My Favorite Album With Jeremy Dylan

Today, country hitmaker Cassadee Pope joins me to talk about the Queen, Shania Twain, and her classic 1995 album ‘The Woman In Me’. We talk about the influence that Shania had on the genre and on successive generation of female country stars, her strength and vulnerability (and why those qualities aren’t in opposition), what Shania taught Cassadee, their in person encounter and her fantasies of them one day duetting.

Singer/songwriter and country hitmaker Jimmie Allen joins me to talk about Learn to Live, the 2008 album that launched Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish frontman into country superstar. Jimmie talks about sneaking on to Darius’s tour bus when he first moved to Nashville, what it meant to see black artists achieving success in genres outside RnB and hip-hop, the advice Darius gave him, and the historic duet he recorded with Darius and Charley Pride on his new EP Bettie James. Plus, Jimmie reveals why he turned down pop record deals to pursue a career in country music and how even before Jimmie was an established artist, Darius was getting him backstage without even knowing it.

The great Katie Noonan returns to the show to talk about the classic self-titled debut album by Crowded House. We talk about the band’s origins out of the dissolution of Split Enz, the band’s hit ratio across their four original albums, the classic organ solo on Don’t Dream It’s Over and how Katie reinterpreted the song on her new album, being in bands with siblings, how to deicide if, when and how to reunite a long broken up band, our shared experiences at the Crowded House shows in 2016 and Katie’s childhood aspirations to be a nun.

Comedy legend David Cross (Mr Show, Arrested Development) joins me for a rollicking conversation that starts with cult alternative rockers Firehose’s ‘Live Totem Pole’ record and winds around through David’s early years in California and his experiences in LA rock clubs, the relationships between alt rock and alt comedy, the bands he has seen the most live over the years, his favorite Australian band and the one musical disagreement he and his longtime creative collaborator Bob Odenkirk could never resolve.

Today I’m joined by the delightful and amazing Emma Watkins aka Emma Wiggle, to talk about her friends the East Pointers and their most recent album ‘Yours to Break’. How does Australia’s most iconic family entertainment unit intersect with a Canadian progressive folk outfit? Find out as Emma takes me through the story of the Newfoundland family musical tradition and how it birthed the East Pointers, the collaborations between the band’s members and the Wiggles, modernising traditional celtic folk sounds, the unexpected part Emma was playing in their Australian shows and more.

As a writer and director, Thomas Schnauz has been responsible for some of the most legendary TV of the last 30 years, from The X Files to Breaking Back to Better Call Saul, and he’s been sneaking Pink Floyd references into all of them. Thomas joins me to finally talk about ‘The Wall’ (we’ve only been going for 7 years and not a single Floyd record in that time), Syd Barrett, the Roger Waters spitting incident that inspired the record, his wild journey as a young man to see Roger Waters perform the record in full at the Berlin wall and more… Plus I pitch Thomas what is sure to be the main storyline of Better Call Saul season 5.

Legendary record producer Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Sheryl Crow, Randy Newman) joins me to unpack ‘The Genius of Ray Charles’, the audaciously titled classic album where Charles took his first ambitious step outside of R&B into full on jazz. We unpack Charles’s brilliant piano solos, Quincy Jones’s arrangements, the combining of Ray’s band with musicians from Count Basie and Duke Ellington’s orchestras, how to breathe new life into songs that have been recorded many times and how Mitchell bonded with Randy Newman over their shared love of this record. Plus, Mitchell talks about writing and producing ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ with Sheryl Crow, why he won’t write his memoirs, what it’s like to hear songs he’s produced while out in the world and gives insight and updates on the new upcoming Crowded House record he and the rest of the band have been working on during isolation.

This week I'm joined by musician, activist, author, filmmaker, photographer and former actress Rose McGowan for a wide ranging chat about Cocteau Twins' classic album 'Heaven or Las Vegas' and her own record ‘Planet 9’. We chat about the Cocteau Twins indecipherable lyrics, how it soundtracked the writing of Rose’s memoir ‘Brave’ and the emotional malleability of the record. Rose also takes me into the process of creating her album ‘Planet 9', the best reviews she's gotten, how she shot her own visual art to accompany the album, how she intends to tour her music while creating an art hub accessible to everyone, why she doesn't want to be a 'pop star', her love of country music and much more.

This week I’m joined by rock legend and Something for Kate frontman Paul Dempsey, to dive into Fugazi’s classic album ‘In On The Kill Taker’. Paul discusses how the band’s unique approach to intertwining instrumental parts influenced his guitar playing, the different ways of discovering bands in a pre-internet age, the contrasts between Ian Mackaye and Guy Piccitotto, the time Something for Kate nearly opened for Fugazi, why he has vowed never to cover their songs and his strong feelings against ‘opening the vaults’ and releasing alternate versions of albums.

This week singer/songwriter and actress (Stranger Things, Little Women) Maya Hawke joins me via landline (!) from Woodstock to talk about the enduring classic of unfettered emotion, Joni Mitchell's towering Blue. We dig into Maya's love of poetry and how it intersects with her music, treating the lyrics of Joni's songs as a puzzle, separating art from the artist, how music helped with her dyslexia, the process of writing her own album and how Blue has helped her to find space, privacy and independence during Covid-19 lockdowns.

"If you're lucky, you get to see a lot of life. The fact that I can listen to an album like this and connect with a person to a person I was for a good deal of my life, came out of the hardest things in my childhood, and a kind of anger and sadness that motivated me to try to be who I've become and pushed me, kept me from settling. The fact that I can connect to that so directly with an album like this, to the person I was so long ago, it's like a time warp." - Bob Odenkirk. This week, the legendary Bob Odenkirk (Mr Show, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad) joins me to talk about The Replacements classic debut album 'Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash'. Bob talks about whether the album qualifies as punk rock, his shared midwestern roots, the wit and cynicism of the lyrics, how the album helps him access the harsher emotions of his younger self, Bob Mehr's Replacements biography Trouble Boys, the recently released Replacements live record and more. Plus, Bob talks about the challenges of portraying Jimmy McGi

In our first lockdown era episode, I connect with Golden Globe nominated screenwriter and producer Liz Hannah (The Post, Long Shot, All the Bright Places) to talk about Van Morrison's classic 'Astral Weeks', as well as how the current situation has impacted Liz and her media diet, how she's listening to music at the moment, iPods, puzzles, streaming services vs DVDs and much more.

And we’re back! For our first show post-isolation, it’s another guest-packed special as we finish my countdown of favorite albums of the 2010s. 7. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit 6. Lorde - Melodrama (both with guest co-host Caitlin Welsh) 5. Jason Isbell - Southeastern (with Camp Cope’s Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich) 4. Taylor Swift - 1989 (with Imogen Clark) 3. Jenny Lewis - The Voyager (with Bernard Zuel) 2. Tame Impala - Currents (with Japanese Wallpaper) 1. Father John Misty - I Love You Honeybear (with Jonathan Wilson). It’s another epic action packed episode, also featuring some voicemail messages from friends of the show Ultragrrl, Bob Mehr, Anita Lester, Davey Lane and Troy Cassar-Daley.

Seven years and 300 episodes of the podcast in, we are marking the occasion with an epic three part celebration of my favorite albums of the past decade. Music journalist Caitlin Welsh joins me to criticise my taste and banter about the first three records on my list, and I'm joined by the artists behind those records - Dan Kelly on the rollercoaster of Dan Kelly's Dream, Margaret Glaspy on her undeniable Emotions and Math and Gang of Youth's frontman Dave Le'aupepe on their life-affirming masterwork Go Farther in Lightness. Plus we check the voicemail to hear from friends of the show Jim Lauderdale, Holiday Sidewinder, Kristina Murray, Chris Hewitt and Jeff Greenstein on what their favorite albums of the past ten years have been, and debut our special new theme song by the genius Matt Farley. Check back soon for part 2 of our 300th Episode Spectacular!

After almost 300 episodes and 7 years, we finally talk about 'Rumours' by Fleetwood Mac, as Camp Cope bass princess and Kelso icon Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich takes me on a journey through its 11 iconic tracks, matching each to a different kind of relationship you will experience throughout your life.