All these songs really mean a lot to me and help me to kind of decipher my thoughts...

Jovi Espina is a songwriter from Virginia who is currently based in Los Angeles. She has been making music since she was ten years old. I got a chance to see her play at an open mic, and I can tell you from my first person observation that she is a very poised performer who plays with confidence.  In this conversation, you'll learn about her writing process, what her childhood smelled like, and all sorts of interesting…

Ben Monat is an amateur guitar player from Massachusetts.  You'll be able to feel the enthusiasm he has for the instrument in our conversation.  We talk about his wide-ranging influences, how he got started making music more than 20 years ago, and the value of collaboration.

Visit Ben's YouTube Channel

Ben on Polywork
 

Let me tell you a tale of blunder, confusion, and woe. I procrastinated when it came to editing my conversation with Brenda Carsey, but it was going to get done in the early afternoon, and everything was ok.  I'd have this episode up and out, ready to tell folks to go listen to Brenda's new album Cognizance on January 9th anywhere you stream music. I'm in my DAW, working on the file, and I clicked the wrong thing... I couldn't see exactly what it was, but strange things were happening, so I tried to cancel…

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…