The Working Songwriter

Our guest this week is David Shaw, the lead singer and principal songwriter of the rock band The Revivalists.

Originally hailing from Hamilton, Ohio, Shaw moved south to New Orleans after college graduation. A chance encounter with guitarist Zack Feinberg helped launch The Revivalists in 2007. After years of relentless touring, the band broke through nationally with 2015’s Men Amongst Mountains and the single “Wish I Knew You,” which went to number one at alternative radio and has since been certified triple platinum. The band has since amassed more than 1.6 billion streams worldwide.

Along the way, The Revivalists have opened for The Rolling Stones, The Black Crowes, and Dr. John. They’ve appeared at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, the New Orleans Jazz Fest. They’ve also performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Austin City Limits.

“Wish I Knew You” earned an iHeartRadio Music Award nomination for Alternative Rock Song of the Year, while the band was nominated for Best New Rock/Alternative Rock Artist. Rolling Stone described their sound as “a Crescent City-rhythm spin on jam-band jubilee,” and Billboard has called them “a compelling blend of musical ingenuity and heart.”

I got a chance to catch up with David a few weeks ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

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This episode was originally aired on August 22nd, 2024.

This legendary musician and songwriter was integral to the Staxx Records sound, and has writing credits on "Green Onions" and "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay".

Our guest this week is Erin McAnally, the daughter of legendary songwriter and guitarist Mac McAnally. Born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and raised in Nashville, Erin grew up surrounded by the music business. Over the years, she has worked in A&R, music publishing, and film and television scoring.

Alongside her husband and frequent collaborator Mick Utley, she co-wrote songs with Jimmy Buffett, including “Audience of One” and “Nobody Works on Friday,” both of which appeared on Buffett's final album, Equal Strain on All Parts, released posthumously in 2023. She is also a founding member of Floating Collective, a musical project with Utley and Brendan Mayer, all three of whom are children of members of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band. The group released its debut album in 2024.

Today, Erin serves as Executive Director of Songwriters of North America, advocating for the rights of working songwriters. Her work has taken her to SXSW, Americanafest, and Folk Alliance.

I got a chance to catch up with Erin McAnally to hear about her musical journey so far.

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This episode originally aired on April 1, 2022.

The creative force behind Against Me!, describes founding the band, working with producer Butch Vig, and navigating the waters of the major label system in the late 2000s.

Recorded live at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, Joe Pug interviews beloved songwriter John Moreland. TWS Forum is an annual event that the podcast hosts in June. Listeners take in concerts by the headlining artists and then attend workshops from them during the day. This was the 2nd annual event. The headliners and dates for next year's Forum will be announced this month.

The iconic singer songwriter reflects on her last few decades at the vanguard of American folk music.

This episode was originally aired on June 3rd, 2022.

Our guest this week is one of Louisville, Kentucky’s favorite sons. Jim James is a native Kentuckian who rose to prominence as the vocalist and creative force behind the celebrated rock group My Morning Jacket.

“The Jacket,” as they are affectionately called by their fans, released their debut album The Tennessee Fire in 1999 and took the country by storm with their legendary live show. Since then they’ve released a slew of critically acclaimed albums, including 2008's Evil Urges and 2011's Circuital, which both charted in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200.

The group has recorded for Capitol, RCA, ATO, and V2, and toured with Bob Dylan, Wilco, Guided by Voices, and the Foo Fighters. In addition, the hard-charging band has appeared at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Coachella, Newport Folk Festival, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Glastonbury, the Bridge School Benefit, and pretty much any festival of note. They’ve also been frequent guests on late night TV including Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

In more recent years, Jim has been part of the group Monsters of Folk, along with M. Ward, Conor Oberst, and Mike Mogis, and he’s also released a string of solo albums including this year’s title, Wowed Out.

Pitchfork has called the Jacket’s sound “huge, ghostly, terrifying rock ‘n’ roll.” The Guardian has dubbed the band’s output as “seven albums of resplendent melodies.” And NPR has said that his music has “the sound of a lost soul in search of something bigger than himself.”

I got a chance to catch up with Jim a few weeks ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

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This legendary folk songwriter stops by the show to discuss her techniques for sculpting melody, structuring the bridge of a song, and navigating the ever-shifting sands of the music business.

This episode was originally aired on August 20th, 2021.

Our guest this week is one of the godfathers of modern roots and Americana music. Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Gary Louris moved to Minneapolis as a young man in the 1970s and immersed himself in a Twin Cities music scene that punched way above its weight culturally. His group, The Jayhawks, would release a string of critically acclaimed and nationally beloved albums.

One of Louris’s main gifts is his ability to contribute to the music of a wide array of artists, including Counting Crows, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Roger McGuinn, The Wallflowers, The Black Crowes, Nickel Creek and a host of others. As a member of the Jayhawks he’s appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night With Conan O'Brien. He’s recorded for what sounds like an anthology of record labels: Twin/Tone, American Recordings, Rykodisc, Lost Highway, Thirty Tigers, Rounder, Sony and New West Records. Over the years he’s appeared at Farm Aid, Stagecoach, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky festival.

AllMusic calls him “one of the premiere songwriters of his generation.” The Bluegrass Situation, our host network, has written about him as a “musical Swiss Army knife.” Pitchfork has written that he and Mark Olson, his musical partner in the Jayhawks, “sang like they were born joined at the throat.”

It’s an immense honor to have Gary on the show. I got a chance to catch up with him a few weeks ago to hear about his musical journey so far.

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This episode originally aired on April 15th, 2022

This songwriter has spent the last few decades building a devoted following with Hot Water Music and also with his own solo project. He discusses getting his start in the 1990s Florida Hardcore scene, getting his legendary Revival Tour off the ground, and some of his creative practices.

Our guest this week is one of Chicago’s favorite sons. Eric D. Johnson is the songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist behind Fruit Bats, which started in the late 1990s as a four-track recording project before growing into a full touring band. Over the years, Johnson has been a member of The Shins and played with Califone and Vetiver. Besides Fruit Bats, Johnson is also one-third of Bonny Light Horseman alongside Anaïs Mitchell and Josh Kaufman.

Fruit Bats have toured with acts including Modest Mouse, The Shins, Iron & Wine, My Morning Jacket, Son Volt, Ray LaMontagne and Guster. Bonny Light Horseman’s debut album earned two Grammy nominations in 2020 for Best Folk Album and Best American Roots Performance ("Deep in Love"). NPR described Fruit Bats as “sweetly flavored folk-pop.” Pitchfork wrote that Johnson has “got a good ear for a classic melody.” And Relix called him “a veteran of the contemporary folk-rock world” with an “instantly recognizable voice.”

I got a chance to catch up with Eric about his journey since our last talk!

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This episode was originally aired on April 8th, 2022.

Fresh on the heels of his latest album hitting #1 on the UK Charts, this journeyman songwriter and performer stops by the show to discuss his beginnings in Hardcore music, many years of touring, and writing methods.

Our guest this week on the Working Songwriter hails from a small mountain town in California, but his music has now made it across the world. Jay Buchanan got his start in the early 2000s with a solo project before joining ranks with a rock band and forming Rival Sons. Since 2008, that group has built a remarkable fanbase and beloved discography.

Rival Sons have shared stages with an astonishing list of artists including Black Sabbath, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Queens of the Stone Age, Metallica, and Lenny Kravitz. They’ve appeared on 'The Late Late Show with James Corden,' 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!,' 'Later... with Jools Holland,' and France’s 'Le Grand Journal.'

The band earned two GRAMMY nominations in 2020 for Best Rock Album – for 'Feral Roots' – and Best Rock Performance for “Too Bad.” 'The Guardian' called Buchanan “a revelation” and “a mesmerising presence throughout.” 'Revolver' called him “an undeniable vocal force," and 'Classic Rock' praised his 2026 solo debut, 'Weapons of Beauty,' as “a remarkable journey through soul music, country rock, southern gothic and gospel.” I got a chance to catch up with Jay a few weeks ago to hear about that solo album and about the rest of his musical journey so far.

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This episode was originally aired on June 18th, 2021.

After many years in celebrated roots music groups such as Po' Girl, Birds of Chicago, and Our Native Daughters, this songwriter has released a critically acclaimed debut album under her own name.

Our guest this week is Cody Diekhoff, better known as Chicago Farmer.

He grew up in the small farming community of Delavan, Illinois, before moving to Chicago in 2003. Over the past two decades, he has built a devoted following through relentless touring, first as a solo performer and more recently with his band, the Fieldnotes.

Along the way, he has shared stages with Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider, Greg Brown, the Wood Brothers, Elizabeth Cook, Wayne Hancock, Greensky Bluegrass, Del McCoury and Gene Ween.

His album Flyover Country was recorded with members of the Band of Heathens. and 2026’s Homeaid, his first full-length release in six years. Flyover Country

Elmore Magazine says he has “the novelist’s gift of building a suspenseful story to a surprising conclusion.”

No Depression declared: “If the Midwest is looking for a voice, the search is over.”

And the Chicago Tribune praised him for “some of the better roots songwriting in Chicago today.”

Cody is a very very old friend of mine. We were both coming up in the Chicago folk music scene 20 years ago. He’s one of my favorite modern artists. And he should have been on this podcast many years ago by now. I got a chance to catch up with him on the phone a few weeks ago to hear about his journey so far.

This episode originally aired on November 5th, 2021.

John Flansburgh, one of the founding members of this groundbreaking indie-rock institution, stops by the show to talk about his creative process and how his band has navigated the music business for the last four decades.

Our guests this week are Gabe Dixon and Mike Mattison of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the Grammy-winning roots ensemble led by Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks.

Formed in 2010, their debut album, Revelator, won the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album, and the group has since become one of the country’s premier live bands, selling out Madison Square Garden and playing more than twenty shows at Red Rocks.

Mike Mattison has been working with Derek Trucks for more than two decades. He joined the Derek Trucks Band as lead vocalist in the early 2000s and became a founding member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band. He is also one of the group’s principal lyricists and co-wrote one of its best-known songs, “Midnight in Harlem.”

Keyboardist, singer and songwriter Gabe Dixon joined the Tedeschi Trucks Band in 2019. Before that, he led the Gabe Dixon Band and built a solo career of his own. Within Tedeschi Trucks Band, Dixon has become a key songwriter, vocalist and instrumentalist.

The band has appeared on Austin City Limits, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live

NPR called the band “a deeply skilled and spirited ensemble,” while Rolling Stone has praised its “freewheeling, soulful sound.”

I got a chance to catch up with Gabe and Mike to hear about their musical journeys so far.

This episode was originally published on March 5th, 2021.

The renowned troubadour from Louisiana found his commercial success in music later in life; he reflects on the journey that brought him to that peak.

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This week on The Working Songwriter, we're thrilled to step out of our normal comfort zone by welcoming one of the country's most acclaimed young novelists. Originally from Mount Vernon, Ohio, author Stephen Markley now makes his home in Los Angeles. He attended Miami University (of Ohio) for his undergraduate degree before being accepted into the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop.

Simon & Schuster published his debut novel, 'Ohio,' in 2018. The book was widely praised for its unflinching portrait of post-9/11 rust-belt America. Then, in 2023, he returned with the massively popular novel, 'The Deluge,' a work of ficiton about climate change that 'The New York Times' named as one of its notable books. 'The NYT Book Review' also said that, "'The Deluge 'shows the range of its author's gifts: polyphonic narration, silken sentences and elaborate world-building."

Of the same book none other than Stephen King said, "[It is] simply put a modern classic. If you read it you'll never forget it." He also named it as the favorite book he had read the year that he read it.

Markley also works as a screenwriter in LA as a member of the writers room for the Hulu comedy series 'Only Murders in the Building,' which stars Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez.

What a thrill it is to welcome onto the show such a profoundly talented artist who falls outside our normal realm of expertise... I think there's a lot for songwriters to learn on this cross-discipline episode of the podcast.

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This episode originally aired on June 25th, 2021.

Chris Carrabba, the auteur behind this legendary emo band, discusses the twists and turns of a career that has included Gold records, MTV music awards, and truly devoted fanbase.