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We lost the great David Lindley yesterday. In remembrance of the great Mr. Dave, I have gone back to my conversation with him in 2019. Because I’ve had to pull the music samples from my show, the episodes were shorter, so I glued the 2 parts together into this one episode. I hope you’ll spend a couple hours with us and then go crank some Twango Bango!

Season 6 comes to an end this week with my guest - the incomparable Jerry Douglas, who has re-invented the concept of the Dobro over the last 50 years, while also working as a bandleader and acclaimed producer. There are select few musicians on the planet who have undeniably redefined their instrument and the way it is approached in modern music, but Jerry is definitely one of them. He has had an incredibly prolific career, starting in the mid 70’s with stints in The Country Gentlemen, the groundbreaking JD Crowe and the New South, Boone Creek and with the incredible Buck White. Soon after establishing himself in the bluegrass world with those groups, he started playing on records as a session musician and became not only the most recorded Dobro player in history, but pretty darn high up there with anyone on any instrument. The number of records he’s played on is somewhere seemingly about 1600. He’s been nominated for 32 grammies, won 14 of them, and is a 10-time IBMA winner of dobro player of the year. His production credits are amazing too, and that really came to the fore with Allison Krauss and Union Station, not to mention his recent work with John Hiatt and Molly Tuttle. Jerry is very active with his own incredible band, and continues to produce and tour seemingly non-stop. He’s been involved in alot of technical Dobro innovations as well, which are really interesting. We’re going to get into all of that and more here today, and meanwhile you can keep up with his latest projects and touring at jerrydouglas.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

Producer and engineer Bob Rock is on the show this week. Bob is originally from Winnipeg, but he cut his teeth in the late 70’s and early 80’s Vancouver punk rock scene while working at Little Mountain Studios. While Bob was working on original music and starting to achieve success with his band The Payolas, he continued his day job at the studio, which started to snowball into a string of successful engineering and mixing gigs, mostly with Bruce Fairbairn. These included albums for Prism, Loverboy and Honeymoon Suite. The success of those Canadian albums led to the same team getting asked to make records for Aerosmith and Bon Jovi, after which Bob struck out on his own to produce albums for Motley Crue, The Cult and of course, Metallica. In more recent years, Bob has worked on records for The Tragically Hip, Michael Buble, Jann Arden, Ron Sexsmith and many more. But at the end of the day, Bob is just a huge music nerd, loves guitars and amps, and is obsessive about tones and the path to find them. We got into all of it and had a great conversation. Enjoy! Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

John Leventhal is a multiple Grammy Award-winning producer, guitarist and songwriter who has been steering the ship on many albums and musical projects over the last 40 years. John first came onto most people’s radar when he produced Shawn Colvin’s successful debut album “Steady On”. They collaborated again in 1996 on “A Few Small Repairs” which was a smash hit. Coming up in the New York live music scene, John also worked with Jim Lauderdale in those years and produced Jim’s debut as well. A late bloomer to music and the electric guitar, John has developed a subtle yet complex and unmistakeable sound that has kept him working as a live musician and producer for artists like William Bell, Marc Cohn, Sara Jarosz, and Rodney Crowell. Leventhal has also produced a slew of successful and acclaimed albums with his wife of many years, Rosanne Cash. As a songwriter, he’s penned songs for Tedeschi Trucks, Vince Gill, George Strait, Patty Loveless, and many more. John has (finally!) made his debut solo album which he is threatening to release sometime this year, called “Rumble Strip”. I’ve heard it, can vouch for its awesomeness, and we talk about it on the show, although you won’t be able to hear it for some months yet! John is a bit elusive - he doesn’t have a website, but watch for the new album, and he’ll be out on tour with Rosanne Cash - you can find info on their dates at www.rosannecash.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

Guitarist and songwriter David Grissom is on the show this week! Anyone who knows anything about the guitar knows Grissom is a monster player, and has been a key element of albums for Joe Ely and John Mellencamp, and then with the band Storyville. But what I wasn’t really aware of was his extensive list of session work he did here in Nashville during the early 2000’s. For a good 10 years or so, Nashville session work was kind of his main thing. He played on huge records for artists like Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Lee ann Womack, Montgomery Gentry, Billy Ray Cyrus and Brooks and Dunn. But he also maintained his work on the rootsier side of things, writing for, touring with or playing on records for Buddy Guy, John Mayall, Eliza Gilkyson, Chris Isaak, Rita Coolidge and lots more. So all this to say we had alot to talk about. I wanted to dig into that session scene in the early 2000’s and see what was going on at that point. We had a great talk about all the aspects of his career, making some of the classic records he was involved in, how he got into music in the first placxe and his current band and regular gigs around Austin, TX. We also get a little nerdy and talk about his signature Paul Reed Smith guitars closer to the end. You can get all the info on David, his recordings, live albums, and weekly gig at: www.davidgrissom.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it really helps get the show heard by more folks! Just Click Here, and scroll down a bit and you’ll be able to leave a glowing review. Thank you! This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

Nicki Bluhm joins me on the show this week. I first heard her recent record “Avondale Drive” about 6 months ago and was blown away. She jas an incredible voice and writes really interesting tunes that draw from blues, soul, country and pop music. Nicki has made some killer records aside from Avondale Drive, and also had a really cool band called The Gramblers, which she fronted with her ex-husband and Mother Hips member Tim Bluhm that have a couple releases as well. Nicki is originally from the Bay Area and while she lives in Nashville now, she stays rooted in that scene with regular appearances with Phil Lesh and Friends as well as Little Feat, with whom she has been on tour recently as a featured guest and backup singer. She’s also out touring with her band, and as a duo with her new partner Jesse Wilson, who she made Avondale Drive with during the pandemic. Keep posted with Nicki and all of her upcoming shows and new releases at www.nickibluhm.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

Just a quick episode to give you the scoop on how/when the rest of Season 6 will unfold (soon!), and a peek behind the curtain on how some of these episodes come together. And also a call out to see who you’d like to hear on the show on Season 7 - chime in! (use the comments section on this episode, or send me an email or DM. Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

On the show this week is the prolific film and TV composer, Patric Caird. I’ve known Pat for a long time, and I’ve worked with him a few times over the years on various scoring projects. He’s had an extremely busy career both as a composer, and earlier on as a music editor for TV shows. His credits include shows like The Dead Zone, The Collector, The Imperfects, The Order, and Outer Limits, not to mention lots of projects for the Hallmark Channel. I got to know him starting about 22 or 23 years ago, and at the time he was scoring an animated series for Comedy Central called “Ed, Edd and Eddy”. That show was insane, both the show itself, but so was the music Pat was writing and recording every week. He moved to LA shortly after that and has been working steadily - composing for film and TV, ever since. Pat is an amazing musician, mostly a sax player, and he came up through the Canadian live music scene as a jazz player and then became a touring musician with The Powder Blues. I thought it would be cool to hear about how the film composing side of things works and I’m sure you’ll enjoy hearing about it too! You can find info on Patric and all of his projects at www.patriccaird.com This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

Bryan Sutton, one of my absolute favorite bluegrass guitar players is on the show this week. I first heard of Bryan years ago when I was on a serious bluegrass binge (It occasionally continues to this day!). Around that time, Ricky Skaggs made a return to bluegrass and released his “Bluegrass Rules!” album. His band was called Kentucky Thunder and it was mostly youngsters with just unbelievable chops and feel. The guitar player in that band was Bryan Sutton, and I’ve been following his career ever since. He continued to crop up on credits for albums that I’d hear and I got a chance to see him at various festivals over the years. He always blew me away with his tone, feel and the way he was taking flatpicking in some exciting new directions. Bryan has now clearly become the top acoustic player in the Nashville session scene and gets most of the calls to fill that role in this town on all the big records made here. I wanted to talk to him about how he approaches sessions, the specialty of just being an acoustic player in the studio, and how his path led to being where he is now - the top call in Nashville, as well as being out on the road with Bela Fleck for his My Bluegrass Heart project. Bryan’s credits include records for Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, Lyle Lovett, Dierks Bentley, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton - you get the picture. But at the heart oif it, he’s a monster flatpicker who has been the IBMA guitarist of the year 9 times. He teaches through an online course as well, and he put out a really cool solo album called “The More I Learn” a few years back. You can get info on all this stuff and check out his tour dates at bryansutton.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

Mick Flannery is on the show this week. Mick is an amazing songwriter, well known and loved in his native Ireland, but has also made alot of in-roads in recent years into the US and Canada. This conversation came about very organically, after we met at the Edmonton folk festival this past summer, and it was a real pleasure getting to speak with Mick about his music and writing and recording process. He was touring behind his latest album called “In The Game” which is a collaboration with another singer-songwriter form Ireland, Susan O’Neill. It’s really intense, beautiful, layered music, and they really brought it to life with their performance. Mick is a multi-platinum selling artist, with 8 releases out to his name, and I suppose is most well known in Ireland, but that is changing. His debut album “Evening Train” has been turned into a musical that debuted in 2019, with more performances on the horizon. He performs around Ireland, the UK, Europe, and Canada and the US fairly regularly, so please check out the latest news and tour dates at: mickflannery.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

This week on this show I have Stanton Moore, one of the great drummers to emerge from the New Orleans music scene in the 90’s and early 2000’s with his band Galactic, and he has become an absolute force of nature - performing, touring, recording, teaching, making cool stuff for drums, and being an ambassador for New Orleans music worldwide. Stanton has been one of the most respected drummers in contemporary music for a long time now, since he emerged as afounding member of Galactic, who I was lucky enough to see way back in the early 2000’s as they started to tour all over the place. They took funk, jazz, traditional New Orleans music and put a modern spin on it with killer grooves and amazing sounding records. Aside from Galactic, Stanton has another killer band called Garage a Trois with Skerik and Charlie Hunter - they’ve been an ongoing thing now for many years as well. He’s always heavily involved in the New orleans Jazz and Heritage fest, and plays around the city regularly. When we spoke for this episode, he was heading out with Les Claypool’s Bastard Jazz. A busy fellow, indeed! Stanton is also heavily into drum and cymbal design, which we talk about a bit, and is a master educator as well, which you’ll definitely get a sense of in our talk. So to keep all this strauight, here’s some links. For all things Stanton Moore, go to stantonmoore.com for his teaching world, check out stantonmooredrumacademmy.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

My guest this week is a killer guitar player and songwriter, known for his work with his band Cry of Love, and being a sideman to the Black Crowes, Dixie Chicks, Sheryl Crow and many others - Audley Freed. Audley is a master of groove and tone, and his undeniably cool approach to playing rock n roll guitar has landed him some amazing gigs over the last 3 decades. He started out in North Carolina playing in cover bands, and eventually got an original project going that got signed, and had some pretty serious success for a young band - Cry Of Love. Their album “Brother” is still regarded as a benchmark for great rock guitar playing. Eventually, Audley focussed his time and efforts on becoming a sideman, and he’s been steadily working ever since. He’s had long-standing stints with many great bands, including The Black Crowes, Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, The Dixie Chicks, Chris Robinson, played on tons of great records, and has had a remarkable career for such a humble person. He doesn’t have a website, or much presence on socials, but you can see him these days wherever Sheryl Crow is playing, and I highly recommend catching her and her band if you can. Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

This week on the show is the great mandolin player, singer and songwriter Sierra Hull. Sierra is a monster player, and while she’s still really young, she’s been making records of her own for over 15 years now. The latest one, called “25 Trips” came out right around the pandemic, so her touring was curtailed for a while, but she’s back at it now in full force, playing with her band and also with Cory Wong and  Bela Fleck, being a major part of Bela’s “My Bluegrass Heart” album and shows earlier this year. I was really interested in talking to her about that because I can’t imagine how crazy that must be to be sitting in a room full of your heros that you grew up listening to and learning from and suddenly they’re your peers and you’re right in the mix with all of them. In the bluegrass world, that project doesn’t get any heavier - Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton, Sam Bush, Chris Thile, Noam Pikelny, Stuart Duncan, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle - they’re all involved, and it’s a great album. Sierra has made some great solo albums with Allison Krauss and Bela Fleck producing, and on the latest one, “25 Trips”, she’s co-producing with a killer engineer named Shani Gandhi. It’s definitely rooted in bluegrass, but steps out into some more experimental territory as well with some innovative sounds and production ideas. The crew on this album includes Justin Moses, Viktor Krauss, Bryan Sutton, Paul Franklin, Jano Rix and lots more. So we got to talk about how she approaches making music, and all about how she prepares as a side-person for some of the heavy gigs she’s involved in these days. Sierra is constantly out on tour and you can keep up with what she’s doing and where to see her at: sierrahull.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

My guest today is a killer steel guitarist who has been working out of Austin, TX for years - Rose Sinclair. We had this conversation over zoom a few months ago and I’m thrilled to be bringing it to you today. Rose put out an album recently called “Wave” that I sort of stumbled across and listened to it over and over again for weeks. There was just something that really spoke to me in her tone and phrasing and the way she approached playing the tunes on the album, which are mostly swing and jazz standards. She refers to her current music as cocktail swing, which I can get with. She plays a double neck steel with no pedals, no effects, not even a volume pedal and she has just really forged a cool style of her own and a modern voice on the instrument. Rose started out as a multi-instrumentalist, playing bass, guitar, banjo and even accordion in bands around Massachussets, where she’s from. She eventually got into the steel, as you’ll hear in our conversation, and that led to her moving to Austin to immersive herself in western swing music. Another really fascinating element to Rose’s career is that she dug deep into the roots of the style and tracked down some of the original generation of steel players and studied with them. Players like Maurice Anderson, PeeWee Whitewing and Herb Steiner, so we got to talk about her experiences with some of those players, too. Rose is actively making records, and also has a weekly gig at Sam’s Town Point in Austin. So please check out her beautiful record Wave, and you can find out about her new projects and any touring at rosesinclairmusic.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

The great Hawaiian slack-key guitarist, George Kahumoku Jr. is on the show this week! George has been playing around the Hawaiian islands for decades, but came to prominence in the 80’s and 90’s when Dancing Cat records started putting out records by the foremost traditional slack-key players. George was one of the main ones, but we were alo introduced to his brother Moses, Sonny Chillngworth, Keola Beamer, Ledward Ka’apana, Barney Isacs, Cyril Pahanui, and quite a few more. George is one of the greats of the fingerstyle slack-key genre - he grooves, he has an amazing voice, he plays almost exclusively on a 12-string and he has his own F-tuning that suits the style so well. The first part of this interview includes some really interesting Hawaiian history that was mostly news to me, so I hope you enjoy that! George is very active still and plays a weekly show on Maui called Masters of Hawaiian Music. He is also a multiple Grammy award winner, not to mention a celebrated farmer. His latest album is called Rennaisance Man, and he’s also going on tour this fall around the western states. You can get all of that info at kahumoku.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

Hey everyone, welcome back! My guest today is an incredible drummer who lives and works here in Nashville, Fred Eltringham. Fred one of my favourite drummers around town and has held down the drum chair in Sheryl Crow’s band for the last 10 years or so. I’ve had a chance to see them in action a few times and they are really special. Fred keeps pretty busy here in Nashville when he’s not out with Sheryl Crow - he’s played on records or on stage with folks like Billy Gibbons, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson, Darius Rucker, Kenney Chesney, Rodney Crowell, Kacey Musgraves - the dude has stacked up some serious credits! I love to talk to folks like this on the show - maybe slightly under the radar players who are super talented and just learn about their paths to get where they are now. Fred is pretty invisible on socila media, but he has a website where he posts a few things and his dates with Sheryl Crow are up there if you’re ever able to go see him. That’s at www.fredeltringhamdrummer.com Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

This week on the show is an incredible singer, songwriter and musician - Amy Helm. Amy has a sublime feel for music, and a really interesting story too. She grew up in New York, partly in the city and I think at various times with her dad in Woodstock - her dad, of course, being legendary Band drummer and singer, Levon Helm. She was around Levon’s barn an awful lot and has seen that place go from its humble beginnings to a mecca for roots music, hosting some of the greatest live shows of the early 2000’s onwards, known as the Midnight Ramble. Amy started a killer band in the early 2000’s called Ollabelle, and they did alot of touring and recording, and made some great records too. When Levon got really sick with cancer in the early 2000’s, Amy worked with him as he regained his speaking and eventually singing voice and she ended up producing the incredible Dirt Farmer album with Larry Campbell. Amy has put out 3 records under her own name, the most recent one we got to talk about quite a bit, and it’s called “What The Flood Leaves Behind”. It’s a masterful album, and she just keeps getting better. We talked about her recording and writing process and just had a great ol’ conversation. Enjoy, share and please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. Info on Amy’s records, merch and tour dates can be found at www.amyhelm.com This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

Today I’m bringing you a conversation with one of the most recorded pedals steel players in modern times - Russ Pahl. Russ has played on all the great T-Bone Burnett records of the past bunch of years, and has also recorded for the likes of Sturgill Simpson, Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Norah Jones, Blake Shelton, Orville Peck, Marcus King, Ceelo Green, Yola, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, and the list goes on. From his early days cutting his teeth in country bands around Minneapolis, to moving to Nashville in the 80’s, he has managed to hone his craft and develop a unique sound. He scored a cool gig with Dickey Betts in the late 80’s, and then Buddy Miller started calling him for his productions, and Vince Gill had him in his live band for about 5 years. It seems that after about 2000, the floodgates just opened and when someone wanted a steel player that didn’t play the same licks as everyone else and had a creative approach, Russ was the one to call. We had a great conversation and get into all that stuff, and more. Enjoy, share and please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

Welcome back, music nerds! My guest this week is Tristen, an incredible songwriter and performer from right here in Nashville. She released one of my favorite albums during the pandemic called “Aquatic Flowers” and I was excited to get a chance to meet with her to talk about the making of that album, as well as how she approaches songwriting, lyrics, and how melodies flow so easily for her. She has a unique style that seems so effortless, but the way she can craft a melody and instrumental parts is downright remarkable. I also wanted to discuss the pitfalls of being an indie artist in Nashville, and how she juggles her songwriting and performing career with her other business, which is a groovy vintage clothing store here in East Nashville called Anaconda Vintage. We had a great conversation and I think you’ll enjoy hearing about her life and career. Enjoy, share and please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. Info on Tristen’s records, merch and tour dates can be found at www.tristen.com This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca

You can support the show with monthly contributions through our Patreon site at: https://www.patreon.com/MakersAndShakers Welcome back, music nerds! My guest this week is the phenomenal guitarist, producer and sideman, Duke Robillard. Duke is a fountain of knowldege about blues, swing, jump and R&B and has been touring and recording in those fields since the early 70’s. His early successes with his band Roomful of Blues gained him noteriety as a guitarist who had processed all of the classic styles and players of those genres but had his own remarkable voice. Duke has gone on to make a boatload of solo albums, and tours with his band all over the world. Duke has also produced lots of records for other artists and played as a sideman to many as well, including a stint in Bob Dylan’s band, and was a part of the sessions for the classic Time Out Of Mind album. We get into all of it here today, as well as some of his greatest influences and early experiences learning to play. Enjoy, share and please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode here, which features the artist’s own music, plus many of the songs that were discussed during the show. Info on Duke’s records, merch and tour dates can be found at www.dukerobillard.com This episode is brought to you by Izotope - check out their amazing recording software at: www.izotope.com Thanks for your support, and your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: www.stevedawson.ca