Trading Fours

When is it too late to follow your dreams?  For Jerry Hooper, the answer is 'never.'  Jerry worked in banking for over 4 decades, but his passion was piano. His dream was to play music professionally.  And he followed his dream. Join me as I talk to Jerry about how he made the leap from amateur pianist to professional piano player - all after the age of 60.

After 4 1/2 years and 160 episodes, I've decided it's time to say goodbye to Trading Fours! You can still follow me on my historical murder podcast, Going to Killing City. For the last episode, I had a delightful chat with Tim Easton talking all about his new album, living in Japan, his influences and much much more. Thanks to all of you who listened!

On our second to last podcast, we return to Nashville to talk to Rizz & The Believerz. The band combineds rock, reggae and hip-hop into their own special sauce of music. Rizz and Troy Luccketta (formerly of Tesla) joined cohosts Jamie Green and Billy decker to talk all about their new music. This one was a lot of fun. YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/@RizzAndTheBelieverz

Guitar great Molly Miller zoomed in from LA to talk all about her new album, which is released on May 3! https://www.mollymillermusic.com/music

The amazing guitarist, vocalist, interviewer, teacher and all around good egg Andy Aledort is back on the podcast to discuss his NEW release, 'In a Dream." Andy zoomed in on his birthday (Happy birthday Andy!) to talk all about the new record and SO much more. Always a fun chat, do it up! http://andyaledort.com/

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to watch the Beatles write music? Or watch Fleetwood Mac record Rumours? Well if you're Jenny Boyd - you don't have wonder, you lived it! She's today's guest today. She is the author of "Icons of Rock: In their own words." Jenny has interviewed just about everybody in music to explore their creative process. Jenny was ma...

The Trials of Cato are a folk trio from the UK (Wales and Yorkshire) and they will be performing this year at the International Folk Alliance here in Kansas City. They joined me and my new co-host Billy Decker. Billy is a Nashville recording engineer who has mixed 16 number 1 hits! The Trials of Cato website: https://www.thetrialsofcato.com/ The Folk Alliance International Conference: https://folk...

Corey Glover (Living Colour) and Joseph Burcaw (Black 47) join me to chat about their new project, "Bearclaw + The Balance Brigade" Burcaw was disconcerted by several articles he read during the covid lockdown - an uptick in domestic violence, the George Floyd murder and more. This made him anxious ot start up a musical conversation with his musician friends. The result is Bearclaw and t...

Happy holidays everyone! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Today's guest might sound familiar to you - he was on the podcast a few years ago to talk all about his band The Moonkids - but now he's a solo artist, and his new track 'Monday's Rain' is out! David zoomed in from Edinburgh, Scotland to discuss his solo career, his love of travel, including extensively throughout Am...

Happy Thanksgiving people! Kansas City's own Emma Jo dropped by the house to talk ALL about her new album "Girl Bandit"! We discussed all about that, our mutual love of travel, the power of 12 step meetings and much more -great chat, do it up! Emma Jo's website: https://emmajo.rocks/ Emma Jo's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voxprincess

Have you ever wanted to do something for a really long time - but have never pulled the trigger? Well a lot of us have - and today's guest is no different. You probably know Tommy Taylor for being an amazing drummer for Eric Johnson, Christopher Cross and many others. But Tommy has always wanted to create his own music - and at age 66, he has done just that! Tommy's new album is his debut...

We're headed to San Francisco today to chat with the Singer/Songwriter Tom Heyman about his new release, 24th Street Blues. Tom's Mission District neighborhood is the subject of the album, and it's a great reflection on the changes in his neighborhood over the last 25 years. do it up! Tom's website: https://www.tomheymanmusic.net/ My new True Crime podcast with my evil twin, Alex G...

Moe's drummer Vinnie Amico zoomed in from his home in New York to talk about their upcoming show in Lawrence, the bands serious health issues and how they are better now, the influence of his father, and the hapless Buffalo Bills. A great chat, do it up before you see them live in Lawrence! Buy your Moe tickets here: https://moe.org/tour

We are heading down to Austin Texas to talk to the guys who created and run The Purple Bee! WHAT is the Purple Bee you ask? Well, as their website says: "Purple Bee is a new media production company & recording studio. We are concert film makers & curators of magical events – exploring livestreams, the metaverse, & web3 projects" We had a very fun conversation about how The P...

The uber talented Anastasia Elliot returns to the podcast to discuss her new full length album, "La Petit Mort"! We go through the album, track by track to discuss her creative process for putting the album together. It's my favorite record so far in 2023! Listen along to the album as we discuss the tracks in-depth. Anastasia's Website: https://www.anastasiaelliot.com/ Anastasia&...

The amazing guitarist Jock Bartley dialed in to talk all about Firefall's new album "Friends & Family". It's out on September 22nd - and is a homage to Firefall's peers - bands like the Doobie Brothers, Loggins & Messina, Lynyrd Skynrd and more. 13 total tracks on the new release - literaly celebrating their friends and family. Jock was a lot of fun talking about the...

Today's show takes us to Philadelphia, where we chat with guitarist/singer Greg Sover. Greg's got a new album out called "His-story", and it features numerous tracks of new music, plus a couple Jimi Hendrix tunes. Which is made even more interesting because Hendrix's bassist, Billy Cox, played on those two tracks. Greg talks all about that, being the child of Haitian immigran...

The uber-talented Beth Bombara phoned in from her home in St. Louis to discuss her brand new album called "It all goes up". It's out August 4 and it's fabulous! Beth and I chatted about the new album, writing it during covid, growing up in Michigan, and much more! Great chat, do it up! Beth's website: https://bethbombara.com/ buy tickets to her Knuckleheads show here on Octob...

We are headed back to Nashville to chat with the amazing Nina De Vitry! Nina's got a new album coming out this summer. We chat all about the new album, growing up in Lancaster, PA - her musical parents, John Lennon, flying on the cheap and much more! Plus Nina performs one of her songs live! Great chat, do it up! Nina's Website: https://www.ninadevitry.com/

I grabbed my recording gear and headed down to the iconic live music venue here in Kansas City to interview today's guest, Ally Venable! Ally is great guitarist and singer who calls Kilgore Texas home. She let me backstage to sit and chat all about her new album, life on the road, our mutual love of Stevie Ray Vaughan, how cool Buddy Guy is and so much more - great chat! Also stick around for...

Today's guest is the second half of my coverage of NAMM 2023, as she was honored at the SheRocks! awards - the amazing Gretchen Menn! Gretchen can play it all, classical guitar, rock, jazz you name it - she's ridiculously good. But even better, she's a better human - super nice individual! We chatted over an hour about NAMM, Jeff Beck, how to learn to play guitar correctly, Zepperella,...

The super talented Anastasia Elliot joins me today to talk about all sorts of things! Anastasia came onto my radar because she hosted a panel at this year's NAMM conference about wearable technology. You see, Anastasia is not just an amazing vocalist, musician and songwriter- she is a true visual artist as well who often thinks first of the video visuals she wants even BEFORE she writes the so...

At my heart, I'm a HUGE guitar nerd, so I was super stoked to get the chance to talk to the amazing Nili Brosh. She's dropping two brand new singles on May 10! She zoomed in from her home Las Vegas to discuss the new music, being born in Israel, moving to Boston MA at 12, hanging out with the members of Extreme, performing with a guitar that shoots a 30 foot flame out of it, and much much...

I headed to downtown Kansas City to the beautiful Midland Theater to interview Pistols at Dawn before the performance. They were on the bill that night with Mammoth WVH and Alter Bridge. I climbed aboard their tour RV to chat all things Pistols at Dawn. Guitarist Will James, guitarist Devin White and bassist Sean Benham chatted with me after their soundcheck but before their performance. We discus...

Today's guest is an amazing singer/guitarist/songwriter who also HAPPENS to be a professor at the University of North Carolina ! She zoomed in from North Carolina to discuss TWO great projects- her new book " The Ink in the Grooves - Conversations on Literature and Rock n' Roll " AND her new album, 'Highways & Rocketships'.  Super fun chat as we connect the dots between rock n' roll and l...