The Record Player

Send us Fan Mail Our buddy Rob Smith likes to talk about albums that are "the one after the big one" and Lucinda Williams' 2001 album Essence is in that category. Both Jeff and Matt enjoyed diving into the record for the first time -- with special guest Mya Byrne . If you're not familiar with Mya's music, you should be! Playing Americana steeped with potent branches of blu...

Send us Fan Mail The incredible Royston Langdon of Spacehog drops in on Matt for the latest Bonus Track. This time, they're talking about Royston's new album, President Alien , which will be released on July 14. As one might gather from the title, President Alien is a unique return to Spacehog's 1995 debut album, Resident Alien . Nearly 30 years later, Langdon revisits each song fro...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Heyward's North of a Miracle is our featured album on this episode and it was a big thrill to welcome Steven Page , who shares what the album means to him. We also dig into a lot of other topics including some music nerd stuff like the cutout bin! Steven tells us what it meant to get the opportunity to open some shows for the Who last fall + we dig into some surprising B...

Send us Fan Mail It's been nearly 50 years since the Who released their epic Quadrophenia album. Mike Peters of the Alarm joins Matt and Jeff to share his memories of hearing the album for the first time and why it became such an important record for him personally. Mike joins us also celebrating the arrival of a brand new Alarm album, Forwards , which is now available wherever you get your m...

Send us Fan Mail Joshua Radin joins Jeff and Matt to talk about his love for the classic 1968 Van Morrison album, Astral Weeks . We also discuss Joshua's new EP, 'though the world will tell me so, volume 2,' which is out on June 23rd. The follow up to ‘though the world will tell me so, volume 1,’ the breathtaking collection of songs featured on Radin’s upcoming EP were inspired by h...

Send us Fan Mail Mickey Hart is currently out with Dead & Company as they play what is being termed as their final run of tour dates under that banner. Fans have a unique opportunity to check out Mickey's art while he's on the road. He'll be making two special appearances (see details below) for exhibits that are being presented by the Wentworth Gallery . Mickey joins Matt for t...

Send us Fan Mail Kansas hits the touring trail this week beginning on June 2 to begin their 50th anniversary tour. In advance of the trek, guitarist Rich Williams spoke with Matt to discuss moments from the band's history. He also details the group's new 50th anniversary compilation, Another Fork in the Road: 50 Years of Kansas . Find the latest Kansas information including current tour...

Send us Fan Mail What a thrill it is to be able to share this chat with the legendary Ivan Neville . Ivan joined Jeff and Matt for a lengthy conversation to discuss his new album, Touch My Soul . He was also quite generous about sharing stories from many different corners of his career. Touch My Soul is an incredible musical journey featuring guest spots from Bonnie Raitt, Michael McDonald, Trombo...

Send us Fan Mail The Hooters have new music (!!) and will be on tour this summer with Rick Springfield, Paul Young and Tommy Tutone (and some other artists depending on the market). These events transpired after our conversation about the band's 1985 album Nervous Night . We've long been fans of the legendary Philly group who notched a number of successful hit singles -- while also stepp...

Send us Fan Mail Guitar fans, this one's for you! It's a big thrill to have Steve Morse back out on the road for his first Steve Morse Band tour in 10 years. The next round of tour dates kicks off with a weekend jaunt beginning May 25th in Homer, New York and wrapping up on May 28th in Cleveland, Ohio at the Music Box Supper Club . Steve joins Matt as part of the latest Bonus Track to ta...

Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Matt have finally defeated technical and scheduling gremlins to return with a new episode of The Record Player! We were so thrilled to welcome author Lauren Thoman to talk about her brand new book, I'll Stop the World , which was recently released by Mindy's Book Studio, the new imprint helmed by Mindy Kaling. It was an absolute blast hearing Lauren's story...

Send us Fan Mail Angelo "Scrote" Bundini is the creator and musical director for the Celebrating David Bowie tour. Fans can look forward to the inaugural Camp Stardust happening July 4-July 7  Featuring former Bowie Music Director Adrian Belew, Scrote, Spacehog’s Royston Langdon, Jeffrey Gaines, guitarist Eric Schermerhorn, sax great Ron Dziubla, bassist Matt McJunkins, and drummer Jeff...

Send us Fan Mail Here's one for fellow rock doc lovers. Bobby Colomby of Blood, Sweat & Tears drops in to discuss the new film, What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? The movie, which is in theaters now, reveals an incredible story which has been under wraps for more than 50 years. Blood, Sweat & Tears traveled overseas in June 1970 to become the first American band to pe...

Send us Fan Mail It was an absolute thrill to get a few minutes with the legendary Rickie Lee Jones ! She's got a new album, Pieces of Treasure due out on April 28. The record reunites her with producer Russ Titelman, opening a fresh chapter for the pair. They initially worked together on her first two albums, including1981's Pirates , which landed at #49 on NPR's 2017 list of the 1...

Send us Fan Mail Joe Kleon is a veteran of the Cleveland music scene who has worked in a lot of different capacities, including a lengthy career in radio. More recently, he's developed an interesting career in concert photography that's now approaching the 20 year mark. Matt's path with Joe first crossed in the '90s when the two got together to discuss Rush and play through som...

Send us Fan Mail With Matt's dad in declining health, Jeff suggested that today's album should be "one for Dad." We discuss Dave Brubeck's Buried Treasure s , an archival release which was originally recorded across three nights in Mexico City back in May of 1967. Notably, Dave took the stage with his quartet, featuring legendary saxophonist Paul Desmond, bassist Eugene Wr...

Send us Fan Mail Gilbert O'Sullivan has had an amazing career with 16 Top 40 hits and six of them that went to number one. While some artists would be content to coast on those stats, Gilbert keeps rolling. His latest album, Driven , featuring collaborations with Simply Red's Mick Hucknall and others, arrived in 2022. On the heels of that release, he's heading back to the United Sta...

Send us Fan Mail It was a thrilling 10 minutes with the legendary Rod Argent, discussing the new Zombies album, Different Game which lands on March 31st. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legends will be at South by Southwest later this month to perform and also celebrate the debut of a new Zombies documentary .  Rod discusses the new album and documentary and recent singles including the gem "...

Send us Fan Mail For our 75th episode, we've got the most significant interruption by Jeff's dogs to date. They'll have to work hard to top this one. But we're here to discuss a number of topics, including Roomful of Blues ' 1997 album Under One Roof . For more than 50 years, Roomful of Blues have been delivering their unique blend of music to the masses -- and that's...

Send us Fan Mail Blue Rodeo recently played a great evening of deeper cuts from their history at the Songs Seldom Heard performance at Massey Hall in Toronto. As Matt watched the events (virtually) unfold, it brought him back to a conversation he'd had with the band's Jim Cuddy in late November of 2021. The pair discussed Many a Mile , the latest album from Blue Rodeo, which was released...

Send us Fan Mail Libby Cudmore was our first guest on The Record Player. Sort of. Here's the thing -- as we were batting around the ideas for the podcast which became this one, we made up a spreadsheet and started writing down albums that we wanted to discuss. Then we began to think about people who would be fun to discuss those albums with. We reached out to Libby in November of 2021 and qui...

Send us Fan Mail Fellow music nerds who love harmony will know a thing or three about the Roches. But you might not be aware of an album that came before the group. Maggie and Terre Roche's Seductive Reasoning arrived in 1975 and helped to lay the groundwork for the Roches' debut that emerged four years later in 1979. Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls joins Jeff and Matt to share the importanc...

Send us Fan Mail This week marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Nirvana's Incesticide . Liz Barker joins Jeff and Matt to discuss seeing the Seattle legends when she was 15, the personal impact of Incesticide   and why it remains a favorite for her as a music fan. We discuss a number of subjects, including the interesting encounters and bonding experiences at concerts, plus how the me...

Send us Fan Mail As Starship prepared to release their third album, 1989's Love Among the Cannibals , a lot had changed. Grace Slick had departed from the lineup - severing the last link to the original Jefferson Airplane crew. But vocalist Mickey Thomas, a veteran of six albums with Jefferson Starship and Starship, was there to guide the ship forward vocally. Guitarist Craig Chaquico and dru...

Send us Fan Mail It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since Kenny Wayne Shepherd took over rock radio with songs like "Slow Ride" and "Blue on Black," but time flies when you're playing rock and roll, right? Kenny Wayne joins Matt to discuss Trouble Is...25 , his new multimedia project which features fresh recordings of the songs from Trouble Is... record...