020 album, Motivational Speakeasy . The Pattengale-produced solo album is noteworthy not just for  Tice's always-exceptional playing and vocals, but also for its stripped-down beauty. It's one of our favorite albums of 2020. During the call, we hear about...

We make a rare exception on this week's Fretboard Journal Podcast and talk to a drummer! Percussionist / singer-songwriter Joachim Cooder joins us to talk about his new album, Over that Road I'm Bound: The Songs of Uncle Dave Macon . It's a captivating collection of Macon songs performed on a rather unlikely instrument, the electric mbira. Joachim is also joined by his dad, Ry Cooder, on the banjo...

Nels Cline joins us on this week's podcast to discuss his new double-album on Blue Note, Share the Wealth. Share the Wealth finds Nels alongside the powerhouse lineup of Scott Amendola, Skerik, Trevor Dunn, Brian Marsella and Cyro Baptista. Inspired by the cut-up recording methods of Os Mutantes and influenced at least a bit by Miles Davis' electric period, it's one of his wildest projects to date...

Author and guitar collector John Stubbings joins us for a very special episode of the Fretboard Journal Podcast to read from his monumental book, The Devil Is In It: A Story of Love, Obsession, and the American Acoustic Guitar . This hefty, slipbound-cased tome is equal parts history lesson, art book and memoir, showcasing John's love for the modern lutherie movement and all things acoustic guitar...

On his latest release, 'I Love You,' Kevin Breit does something truly monumental: 30 covers of his favorite songs performed entirely on vintage, mandolin family instruments. Performing all the parts, Breit himself becomes a one-man-band mandolin orchestra, while a different guest vocalist appears on each tune. It's just the latest brilliant idea to come from the Canadian singer-songwriter, guitari...

Guitarist and composer Jim Fox has backed dozens of vocal luminaries over the years, including Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, Rosemary Clooney and Dean Martin. During this week's Fretboard Journal Podcast, we talk about his start in music, attending Berklee, his early stint backing Bobby Vinton, and the numerous years he spent accompanying Frank Sinatra, Jr. We also talk about Fox's jazz albums, his...

Steve McCreary is the GM of Collings Guitars and Mandolins and one of the most respected members of the musical instrument industry. Since joining Collings in 1992, he's helped helm the Austin, Texas-based company's growth into mandolins, electric guitars, and – most recently – their more affordable Waterloo line of instruments. During this lengthy interview, we hear about Steve's unique backgroun...

Robert "Nitebob" Czaykowski is a legendary rock & roll sound engineer. For nearly 50 years, he's done front-of-house mixing for musicians both famous and infamous, consulted with musical instrument companies (there's a "Nitebob" setting on Fender Cyber-Twins), worked as a gear tech, and even served as Walter Becker's de facto "guitar pimp." During this sprawling talk (hopefully the first of many),...

For our 300th episode, we're mixing things up with an informal Zoom conversation with two of our favorite people, jazz guitarists Bill Frisell and Anthony Wilson. During this hour-plus chat, these two friends riff on influences, the Los Angeles jazz scene, Dennis Budimir, Gerald Wilson (Anthony's dad), Gabor Szabo, and so much more.  Watch Bill Frisell perform alongside Dennis Budimir and Bob Bain...

Guitar great Adam Miller joins us once again (he originally appeared on Fretboard Journal Podcast #240 ) to talk about the making of his fantastic new electric album, Unify . Miller has had quite an interesting year:  He and his wife were all set to relocate to Los Angeles full-time when COVID hit and sent him back home to Australia. He recounts how Unify came together, the influence his Californi...

With Beginners (ANTI- Records), Christian Lee Hutson released one of our favorite records of 2020, so it only felt fitting to invite this Los Angeles-based musician back on the Fretboard Journal Podcast. During our chat, Hutson talks about the making of his album (including his previous failed attempts to record these songs); overcoming self-doubt; working alongside Phoebe Bridgers (who ended up p...

On this week's Fretboard Journal Podcast, Jason checks in with luthier and fellow podcaster, Michael Bashkin. It's an unfiltered and fun chat about the boutique guitar industry at large, the annual output of an independent solo maker, Michael's Luthier on Luthier Podcast and a lot more. Jason also asks Michael about guitar shows, Moon spruce and the realities of building production guitars oversea...

Beginning in March of 2020, while most of the world was in lockdown mode due to COVID, Daniel Romano did something truly remarkable: He began releasing an album nearly every week on his Bandcamp page . On this week's Fretboard Journal Podcast, we talk to the Canadian musician about his prolific output this year: from a track-by-track re-creation of Bob Dylan's Infidels album played as if the Plugz...

Chase Bliss Audio makes some of the most interesting pedals created today. On this week's Fretboard Journal Podcast, we talk to founder Joel Korte about his company's rapid rise in popularity, his workflow, some of their latest creations and their ongoing collaborations with both pedal makers and musicians.    We also talk about the human element found in Chase Bliss' output, some of the noteworth...

For forty years, Bruce Harvie (Orcas Island Tonewoods) has carved out a nice existence for himself in the instrument making world as a tonewood supplier. His one-man operation is based in one of the most beautiful spots in North America (Washington State's San Juan Islands), where he sells spruce, redwood and other raw materials to mandolin and bowed instrument makers around the world. He's also a...

Musician and singer-songwriter Mac McAnally has led quite a life: As a teenager, he was a studio musician in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, able to jump from between sessions and studios as an in-demand acoustic guitarist. He soon started writing songs, got a record deal of his own and penned hit songs for Jimmy Buffett, Alabama, and other top country acts. Since 1994, he's played guitar in Buffett's Cor...

As a kid, guitarmaker Sherwood "Woody" Phifer would tinker with everything, from model airplanes to his high school track shoes. "I would look at something and I'd be redesigning it as I was looking at it," he says. Eventually, he was taking guitars apart, which led to him building his own instrument and stumbling upon Charles LoBue's Guitar Lab in 1970. Within a couple of visits to that influenti...

Earlier this month, Gibson announced a $59,000 reward for the safe return of their 1959-1960 shipping ledger , a book that, if it exists, has been missing for decades. If found, the ledger could shed light on the details of Gibson's production of guitars during a legendary period of time, including the variations found on all those famed, uber-collectible '59 and '60 'Bursts. On this bonus episode...

Michael Millard of Froggy Bottom Guitars reflects upon 50 years of guitarmaking with one of our most insightful podcast interviews to date. Millard is a legendary figure in the world of musical instruments, using the lessons he learned working alongside Michael Gurian in the early 1970s to create one of the most collectible acoustic guitar brands of the modern era. During this nearly hour-long cha...

For years, ragtime guitarist Craig Ventresco was one of the music world's best-kept secrets: The only way to see him was to catch him in his hometown of San Francisco, playing a solo show at a small cafe or with his gypsy jazz band, Gaucho. He seldom left the city and recordings weren't a big part of his career. Like many others, when COVID-19 and shelter-in-place orders hit, Craig and partner Mer...

If you've read any guitar magazines over the last several years, you've probably seen the bylines of today's guests: Teja Gerken and Doug Young. The two Bay Area fingerstyle guitarists have written extensively about gear and technique for a variety of publications and today Teja is a partner at online music instruction portal Peghead Nation . On this week's podcast, they talk about their beautiful...

Jontavious Willis is only 24, but he's already earned numerous accolades - and a Grammy nomination - for his mastery of the blues. On this week's Fretboard Journal Podcast, we talk to Willis from his home in Georgia about being a largely self-taught guitarist, the one standard tuning guitar lesson he took (just five years ago!), the gear he uses today (including his Fraulini 12-string guitar), and...

Sarah Jarosz just released 'World on the Ground,' her first solo album in four years. On this week's Fretboard Journal Podcast, she talks to us about the making of the album, working with John Leventhal (who produced the project and helped co-write a few songs), her favorite songwriting tools (including her Collings D1A and her Fletcher Brock-built octave mandolin), and much more. This episode is...

For the last decade, luthier David Murray helmed an audacious project: Teaching the craft of guitarmaking to young Tibetan refugees in foothills of the Himalayas. It was one of the least hospitable places imaginable for a woodworking business (from both a climate and political perspective), but somehow the Dehradun Guitar Company steadily produced about one custom acoustic guitar a week. As David...