Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson – Details, episodes & analysis

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Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson

Steve Dawson

Music

Frequency: 1 episode/19d. Total Eps: 119

Music Makers and Soul Shakers is an in-depth podcast about recording, songwriting, studio sessions and record production in Americana, roots and blues music. Host Steve Dawson, a working musician and producer, leads deep conversations with musicians, producers and songwriters about their lives, their influences and how great records get made.

Guests include legendary session musicians, producers, songwriters and touring artists from the worlds of Americana, folk, blues, country and roots music. Conversations often explore recording techniques, studio stories, songwriting craft, touring life and the creative process behind great records.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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https://www.makersandshakerspodcast.com/
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https://www.larrivee.com/
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https://www.stevedawson.ca
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Ep. 177 - Mark Howard (Pt. 1) | Record Producer, Engineer, Studio Work & Classic Albums with Daniel Lanois and others

Season 9

Wednesday, July 16, 2025 • Duration 01:47:04

Season 9 kicks off with an epic 2-part conversation with engineer/producer Mark Howard. Mark has been behind the console for some of the greatest and most sonically interesting albums of the past 40 years - Emmylou Harris “Wrecking Ball”, Dylan’s “Time Out Of Mind”, Willie Nelson’s “Teatro”, Chris Whitley, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Lucinda WIlliams and many more. While he is most often associated with Daniel Lanois as his engineer, Mark has gone off on his own to become one of the most respected producers in the business. It’s quite a run for yet another kid from Hamilton, Ontario whose career kicked off creating the sonics for The Neville Brothers classic “Yellow Moon” and went on from there. We get into some of his many projects, and talk about some of the interesting locations that he and Lanois set up shop in over the years. There’s some fascinating stories here and quite a few of them I’d never heard before, even as a total music nerd. This was a hefty conversation, so it’s broken into 2 parts. Part 2 will come out 1 week from today.

Mark doesn’t have a website, but he is quite active on social media, so you can find him there. Be sure to check out his 2 books and look for the new documentary film about his incredible career. Enjoy Part 1!

This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, Fabfilter, and Chase Bliss.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Ep. 167 - Rich Hinman | Pedal Steel Guitar, Modern Session Work and Touring

Season 8

Tuesday, September 3, 2024 • Duration 01:28:50

Pedal steel guitarist Rich Hinman joins me on the show today. Rich is a really creative player who has definitely spent a great deal of time with the classic steel guitar cannon, but has very much branched out and developed his own style and voice on the instrument. He has a great flair for improvisation, and his tone and touch are really of the highest calibre. Rich is currently a teacher at Berklee College in Boston in the guitar Department, but continues his work in the studio and on the road. He has had recurring stints with artists like Sara Bareilles, Maren Morris, Molly Tuttle, KD Lang, Tanya Tucker, St. Vincent, Josh Ritter and many more. His current project is an amazing band with guitarist Adam Levy. The two of them go way back, and it shows, as their interplay and group improvisations are really incredible. The band is called Rich Hinman Vs Adam Levy and they have a brand new album out called “Fan Favorites” that you should check out. Rich also put out a solo album recently that is more on the ambient side, but full of inspired playing and compositions as well called “Memorial”. Rich is really active on social media which is how I first ran into his playing, and he also has a cool Patreon thing going on with weekly steel guitar lessons, so check out what he’s up to over in his world at richhinman.com and if you get a chance to see him and Adam Levy, who are out on tour as we speak, don’t miss them. Enjoy my conversation with Rich Hinman!

This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman Amplification

You can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes

The show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep. 166 - Missy Raines | Bluegrass Bass, Appalachian Roots Music & Bandleading

Season 8

Wednesday, August 21, 2024 • Duration 01:24:48

On today’s show is Missy Raines, one of the great bluegrass bassists out there, not to mention a fabulous singer and songwriter. Bluegrass bass playing is a funny thing - on the surface it seems simple. But there’s a whole other level to it, and when you hear someone like Junior Huskey do it, or Mike Bub, or Dennis Crouch, or Missy Raines, they all play at that level. There’s a way the really good players place their notes, there’s the tone, and it all comes down to the bed that the bass players lay for the other players in the band to live in. And that’s the hard part. Once you get a chance to play with someone of that calibre it becomes much clearer what great bassist brings to the table, and Missy is one of the best. She’s been releasing albums under her own name since 1998, and her latest recording just came out a couple months ago - it’s called “Highlander” and it’s a killer record that features her band Allegheny as well as guests like Kathy Mattea, Michael Cleveland, Darol Anger, and Rob Ickes. Missy is from West Virginia, and she was lucky enough to grow up in an area that had a strong bluegrass scene that she got to experience first hand. She’s lived in Nashville for a long time now, and is on the road alot these days. She’s won multiple IBMA awards for Bass Player of the Year, and has performed with legends like Mac Wiseman, Peter Rowan and Josh Graves. Aside from her accomplishments in the bluegrass world, Missy swerved over into more experimental territory a few years back and had a band going called The New Hip, who made a couple of incredible records well worth checking out as well that feature her songwriting in a less traditional context. But these days she’s pretty focussed on traditional bluegrass and has one of the best bands on the scene, so make sure you go see them if they come through your area. You can get all the latest news and her tour dates over at missyraines.com - Enjoy my conversation with Missy Raines!

This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman Amplification

You can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes

Ep. 165 - G. Love | Blues, Hip-Hop Roots Music & Songwriting Outside the Lines

Season 8

Wednesday, August 7, 2024 • Duration 01:11:12

On today’s show is Garrett Dutton, better known to you and me as G. Love and his band G. Love and Special Sauce.

G. Love appeared on my radar in the early 90’s when I was just getting into playing in bands. Originally from Philadelphia, but breaking out of the Boston music scene, Special Sauce’s debut album was pretty massive in my world. It mixed blues, soul, rap and hip hop in an organic way that no one else was doing. Garrett was influenced by everyone from John Hammond to Lightning hopkins and Muddy Waters, The Beatles to the Beastie Boys and Schoolly D and he’s one of the few people that can convincingly meld those influences into cohesive music. He got into playing guitar at a really young age, learning Beatles tunes, and eventually found his way to Bob Dylan, which led to playing harmonica, which led to John Hammond, who opened the musical floodgates for him.

He moved to Boston in the early 90’s and started playing around Cambridge with his band that included Jimmy Jazz on bass, and Jeffrey Clemens on drums, who made up the perfect rhythm section for the music they were making. The band came to be known as G. Love and Special Sauce, and their debut album, just called “G. Love and Special Sauce” which came out in 1994 is a killer. I saw them a few times around them and they put on an amazing show. Their latest album, produced by Luther Dickinson, is called “Philadelphia Mississippi” and came out in ’22. Lately, Special Sauce has been doing some shows commemorating 30 years since their debut album came out.

Garrett and I had a great conversation, and I’m thrilled that he found his way back to his hotel that day! You can get all the latest info and upcoming tour dates over at www.philadelphonic.com - Enjoy my conversation with G. Love!

This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman Amplification

You can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes

Ep. 164 - Duke Levine | Session Guitar, Roots Music & Playing with Bonnie Raitt

Season 8

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 • Duration 01:22:20

The incredible guitarist Duke Levine joins me on the show today. Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s when I was just getting started, Duke was putting out all these really amazing twangy instrumental guitar records. He actually started out as almost a fusion guy on his first album, but pretty quickly veered off into this highly original guitar style that has elements of blues, jazz, country, bebop and influences like Roy Buchanan, Ray Flacke, Albert Lee, I hear Wes Montgomery and Jerry Reed in there as well. The first record I heard of his was called “Country Soul Guitar” and I feel like at that time, the early 90’s, no one was really playing anything like that. He’s primarily a tele player and just has an incredible touch and tone that makes him a totally unique player. He put out a couple more records in that vein, but pretty quickly got scooped up as a sideperson, playing guitar for artists like Shawn Colvin, Peter Wolf, J Geils, Bill Morrissey, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Slaid Cleaves, Jonatha Brooke, and eventually his current employer, the untouchable Bonnie Raitt. The hired gun gigs really became his bread and butter and he spent the better part of the last 25 years touring with alot of those folks. Duke came up in the New England club scene, and has basically stayed in the area his whole life. During the pandemic, he put out a string of really interesting videos featuring stellar guitar playing that you can watch, and some of those videos became what makes up his most recent and amazing EP “Left To My Own Devices”.

You can get info on all of Duke’s activities as well as his tour dates with Bonnie Raitt over at dukelevine.com - Enjoy my conversation with Duke Levine!

This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman Amplification

You can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes

The show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com

Ep. 163 - Rob Ickes | Dobro, Bluegrass & Modern Acoustic Sessions

Season 8

Wednesday, July 3, 2024 • Duration 02:01:20

Dobro master Rob Ickes joins me on the show this week. Rob was kind enough to drop in to the Henhouse to hang for a while, talk and even play a little bit. Rob is one of those players that is so good on one particular instrument that he’s managed to carve out a really impressive career being dedicated to just one thing. And that one thing is the dobro, which is kind of a specific instrument - It’s somewhat married to bluegrass music, but a very few players, and that list includes Rob and Jerry Douglas (and maybe one or two others), have managed to bring it to wider audiences through sessions and performances outside of that genre, while maintaining their standing at the highest level within it. Rob grew up in California, but moved to Nashville in the early 90’s and really established himself as a pre-eminent player with a long stint in the acclaimed bluegrass band Blue Highway. He left the band in 2015 to focus on his duo with the incredible singer and guitarist Trey Hensley, who was on this show a couple of years ago. Rob’s impressive session history includes working with artists like Merle Haggard, Taj Mahal, Willie Nelson, Peter Rowan, Tony Rice, Charlie Haden, Dolly Parton, Allison Krauss, Little Feat, Patty Loveless and many more. And while the session world keeps calling, Rob has never wanted to solely become a studio player, so he keeps busy on the road as much as he can, and the duo with Trey is incredibly busy now. Their latest release as Rob and Trey is called “Living In A Song”. On top of all that, Rob continues to teach and run his successful “Resosummit” each year here in Nashville.

You can get info on all of Rob’s activities as well as his tour dates with Trey Hensley over at robickes.com - Enjoy my conversation with Rob Ickes!

This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman Amplification

You can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes

The show’s website can be found at

Ep. 162 - Margaret Glaspy | Songwriting & Guitar-Driven Recording

Season 8

Wednesday, June 19, 2024 • Duration 01:12:23

Margaret Glaspy joins me on the show this week. Her album from last year “Echo The DIamond” was one of my favorite records of the year. Margaret started out as a fiddle player, and played pretty seriously around California as a youngster before dedicating herself to the guitar and eventually going to Berklee for a short time to study. She played around Boston and then moved to New York where she found her way into the creative music scene in Brooklyn in the mid 2000’s. She started making EP’s and then full-legth albums in around 2016. I first heard her “Emotions and Math” LP and was really intrigued by her approach to writing, and especially how she seemed to build intricate, angular guitar parts that would weave through her songs. “Devotion” came next in 2020, and then “Echo The Diamond” in 2023. On “Echo”, her songwriting is incredible, her guitar playing is intense and jagged, the band is stellar (she’s working with Chris Morrissey who has played with Andrew Bird and Ben Kweller, and David King, the drummer for The Bad Plus). It's a co-production with her husband, Julian Lage, and Margaret has also produced several of Julian’s recent releases. She just released a solo acoustic record called “The Sun Doesn’t Think” and we talk about all of these projects here today.

Check out all of Margaret’s amazing music and find out where she’s playing over at margaretglaspy.com - Enjoy my conversation with Margaret Glaspy!

This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman Amplification

You can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes

The show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep. 161 - Cedric Burnside | Hill Country Blues, Mississippi Groove & Family Tradition

Season 8

Wednesday, June 5, 2024 • Duration 01:07:54

My guest this week is the incredible Mississippi songwriter, guitarist and drummer Cedric Burnside.

Cedric comes from a long family line of Hill Country blues musicians. His dad is the drummer Calvin Jackson and he is the grandson of the legendary R.L. Burnside, one of the great traditional Mississippi blues artists of all time. Cedric is an exceptional guitarist and songwriter who seems to have found a unique place in the landscape of modern music. He’s able to make records that sound fresh and current, but is very much honoring the traditions of the Hill Country region. It’s a totally unique style of music that you catch glimpses of with artists like John Lee Hooker and Jesse Mae Hemphill, but the really traditional music is even more specific than that. Born in the juke joints of Northern Mississippi, the music is usually driven by guitars and drums. It’s hypnotic, relentless and so unpredicatble and exciting to see live. It’s almost the kind of music that you’d think wouldn’t translate that well to record, but in Cedirc’s hands it does. He is also a fantastic drummer who has played with all kinds of artists including Jimmy Buffett, Widespread Panic, T-Model Ford, and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, not to mention his grandfather R.L.. He has a bunch of albums out under his own name including the Grammy Award-winning “I Be Trying” from 2021 and the brand new “Hill Country Love”, both of which we get into in this episode.

You can get all the info on the new album and his extensive worldwide tour dates at cedricburnside.net - Enjoy our conversation!

This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman Amplification

You can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes

The show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com

Ep. 160 - JJ Grey | Southern Soul, Swamp Rock & Deep Storytelling in Record Making

Season 8

Wednesday, May 15, 2024 • Duration 01:19:39

JJ Grey joins me this week to get Season 8 rolling in style!

JJ is an incredible singer, songwriter, guitar player and frontman for his band JJ Grey and Mofro, based in the Jacksonville, Florida area. He’s been making soulful, brash, and deeply authentic soul and rock n roll records since the release of “Blackwater” in 2001. JJ has a brand new album out now called “Olustee”, which is a remarkable record due to the stellar material and inspired performances perfromances, but also in how it was made. We had a chance to sit down and talk about how it all came together, as well as his songwriting and recording process, how he records his vocals with a $15 microphone, getting janky guitar sounds (janky is his own term, as you’ll hear), along with self-producing for the first time and working on mixing the new record with Vance Powell. Enjoy my conversation with JJ Grey!

You can get all the info on the new album and his extensive worldwide tour dates at jjgrey.com

You can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes

The show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com

Your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at www.stevedawson.ca

This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman Amplification

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson – Details, episodes & analysis

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Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson – Details, episodes & analysis

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