The Show On The Road with Z. Lupetin

This week Z. speaks with Dylan LeBlanc, the lithe Louisiana-born roots 'n roller who has one of those once-in-a-generation, ghostly-lilting voices that doesn’t seem of this time or place. His newest record "Renegade", produced by Dave Cobb, is out now, and it’s clear he’s grown up a lot in the last few years. It’s a big, snarling, cinematic, banger of a record; part spaghetti-western dust storm, a...

This week Z. speaks with Smooth Hound Smith, the fiery folk-blues duo from East Nashville who've spread their infectious honeyed harmonies and gritty finger-picked sonic essays all across the continent. Despite being two hilarious humans who got married and share nearly every waking moment together, Zack and Caitlin have never stopped making each other laugh and have never stopped pushing their ti...

This week, Z. speaks with The Slocan Ramblers. This fearless, fleet-fingered string band is adventurously advancing the high lonesome sound of southern bluegrass to great acclaim, and not from the swampy states where it‘s known best, but in a lakeside folk hotbed that has become the cosmopolitan music mecca of Canada - Toronto. Their newest string oddesey - “Queen City Jubilee” - featuring a lovab...

This week, Jamie Drake: a Southern California based singer songwriter who transports listeners into a vibrant technicolor world with her deeply vulnerable finger-picked ballads and thornily theatrical story songs. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Carole King wrote epic musicals on the moon? Listening to LA’s magical maiden songstress Jamie Drake will provide a clue as to what tha...

This week, Z. speaks with Steve Earle. The three-time Grammy Award-winning roots ‘n’ roll poet and revered performer has been releasing fearless, roguish records for nearly four decades, accidentally becoming one of the founding fathers of the thriving Americana movement along the way. Growing up a baseball-crazy son of an air traffic controller in San Antonio, Steve Earle has never quite checked...

This week, Z's conversation with Freddy & Francine (AKA Lee Ferris and Bianca Caruso), a deeply soulful duo who have been lifting up audiences around the world with their gather-round-one-mic harmonies and been-through-hell-and-back love songs. Z. talks about Lee singing on Broadway and snaking through the gauntlet of substance abuse and Bianca finding her voice after too many years of dead end jo...

This week, Greg Holden - a Scottish-born singer songwriter and pop hitmaker with a series of increasingly personal, poetically powerful and daringly politically charged albums. Greg Holden finds himself in an interesting spot. He’s a major label artist who has taken himself off all social media and openly questions the need for the toxic digital society we’ve trapped ourselves in. His songs Boys i...

This week, Z. speaks with the British born folk rock rebel and underground guitar icon, Richard Thompson. With his signature grimace that seems to dare you to look at his album covers, his salty slam poet vocal delivery, slashing finger picked guitar style, and imposing black beret which makes him look more like a hardened revolutionary than a kindly grandpa who just turned 70, Richard Thompson is...

Z. speaks with Peter Rowan, the affable elder-statesman of folk music, who was there at the crucible beginnings of bluegrass, and has joyfully jaunted across a plethora of ethnic music styles in his five decade-long career. These days, despite it getting harder for him to get around, he's still on the road constantly, and you can see him at Telluride Bluegrass and Redwing Roots and Rockygrass and...

This week, Z.'s conversation with The War and Treaty. In just a few short years, the rapidly rising folk-soul duo has gone from playing high school auditoriums to opening for Al Green at Radio City Music Hall, singing with Mumford & Sons in Nashville, and recording with Emmylou Harris. In the process, they have put together one of the hottest touring bands tearing through the US. Support this podc...

This week, a renegade guitar slinger for who has spent 20 years prowling stages around the world with the Foo Fighters and has become a soulful songwriter in his own right -- Chris Shiflett. His new record, “Hard Lessons”, is coming out June 14, and he talked with Z. about the vulnerability of striking out on his own, the whiplash jump from rocking Madison Square Garden one night and a rowdy bar t...

Z. speaks Hot Club Of Cowtown -- the genre defining Western Swing trio that has quietly crafted over thirteen records, and has traveled a quarter of a century on the road together. On this episode, Z. was lucky enough to record two live performances from Hot Club Of Cowtown, and is there anything better than guitar, fiddle, and bass going full tilt around one mic? Both tunes are included, as well...

Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Jon leads one of the most sonically innovative, shreddingly mind expanding, and confoundingly impossible to categorize acoustic groups, the Jon Stickley Trio. Z. spoke with Jon in a hotel bathroom a while back to hear his side of his guitar hero story, plus an exclusive acoustic performance from Jon at the end of the episode. Support this podcast at — https://re...

In this episode, we get to know a little bit more about Dom personally by calling his mom to get the inside scoop on his upbringing in Phoenix, and Dom talks about his time in The Carolina Chocolate Drops. Be sure to listen to Part 1, which came out on May 1, before tuning into this episode. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertisin...

This week on the show, part one of Z's converstaion with Dom Flemons, the Grammy Award winning American songster who has made it his mission to reclaim and rejuvenate the lost acoustic music of the past and bring it whistling brightly into the future. Born in Phoenix Arizona to parents of African American and Mexican heritage, the ever curious young Dominique Flemons went from playing drums in his...

This week, a folk-pop shapeshifter who effervescently sings in four languages and has rocked stages on four continents, Gaby Moreno. Born María Gabriela Moreno Bonilla in Guatemala City, she knew she wanted more as a teenager and journeyed to the USA with that big voice and an even bigger dream. She has since lived several lives inside the dark heart of the LA music business, getting signed to War...

This week on the show, Z. meets up with songwriter and rock n' roller Rayland Baxter on the road in Las Vegas. Beyond Rayland Baxter's mellow, easy going demeanor, lies a deeply perceptive and sharp as a knife craftsman who takes his songwriting deadly serious. His newest record “Wide Awake” deepens his focus and finds him questioning the very existence of the American dream being bought and sold...

Fiddler and banjo picker Rachel Baiman calls her mom on this week's episode of The Show On The Road with Z. Lupetin. A Chicago native, Rachel became an Illinois state fiddling champion as a teenager and later went on to form Ten String Symphony with fellow fiddler Christian Sedelmyer. Z talks with her about the gift and sacrifice of making music your life, and how her organization Folk Fights Back...

At 85 years old, Bobby Rush has been playing his brand of lovably raunchy, acoustically crunchy and soulfully rowdy blues for over six decades. Starting from his days as part of the Southern migration from his hometown of Homer, Louisiana, to the south side of Chicago where he used to have Muddy Waters himself sub in for him when he couldn’t do a gig, Bobby Rush, who just won his first Grammy at t...

This week Z. speaks with the high priestess of Canadiana soul, Celeigh Cardinal. Growing up without having much connection to her indigenous heritage, Celeigh recently reconnected to the vibrant native community in Edmonton and has become a role model for young singers who may never have had the courage to make a name for themselves in Canada’s rich festival and concert circuit. In 2018 she was na...

Z. speaks with multi-talented songwriter, singer, guitar slinger and activist Bhi Bhiman. For nearly a decade Bhi Bhiman has been diligently crafting poetic protesty earworms with his masterful guitar work and fuzzed out harmony, and all along the way gaining some powerful friends and fans Like the late Chris Cornell who had Bhi sing with each night on tour a few years back. His newest project is...

This week on the show, Z. speaks with Oakland’s soulful singing T Sisters. For this trio of sisters, singing harmony-rich songs isn't just their full time job, it's a way of life. It’s what they do - and damn do they do it well. Sisters Erika, Chloe and Rachel are harmonic masters. Whether it’s demonstrated in their sassy soulful originals accompanied by upright bass, guitar, banjo and mandolin, o...

This week Australian singer/songwriter Jordie Lane and his Aussie producing/harmonizing partner Clare Reynolds. Jordie has been making dark-hearted, voluptuously verbose folk music with a grinning rock ‘n roll spirit for nearly a decade. While he's just making a name for himself in the US, he's been playing huge venues all over Australia for years, as one of Melbourne's most beloved and respected...

Z. chats with Michigan electric folk trio, The Accidentals. The two leading ladies of The Accidentals met as violin and cello playing high schoolers in Traverse City Michigan where it was love at first jam, and soon after they had the courage to say no to a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music, and have been making records and touring non stop ever since - all before they could even buy th...

This week on the show, Z. talks to Rob Kolar and Lauren Brown of the theatrical space-rock duo KOLARS. Sure, many husband and wife bands try to stand out in their own way, but Rob and Lauren take it one step further. They’re both multi-talented multi-instrumentalists who create a sci-fi-inspired, jangly, joyful strain of roots rock that sounds much bigger than two people. Sometimes you just have t...