Caropop

With mid-‘60s hits such as “Jenny Take a Ride!” and “Devil with a Blue Dress On,” Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels all but created the rock ‘n’ soul rave-up, and he became the musical godfather of the so-called blue-collar rockers including Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp. In this career-spanning conversation conducted from his Michigan home, the 80-year-old Ryder reflects on the impact that he and Detroit had on each other, the genesis of those early hits, the assist he gave the Who and Cream, the insulting question he fielded from the British press, his reasons for stepping a...

How does a label execute ambitious rerelease campaigns for its key artists, in this case Yes and Talking Heads? We talk with Rhino A&R directors Jason Jones and Steve Woolard about the Super Deluxe Editions, Record Store Day releases and other archival packages they have been assembling for these two bands. Woolard also oversaw Yes rereleases more than 20 years ago—how have the band’s audience and their expectations changed since then? Why does the Yes Close to the Edge box mix CDs, a Blu-ray and an LP while the Talking Heads: 77 box is all vinyl? Where are Jone...

As this episode kicks off, Kevin Godley and his longtime songwriting and creative partner, Lol Creme, have just left 10cc, so instead of being part of hits such as “The Things We Do for Love,” the duo continues pushing their artistic boundaries as Godley & Creme. Godley describes how he and Creme collaborated on music and, eventually, videos—for themselves and, among others, Herbie Hancock (“Rockit”), the Police (“Every Breath You Take”) and George Harrison (“When We Was Fab”). He recounts work on the groundbreaking video for Godley & Creme’s biggest hit, 1985’s “Cry,” which uses a pre-CGI version of morphing to merge one face...

“If we did something that was too drab, too normal, too obvious, we'd say, ‘Nah, let's give it a kick in the ass.’” That’s how Kevin Godley describes the approach of his former band, 10cc, and his drive for creativity and art has not abated. Godley was 10cc’s angelic-voiced drummer who would go on to make inventive music and groundbreaking videos with Godley & Creme. In Pt. 1 of this illuminating conversation, Godley explains how Lol Creme, Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart and he—all strong songwriters and singers—formed 10cc near Manchester, England, and figured out who would do what. They stret...

Omnivore Recordings co-founder and four-time Gramny-winning producer Cheryl Pawelski has figured out how to do what she loves for a living. She went from obsessing about music in Milwaukee to having great adventures in the "floater pool" at Capitol Records in Los Angeles. With stints at Rhino and Concord as well, she oversaw ambitious reissues by, among others, the Band, Big Star, the Smithereens, the Beach Boys, Pat Benatar, Nina Simone and the Miles Davis Quintet. Her long association with Wilco has included deluxe boxes for Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (which won a Grammy) and, earlier this year, A...

Rhino Records has 47—yes, 47—releases coming out on Record Store Day (April 12), but that’s not all that’s been keeping Rhino Senior A&R Director Patrick Milligan busy. The Rhino High Fidelity series, which he oversees, has taken off, with recent Doors and Black Sabbath releases selling out quickly. He also launched the less expensive, still-all-analog Rhino Reserve series with albums from Allen Toussaint and Eddie Hazel. How does the label choose the titles for each series? How did it come up with 47 RSD releases, including live sets from Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Yes and the Grateful...

Over the past year, Peter Holsapple has toured with the reunited dB’s and enjoyed the overdue U.S. vinyl releases of their classic first two albums; seen the release of a book, compilation album and tribute album dedicated to his other band, the Continental Drifters; and, most important, recorded a terrific new solo album. The Face of 68 offers an abundance of Holsapple’s smart, melodic pop-rock songwriting with some extra grit behind it. In this freewheeling conversation, he discusses looking back, pushing forward, adjusting expectations, having music in your head all the time, and maybe or maybe not bein...

Joe Harley oversees some of the best jazz vinyl rereleases around as producer of Blue Note’s acclaimed Tone Poet series. Harley picks the titles, and, as he did with the much-coveted Music Matters series, he preps each release with ace mastering engineer (and recurring Caropop guest) Kevin Gray. Here Harley reflects on how he went from growing up (and playing drums) in Nebraska to preparing audiophile versions of albums he loves. What criteria does he use in choosing the Tone Poet albums? How do he and Gray work together? Has the mastering process changed given that more listeners ow...

Producer Joe Boyd (Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention/Richard Thompson, R.E.M.) has written a massive, highly entertaining, illuminating book about world music called And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, the title a lyric from Paul Simon’s Graceland song “Under African Skies.” That album is a jumping-off point for Boyd’s explorations of music from around the globe, with stops in Jamaica, Cuba, Brazil, India, Russia and Eastern Europe as well as the southern U.S. Here Boyd tackles such questions as: How important is cultural cross-pollination to music’s growth? Where’s the line between proper and improper cul...

No one mixes fury and vulnerability, ferocious energy and pop smarts like Bob Mould. His 15th solo album, Here We Go Crazy, comes out March 7, and he remains at the peak of his powers. Here he reflects on his tremendous, sometimes turbulent career, starting with his attending Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., meeting Grant Hart at Cheapo Records and launching the trailblazing punk trio Hüsker Dü. Why have the Twin Cities punched above their weight musically? Given his triumphs with Hüsker Dü, Sugar and the lineup on his most recent six albums, what does he like abou...

Mike Mills of R.E.M. and the Baseball Project and a new supergroup with Darius Rucker is here, and we’ve got questions: How did R.E.M. come to share all songwriting credits, and why did Mills initially object? What impact did the albums’ producers have? Given the bandmates’ senses of humor, why wouldn’t R.E.M. smile in photographs? Had R.E.M. decided to call it quits before it made Collapse into Now? What songs did Michael Stipe transform in surprising ways when he added lyrics and vocals? Did Stipe complete every song handed to him b...

Part 2 of our conversation with guitarist-songwriter-singer-storyteller Dave Alvin begins with him discussing musical biopics and the one that put him off the genre for good. (Hint: He was in it.) Has he seen A Complete Unknown? How did he wind up actually recording with Bob Dylan? Will any of these recordings ever come out? Alvin also revisits his early songwriting efforts, including the first song he ever wrote and “Marie Marie,” which he wrote for the Blasters and became an international hit for Welsh rocker Shakin’ Stevens. More recently, Alvin had to overcome neuropathy from his chemotherapy treatments to resume...

Dave Alvin has had such an epic career that we’re going to need two episodes to fit it all in. Much of Part 1 spotlights Alvin’s values as a musician. As he tells it, the Blasters, the revved-up L.A. roots-rock band for which he was the main songwriter/guitarist, had lots of rules. The Third Mind, his current psychedelic improvisatory band, has few. Why does the latter appeal to him now? How did seeing Jimi Hendrix twice inspire him? What were his stints in the Knitters and X like? When Alvin emerged on the other side of canc...

Do you know the tragic story of Badfinger? Behind such life-affirming songs as “No Matter What,” “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue” and the much-covered power ballad “Without You” lay a dark tale in which Badfinger’s manager defrauded the band and left them destitute. Bob Jackson played keyboards and guitar in the last Badfinger lineup that featured Pete Ham, the honey-voiced singer-songwriter behind most of those hits. This lineup recorded the album Head First in late 1974, but Warner Bros. refused to release it amid the manager’s financial misconduct. Ham took his own life months later. Bassist-singer-songwriter Tom Evans would take his...

Nora O’Connor is a super collaborator, someone who loves singing harmonies and makes everyone sound good. She’s a member of the Chicago all-star group the Flat Five and a formidable singer-songwriter in her own right, as her 2022 solo album, My Heart, her first in 18 years, reminded us. Here she reflects on her life as “a music worker,” including what she’s learned from performing with such artists as the Decemberists, Iron & Wine, Mavis Staples, Andrew Bird, the New Pornographers and Neko Case. How has she has balanced her career and family life—and would a male performer have faced s...

Macie Stewart, half of the Chicago-based duo Finom, is one of those musicians who can do almost anything. She’s a classical pianist and violinist who wrote her first piece for an orchestra at age 11 and still creates string arrangements, such as on her 2021 solo album Mouth Full of Glass. She also taught herself acoustic guitar and began writing songs on it when she was 13. When she finally picked up an electric guitar, she and fellow singer-songwriter-guitarist Sima Cunningham formed an experimental side project that has blossomed into Finom, which released one of 2024’s best albums, Not God. What dist...

Michael Jerome had been drumming in a post-industrial metal band when he auditioned for Richard Thompson in 1999, little knowing he would be this brilliant guitarist's percussive foil for the next 25 years and counting. Jerome also has played with Charlie Musselwhite, the Blind Boys of Alabama and, for several years, John Cale. He’s been Better Than Ezra’s drummer since 2009 and played and toured with Slash for his latest album—and what started as an experimental side project is now moving center stage: The Third Mind, the improvisatory psychedelic band assembled by Dave Alvin and Victor Krummenacher. As thoughtful in con...

It's time for our fourth annual check-in with masterful mastering engineer Kevin Gray as he comes off yet another crazy-busy year. What new did he and Doors engineer/producer Bruce Botnick think they could bring to the instant-sellout Rhino High Fidelity box The Doors 1967-1971? Which Rhino High Fidelity album doesn’t make sense to him as an audiophile release? Among Rhino, Blue Note and Craft’s Original Jazz Classics, which label works far in advance, and which one keeps him rushing? Is he still learning anything after all these years? How does he plan to balance his mastering work...

Redd Kross, a band overdue for massive appreciation, is having a moment. There’s a new page-turner of a memoir, Now You’re One of Us, co-written by brother bandmates Jeff and Steven McDonald with Dan Epstein. Their narrative rocks to life in Andrew Reich’s new documentary, Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story. The movie, in turn, inspired the 2024 double album Redd Kross, a candy-colored collection of irresistible hooks, massive riffs and sharp reflections, all wrapped in a cover that one brother thought shouldn't be red. Steven McDonald, the younger bass-playing brother, opens up here about what it’s been l...

Beatles author Bruce Spizer wrote the liner notes for the new vinyl box The Beatles U.S. 1964 Albums in Mono, and here he digs into the history of these reconfigured U.S. Capitol albums, from Meet the Beatles! through Beatles ’65 and The Early Beatles. Spizer is a New Orleans tax lawyer and CPA, and that expertise has helped him untangle the Beatles’ early dealings with labels such as Chicago’s Vee-Jay. Capitol executive Dave Dexter passed on the Beatles four times before being put in charge of their U.S. releases, and Spizer details how Dexter added singles and cut ou...

Steve Conte became lead guitarist in one legendary band, the New York Dolls, and co-wrote half of his latest album, The Concrete Jangle, with the main singer-songwriter of another one: Andy Partridge of XTC. Conte is a longtime New York working musician who has played with such artists as Paul Simon, Peter Wolf, Phoebe Snow and, in a great story, Chuck Berry. Now he has released two solo albums on Stevie Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool label and has two songs vying for the Coolest Song of the World 2024 on Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Here he recalls what it w...

Don Was may be an accomplished performer and producer, as covered in Pt. l, but he’s also got quite the day job: president of Blue Note Records. How did this rock-funk musician become the top executive at one of the most prestigious, influential jazz labels? What was the Blue Note album that turned him on to jazz when he was 14 years old? What early mistakes did he make at the label, and how did the Tone Poet reissue series factor into the solution? How much does Was prioritize new artists? What have been the most significant releases of hi...

His ‘80s band Was (Not Was) scored a top 10 hit, “Walk the Dinosaur,” but Don Was has had an even greater impact on the music world as a producer. In 1989 he produced two big comebacks: Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning Nick of Time and “Love Shack” and other songs on the B-52’s Cosmic Thing. Then came work with Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Willie Nelson and—in a long, fruitful collaboration—the Rolling Stones. He’s got amazing stories detailing his Stones job interview and the origin of Cindy Wilson’s cry of “Tin roof! Rusted.” He also relates how he helps artists get to th...

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you so much for listening to Caropop since our launch in the fall of 2021. We’re now 157 episodes and more than three years in, and we can’t wait to share more great conversations about creative work with you. Please enjoy this brief message from the Caropop team, and take this opportunity to catch up on any episodes you may have missed, and we'll be back with another fantastic guest next week. Thanks!

Graham Gouldman already had written classic ‘60s hits—including the Yardbirds’ “For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul,” the Hollies’ “Bus Stop” and “Look Through Any Window” and Herman’s Hermits’ “No Milk Today”—by the time he and Manchester schoolmates Lol Creme and Kevin Godley plus ex-Mindbender Eric Stewart formed one of the '70s’ most tuneful, innovative bands, 10cc. These four singer-songwriters made four distinct, head-spinning albums, with Stewart and Gouldman’s hypnotic “I’m Not in Love” providing the commercial breakthrough. After Godley and Creme split off, Gouldman and Stewart continued on as 10cc, scoring hits with the ebullient earworm “The Things...

“It felt like I just stepped into a rodeo, and they shut the gate behind me.” That’s how Grant Achatz describes his first day of working in the kitchen of Charlie Trotter’s, then considered one of the world’s finest restaurants. The future 3-Michelin-star Alinea chef was just 21 in the summer of 1995 when he convinced Trotter to give him a shot at his namesake Chicago restaurant. But Achatz did not have a positive experience and left after a few months, moving on to a longer tutelage under Chef Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in Napa Valley. When Achat...

Susan Cowsill was the kid sister of the family band the Cowsills, and she made an indelible impression singing “and spaghetti’d!” on the Cowsills’ 1968 hit version of “Hair.” Jump to the 1990s, and she was singing and, for the first time, writing songs in the indie supergroup the Continental Drifters, which also included her friend Vicki Peterson of the Bangles and Peter Holsapple of the dB’s. With the Drifters having a resurgence with a new book and compilations—and with Susan still performing with the Cowsills and on her own—she takes us on a lively tour of her long, color...

Sima Cunningham has had two albums released this year: Not God from Finom, her band with fellow Chicago singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Macie Stewart; and a long-gestating solo project, High Roller. With Finom kicking off a tour this weekend and a solo album launch and a Roches-themed show coming up, Cunningham is enjoying the culmination of a lifetime of music-making and collaboration. Here she recalls growing up in a musical and artistic household; tells of her sibling-like connection with Stewart and how they find their beautiful, surprising, distinct harmonies; recounts their history with Jeff Tweedy, who produced Not God, and her work...

Iain Matthews was an early member of the pioneering British folk-rock band Fairport Convention, singing on its first two albums and leaving during the recording of the third one, Unhalfbricking. Since then this singer-songwriter has formed other bands — Matthews Southern Comfort, Plainsong — and released much solo work, including the just-released How Much Is Enough. He has scored some hits — Southern Comfort’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” his 1979 solo song “Shake It”—and says he has recorded about 70 albums total, all projects included. So he has many tales to tell —about the Fairport years with Richard Thompson, Judy Dyble and Sandy Denny...

Joan Osborne is best known for a certain big hit yet has amassed an impressive career since then. Her latest album, Nobody Owns You, may be her most personal yet, with songs about her mother’s Alzheimer’s, the impact of time spent in “Too Many Airports” and the title track addressed to her daughter. Yet she remains as enthusiastic interpreting others’ songs as her own. One early such song, Eric Bazilian’s “One of Us,” initially was intended for another singer (Osborne does an excellent impression here), but she made it her own on her 1995 debut album, Relish. “One of Us,” in tur...

When the young Zion, Ill., band Local H shrunk from four members to two, leader Scott Lucas decided he liked the guitar-and-drums attack and has stuck with it for more than 30 years. Local H has had its moments of popularity (the 1996 album As Good As Dead and single “Bound for the Floor”), critical triumphs that fell short commercially (1998’s dazzling concept album Pack Up the Cats) and subsequent albums that showcase Lucas’ smart, melodic songwriting, his formidable vocal and guitar chops, and the duo's ferocious interplay. Local H is marking the 20th anniversary of Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles...

To mark Episode 150 of Caropop, we’re doing something different. My friend Steve Dawson— an awesome singer-songwriter who was my guest back on Episode 10, as well as my co-author on Take It to the Bridge: Unlocking the Great Songs Inside You—said he wanted to turn the tables and interview me for an episode. So here we go, with Steve probing me on what drove me to become a newspaper writer and, eventually, to launch Caropop. We discuss the importance of curiosity, the keys to interviewing celebrities, how my math-science brain may factor into my work, how Caropop became so mus...

This week’s episode takes us behind the scenes of an independent record label and record store out of Portland, Oregon: Jackpot Records, with its founder Isaac Slusarenko. He opened the store in 1997 as a place that was all about music, no T-shirts or candles. He launched the label in 2004 with a vinyl edition of the 1971 self-titled psychedelic soul album by Beauregard, a Portland wrestler, followed by albums by local rockers the Wipers. With repeat Caropop guest Kevin Grey providing the all-analog mastering then and now, the label offers Record Store Day treasures (Gandalf!) while releasing higher-profile titles by th...

Immediately after Uncle Tupelo co-leaders Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy parted ways 30 years ago, bassist John Stirratt and his fellow bandmates followed Tweedy into a new band, Wilco. Now Stirratt and Tweedy are the only members left from that original lineup, and Stirratt reflects on Wilco’s exciting, turbulent early years as well as the more stable past two decades with the same lineup. Then there’s Stirratt’s other band, the Autumn Defense, which he and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone (who joined Wilco later) formed to highlight their melodic songwriting and sweet lead vocals. Ten years have passed since the la...

The Dream Syndicate/Baseball Project singer-songwriter-guitarist just released a new memoir, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True, and solo album, Make It Right. But Steve Wynn’s second Caropop visit is no mere rehash of his book and career. He loves talking about music, and our subjects this time include the guitars that got away, the fun of hunting for obscure records in the pre-digital era, and his 1981 pilgrimage to Memphis to track down Big Star’s Alex Chilton. Wynn also shares his perspective on finding happiness in a long career where disappointments are inevitable, whether...

Jeff McDonald’s band Redd Kross is marking its 45th anniversary this year, which is all the more impressive given that the singer-songwriter-guitarist is barely in his 60s. Jeff and his younger brother, bassist Steven, started the band in their teens, and their songs are as catchy and powerful as ever on their new self-titled double album. (A Redd Kross documentary and memoir also are out this year.) As you’d expect from someone whose love of music bursts from every power chord, massive hook and pop-culture shout-out, Jeff McDonald is a lively conversationalist who’s as keen to debate...

Wanted to let you know that we’re taking the last three weeks of August off, and we’ll be back the Thursday after Labor Day, Sept. 5, all refreshed and ready with a new Caropop conversation. In the meantime, we encourage you to explore our back catalog. There are 145 episodes, after all.

Have you listened to Ep. 102 with jazz-R&B pianist/singer/composer Patrice Rushen? How about Ep. 90 with Suzzy Roche of the Roches? Or Ep. 88 with Eddie “King” Roeser of Urge Overkill? Or Eps. 24 and 25 with, respectively, Colin Blunstone of the Zombies and Sam Phillips? Or Ep. 9 wi...

When I spoke with guitarist Jimmy James a few weeks ago for Caropop Ep. 143, he cited Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the M.G.’s. as a key inspiration. Listen to James’ work with the organ trio Parlor Greens and, before that, the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, and you hear how he, like Cropper, is a rhythmic guitarist who never overplays yet can make your head spin. I told James I’d love to hear him to interview Cropper, and he said that would be a dream come true. Turns out, the 82-year-old Cropper, my guest for Caropop Ep. 93...

Dan Zanes enjoyed a good run with the Boston band the Del Fuegos but had no idea what broader, more enthusiastic audiences awaited him when he began making “family music” with friends such as Sheryl Crow and Suzanne Vega. The Dan Zanes and Friends albums and concerts got fans young and old dancing and singing along—and earned him a Grammy Award. Now he and his wife, Claudia Zanes, have a new album, Pieces of Home (out Aug. 30), as the couple continues expanding its reach through sensory-friendly performances and events for various communities. Zanes talks about the Del Fuegos’ rise and...

Jimmy James is a fantastic, funky guitarist who never plays more than is needed yet can seize any moment. This Seattle native is a longtime member of the big soul-funk band True Loves but may have been best known for his standout work in the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio. He left that group (and discusses his departure here) and now plays in a new, all-star organ trio, Parlor Greens, with Hammond player Adam Scone of the Sugarman 3 and drummer Tim Carman of GA-20. Its new album, In Green/We Dream, came out last week. James is precise about how...