This Is Your Song

We sat down with Micah Schnabel to discuss his new solo record "The Teenage Years Of The 21st Century" and his stunning back catalog work with his band, Two Cow Garage. Along the way, these two boys from Ohio discuss the pandemic situation of 2020, growing up in the Midwest as an outlier, the influences that shape the music, how to tour 150 dates a year under the worst conditions and how to write a song in a hotel room in Michigan. Then, we task Micah to tell us about the songs that has shaped his life and more!

We rapped with Sean Tillmann via Skype from his home in Minnesota and talked about music in the time of the pandemic and his recent project helping to design a coloring book for the Twin Cities Community Trust featuring Minneapolis’ great recording acts. We discussed the evolution of his Har Mar Superstar persona, working with Beth Ditto and Julian Casablancas, his departure from his life in Los Angeles, the new Heart Bones project, and how a little Sam Cooke can sometimes save your life. Then, we climb into the closet and discuss Sean’s favorite song to karaoke, and find out more about his favorite songs!

We sit down in Chicago with Ken Stringfellow and discuss the evolution of the early Posies with Jon Auer, his work alongside Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens in Big Star, and his personal thoughts behind the Touched album. Along the way, we find out about Charles Manson recording with Alex Chilton, discuss why the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg wasn’t in the reformed Big Star, and a great David Bowie nightmare dream. Then we find out the tracks that stick out in Ken’s mind as some of his favorites. Enjoy!

Kristin Hersh met up with us at the Old Town School of Folk Music where she was doing an acoustic tour with the Exile Follies (herself, Grant Lee Phillips & John Doe.) In this interview, we discuss the tour, music creation in the modern world, Throwing Muses' start on 4AD, her battle with her former label (Warner Brothers) which led to here being in musical “jail”, Prince, emancipating with her solo records, crowd-sourcing albums, Vic Chestnutt, and a few words about her songs…..then, of course, we ask Kristin about the songs she loves!

Amanda Kravat recently called into the show and we discussed her songs from the MMJ days and her work scoring multiple films. We discuss her wonderful songs and stories behind them, record deals, sleeping on tour buses, writing her first song on a recorder at age 7, the world’s greatest publicist, her appearance on Star Search, Prince (of course), writing songs via mobile apps, as well as hearing about her favorite songs and why she loves them.