Send us Fan Mail On this episode of This Is Vinyl Tap, we do something a little different from our typical fare and interview Austin singer-songwriter Beaver Nelson. Beaver Nelson has been on the Austin scene since before he graduated from high school. His talent as a songwriter was almost immediately recognized by some of the finest singer-songwriters at the time, which gave him the opportunity to perform and record with some of the biggest names in the Austin music scene at the time. His songs...
Apr 16, 2026•1 hr 57 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Send us Fan Mail On this episode we tackle the LP that introduced the world to Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band: 1967's Safe as Milk . Captain Beefheart, né Don Van Vliet, is best known for having recorded one of the most heralded rock albums of all time - Trout Mask Replica . But for many, that double album is a confounding listen with it's atonal song structures, disconcerting time signatures, and bizarre vocals. However, before that was Safe As Milk. Thanks to the presence of 20-year-old ...
Mar 03, 2026•1 hr 57 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Send us Fan Mail On this episode we discuss Dave Alvin and his 1994 LP, King of California. Dave Alvin started his storied career in Los Angeles with the Blasters, a band he founded with his brother Phil. Full of energy and attitude, the Blasters found themselves embraced by the LA punk scene. The band did find some commercial success, but they fought like cats and dogs, which while it added to their intensity, but not their long-term possibilities, leading Dave to strike out on his own. After a...
Jan 13, 2026•1 hr 51 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Send us Fan Mail On this episode we discuss one America's great modern singer-songwriters -Robbie Fulks, and his wonderful 2016 album Upland Stories. Produced by the late, great Steve Albini, Upland Stories combines folk and traditional country elements into a rich collection of narrative-driven songs. The album and the fantastic opening track “ Alabama at Night ” both earned a Grammy nominations, recognition for what is considered by many to be Fulks' finest batch of songs. The album is full of...
Dec 25, 2025•1 hr 57 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the podcast, we discuss Joni Mitchell’s 1971’s LP Blue, regarded by most critics as a masterpiece and consistently is listed on best of lists of the greatest albums ever made. A bit of a sea change for Mitchell, incorporating jazz stylings in both her phrasing and the music, it’s sparse on instrumentation, yet the songs feel full largely due to Mitchell's own vocals. Created just after her breakup with Graham Nash and during her relationship with James Taylor,...
Nov 27, 2025•2 hr 20 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Send us Fan Mail It's a listener pick! On this episode we look at one of the most influential musical groups of the twentieth century - Sly and the Family Stone, and their 1970 LP There's a Riot Goin' On. By 1970, Sly Stone and his band had already had a huge impact on modern music. It was a mixed-race and mixed-gender band that spoke of love and harmony among all people. Hits like "Everyday People," "Dance to the Music," and "Stand" had gained the band crossover success and spawned numerous cop...
Oct 21, 2025•2 hr 12 min•Season 5Ep. 16
Send us Fan Mail This week we discuss Ian Hunter and his 1979 LP You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic . Hunter worked a long time to find success. His band Mott the Hoople were instrumental in advancing glam rock by giving it a rougher edge. David Bowie was such a fan of the band that he even gave them the song "All the Young Dudes" which became the title track for their most popular album, which he also produced. Hunter eventually left Mott the Hoople to concentrate on a solo career and made...
Sep 19, 2025•1 hr 56 min•Season 5Ep. 15
Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we discuss the self-titled debut by the New York Dolls, one of most influential albums of the 1970s. The New York Dolls blended the Rolling Stones' swagger with garage rock aggression and glam rock theatrics, that both embraced the sounds of early rock and roll and foreshadowed punk rock. Produced in what seems like an unusual hands-off approach by Todd Rundgren, The New York Dolls presents the band with minimal polish. Its full of high energy songs about...
Aug 21, 2025•1 hr 46 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we discuss an album that came out in 2024, the fifth album by the Lemon Twigs, A Dream is All We Know. Consisting of multi-instrumentalist brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario, the music of the Lemon Twigs often feels like it’s been plucked straight from the 1960s or 1970s. Echos of the Beatles, the Kinks and the Beach Boys are obvious, in fact they brothers call the sound of this LP "Mersey Beach." However, the Brothers D'Addario make it all sound fresh ...
Aug 12, 2025•1 hr 46 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we discuss one of the most heralded debut albums of the early 1990's: The La's by the La's. Heavily influenced by the 1960s British Invasion bands, The La’s is full of bright, jangly, melodic guitar pop, ear-worms all. The single “There She Goes” has become a classic, and is possibly one of the most perfectly constructed pop songs ever recorded. The album’s history, however, is one of the most tortured in the annals of rock and roll. The band’s leader, Lee Maver...
Jul 06, 2025•1 hr 55 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we discuss one of the first albums of 1967, the eponymous debut by the Youngbloods. 1967 is one of the most heralded years in rock music, and The Youngbloods was a good primer to the music that would come culminating in the Summer of Love. Originally from the East Coast, the Youngbloods took inspiration from the folk music and acoustic blues they heard and played in the coffee houses of the in The Village in New York and fused it with the sounds of coming from t...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 42 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we discuss Grievous Angel, the last album recorded by one of the most interesting, tragic, and influential people in modern music: Gram Parsons. In just six short years, from 1967 until his death in the fall of 1973, Gram Parson help pioneer what would become known as country rock, or what he preferred to call "Cosmic American Music." In those six years, he made several landmark albums with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds, and the Flying Burrito Brot...
May 23, 2025•2 hr 13 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Send us Fan Mail On this weeks episode, we discuss an LP by John Wesley Harding (né Wesley Stace), 1996’s John Wesley Harding’s New Deal. After releasing two EPs and three full length albums with a full band for Sire Records, Harding decided to strip down his sound for his debut on his new label Forward Records (an imprint of Rhino Records). Harding much preferred the intimacy of acoustic live performances and created an album that embraced that aesthetic whole heatedly. Described by Harding as ...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 57 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Send us Fan Mail On this weeks episode, we take a listen to a true Texas legend, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and his 1993, Spinning Around the Sun. With his high, lonesome voice, Jimmy Dale embodies the very essence of that land from which he hails, the Texas Panhandle. Even thought he was in his forties when his first solo album was recorded, he had already made his mark on the musical landscape of the Lone Star State, having been in the legendary Flatlanders (along with Joe Ely and Butch Hancock) and...
Apr 11, 2025•1 hr 52 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we take a listen to another Listener's Pick: Thin Lizzy's sixth studio album, Jailbreak from 1976. It took some time, but by the time they recorded Jailbreak, Thin Lizzy's had figured out their formula and Jailbreak became their breakout LP. Showcasing the tuneful songs of Phil Lynott and the expert twin guitar interplay of Scott Gorman and Brian Robertson, the album is the ultimate combination or power and melody.Lyrically, Lynott tapped into mythos of b...
Mar 24, 2025•1 hr 59 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we dig into the the forth album by the band the National, 2007's Boxer. The National is a band, literally, of brothers (two pairs) and a friend all from Ohio that formed after all parties moved to New York. From the get go, the band's music leaned heavily on and atmospheric and stood out due to the deep baritone vocals of lead singer and lyricist Matt Berninger. After slowly but steadily building up a following, Boxer, their second album on the Beggar's B...
Feb 21, 2025•1 hr 58 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Send us Fan Mail This week This Is Vinyl Tap discusses the criminally underrated album by Pure Prairie League, 1972's Bustin’ Out. Bustin' Out contains the band's most well known song, "Aime," a radio staple for the last 50 years. Oddly, while even the most casual of music listeners know the song, many would be hard pressed to name the band that performs it. As a result, Bustin' Out has been somewhat ignored, which is a shame, because it is a fantastic collection of country infused rock songs. T...
Feb 07, 2025•1 hr 55 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we take a deep dive into a “Listener Pick” - the fifth and final studio album by the Simon and Garfunkel, 1970's Bridge Over Trouble Water. While the partnership between Simon and Garfunkel was under immense strain that elementally led to its demise, the duo went out with a bang. Bridge Over Trouble Water was a commercial smash, and is regarded by many as Simon and Garfunkel's masterpiece. The album was their most ambitious and showed Simon had become a master s...
Jan 25, 2025•2 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Send us Fan Mail This week we dig into the 1973 self-titled debut by Bad Company. Coming off of the success of Free, Paul Rodgers hooked up with Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, and along with former Free drummer Simon Kirk, and King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell, formed what may be the most American-sounding British band ever: Bad Company. Rodgers soulful and powerful voice and Ralphs crunchy guitars punctuate songs about the old west, ballads about sea birds, and tunes about physical love ...
Dec 31, 2024•1 hr 30 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Send us Fan Mail This week we dive head first into the 1968 psychedelic rock opera by the Pretty Things, S.F. Sorrow. Ask any music fan what was the first rock opera was and most would say Tommy by the Who. That answer would be wrong. Recorded on S.F. Sorrow started a year before the Who even went into the studio to begin Tommy. Unfortunately the release of the album was delayed and was released after Tommy, placing S.F. Sorrow into the "also ran" category for the vast majority of critics and th...
Dec 22, 2024•1 hr 51 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Send us Fan Mail We start Season Five off with a monster album, Eat a Peach , by the Allman Brothers Band. Released in 1972, it is a double album and simultaneously their 3rd studio album and their 2nd Live album. The Allman Brothers Band were perhaps the first "Southern Rock" band, but they were so much more than that. Steeped in the blues, the brothers Duane and Greg actually had careers as session musicians playing everything from soul to psychedelic folk. Their jams were inspired by jazz imp...
Nov 22, 2024•1 hr 55 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we have a listener pick: Nick Lowe and his 1994 album The Impossible Bird. Nick Lowe has been a topic of conversation several times on This Is Vinyl Tap due to the indelible mark the man has left on pop music. Lowe was a bass player, singer and songwriter of the influential pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz. He was a member of the the fabulous Rockpile. He is a producer of some note, having worked with countless artists including Elvis Costello, the Pretenders, Gra...
Oct 26, 2024•1 hr 57 min•Season 4Ep. 23
Send us Fan Mail Join us on this week's episode as we discuss the 1970 album by Thunderclap Newman: Hollywood Dream. Thunderclap Newman were comprised of Townshend protege (drummer, songwriter and lead singer) Speedy Keen, a 15-year-old guitar prodigy named Jimmy McColluch, and the band's namesake - the eccentric self-taught piano player Andy "Thunderclap" Newman. Hollywood Dream (their one and only album) was recorded to capitalize on the success of Thunderclap Newman's surprising number 1 UK h...
Oct 08, 2024•1 hr 43 min•Season 4Ep. 22
Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we jump into Joe Jackson's fantastic sophomore LP, 1979's I'm the Man. When Joe Jackson's hit the airwaves in fall of 1978, critics labeled him as one of the new "angry young men" on British music, the other two significant members of that group being Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. This was lyrically mature music that owed a debt to the early 70's UK Pub Rock scene, but played with the aggressive attitude of Punk. Jackson's debut Look Sharp was release...
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 4Ep. 21
Send us Fan Mail On this week’s episode, we discuss what was once considered one of the hottest bands to come out of the late sixties San Francisco scene, Moby Grape and their debut album, 1967’s Moby Grape . Moby Grape is one of the most celebrated debut albums ever produced. Recorded by five musicians who could all write and sing, Moby Grape spans multiple genres (rock and roll, folk music, pop, blues, and country) and does so effortlessly. Add a three guitar attack, and some a amazing harmoni...
Aug 29, 2024•1 hr 43 min•Season 4Ep. 20
Send us Fan Mail On this weeks episode, we discuss King Crimson's 1969 debut: In the Court of the Crimson King. Not only is In the Court of the Crimson King regarded as one of the greatest and most influential progressive rock (or prog rock) albums of all time, it is considered by many to be the album that defined the genre. Like all prog rock musicians, Robert Fripp, Greg Lake, Micheal Giles, and Ian McDonald all know their way around their instruments. But what makes King Crimson stand out fro...
Jul 31, 2024•1 hr 41 min•Season 4Ep. 19
Send us Fan Mail It's a violation episode!! Often times we wonder how much the members of the This Is Vinyl Tap team are actually paying attention to what we do around here. In an effort to find out, we present the first ever This Is Vinyl Tap "Trivia From The Vault" episode, where we ask each other in-depth questions pertaining to past episodes to determine who has (and who has not) been asleep on the job. Of course we invite you, the listener, to play along at home. Feel free to let us know ho...
Jul 02, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 18
Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we discuss one of the seminal bands of what would become the alternative country and Americana movement: the Long Ryders, and their 1984 debut LP Native Sons. Formed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, the Long Ryders were a counter to the synth-heavy music that was in vogue at the time. Drawing on their diverse musical backgrounds (punk and garage rock, ska, country, and hard rock), the band combined their broad musical pallet to create a sound that was guitar b...
Jun 23, 2024•1 hr 55 min•Season 4Ep. 17
Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we tackle a BIG album, the 1967 debut LP by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced. Heralded by many as the greatest rock guitarist of all time, to many Jimi Hendrix, along with his band the Jimi Hendrix Experience (bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell) seemingly came out of nowhere. However, in reality, Hendrix more than paid his dues, playing in relative obscurity backing a myriad of musicians on the "Chitlin' Circuit," including the Isely...
Jun 01, 2024•2 hr 4 min•Season 4Ep. 16
Send us Fan Mail On this episode we discuss the debut LP by the seminal psychedelic rock band, the 13th Floor Elevators: 1966's The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The 13th Floor Elevators were one of the the first well-known bands to come out of the Austin music scene in the 1960's, and one of the first band's nationwide to purposely embrace the term "psychedelic rock." The band possessed a lead singer with a one of a kind voice (and screech) in Roky Erickson. The music was play...
May 19, 2024•1 hr 59 min•Season 4Ep. 15
