Caropop

It's time for our third early-year check-in with renowned mastering engineer Kevin Gray. In 2023 he was more in demand than ever; your jaw may drop when he reveals how many albums he mastered. Plus, he launched his own label, Cohearent Records, with an album he recorded in his home studio: saxophonist Kirsten Edkins’ Shapes & Sound. With Cohearent’s second release, jazz guitarist Anthony Wilson’s Hackensack West, imminent, Gray discusses mic placement, what he has learned as a label owner and whether he’ll shift more energy in that direction. He also details his work on Rhino’s High Fidelity series (including his first encounter with Television’s Marquee Moon) as well as Blue Note’s Tone Poet and Classic Vinyl series, Craft’s Original Jazz Classics and Jazz Dispensary releases and more from Jackpot Records and other labels.

Janet Beveridge Bean drums, sings and writes in the great, muscular Chicago guitar band Eleventh Dream Day, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. She also sings, writes and plays guitar in the off-kilter-beautiful Freakwater, her country-folk group with singer Catherine Irwin that released its debut album in 1989. Those bands have 25 albums between them, yet Beveridge Bean, who calls herself “musically illiterate,” has applied her ever-restless artistic spirit to many other projects as well. She takes us inside the dynamics of her various collaborations, tells of how Eleventh Dream Day maintained its singular vision while working with and without major labels, and presents a life lived at peak creativity. (Photo by Iwona Biedermann.)

Joe Bonamassa, who opened for B.B. King at age 12, was a cocky 26-year-old blues-rock guitar virtuoso when he made his breakthrough third album, Blues Deluxe, in 2003—and an established 46-year-old when he released Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 in the fall. In a thoughtful conversation, Bonamassa reflects on all that has happened in between, how he has grown as a musician, taken control of the business side of his career and launched his own label and foundation, both called Keeping the Blues Alive. He also weighs the impact of artificial intelligence on music. Would the blues be the hardest kind of music for robots to fake? (Photo by Adam Kennedy)

Andrew Sandoval is a musician, producer, author, publisher, reissue compiler, liner notes writer, video director, fanzine creator, record collector extraordinaire and more. Not only did he write and publish the gorgeous The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story, but he also oversaw many of that band’s reissues and produced their shows—and still works with Micky Dolenz. Ray Davies requested that he oversee recent Kinks reissues, and he has performed in Dave Davies’ band, led musicians at the Wild Honey Foundation’s Nuggets concert and released his own albums. His many compilations for Rhino Records include the Grammy-nominated Where The Action Is! (Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965-1968) and Elvis Costello’s reissues campaign. In an inspiring entrepreneurial tale, Sandoval has created a life around the music that he loves.

Maybe you know Paul Williams for hits he co-wrote for the Carpenters (“We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays”) and Three Dog Night (“An Old Fashioned Love Song”). Or for his performances in Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise and the Smokey and the Bandit movies. Or for his Oscar-winning song with Barbra Streisand, “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born).” Or for the songs he wrote for Bugsy Malone and Ishtar. Or for his singing (and writing) on Daft Punk’s 2013 Grammy-winning album, Random Access Memories. Or for what may be his most beloved song of all, “Rainbow Connection” (plus the rest of The Muppet Movie soundtrack). Factor in the current stage adaptation of the 1977 Jim Henson TV special, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, and Williams has a lot to talk about—and he does so, delightfully.

Brilliant pianist Bill Payne, who founded Little Feat in 1969 in Los Angeles with singer-songwriter-guitarist Lowell George, takes us on this great American band’s rollercoaster ride through the 1970s. Payne wrote or co-wrote more than half of Little Feat’s self-titled debut album, but the mercurial George came to dominate as the band ascended via the albums Sailin’ Shoes, Dixie Chicken and Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, the last of which features the Payne standout “Oh, Atlanta.” By the time of the classic 1978 live album Waiting for Columbus, George had pulled back and was struggling with addictions, and tensions ran high — yet the band still cooked. What happened? And how did Payne revive Little Feat after George’s death to continue leading it through today?

The Vinyl Me, Please record club marked its 10th anniversary this year and now boasts more than 30,000 members. As senior director of music and editorial, Andrew Winistorfer chooses many of the Records of the Month and exclusive store drops. A passionate music fan himself, he has developed keen insights into the psyche of obsessive vinyl buyers (raising my hand) as well as the business of licensing music from labels and getting albums mastered and pressed to the club’s standards. How does VMP select its “Lost Sounds Found” and less obscure albums? Where did it get the gumption to try to top Mobile Fidelity with its Miles Davis box? What factors drive album pricing? How much does FOMO drive sales? Vinyl fanatics, this one's for you.

Justin Hayward joined the Moody Blues in 1966 and wrote and sang most of the band’s singles from “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon” through such ’80s hits as “The Voice” and “Your Wildest Dreams.” How much did the Moody Blues shape his songwriting, and how much did his songwriting shape the Moody Blues? Did he write to fit the albums’ concepts? Did he especially enjoy writing songs with multiple parts and tempo changes? When he performs now, does he feel more emotionally connected to material from one era or another? Will he ever again perform with the surviving Moody Blues? He still has that golden voice, whether singing or discussing his days of future passed. (Photo by Joe Schaeffer.)

Happy Thanksgiving! We're hitting the pause button on Caropop this week to say thank you and to give you a chance to catch up on some of the great conversations you may have missed. Please enjoy this brief message from the Caropop team, and we'll be back with another fantastic guest next week. Thanks!

The English Beat—or, if you live in England, the Beat—was one of the key bands of the late ‘70s/ early ‘80s British ska-punk scene. Guitarist/songwriter Dave Wakeling sang most of this interracial, socially conscious group’s songs, with Ranking Roger toasting, and he takes us inside the making of the band’s brilliant debut album, I Just Can’t Stop It (out in an expanded edition for Record Store Day Black Friday). Wakeling tells how the bass-driven “Mirror in the Bathroom” came together and digs into the band's relationship with Specials, the Beat's breakup, and songs such as “Save It for Later” and “Tenderness,” the latter from Wakeling’s and Ranking Roger’s subsequent band, General Public. Was there a rivalry between General Public and Fine Young Cannibals, the other Beat spinoff band? How did Wakeling and Roger wind up fronting their own versions of the Beat on either side of the Atlantic? (Photo by Bryan Kremkau.)