Justin Alan Payne is originally from Newark, Ohio.  These days, he's based in East Nashville.  Justin is currently on tour, and is stopping by Dayton this weekend, so this is an excellent time to talk to him for Episode 128.  Yes, we are trying to promote the show, but the vast majority of our conversation here is evergreen.

We talk about Justin's songwriting process.  What tool does he reach for first?  How does he figure out which of his multiple projects the song belongs to?  How does he know a song is…

As a reminder, or as background if you're new to this podcast, Juliet Fromholt is Music Director at WYSO, and Taylor Ruckle is a freelance music journalist.  Both of them have a deep love for music, are discerning and careful listeners, and like to nerd out about songs and albums.

The three of us had this conversation back on December 26th.  Shame on me for taking so long to post it.  That said, anything here that you haven't heard is new to YOU, so if you are a music lover, this conversation is evergreen…

If you don't yet have the language for what you want to say - you will

Buick and I have a few things in common.  We love music.  We're obsessed with language.  We write songs. We both put out a concept album this year. Hers is called Mass, and it comes with a whole book and a lot of stories. Buick was kind enough to take time out of her weekend to talk to me about all sorts of things a few weeks ago, and I procrastinated WAY too much, so this is going up super late.  I had intended to get this episode…

This particular episode is an important one to me, and if you care about authenticity in music, I think it'll be important to you as well.

Country isn't my genre of choice, but I've been making an effort to listen to more of it over the last few years.  To keep it 100, as the kids say, the sound never spoke to me when I was young, and I couldn't see any value for me in that genre.  As I've gotten older, I've learned that country music is a vehicle for Black stories as well, despite what the music industry…

Photo by Libby Danforth

these three hundred songs, they're all assets... they're all pieces of magic that started on a blank piece of paper

A few years ago, I arrived at Yellow Cab Tavern to play a show at my favorite curated open mic, Showcase Thursday. I had been told that we had an artist from Nashville in town to play with us that night. It's not every week that we get someone on tour to stop by, so I was very much looking forward to meeting this intrepid individual. The intrepid individual…

If there was one thread I can find across all of my music, it is the deep love of storytelling...

Michelle Rhea Goddard is a Nashville-based songwriter who is originally from California.  Here album Breaking Bread: Songs of Reconciliation is arranged like a play, with an introduction, three acts, and an intermission. What is her writing process like? How did she come up with the idea to structure an album this way?  What did her childhood smell like?  You'll get the answers to all of these questions in…

Photo by Harish Pathak

I definitely was not thinking about writing a book for people who teach music lessons, but it's funny how these weird little intentions... if we keep following the thread, we can get to it...

Lesley Barth is a singer, songwriter, recording artist, musician, author, teacher, and mom who is currently based in Nashville. She released her second full-length album, called Big Time Baby, in May 2020. We talk about the album and some of the songs on it.  (Many of them have music…

photo credit: Jon Estes

That's really what art is about, right?  Just connecting with people on an emotional level...

Greg Owens is handsome and bearded and from Nashville, Tennessee. He's an Americana artist, songwriter, recent father, and sipper of whiskey.  In this episode, we talk about his album Life, Love, and Southern Sadness and the stories he tells on it, his songwriting process, his love for 90s rock, grandmothers who are armed, Batman (?), and some other stuff. I like Greg's songs and…