Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson

Guitarist Andy Reiss joins me on the show today, the last full episode of Season 9! When I first moved to Nashville, I started going to see the Time Jumpers. They are an incredible band that plays western swing and classic country every Monday at 3rd & Lindsley. For quite a few years there, the band included Vince Gill, Paul Franklin, Ranger Doug, 3 incredible fiddle players, Dawn Sears on vocals, and Andy Reiss was always there, just calmly tackling every song, no matter how fast and crazy or slow and soulful. Usually playing elegant jazz/blues/bop licks on a Les Paul, or sometimes a 335. And while it was mind-bending to see everyone doing what they do, Andy was always a high point of any show for me. He’s still doing that gig, as he has for over 20 years now. Andy started out in San Francisco, and made his way to Nashville around 1980, where he got to watch and work with a number of the original Nashville A-Team. Folks like Pete Drake, Harold Bradley, Bob Moore, Ray Edenton, and Pig Robbins. People that I know of as legends - Andy was around them from day 1 after moving here. He spent a good deal of time on the road with artists like Reba McIntyre and Slim Whitman, and has played on hundreds of records for artists like Miranda Lambert, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and Leon Russell. He is truly one of the great guitar players in town, and has a deep knowledge of music, guitars and history. I also get to enjoy him up close and personal, since he now plays in my band The Volcano Brothers as well! Be sure to go and see Andy any time you’re in Nashville.Enjoy my conversation with Andy Reiss.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.

British pedal steel guitar legend BJ Cole joins me on the show today. BJ is a masterful steel player - very inventive and textural but with incredible chops and skills as well. He’s amassed an incredible body of solo work over the years, but has also been the top call steel session player in the UK for decades. He had a very solitary musical start, but got into country bands in England and eventually started gigging and playing sessions. Things changed for BJ when he got called to play steel on Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” in 1971. He laid down some very tasty and memorable steel parts on that hit, and the phone started ringing big time. BJ has played on records and toured with an incredible array of artists like Joan Armatrading, Marc Bolan, KD Lang, Beck, Bjork, Sting, John Cale, Brian Eno and many more.He’s also always written and recorded his own music and collaborations, which have been all over the place musically and are a great way to delve into his musical brain. There’s a new collab with cellist Emily Burridge - cello and steel duets that’s really cool, and his solo albums like Transparent Music, The New Hovering Dog, Trouble in Paradise - all great albums well worth checking out. We get into all it, plus some seriously nerdy pedal steel talk.You can keep up to date on BJ’s latest projects and tours at bjcole.co.ukEnjoy my conversation with BJ Cole!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.

Brent Maher joins me on the show today to talk about his incredible career as a producer, engineer and songwriter. This is Part 1 of our conversation, and part 2 will come out a week from today.Brent is one of the few 1st generation of Nashville recording studio icons still active and working in town. Some of his extensive credits including recording “Proud Mary” for Ike & Tina Turner, “Dance to the Music” by Sly & The Family Stone and “Age of Aquarius” by the 5th dimension, not to mention producing every Judds record. His career began at Fred Foster Sound, which was the studio built by Sam Phillips. He learned and worked for years as an assistant to Bill Porter, one of the greatest engineers of all time. From the early 60’s, they were working on albums for Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Chet Atkins and many more. Brent followed Porter to Las Vegas, where they set up shop and that’s where Brent started his producing and songwriting career, with the first song he ever wrote being recorded by Ike & Tina. Brent eventually moved back to Nashville, where he found the Judds, produced all of their huge records and redefined country music in the 80’s. He was instrumental in bringing the recording scene to Berry Hill, where he helped design and build Creative Workshop and what eventually became Blackbird Studios. Brent continues to work at his studio in Berry Hill today with artists like Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley, Taj Mahal, as well as his latest project “Night of the Orphan Train” - which is a musical novel. We get into all of these facets of his stunning career in this 2-part episode.Enjoy my conversation with Brent Maher!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.

Pat Bergeson joins me on the show this week. Pat is one of those musicians who makes you stop and rethink what’s actually possible on a guitar. And on a harmonica.Pat Bergeson is a true master of touch, tone, and taste, and one of the most deeply musical players you’ll ever hear.Pat’s guitar playing is rooted in the blues, jazz, and country traditions, but it’s always personal, always expressive, and always unmistakably his own. He’s been here in Nashville for a number of decades now, and has amassed an impressive list of credits, playing on records for artists like Dolly Parton, John Paul White, Suzy Bogguss, Blake Shelton, Alison Krauss and Lyle Lovett. But Pat has never been one to devote himself to session work, so he’s led a much more rounded life, with tons of live playing and touring, including his current touring gig in Peter Frampton’s band. When I first saw him, it was with the band Les Brers, which was Butch Trucks’ band playing mostly Allman Brothers music, and seeing Pat teamed up with the band’s other guitarist Jack Pearson, was a one-two punch of two of my absolute favorite guitarists in music city!One of the most meaningful chapters in Pat’s career was his close association with the legendary Chet Atkins. Chet didn’t just admire Pat’s playing - he brought him to Nashville. Pat recorded and performed with Chet, and you can really hear that shared philosophy: musical elegance, deep respect for melody, and an understanding that less can truly be more. Pat played with Chet for years, both on records but also as part of his band that used to have a weekly gig here in Nashville at a little Italian joint downtown.And then there’s the harmonica.Pat isn’t just a great guitarist — he’s one of the finest diatonic harmonica players you’ll ever hear. So whether you know him from his work with Chet Atkins, his collaborations with Peter Frampton, his session work, his solo recordings, or his unforgettable harmonica playing, you’re in for a great conversation today.Enjoy my conversation with Pat Bergeson!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.

Bassist Dave Jacques is on the show today. Dave was John Prine’s bass player for nearly thirty years. That’s not just a gig - that’s a musical marriage! That’s knowing when to play, when not to play, when to push a lyric forward, and when to just lay the hell out of the way and let the song do its thing. This will be a 2-part conversation and Part 2 will come out one week from today.If you know John Prine’s music, you know that the bass is doing a lot of quiet heavy lifting. Those songs don’t survive flashiness. They survive feel, restraint, and humor, and Dave understood that instinctively. He helped build the foundation under some of the most beloved songs in the American songbook, and he did it without ever getting in the way.What’s remarkable is that Dave brought that same sensibility everywhere else he went. Whether it was Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Townes Van Zandt, or countless other sessions and tours, he always sounded like himself — but somehow also exactly right for the artist.In this conversation, we talk a lot about his years with John Prine — what he learned from standing next to and playing with night after night, one of the greatest songwriters ever, not to mention endless hours in a car with him.I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and playing with Dave on quite a few sessions here in Nashville, and he was also crazy enough to join my band The Volcano Brothers, so if you find yourslef in Nahsville, come see us! You can also find Dave playing with a host of great musicians around town, my favorite being Kenny Vaughan’s Imperial Blues Hour.You can get the latest on Dave and his projects over at davejacquesonbass.comEnjoy my conversation with Dave Jacques!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.

Drummer Gary Craig joins me on this show this week. Gary is an incredible musician who has gained the reputation as one of Canada’s finest studio and live drummers working today. He’s been at it for a long time and has maintained a number of long-term associations with artists like Bruce Cockburn, Anne Murray, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings and Jann Arden. Gary’s attention to detail, combined with a unique sense of groove makes him one of the more creative forces in modern roots drumming. Coming up in Toronto in the 70’s and 80's, Gary learned from some of the city’s great jazz drummers, but shifted his focus to roots, blues and rock bands that appealed to his taste more than jazz did. Landing the gig with Anne Murray, which he got at a young age, Gary stayed with her until she retired about 25 years later. His ability to hold on to gigs and manage juggling several of them at once is no small feat, but when you hear him play, you understand why artists will do what they need to to keep him on board. Gary’s also a great hang too, which I can attest to first-hand, and while that might not be the most important thing in keeping a gig, it’s probably the second most important! Gary and I get into his history, influences, his work with many of the artists that he is known for, and what he’s up to these days both on the road and around Toronto as a live player and studio musician.Enjoy my conversation with Gary Craig!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.

Steel guitarist and country music historian Pete Finney joins me on the show this week.I got to know Pete’s playing when I’d go and see Chris’ Scruggs' band The Stone Fox Five out in the parking lot of the East Nashville Legion during Covid. They’d put on a well-distanced weekly show that was my only live music for a couple of years! I loved Pete’s soulful playing and got to learn more about his interesting history, mostly on the pedal steel guitar, playing for all kinds of country legends - artists like Reba McIntyre, The Judds, Vince Gill, The Chicks, The Monkees and lots more. Pete has a unique style, and while he has clearly absorbed the classic country sounds, he doesn’t sound like anyone else. Pete’s path from the DC area playing almost every night in country bars, to Austin to play with Doug Sahm, to his move to Nashville in the 80’s is an interesting one, and Pete has carved out an incredible career in that time. Lately, Pete has also taken on the role of historian, and had a big hand in producing the Country Music Hall Of Fame’s “Dylan, Cash and The Nashville Cats” exhibit, which was one of the best collections of 60’s and 70’s country music stories, exhibits and paraphernalia ever put on display. Pete is a well loved Nashville icon and plays around town with many different artists. He has no website or social media, so you’ll have to just keep your ear to the ground about where to see himj play if you’re in Nashville, but don’t miss your chance if you get it!Enjoy my conversation with Pete Finney.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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.