The Third Story with Leo Sidran

For a farmer's daughter from Western Kentucky like SG Goodman, a career as a singer-songwriter was not the obvious choice. Her family had farmed the same land for generations, and the path was laid out for her. On the other hand, coming from a long line of "some of the best storytellers who ever lived" a life spent writing and singing songs made plenty of sense. Pretty much everything out of her mouth sounds like a story to me. She says "I've done my best to get my heart broken during this period just to have something to write about." She says "It's not easy having the palate of a Manhattan millionaire in Western Kentucky but I do." She says "I don't like to say that music is divinely given, but I definitely didn't ask for it." SG (née Shaina) released her debut record Old Time Feeling in 2020 after years of watching her college friends become professionals with postgraduate degrees while she continued quietly with "that music thing". The album leans into a soulful southern tradition, but also upends it in a way, or at least updates it, as she seeks to debunk rural stereotypes, while exploring mental health, living with OCD and the notion that you can still love your family and community even though you may disagree with them. SG is also an openly gay Americana singer, hailing from a part of the world that she describes as being years behind in its thinking about so many issues. She uses a classic frame to paint a picture of a progressive south and "to stand up to stereotypes that exist about the south, to spread the message that we should all care what our neighboring states are doing, especially politically." That's where she manages to subvert whatever straight and narrow expectations you might have about an Appalachian storyteller and turns left, in more ways than one. She has that way - of conjuring a melody, a mood, and pulling you into her own space time vortex. Listening to her record is like some invisible pointer finger is reaching out through the darkness and signalling you to follow it. We had a conversation that was absolutely of this moment, in which she laments having to use Instagram and livestreams to connect with her audience in spite of her desire to maintain some mystery in her art. We talked about how Covid disrupted her tour plans, how she discovered K Pop at a gas station in Alabama, and how she feels about high end coffee. We also had a conversation that is of every moment. About how music in many ways saved her life and gave her a sense of solidarity with a new chosen family when she had to leave her farm life behind. It also gave her a way to honor her storytelling tradition. We talked about how one keeps spirituality in life after leaving the church, the intersectionality of living in the south, and how solitude influences creative work. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.sggoodman.net

There are some musicians who live in multiple universes at the same time. Clyde Stubblefield was one of those. From 1971 until his death in 2017, he lived and worked in Madison, Wisconsin. He was a local treasure, a celebrated adopted son of the midwest, and a legendary character. For those who had the chance to know him, to play with him and to see him in action, he was like a brother. At the same time, he has come to take on a kind of mythological status among funk musicians and enthusiasts, DJs, producers and fans. His recordings from the late 1960s with James Brown are considered to be some of the standard-bearers for funk drumming, "Funky Drummer" which by many accounts is the most sampled beat of all time, which is why Clyde is often called the most sampled drummer of all time. To me, he has always been both. I was born in Madison in the late 1970s and Clyde was a big part of the local scene, and someone who would regularly pass through my living room as well because he played often with my dad, Ben. He was my first drum teacher, and later on he would also be one of the first artists that I produced. On the occasion of what would have been his 78th birthday, I reflect on Clyde's life and legacy from a personal point of view, revisit recorded conversations that my dad and I had with him over the years, and consider a series of live gigs and records with him going back to the early 1970s. A new sample collection of Clyde's drumming, taken from his performances on the album Clyde Stubblefield: The Original was released this week by Yurt Rock. The tracks were originally recorded in 2001. And a new documentary film about Clyde's life and legacy is also in the works. www.givethedrummersomefilm.com www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.bensidran.com www.yurtrock.com

This year musicians and creative people have had to confront themselves, their work, and their ambitions head on, and Bob Reynolds is no exception. But unlike so many of us, Bob already had some mechanisms in place to process that struggle in a creative way. Bob Reynolds is a Grammy Award-winning saxophonist, composer, and educator known for his work with Snarky Puppy, John Mayer, and 12 solo albums. He is no stranger to large stages and tour busses. At the same time, much of his career has been a series of self generated projects. On his YouTube channel, he shares tips, tricks, anecdotes and ideas, and he has coached thousands of students through his online Virtual Studio. I found Bob at the crossroads of what's happening and where am I going, and we had a beautiful talk about managing that existential crisis that so many of us are having. He talked about his influences, approach, playing with Snarky Puppy, John Mayer, the subtle but significant distinction between practice and the practice, what it means to make music with sincerity, and finding himself on tour in Spain and Italy last March just as Covid was descending on Europe. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.bobreynoldsmusic.com

In March 2020, just as the world was closing under the advancing cloud of Covid 19, I spoke to a handful of musician friends from around the world to hear how they were doing and to explore some of the pressing questions around the shutdown and the arts. One year later, I check in with (almost) all of them to hear what the last year has been like for them, what were the challenges and opportunities of the first Covid year, and how they see the future. Italian singer Gege Telesforo, saxophonist John Ellis, bassist Joe Dart (sort of), guitarist Adam Levy, trombonist Ryan Keberle, artist manager Andrew Leib, singer songwriter Victoria Canal, artist and advocate Ari Herstand, guitarist Lage Lund, mud trudging songwriter Joy Dragland and funk magician Charlie Hunter (in his way) all weigh in. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review on iTunes and consider supporting the podcast on Patreon and following the podcast on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Before she became a journalist, writer, novelist, television show host, and the editor of Latin music coverage for Billboard magazine, Leila Cobo played the piano. She moved from her home in Colombia to New York to study classical piano at the Manhattan School of Music. Music was her mode of transportation. Eventually she channeled her love of music and her understanding of Latin music and culture into writing, and today she's one of the most important advocates for Latin music in America. Her new book Decoding Despacito features 19 oral histories about some of the biggest and most significant latin hits of the last 50 years. With two acclaimed novels, two top-selling biographies and a landmark Latin music industry guide, Leila is one of the world's foremost experts in Latin music, as well as a prolific published author and speaker and the VP of Latin content for Billboard, widely recognized as the Bible of music worldwide. We spoke recently about the book, her personal journey, and the nuances of Latin music within the context of American popular culture. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.leilacobo.com

Imogen Heap has to put her daughter to bed, then she can talk about what she's been working on. She can tell you about her latest single, "Last Night Of An Empire" which she released on December 9th. Coincidentally, that's also the day she launched The Creative Passport, a verified digital ID for Music Makers. In fact, December 9 has always been an auspicious day for her. It's her birthday and "everything is just a little more special on that day". While her daughter sings herself to sleep in the next room, Imogen talks about creating the Mi.Mu Gloves that she invented for her own performances before developing them for commercial use. "They are the world's most advanced wearable musical instrument, for expressive creation, composition and performance." As the night unfolds, she'll tell you about her app (ImogenHeap.app) where she connects regularly and directly with her fans (self proclaimed "Heapsters"), sharing song demos, weekly live stream concerts, works in progress, and casual conversations about herself and her life. She'll explain that she's building her own artificially intelligent bot called Augmented Imogen. She'll remind you that she also owns a recording and performance facility called The Hideway built in an 18th century house in East London, which you can visit any time via an Oculus compatible virtual reality tour. That sums her up: she's a traditionalist in some ways, she plays instruments, writes melodies, and cares about the creative craft. But at the same time she's a futurist, constantly looking for new areas of technology and distribution to explore. Even though it's now close to 11pm where she is in England, and you've been talking for nearly 2 hours, she'll gladly relive some of the major moments in her storied career "I've just done so many random things," she says. Like making her first record I Megaphone when she was a teenager; forming Frou Frou with Guy Sigsworth and their unlikely post-factum success; writing the song "Hide and Seek" and being a witness to its many lives; working with Taylor Swift and with Jeff Beck; and composing the music for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child which opened in the West End before moving to Broadway. Imogen has the kind of dizzying energy that truly creative people possess. She's ready to build the team, to engage with the crowd, to share the experience. But first she just has to put her daughter to sleep. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.imogenheap.app

Just hearing the name Boz Scaggs evokes a feeling. It's a hip, laid back, soulful, approachable feeling. It's a southern thing. But it's a San Francisco thing too. He is, as his most recent record proclaims, Out Of the Blues. But he's played his share of rock and roll, r&b, and even jazz too. When Boz hit it big in the late 70s with his record Silk Degrees, he was already knee deep in the swamp, with a half-dozen solo records to his credit, and plenty of pavement behind him too. He says, "I woke up every day for 10 years with a list as long as my arm of things to take care of." Until the success of that album, despite recording for the biggest labels in the world, he never had a manager. But he was determined, and with each new record he climbed just a little further up the mountain, searching for the next thing. In fact he always thought of himself as more of a searcher or a traveler than he did a musician. "Music was my ticket," he says. Maybe that's why he has been known to take extended hiatuses from recording and touring. For example, he spent most of the 80s staying home in San Francisco, and avoiding the intensity of the road. (Although he did supplement a little by opening a club called Slims in San Francisco, where he has lived since the 70s.) Still, he concedes that much of his life has been spent chasing that feeling that can only be found on stage. He tells me, "It's the most wonderful sensation that there is. It's magic what we do. It's magic, what we feel. We are chosen, we get ahold of that live wire and we never want to let go." Here, he is in turns philosophical, rhapsodic, nostalgic, and matter of fact about the 1960s, his solo career, success, ambition, rhythm sections, songwriting, performing, getting older, and what he's reading today. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.bozscaggs.com

Eric Harland thinks about time. He thinks about taking time, he thinks about giving time, and he thinks about sharing time. He'll tell you: "Time is a joint effort. It's everybody at once. You want to talk about synergy, alliance, brotherhood and sisterhood? Just watch people getting together and having to play time. So much shows up in that. There's so much judgement, so much blame. But then you get to these points of surrender and ecstasy. Something wonderful happens because you went on this journey together. It's so revealing and it's so fulfilling." Eric Harland is one of the most in demand jazz drummers of his generation. He has played with everybody. Betty Carter, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Michael Brecker, Terrence Blanchard, Wayne Shorter, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Esperanza Spalding, Taylor Eigsti, Julian Lage, Robert Glasper, Joshua Redman, Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Charles Lloyd, John Mayer, and on and on and on. He has appeared on over 400 recordings, and continues to appear at the top of critics' and readers' polls. Plus he once played a solo so intense that it sent my wife to the hospital. Here he shares his incredible story of growing up in Houston and how he came to weigh 400 LBS by the time he was 16 (he eventually lost the weight in college), attending the Manhattan School of Music, becoming an ordained minister, living with singer Betty Carter ("not like that"), learning from legendary mentors, and exploring "time". He also shares his thoughts on practice, community, natural wine, and what you can learn about a person by how they drive. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast

When record producer Rick Beato posted a video on YouTube of his 8 year old son in a dizzying demonstration of perfect pitch, complex harmonic understanding and a general fluency with the building blocks of composition, he had no idea just how big an impact it would have on his life. Already in his 50s, Rick had decades of experience invested in his career in the record business. Five years later he is a full time YouTuber - his channel "Everything Music" has over 2 million subscribers - and has made nearly 800 videos, on subjects including Ear Training, Music Production, Improvisation, Scales and Modes, Film Scoring, Music Theory and Composition, Perfect Pitch, and Guitars. For curious musicians, music students, and music appreciators in the YouTube generation, Rick's channel is simply part of the furniture, something you probably have come across one way or another. But despite being a very public facing teacher and generator of ideas, there is not so much information about him. If you watch his videos then you know that he lives in Atlanta, but that he's from the Northeast. He went first to Ithaca college, then to the New England Conservatory, and then in his early 20s he actually taught at Ithaca College, at first his students were only a few years younger than him. If you watch the videos, then you know his kids a little bit, you know his friends, you know his interests, you know his life. Still, he walks a fine line between a kind of exhibitionism - which is a necessary evil of being a public figure - and the arms length of a teacher. We talked recently about his personal journey, how he organizes his time, what motivates him and what inspires him, teaching "high information" music to children, making a living on YouTube, staying fresh, and walking the line between telling the story and being the story. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.rickbeato.com

Billy Martin (also known as illy B) is many things. He's a visual artist, a filmmaker, a teacher, a builder, a composer, a record producer... But if you know his name, chances are it's from his band Medeski, Martin and Wood, a project he's had for 30 years now along with bassist Chris Wood and keyboardist John Medeski. Billy refers to his artistic approach as playful and he is committed to the idea of play and experimentation in art. He is also totally serious about what he does, he's a serious thinker, and he takes enormous care with what he does and how he does it. He might be playing, but he's not messing around. A lifelong student, his path has been somewhat self directed. He spent his formative musical years taking lessons at the Drummers Collective in New York, where he came in contact with a group of musicians who would shape his music and his career, and got what he calls "the inside stuff". Notably, he refers to drummer and composer Bob Moses as one of his primary mentors. He made a documentary film 10 years ago with another one of his early teachers, Allen Herman. That movie, Life On Drums, is a series of discussions between Billy and Allen intercut with solo drum performances by both of them. We spoke recently about how field recordings influenced him, the power of sincerity in music and in life, the importance of staying curious and being playful, what he calls the "world music view", how "when you're experimenting there is no such thing as perfection," the similarities between music and visual art, why Instagram is such a useful tool for self expression, and much more. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review on iTunes and consider supporting the podcast on Patreon and following the podcast on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.