Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson

Vocalist, songwriter and Grammy Award-winning artist Mike Farris is on the show today. Mike has this incredible new record out called “The Sound Of Muscle Shoals” that he recorded at the legendary Fame Studios with Rodney Hall (the son of Fame founder Rick Hall - the guy who is largely responsible for creating the Muscle Shoals sound that we all know and love). Mike has had an incredible career, from his early days in the insanely wild and high energy band The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies, Mike honed his skills as an incredible frontman and vocalist, but as we talk about today, he feels like he never really learned to sing until he started making solo records in 2001. Since that time, Mike has continued to evolve as an incredible singer whose voice and delivery pull from soul, gospel, country and rock n roll - and all of them very convincingly, as only someone who has truly lived the life can. His 2014 album “Shine For All The People” won a Grammy award, and Mike has been consistently recording and touring the world for decades. I wanted to hear from Mike about his songwriting, how he captures his voice in the studio, how his travels (which include some incredibly rocky patches) have brought him to where he is today, and how he feels like a bit of a misfit in a world where people love to peg musicians under a certain style. We also get into the nuts and bolts of making his new album, and the legacy that he feels working in such a sacred space with incredible musicians.Mike has quite a few albums out under his own name and the Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies albums are also well worth hearing. But do check out the new record “The Sound Of Muscle Shoals” - it’s an incredible listen. You can catch Mike on tour and get all the latest info at mikefarrismusic.comEnjoy my conversation with Mike Farris!This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bruce Bouton is an accomplished pedal steel guitarist who has played on an extensive string of massive country albums and singles from the 80’s onward. From his multi-year stint backing up Ricky Skaggs, playing some of the most memorable steel licks of the era, to most of Garth Brooks’ musical output all through the 90’s, Bruce has also appeared on records for Emmylou Harris, Brooks & Dunn, The Mavericks, Shania Twain, Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, and many more. Bruce has incredible skill on the instrument and has found a way to come up with hooky, accessible yet technically skillful parts and solos that have contributed to the success of so many of those recordings. He’s been at this a long time and brings a wealth of experience to sessions and gigs still today. Bruce also made an instructional pedal steel video that is well worth seeking out - I sure found it enlightening when I was starting to play steel. Bruce is still very active around Nashville and we had a chance to hang out at the Henhouse and spend an hour or so talking about lots of his history and path to where he is today.You can get all the current info on Bruce at his website:www.rockinlapsteel.comEnjoy my conversation with Bruce Bouton!This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Hambridge joins me on the show this week. Tom is a Nashville-based drummer, but also an incredibly successful songwriter and producer. Mostly known over the past couple of decades as Buddy Guy’s producer and key songwriter, Tom has had a huge hand in everything the blues legend has released since 2008’s “Skin Deep”. Their partnership has earned them multiple Grammy nominations, and they have toured the world many times over. Tom is a solo artist in his own right, releasing 8 albums under his own name over the last 30 years. Aside from his stellar work with Buddy Guy, Tom has fascinating stories about working with artists like Roy Buchanan, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley while he was a top-call bandleader around the Boston area. His other production credits include records for Susan Tedeschi, George Thorogood, Joe Louis Walker, Chris “Kingfish” Ingram and many more.Tom’s latest projects and tour dates can all be found at hambridgetunes.comEnjoy my conversation with Tom Hambridge!This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is part 2 of my conversation with the incredible guitarist Kenny Vaughan. This episode picks up right where we left off in Part 1, and we get into some of his guitar and amp preferences, his continued work with Marty Stuart, and his session work in his Nashville years, where he has called home since the 80’s. Kenny doesn’t have a website, but he is active on social media, so you can find him there. Enjoy Part 2!This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of my absoliute favorite Nashville guitarists, Kenny Vuaghan, joins me on the show today for the first of a 2-part episode where we go deep into his stories about growing up in Colorado, his formative experiences seeing the Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix, taking guitar lessons as a youngster from Bill Frisell, and playing a seemingly endless string of country and rock gigs around the local area. We get into his move to Nashville in the 80’s which led to many incredible sessions and touring gigs with Patty Loveless and of course his role in Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives, a gig he’s held down for over 24 years. We also discuss the finer points of 1980’s Japan-made Strats, his pickups of choice and other nerdy guitar details.Kenny remains very active these days, continuing on a regular touring schedule with Marty Stuart, but also fronting one of my favorite bands to see around Nashville on a regular basis called The Imperial Blues Hour. Kenny doesn’t have a website, but is active on socials if you want to follow him there. Stay tuned for Part 2 a week from today!This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is part 2 of my conversation with legendary engineer/producer Mark Howard. This episode picks up right where we left off, as we continue discussing sessions with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and get into Tom Waits and Iggy Pop. Be sure to listen to Part 1 first and then dive into this one!Mark doesn’t have a website, but he is quite active on social media, so you can find him there. Enjoy Part 2!This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, Fabfilter, and Chase Bliss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season 9 kicks off with an epic 2-part conversation with engineer/producer Mark Howard. Mark has been behind the console for some of the greatest and most sonically interesting albums of the past 40 years - Emmylou Harris “Wrecking Ball”, Dylan’s “Time Out Of Mind”, Willie Nelson’s “Teatro”, Chris Whitley, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Lucinda WIlliams and many more. While he is most often associated with Daniel Lanois as his engineer, Mark has gone off on his own to become one of the most respected producers in the business. It’s quite a run for yet another kid from Hamilton, Ontario whose career kicked off creating the sonics for The Neville Brothers classic “Yellow Moon” and went on from there. We get into some of his many projects, and talk about some of the interesting locations that he and Lanois set up shop in over the years. There’s some fascinating stories here and quite a few of them I’d never heard before, even as a total music nerd. This was a hefty conversation, so it’s broken into 2 parts. Part 2 will come out 1 week from today.Mark doesn’t have a website, but he is quite active on social media, so you can find him there. Be sure to check out his 2 books and look for the new documentary film about his incredible career. Enjoy Part 1!This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, Fabfilter, and Chase Bliss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A little bit about what's in store this season, and our incredible giveaway at the end of it. The season kicks off for real next week! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ken Coomer joins me on the podcast today. Ken is a fantastic drummer, producer, and studio owner, as well as one of the few musicians I know that is actually from Nashville! Ken is well-known as the original drummer for Wilco, as well as the last for Uncle Tupelo, bands that literally defined the alt-country genre in the mid-90’s. But before that, Ken came up in the punk and alternative rock scene here in Nashville with his band Clockhammer, and since leaving Wilco in 2002, he has had an incredible career as a studio drummer and producer, operating most recently out of his studio just a few blocks away from me in East Nashville called Cartoon Moon Recording. Ken was heavily involved in the recording of Uncle Tupelo’s classic “Anodyne”, as well as the Wilco albums “FM”, “Being There”, “Summerteeth”, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and the “Mermaid Avenue” projects with Wilco and Billy Bragg. After his run with Wilco, Ken returned to Nashville to try his hand at session work and producing. He’s played with and recorded on albums for Steve Earle, Will Hoge, Al Green, Tim Finn, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris and many more. He’s also had an incredible run producing some huge Spanish artists, which is an intriguing left-turn that his more recent career has taken, with artists like Chetes, and AppleTree - albums that were huge in Mexico and Columbia.It was great to have Ken drop in to speak about all of this amazing history. You can get all the latest info on Ken at kencoomermusic.com - enjoy my conversation with Ken Coomer!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes.Visit us at: www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the show today is singer, songwriter, fiddle player and now producer, Maya DeVitry. Maya is an incredible musician and someone I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with in a number of projects with over the last few years. Originally from Pennsylvania, Maya is known by some for her work with her old band, The Stray Birds, and some from her more recent solo recordings and touring. She has released 4 solo albums since 2019 and the latest is an amazing album that she self-produced, called “The Only Moment” which came out late last year. She has an incredibly powerful and expressive voice and has worked hard at developing her unique delivery, along with her exceptional songwriting skills. Maya spent a good deal of time emersing herself in bluegrass music as a youngster and became an accomplished fiddle player, which led her to studying at Berklee, but while there, veered more into the world of songwriting and that has been her focus ever since. While The Stray Birds were an excellent vehicle for her to begin her career, it wasn’t until she left the band that she really came into her own as a performer and writer. It’s an interesting story and it was great to get a chance to talk to her about it, how she took the plunge into finally embracing a solo career, making her latest record, and how she’s navigating a hefty touring schedule on top of also now producing records for other artists.You can get all the latest info and her tour dates at mayadevitry.com - Enjoy my conversation with Maya DeVitry!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes.Visit us at: www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Songwriter, blues guitarist and singer Chris Smither joins me on the show today. I had the pleasure of meeting Chris and playing with him this past summer at a festival, and he really was a force of nature. He had an incredible groove between his guitar lines and his powerful foot, all brought together with a voice that has developed so much character over the years it just oozes out of him. Chris grew up in New Orleans, but as you’ll hear, doesn’t totally identify musically with his hometown. He’s spent most of his career based out of the Massachusetts area, and developed his style and sound in the folk clubs of Boston and Cambridge. His songwriting style owes as much to others from that era and scene as it does to blues songwriters like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James. He manages to pull something off which I think is difficult and very unique - he’s developed a style of songwriting that seems to be right out of that era of the classic folk/blues tradition, but without being even the slightest bit derivative of those artists that came before him. He wrote the songs “Love Me Like A Man” and “I Feel The Same” that became staples in Bonnie Raitt’s career and repertoire, not to mention Diana Krall also cutting “Love Me Like A Man”. His recording career began in 1971 with the album “I’m a Stranger, Too!” at which time he was label-mates with Townes Van Zandt. He’s been a prolific artist ever sonce then, with a few personal low times where he shied away from making new records. But since the 90’s he’s been extremely consistent with a new record every year or two. His latest is called “All About The Bones” and is one of his best. Chris is one of those rare artists that just seems to keep getting better, even into his 80’s. I had a great conversation with him from his home on a rare break from the road, and we had a chance to dig into all of his history and record-making process. You can keep up with Chris and all his latest news and extensive touring over at smither.com - please enjoy my conversation with Chris Smither!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Legendary drummer Willie Cantu is on the show today, the sole surviving member of the ultimate lineup of one of the greatest ensembles of all time - Buck Owens’ Buckaroos. I’ve talked about the Buckaroos on this show a number of times - they keep coming up in discussions with various folks, and I’ll say it again that I think that mid to late 60’s lineup is as electrifying a band as any band of that era, no matter what genre. That lineup of Buck, Willie on drums, Don Rich on guitar, fiddle and vocals, Tom Brumley on steel and Doyle Holly on bass were like a finely tuned Ferrari in their heyday. They looked slick and they played and sang like no one else, anywhere. Songs like “Together Again”, “I Don’t Care”, “Open Up Your Heart”, “Sam’s Place” and so many classic albums defined the sound of Bakersfield country which was in stark contrast to the smooth sounds coming out of Nashville in those days. Their influence can be heard directly on everyone from the Beatles to CCR, Gram Parsons to Dwight Yoakam. Willie is an accomplished jazz drummer, and while he was in one of the great country bands of all time, it’s very evident that jazz is his real love. He’s from Corpus Christi, Texas, and joined the Buckaroos when he was 17 in 1964. We had an epic visit and I did have to edit it way down, even though this sucker still clocks in at about 2 hours. Maybe we’ll do a part 2 somewhere down the line! For some essential listening, be sure to check out the 2 Buck Owens live albums that feature Willie - The Carnegie Hall Concert and Live in Japan! They are both amazing documents of a band in their prime. After the Buckaroos, Willie has been involved in some very interesting jazz and improvisational music, which you can check out here. Willie doesn’t have a website and is being more selective about his gigs these days, but if you’re in Nashville, keep your ear to the ground and maybe you’ll catch him playing at a jazz club or Robert’s Western World. you never know! So now, please enjoy my conversation with Willie Cantu!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guitarist and session ace Richard Bennett joins me on the show this week. Originally from Phoenix, Richard spent the first big chunk of his career in the 70’s LA studio scene, before moving to Nashville in the 80’s where he’s been a mainstay in studios ever since. Richard is known as one of the ultimate sidemen and spent 17 years in Neil Diamond’s band, playing on all of his records and tours from ’71 to ’87. Richard has had another long-term sideman gig playing guitar in Mark Knopfler’s band since '94, and that continues to this day, touring in his band and playing on all of his records, including the latest “One Deep River” from this year. Aside from those impressive long-term gigs, Richard has played on countless sessions and gigs for artists like Roseanne Cash, Marty Stuart, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Iris Dement, and Waylon Jennings. He also loves to write and record his own music, and is constantly working on the next set of tunes to get into the studio to document. His latest is called “Talltale Tunes” and it’s a killer record of great playing, tone and creativity. Richard is also an in-demand producer and has helmed an impressive list of albums in the last few decades as well. He had a huge role in the Nashville session scene of the 80’s and 90’s that continues to thrive, and I loved getting a chance to hear about that era of Nashville. I’ve spent the last year playing in a band with Richard called The Volcano Brothers, playing all 1920’s and 30’s Hawaiian music, with Richard playing ukulele. While we just play tiny local gigs around Nashville with that band, I still get to see and hear Richard’s amazing touch on his instruments, and the dedication and the preparation that he puts into every show, no matter how small! He’s an incredible musician, an encouraging band-mate, and an inspiring person to be around, and we had a very enjoyable conversation about his history in music and the recording studio. You can get all the latest on Richard at richard-bennett.com - Enjoy my conversation with Richard Bennett!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen Gunderman is one of the great keyboard players currently working out of Nashville. She is always busy in recording studios and venues around town with all kinds of bands, but is also on the road as a member of Sheryl Crow’s band, a gig she’s held for over 10 years now. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Jen now and then over the past number of years, always in the studio, and she always shows up to a session with great ideas and energy, raring to go. Her path to this point in her career is a very interesting one, as she grew up playing piano in church, made her way through college and had a stint working for the last gasps of the late 80’s/early 90’s major label scene, working in the offices at Columbia/Sony Records in New York from 1992-1994. Jen jumped ship from that world and landed a gig as the keyboard player for The Jayhawks. She spent a couple of years in the band, touring and recording before eventually landing in Nashville with her husband, guitarist Audley Freed. Jen found her way into session work, landed a job treaching music history at Vanderbilt (which she continues with today) and when she’s not out with Sheryl Crow, she keeps very busy playing with local bands and artists all over Nashville. Jen is a killer piano player, but also knows how to lean into a B3 with the best of them. She plays a mean Wurlitzer, and can also come up with wildly creative soundscape parts as well. Jen’s studio career has brought her into the studio and on stage with artists like Kris Kristofferson, Roger McGuinn, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, The Dixie Chicks, St. Vincent, Emmylou Harris and many more. You can get all the latest info on Jen at jengunderman.comThis season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Singer, guitarist, jug-band pioneer and songster Jim Kweskin joins me on the show today. I can’t tell you how many times I heard Jim’s name before I ever heard his music. To the generation before me, he was a total legend, and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band was very influential to many musicians who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s. Jim came up in the Boston/Cambridge area and The Jug Band was legendary around those parts and eventually across America. Old blues, jug and string band music was considered old fashioned at that point in time, and Jim spearheaded its return and kicked off a musical revolution that inspried bands like the Lovon’ Spoonful and The Grateful Dead (don’t forget they started off as a jug band too). With bandmates like Geoff and Maria Muldaur, Bill Keith, Mel Lyman and Fritz Richmond, the Jug Band was signed to a major label, sold thousands of records and toured across the country tirelessly between 1963-1970. They turned countless young musicians on to the music of artists like Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Boy Fuller and the Mississippi Sheiks.Jim has continued making records and performing under his own name and has just put out a rerally cool album called “Never Too Late”, which is mostly duets with some of his friends on vocals like Maria Muldaur, Meredith Axelrod and many more.I won’t go too in depth on his bio here because in the interview, he actually had a bio preopared and read it to me, which you’ll hear on the show. It’s a first “written statement” for the podcast! I think you’ll dig that part of the conversation. You can get all the latest info on Jim at jimkweskin.com - Enjoy my conversation with Jim Kweskin!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Banjo legend Tony Trischka joins me on the show this week. I first saw Tony playing with his band Psychograss back in the 90’s at a bluegrass festival in Vancouver, and have been following Tony’s music ever since. Tony is from Syracuse, and has spent most of his career in the New York area. His early bands included The Down City Ramblers, Country Cooking and Breakfast Special. He also started making really cool solo records in the early 70’s that are pretty out-there in the context of what was going on in those days in bluegrass. Those albums definitely nod to traditional bluegrass, but they are also very progressive and experimental. He did alot of touring and recording with his various projects and collaborations over the years, while continuing to teach and compose (he taught a young upstart named Bela Fleck a thing or two in some lessons). After working to progress the banjo and its role in music through his entire career, Tony suddenly has dropped this amazing new project on us that is as traditional as it gets, and has allowed him to mine the depths of the greatness of Earl Scruggs. The new record is called Earl Jam, and was made after he was given hours and hours of tapes of Earl and John Hartford jamming. Unheard stuff that is like a portal into the brain of the greatest banjo innovator of all time. Tony transcribed a hours of that playing, and those transcriptions are what you hear, along with guests like Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings. So let’s dive into all this history and hear about the new record - you can get all the latest info on Tony and his upcoming gigs at tonytrischka.com - Enjoy my conversation with Tony Trischka!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pedal steel guitarist Rich Hinman joins me on the show today. Rich is a really creative player who has definitely spent a great deal of time with the classic steel guitar cannon, but has very much branched out and developed his own style and voice on the instrument. He has a great flair for improvisation, and his tone and touch are really of the highest calibre. Rich is currently a teacher at Berklee College in Boston in the guitar Department, but continues his work in the studio and on the road. He has had recurring stints with artists like Sara Bareilles, Maren Morris, Molly Tuttle, KD Lang, Tanya Tucker, St. Vincent, Josh Ritter and many more. His current project is an amazing band with guitarist Adam Levy. The two of them go way back, and it shows, as their interplay and group improvisations are really incredible. The band is called Rich Hinman Vs Adam Levy and they have a brand new album out called “Fan Favorites” that you should check out. Rich also put out a solo album recently that is more on the ambient side, but full of inspired playing and compositions as well called “Memorial”. Rich is really active on social media which is how I first ran into his playing, and he also has a cool Patreon thing going on with weekly steel guitar lessons, so check out what he’s up to over in his world at richhinman.com and if you get a chance to see him and Adam Levy, who are out on tour as we speak, don’t miss them. Enjoy my conversation with Rich Hinman!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s show is Missy Raines, one of the great bluegrass bassists out there, not to mention a fabulous singer and songwriter. Bluegrass bass playing is a funny thing - on the surface it seems simple. But there’s a whole other level to it, and when you hear someone like Junior Huskey do it, or Mike Bub, or Dennis Crouch, or Missy Raines, they all play at that level. There’s a way the really good players place their notes, there’s the tone, and it all comes down to the bed that the bass players lay for the other players in the band to live in. And that’s the hard part. Once you get a chance to play with someone of that calibre it becomes much clearer what great bassist brings to the table, and Missy is one of the best. She’s been releasing albums under her own name since 1998, and her latest recording just came out a couple months ago - it’s called “Highlander” and it’s a killer record that features her band Allegheny as well as guests like Kathy Mattea, Michael Cleveland, Darol Anger, and Rob Ickes. Missy is from West Virginia, and she was lucky enough to grow up in an area that had a strong bluegrass scene that she got to experience first hand. She’s lived in Nashville for a long time now, and is on the road alot these days. She’s won multiple IBMA awards for Bass Player of the Year, and has performed with legends like Mac Wiseman, Peter Rowan and Josh Graves. Aside from her accomplishments in the bluegrass world, Missy swerved over into more experimental territory a few years back and had a band going called The New Hip, who made a couple of incredible records well worth checking out as well that feature her songwriting in a less traditional context. But these days she’s pretty focussed on traditional bluegrass and has one of the best bands on the scene, so make sure you go see them if they come through your area. You can get all the latest news and her tour dates over at missyraines.com - Enjoy my conversation with Missy Raines!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s show is Garrett Dutton, better known to you and me as G. Love and his band G. Love and Special Sauce.G. Love appeared on my radar in the early 90’s when I was just getting into playing in bands. Originally from Philadelphia, but breaking out of the Boston music scene, Special Sauce’s debut album was pretty massive in my world. It mixed blues, soul, rap and hip hop in an organic way that no one else was doing. Garrett was influenced by everyone from John Hammond to Lightning hopkins and Muddy Waters, The Beatles to the Beastie Boys and Schoolly D and he’s one of the few people that can convincingly meld those influences into cohesive music. He got into playing guitar at a really young age, learning Beatles tunes, and eventually found his way to Bob Dylan, which led to playing harmonica, which led to John Hammond, who opened the musical floodgates for him.He moved to Boston in the early 90’s and started playing around Cambridge with his band that included Jimmy Jazz on bass, and Jeffrey Clemens on drums, who made up the perfect rhythm section for the music they were making. The band came to be known as G. Love and Special Sauce, and their debut album, just called “G. Love and Special Sauce” which came out in 1994 is a killer. I saw them a few times around them and they put on an amazing show. Their latest album, produced by Luther Dickinson, is called “Philadelphia Mississippi” and came out in ’22. Lately, Special Sauce has been doing some shows commemorating 30 years since their debut album came out.Garrett and I had a great conversation, and I’m thrilled that he found his way back to his hotel that day! You can get all the latest info and upcoming tour dates over at www.philadelphonic.com - Enjoy my conversation with G. Love!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The incredible guitarist Duke Levine joins me on the show today. Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s when I was just getting started, Duke was putting out all these really amazing twangy instrumental guitar records. He actually started out as almost a fusion guy on his first album, but pretty quickly veered off into this highly original guitar style that has elements of blues, jazz, country, bebop and influences like Roy Buchanan, Ray Flacke, Albert Lee, I hear Wes Montgomery and Jerry Reed in there as well. The first record I heard of his was called “Country Soul Guitar” and I feel like at that time, the early 90’s, no one was really playing anything like that. He’s primarily a tele player and just has an incredible touch and tone that makes him a totally unique player. He put out a couple more records in that vein, but pretty quickly got scooped up as a sideperson, playing guitar for artists like Shawn Colvin, Peter Wolf, J Geils, Bill Morrissey, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Slaid Cleaves, Jonatha Brooke, and eventually his current employer, the untouchable Bonnie Raitt. The hired gun gigs really became his bread and butter and he spent the better part of the last 25 years touring with alot of those folks. Duke came up in the New England club scene, and has basically stayed in the area his whole life. During the pandemic, he put out a string of really interesting videos featuring stellar guitar playing that you can watch, and some of those videos became what makes up his most recent and amazing EP “Left To My Own Devices”.You can get info on all of Duke’s activities as well as his tour dates with Bonnie Raitt over at dukelevine.com - Enjoy my conversation with Duke Levine!This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman AmplificationYou can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodesThe show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.