The Other 22 Hours

Charlie Worsham has spent twenty years becoming the guitar player Nashville calls first. He’s played in the bands of Vince Gill and Dierks Bentley, toured with Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift, and been named CMA Musician of the Year and 2x ACM acoustic guitarist of the year. In August 2026, twenty years to the day after moving to town from Mississippi, he was invited by Vince Gill to join the Gra...

If you don't know Buddy Miller by name, you probably know his work. He joined Emmylou Harris's band, has worked with artists from Robert Plant to Patty Griffin, is a Grammy winner and a multiple-time Instrumentalist of the Year with the Americana Music Association, and served as executive music producer of the television series Nashville . Yet the collaboration he returns to most is the on...

Dan Wilson’s songs have shaped our collective cultural landscape, from Semisonic’s enduring anthem "Closing Time" to Grammy-winning collaborations like Adele’s "Someone Like You," The Chicks' "Not Ready to Make Nice," Chris Stapleton's "White Horse" and Jon Batiste's "It Never Went Away." Yet behind four decades of catalog mastery lies a quiet, r...

Between late-night TV appearances and relentless album sprints, how does a working artist remain anchored in their own life? This week, we sit down with Nick Carpenter (Medium Build), whose catalog of raw, empathetic storytelling has earned him critical acclaim, tours with Mumford and Sons and Tyler Childers, and fans likes of Elton John, John Mayer, and boygenius. We discuss the exhausting trap o...

What does it mean to witness ourselves transform? Singer-songwriter and bluegrass powerhouse Lindsay Lou, a frequent collaborator with artists like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and Sierra Hull, as well as a member of the Sweet Water Warblers and a festival staple in her own right, joins us to explore the tender, high-stakes choreography of modern artist-parenthood.  Celebrating her landmark all-wo...

In a culture that demands creative output be loud, continuous, and universally relatable, what does it mean to plant your flag in the quiet, specific, and unpolished? Grammy-winning artist and guitarist Madison Cunningham joins us with raw generosity, examining the dissonance between holding music’s highest honors and sitting with everyday feelings of failure. Across an intimate hour, we delve int...

As the frontman of Grammy-nominated rock band My Morning Jacket, Jim James has spent decades at the center of new alternative. His long list of achievements includes a solo catalog of five studio albums, recording as part of the supergroup Monsters of Folk, and producing artists such as Ray LaMontagne, S.G. Goodman and Basia Bulat. Yet, beneath these accomplishments was an exhausting cycle of perf...

We are often sold the myth that success cures insecurity. Brandy Clark joins us to unravel that narrative. Named one of the ' "30 Greatest Living Songwriters" earlier this year by the New York Times , she is also a Grammy-winning artist who has placed her songs with Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban and Reba McEntire. In addition, she is the co-writer of the Tony Award-winn...

What if the messiness of life isn’t an obstacle to making art, but the very material itself? In this reissued conversation from our archives, we sit down with New York Times bestselling poet and author Maggie Smith ( Good Bones , Dear Writer ). Together, we explore what happens when you dismantle the dividing wall between art and everyday life, the discipline of staying in solitude rather than cat...

With two Grammy Awards, 15 number-one singles, and a songwriting catalog recorded by legends like Emmylou Harris, Bob Seger, and Waylon Jennings, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Rodney Crowell stands as one of Americana's most enduring icons. Yet, after 50 years in Nashville, Rodney’s relationship to his craft is grounded not in recognition, but in the quiet, daily act of showing up....

GRAMMY-nominated songwriter and author Mary Gauthier, whose songs have been recorded by everyone from Tim McGraw and Blake Shelton to Boy George and Jimmy Buffett, joins us for a deeply resonant exploration of life, survival, and craft. Starting her songwriting journey at age 40 after a successful career as a chef and restaurant owner, Mary offers a deeply grounded perspective on what it means to...

This week, we dive into our archives for this special reissue of our conversation with GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter, producer, activist, and chef Ruby Amanfu. Known for her profound collaborations with H.E.R., Brandi Carlile, Alicia Keys, and Beyoncé, Ruby has navigated the highest peaks of the music industry while fiercely protecting her inner peace. In this episode, we explore the structur...

What happens when creative people stop looking for a seat at the table and build a table of their own? For generations society has treated an artist's life as an economic sideline, a romanticized piecemeal struggle. Today, we are witnessing a structural revolution. With Colorado recently passing the nation's first Artist Corporation legislation (the Colorado Artist Company Act) in June 202...

We often treat our creative identities like lanes, fearing that branching out looks like simple dilettantism. This week, we explore the delicate balance of identity and creative output with singer-songwriter Hrishikesh Hirway, the brilliant mind behind hit podcasts The West Wing Weekly and Home Cooking, as well as the globally-acclaimed Netflix series and podcast 'Song Exploder,' which fea...

What does it mean to inhabit a creative life when that container itself changes? We sit down with GRAMMY-nominated, multi-platinum crossover superstar Amy Grant. Having shaped the landscape of pop and contemporary Christian music for over four decades, Grant found herself navigating an unexpected wilderness following a series of medical setbacks – including a traumatic bike accident – and a rewrit...

How do you build a sustainable life around your art when the traditional definitions of success feel increasingly narrow? In this conversation, we sit down with musician, songwriter, and educator James Gardin. While his joyous, infectious music has found a global audience through major sync campaigns for brands like Apple, Tommy Hilfiger, and Saks Fifth Avenue, James’s core creative philosophy is...

It is easy to look at a lifetime spent traveling on a tour bus in a famous family and assume the creative path was completely clear. We sit down with GRAMMY-winning singer-songwriter and guitar player Lukas Nelson ('A Star Is Born,' Promise of the Real, Neil Young) for an incredibly honest conversation about moving past the shadow of his father Willie Nelson's towering legacy, and deta...

"We write to find out who we are." For over six decades, Judy Collins has been a pillar of American music: from GRAMMY awards, platinum records, and Oscar nominations, to writing 8+ books and landing her first No. 1 album at 80 years old. But behind the staggering accolades is an artist who still treats her craft as a sacred, daily blue-collar job. In this conversation, we explore the quie...

What does it mean to treat music not as a commodity, but as a multi-generational way of life? We sit down with father-daughter side musicians Cranston and Annie Clements. Cranston, a cornerstone of New Orleans music history, has played guitar with royalty like Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, and Irma Thomas. His daughter Annie is a bass player for massive acts including Sugarland, Maren Morris, and Hoo...

We often look at an artist's career through the lens of industry accolades: the tours, the streaming numbers, the awards. But what happens when you intentionally dismantle your creative ego to build something focused entirely on collective liberation? Heather Mae is an award-winning independent artist, the founder of Singing Resistance Nashville, and a prominent voice in organized musical acti...

We often treat commercial success as the final destination of a creative life, but for legendary songwriter Matraca Berg, it was just the first act. She was the first woman to have five different country No. 1s in a single year and her songs have been recorded by everyone from Linda Ronstadt, Trisha Yearwood, and Deana Carter to the Chicks, Chris Stapleton, and Reba McEntire. Matraca’s catalog def...

Behind nearly every influential indie-rock and pop record of the last 15 years has been the brilliant mind and hand of string arranger and multi-instrumentalist Rob Moose. The three-time GRAMMY winner has contributed to thousands of records by the likes of Paul Simon, Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver, St. Vincent, Bruce Hornsby, and Mumford & Sons. In this calming, deeply reflective con...

To celebrate our 150th episode, we try a bit of an experiment: interviewing ourselves, for the first time. After nearly two decades of partnership, we examine the evolution of the creative self. Michaela Anne – whose fifth record, 'These Are The Days,' marks her first in over a 10 years for which she retains total ownership – discusses the "massive shift of self" required to walk a...

Molly Tuttle has shared stages with Ringo Starr and Billy Strings, yet she still grapples with the unpredictable "ups and downs" of a musician's schedule, and the inherent instability of the road. We talk with the GRAMMY-winning artist, and first woman to win IBMA Guitarist of the Year, about the "baggage" of turning a passion into a profession. We explore the necessity of trus...

Ray Benson is an absolute pillar of American music, a nine-time GRAMMY winner whose band, Asleep at the Wheel, has defined western swing for over half a century. In this conversation, we talk with Ray about the "geographical imperative," rebuilding his career from a broke-down bus to a musical institution, and the delicate balance between the craft of music and the business of image. This...