Songwriter and banjo player Kaia Kater joins me on the show this week. I’ve seen Kaia’s artistry grow over the years as she’s been involved in festivals and events like Folk Alliance that I’ve been a part of and seen her perform quite a few times. Kaia started showing up on the scene 10 or 15 years ago and has put out some incredible music in the last 7 or 8 years. She’s a really interesting banjo player, well versed in traditional string band and old time music which she studied in depth at Dav...
Jul 26, 2023•1 hr 17 min
On the show this week we have the incredible songwriter Peter Case, who I’ve been listening to for a long time. He’s been making records for decades and has some really cool stories under his belt. He’s also a bit of a guitar nerd, so it’s fun to get into that with him as well. Peter’s latest album is called “Doctor Moan” and it’s available now at all the places. Originally from Buffalo, Peter moved to the Bay Area as a youngster and that’s where he started getting into the punk rock scene with ...
Jul 05, 2023•1 hr 21 min
We kick off Season 7 this week with the very remarkable singer and songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan. Aaron has released a string of compelling and original solo albums over the past decade. They are all unique and interesting, but the last 3 or 4 are real gems, both in the writing and the incredible production and delivery with Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! being the latest release. Aaron has had an interesting path to where he’s at now, starting out playing in bands and jazz band at high school, and toyin...
Jun 21, 2023•1 hr 47 min
A bit of info on what's to come in Season 7 - All-new full episodes starting next week! If you enjoyed this episode, please consider supporting the show with a donation or Patreon subscription The show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at www.stevedawson.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 14, 2023•6 min
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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 04, 2023•1 hr 28 min
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 groun...
Mar 01, 2023•1 hr 41 min
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, Lover...
Feb 15, 2023•1 hr 50 min
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 lat...
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr 35 min
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 Y...
Jan 18, 2023•1 hr 32 min
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 ...
Jan 04, 2023•1 hr 14 min
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 21, 2022•13 min
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 ...
Dec 08, 2022•1 hr 33 min
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 ev...
Nov 16, 2022•1 hr 33 min
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...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 14 min
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 lu...
Oct 19, 2022•1 hr 31 min
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 pr...
Oct 05, 2022•2 hr 6 min
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 t...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 18 min
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...
Sep 07, 2022•1 hr 16 min
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...
Aug 17, 2022•1 hr 37 min
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, Lucin...
Aug 03, 2022•1 hr 10 min
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 ear...
Jul 20, 2022•1 hr 17 min
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 mov...
Jul 06, 2022•1 hr 36 min
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...
Jun 15, 2022•1 hr 11 min
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...
Jun 01, 2022•1 hr 30 min
You can support the show with monthly contributions through our Patreon site at: https://www.patreon.com/MakersAndShakers Welcome back to Season 6! This week I’m joined by the amazing songwriter, singer, and guitarist Aoife O’Donovan. We get into all kinds of things about her spectacular new record “Age of Apathy” - how she approached songwriting and layering guitar parts, working with producer Joe Henry and remotely with musicians during the pandemic. We also talked about her history recording ...
May 18, 2022•58 min
You can support the show with monthly contributions through our Patreon site at: https://www.patreon.com/MakersAndShakers It’s our first show of Season 6 and we're thrilled to bring you this interview with the incredibly unique singer/songwriter, guitarist and all-around hilarious fellow, Steve Poltz. Steve just put out a new record called “Stardust and Satellites” that I love, and we got into that a bit before going on massive tangents about everything under the sun - Chet Atkins, words of wisd...
May 04, 2022•1 hr 44 min
You can support the show with monthly contributions through our Patreon site at: https://www.patreon.com/MakersAndShakers Enjoy, share and please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at: https://www.stevedawson.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 27, 2022•10 min
You can support the show with monthly contributions through our Patreon site at: https://www.patreon.com/MakersAndShakers It’s our last show of the season and we’re thrilled to bring you this conversation with Rob Baker! Rob is a guitarist and songwriter from one of the most iconic Canadian bands of all time, The Tragically Hip. Growing up in Kingston, Ontario, the Hip became friends in high school, became a band, and aside from a sax player leaving in ‘86, never had a lineup change. They went o...
Jan 05, 2022•1 hr 19 min
You can support the show with monthly contributions through our Patreon site at: https://www.patreon.com/MakersAndShakers Vancouver guitarist, songwriter, composer and all around hilarious fellow Craig Northey joins me on the show this week. I’ve known Craig for quite a while, but it was great to delve into some of his early experiences with his band “Odds”, coming up in the 90’s indie rock scene, and how the success of that band has led him into writing music for other artists, producing, writi...
Dec 15, 2021•1 hr 34 min
You can support the show with monthly contributions through our Patreon site at: https://www.patreon.com/MakersAndShakers Legendary recording engineer and record producer Bill Schnee joins me on the show this week. Bill lives here in Nashville now, but spent the bulk of his career in LA. He has amazing tales of getting going in the studio scene there and learning the ropes. He seems to have had a knack for hooking up with some great mentors and studio people, and before long, Bill was working fo...
Dec 01, 2021•1 hr 46 min
