Wong Notes

We are absolutely thrilled to welcome back slide guitar legend Derek Trucks for his second appearance on the show. In this episode, we dive deep into the Tedeski Trucks Band's incredible new album, Future Soul, and discuss what it was like shaking things up with versatile producer Mike Elizondo. Derek also shares wild behind-the-scenes stories from their epic 10-night residency at the Beacon Theat...

Today, we’re hanging with an absolute legend, the incredible guitarist and producer, Dann Huff. This cat has played on and produced everything from Taylor Swift to Megadeth—talk about a wide spectrum of skill sets! We’re diving deep into his philosophy on session playing and what it really means to serve the composition. Dann drops serious wisdom on how to stop overplaying so your parts don't get...

Fresh off winning two Grammys and being named artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival, drum legend Nate Smith sits down with host and bandmate Cory Wong to chart his career journey on this new episode of Wong Notes . Smith details his rise from playing with jazz giants like Dave Holland and Chris Potter's Underground to the viral visibility of the Fearless Flyers. A particularly cool gem th...

Cory Wong sits down with the legendary bassist Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers Band, Dead & Company, Tedeschi Trucks Band) for a deep dive into musical philosophy, Col. Bruce, and more. Burbridge has been driven by a simple, radical lesson he learned from Col. Bruce Hampton: Intention comes first, the instrument is last. He tells Cory how he learned to channel his entire life—including the “m...

Back in August, at Cory Wong’s Syncopated Summer Camp in Nashville, Wong hosted a late-night interview and hang session with Italian guitar hero Matteo Mancuso. If you weren’t there, you’re in luck: This week’s episode of  Wong Notes  features that exclusive rendezvous in its entirety, recorded live in front of an audience of camp attendees. Mancuso unearths his roots on the guitar, from...

Phish’s Trey Anastasio is back again on this week’s extra-special episode of  Wong Notes . The expansive conversation goes from the mundane to the massive: Trey shares the meaningful gift he bought himself for his 60th birthday, reflects on his most meaningful song, dissects boredom and nostalgia in the streaming era, and names the young bands impressing him most these days. Then, Trey and Co...

Imagine being in a band with your best friends for over 40 years, and each night you step on stage you get to play one more show. That’s exactly what guitarist Trey Anastasio and his bandmates in Phish think about right before every sold-out arena or amphitheater show. “We're all hyper aware now, every night,” mentions Anastasio. “I mean, we just love it so much. It's like, I can't wait for the to...

This go around, Cory Wong is joined by Pino Palladino and Blake Mills. Palladino, a Grammy-winning bassist, has collaborated with everyone from Erykah Badu and Keith Richards to John Mayer and the late, great D’Angelo. Mills’ resumé includes work with Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple, and Joni Mitchell. The duo has been around the block. Wong probes all corners of their creative processes, from the purpose...

Welcome back for a special episode of  Wong Notes ! If you couldn’t make it to Cory’s Syncopated Summer Camp , this one’s for you: It features Wong and his Flyers bandmates—Nate Smith on drums, Joe Dart on bass, and Mark Lettieri on guitar—in a live masterclass recording from this summer, as they jam and break down an original composition. The group starts off with a rowdy rip through the tun...

On this episode, James Bay joins Cory Wong from backstage at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. (It takes Wong all of 10 seconds to recognize and name the green room.) Bay is still supporting his fourth full-length record,  Changes All the Time , and Wong picked up on a different guitar approach on the new album. Bay walks him through how his playing matched the collection’s title. Bay also re...

Sound the alarms, tell your neighbors, hire a banner plane: Wong Notes is back. Cory Wong’s beloved podcast returns after a healthy break, and this exciting comeback episode features Wong in conversation with Goose’s Rick Mitarotonda . The Connecticut rock band’s guitarist and vocalist talks through the band’s origins and position in the jam-band and broader music scenes, and Wong and Mitarotonda...

Welcome back for a special season finale of  Wong Notes ! We’ve saved one of the best for last: Brad Paisley. The celebrated shredder and seasoned fisherman joins host Cory Wong for one of this season’s most interesting episodes. Paisley talks his earliest guitar-playing influences, which came from his grandfather’s love of country music, and his first days in Nashville—as a student at Belmon...

Legendary shredder Joe Satriani was the first ever guest on  Wong Notes , so it makes sense that he’s the first returning sit-in with Cory Wong. Satch is busy as ever, juggling enough projects to make a normal guitarist’s head spin. But Satriani’s not a normal guitarist. He teases a new song with Sammy Hagar, plus delves into the intricacies of Eddie Van Halen’s playing and why he can’t quite...

Grace Bowers just released her debut record, 2024’s  Wine on Venus , with her band the Hodge Podge, but she’s already one the most well-known young guitarists in America. On this episode of  Wong Notes , Bowers talks through the ups, downs, and detours of her whirlwind career. Bowers started out livestreaming performances on Reddit at age 13, and came into the public eye as a performer o...

You might not know Greg Koch, but we’ll bet your favorite guitarist does. In 2012, Fender called the Wisconsin blues-guitar phenom one of the top 10 best unsung guitarists, and in 2020,  Guitar World  listed Koch among the 15 best guitar teachers. He’s been inducted into the Wisconsin Area Music Industry Hall of Fame. Koch is a bonafide midwest guitar god. He joins Cory Wong on this roun...

Mike Stern  has been around the block. The jazz-guitar virtuoso earned his stripes through the ’70s and ’80s in New York’s jazz scene, playing 6-string with drummer Billy Cobham before tapping in with artists like Miles Davis and Jaco Pastorius—even at a time when guitar wasn’t necessarily a cornerstone piece of a jazz outfit. In this episode of  Wong Notes , Stern fills Cory Wong in on...

Bluegrass music is bigger than a genre. It’s become an entire world of ideas and feelings in the popular American imagination. And musician Jerry Douglas has been a key part of its celebration and revival over the past 30 years. “It's an old form of music that came from people in the south playing on the porch and became this juggernaut of a genre,” says Douglas. “It’s a character. It's a physical...

At 26, Blu DeTiger is the youngest musician ever to have a signature Fender bass guitar. The Fender Limited Player Plus x Blu DeTiger Jazz Bass, announced in September, pays tribute to the bassist and singer’s far-reaching impact and cultural sway. She’s played with Caroline Polachek, Bleachers, FLETCHER, Olivia Rodrigo, and more, and released her own LP in March 2024. In 2023, Forbes feature her...

There probably aren’t too many artists out there as busy as Mark Tremonti. Aside from his celebrated careers in alt-rock mainstays Creed and Alter Bridge, the guitarist, songwriter, and singer organizes guitar and songwriting clinics while on tour; has a line of signature PRS gear; and cut a 14-track charity record,  Mark Tremonti Sings Sinatra . Did we mention he’s aiming to become a pinball...

“Skunk” Baxter has had an interesting career. The Washington, D.C.-born musician was one of Steely Dan’s founding members in the early 1970s, and played on some of their most iconic numbers, like  Can’t Buy a Thrill ’s’ “Reelin’ in the Years” and “Do It Again,” or  Pretzel Logic ’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” Then, he moved on to join the Doobie Brothers, from roughly 1974 to 1979, w...

Jason Newsted spent 15 years holding down the low end in Metallica, playing bass for the band from 1986 through 2001. That era included records like  …And Justice For All  and  Metallica —AKA  The Black Album —plus the iconic  S&M  live album with the San Francisco Symphony. But that was just the beginning for Newsted, an artistic polymath who has since pursued a...

We know what you’re thinking: Dave Navarro is gonna talk about the onstage brawl. But Cory Wong starts this episode of  Wong Notes  with an important caveat. This show was recorded long before the awful breakdown and confrontation between Navarro and Jane’s Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell, so don’t expect any salacious gossip. But that just makes this episode all the more interesting. N...

Keith Urban has spent decades traveling the world and topping global country-music charts, and on this episode of  Wong Notes , the country-guitar hero tells host Cory Wong how he conquered the world—and what keeps him chasing new sounds on his 6-string via a new record,  High , which releases on September 20. Urban came up as guitarist and singer at the same time, and he details how his...

This time on  Wong Notes , guitar legend Kurt Rosenwinkel joins Cory Wong to go deep on all things jazz. The genre has always been a haven for free-thinkers and adventurers, so it’s little surprise when Rosenwinkel reveals that he’s incorporated a Fractal FM9 into his live rig—though it’s still working in tandem with a good ol’ Fender tube amp. Rosenwinkel divulges the details on his “softer,...

The legendary shred maestro—best known for his work as a solo artist and as a member of Return to Forever and other high-profile, hot-shot collabs—drops by to chat with Cory about his new epic full-length,  Twentyfour . It features “sixteen brand-new compositions and they’re all very involved. I hope I don’t have to do this again.” One of Di Meola’s biggest projects is, of course, the guitar...