The Acoustic Guitar Podcast
Along with my ongoing work for Acoustic Guitar magazine as an editor and writer, I co-host some episodes of the Acoustic Guitar Podcast, launched in the summer of 2022. Find info on selected episodes below. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever podcast channel you use.
A conversation with the great guitarists Mimi Fox, Tim Sparks, and Laurence Juber (once a member of Wings with Paul McCartney) about creating instrumental arrangements of Beatles songs. All three play examples of how they interpreted and reimagined songs.
I first interviewed the trailblazing trio of Chris Thile, Sean Watkins, and Sara Watkins back in 2002, and I’ve spoken with them individually many times since (relating to the American Acoustic tour, I’m With Her, and other projects). That history sparked some fun reminiscences in this 2023 conversation, along with in-depth discussion of the collaborative process behind their album Celebrants.
Bruce Cockburn is another artist I’ve known for many years—I actually wrote about him in the premiere issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine in 1990. He’s always insightful, and for this interview he had his guitar in hand and gave a cool little demo/lesson on EADGAD tuning. Plus he recorded the podcast theme for this episode, giving it a modern jazz spin.
This roundtable brought together three very different artists to talk songwriting. I’ve separately interviewed both Sunny War and Madison Cunningham, and Adam Levy has joined my Songwriting Sessions course as a guest artist. What a treat to hear them swap stories and strategies for crafting words and music.
Sarah Jarosz is most often seen playing mandolin family instruments, but she’s also adept on a guitar and banjo, and of course she’s a tremendous singer and songwriter as well. We talk about all these things in this episode, and the impact of growing up in the bluegrass world.
The debut episode of the podcast echoed the debut issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine, with a collection of stories from famous artists as well as readers about their first guitars. Read more about the episode—and the shocking fate of my own first guitar—in this post.