Gregory Alan Isakov on “Fire Escape” (INTERVIEW)
One minute, thirty-two seconds. That’s how long Gregory Alan Isakov’s “Fire Escape” is. Found on his second album, This Empty Northern Hemisphere, it contains about 60 words and some strummed banjo chords. You probably won’t hear it played in concert. But it’s the song he chose to talk about with me for my “One Track […]
Jonathan Byrd Talks About “Working Offshore” (INTERVIEW)
When a distant relative casually mentioned to North Carolina songwriter Jonathan Byrd that he’d worked on an offshore oil rig for a year as a teenager, he planted the seed of a song for Jonathan. He had been thinking about writing a song about the oil industry but didn’t want to be insulting or say […]
Eliot Bronson Breaks Down “River Runs Dry” (COLUMN)
After Eliot Bronson wrote the songs that would end up on his self-titled third solo album, he emailed a demo of one song, just vocals and guitar, to Dave Cobb, the celebrated Nashville producer who was behind the recent award-winning albums by Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson. It was a long shot, to say the […]
Jonathan Scales talks about “Lurkin’” — A Tribute to Béla Fleck (COLUMN)
How do you tell a story or express an emotion without using words? That’s the challenge that composers of instrumental music face. I talked to steel pan jazz artist and composer Jonathan Scales about Lurkin’, which appears on the 2013 album “Jonathan Scales Fourchestra.” Of this album, Modern Drummer says, “Inventive steel pan player Jonathan […]