Many artists have those sliding door moments - being at the right place at the right time with just the right amount of talent, style and looks to make it out of having to work a “real job." Growing up in New York and then Paris where a young Madeleine began singing on the street, harnessing her deeply warm and eerily timeless voice (close your eyes and you might hear Billie Holiday) she went from being let go selling newspapers and toiling as a Applebees hostess in Nashville to creating beloved major-label jazz pop albums like Dreamland and Careless Love (one of my all time favorite albums) where she expertly sang out-of-box covers in English from singing poets and kindred spirits like Leonard Cohen and also jazzy French favorites that got her in front of millions of listeners around the world.  Slowly Peyroux began inserting personal and often politically powerful originals as her profile grew - leading to her new protest-forward all-original LP Let’s Walk. While she was a staple of the early 2000s jazz pop best-sellers alongside Nora Jones and Diana Krall, the new record finally unleashes Peyroux’s full creative potential: there’s playful bluesy bops like “Showman Dan” which feels like a cheeky Jim Croce hit - and darkly prophetic songs like “Nothing Personal” which takes a clear-eyed view of sexual assault as a weapon of war. She’s not holding back and her intuitive band, always a highlight, matches her intensity at every point. Much like her genre-defying albums, a conversation with Madeleine goes in many directions - she’s got a lot on her mind, she has a lot of ideas and having lived much of her creative life in both America and France, she has a unique double perspective about what music and culture can do for our well-being and how governments and its citizens can support music more.

It’s not fair to say every song that roots songwriting master John Moreland puts into the world is tinged with sadness and a palpable gravity. And yet, whether or not you’re seeing his big presence in person or hearing his deep and tender voice that can somehow cut through any loud bar like a laser to the heart - fans have been coming back to join Moreland in processing whatever grief they may be going through for a decade. His newest Visitor captures our unique American windswept loneliness in a way that only he can.  A song like “Gentle Violence” off the new LP is everything John does best - kernels of Prine-approved lyrics that seem to stick to your ears like tiny knives, reminding us that he always prefers to tour and write alone, processing pain with silence as his forever companion. And while he’s happily married now (his wife joins him on the road as his tour manager), in 2022 Moreland almost checked out and didn’t come back - stepping away from playing and displaying himself hundreds of days a year for people to sing along to cathartic heartbreakers like “You Don’t Care Enough For Me To Cry” that have become Americana hits - for a chance to recharge and clear his brain from the internet’s growing shadows.  The time away was tough but worth it - Visitor has a renewed clear-eyed power that shines in songs like the opener “The Future Is Coming Fast” - maybe it shows remnants of his punk-rock origins too. Most country-roots artists don’t have the cajones to talk about climate change or addiction or grief but for Moreland who grew up idolizing Steve Earle - there is freedom and joy in mining the darkness. People come to Moreland’s hushed concerts to feel something - and listening to Visitor makes me grateful that Moreland is here to help us cope with whatever we happen to be feeling right about now.

What if you sang before you spoke? When you come from a vibrant San Juan musical family like iLe (the creative persona of Ileana Mercedes Cabra Joglar), it all makes sense. Singing has been in iLe’s bloodstream from day one: from listening to her actress mother and singer-composer grandmother, to joining school choir and then stealing the show as a teenager in her stepbrothers’ superstar Puerto Rican alternative hip-hop collective Calle 13.  She made her critically-adored solo debut iLevitable in 2015 and has become a master at gathering some of the leading Latin-music luminaries (from Natalia Lafourcade to Ivy Queen) and speaking truth to power through her music, celebrating and challenging Puerto Rico and its rich traditions. During the fiery Telegramgate protests, she collaborated her stepbrother Residente and Bad Bunny on “Sharpening The Knives” which focused on the unheard voices of local Puerto Ricans still suffering after Hurricane Maria. It can be hard to describe ILe’s sound. She mentions that a little dose of feminism may be what dreamy boleros, Caribbean folk music and cheerful salsa of her childhood needs - after all, even the female-sung classics were often written by men. ILe isn’t afraid to upend classic genres by using hip-hop, trap beats and synth-psychedelia alongside ringing acoustic instruments and old-school Caribbean percussion to create a bigger technicolor soundscape. The more personal LP Almadura followed in 2019 and in this taping, we sit down to discuss her lushly cinematic and unapologetically political 2022 LP Nacarile.

This week on The Show On The Road, we feature a conversation with a Canadian-born paraparetic prince of pop-folk singers, who has jumped through more gauntlets of the modern music industry than almost anyone in his three plus decades of making records, Steve Poltz. Poltz first hit the scene with the San Diego-based underground punk-folk favorites The Rugburns, then as an accidental hitmaker and MTV video heartthrob with collaborator and friend Jewel, and then as a wild-haired, two hundred shows a year internationally revered solo act. He's put out a baker's dozen of whacked-out, deceptively sensitive, and fearlessly personal albums that have won him devoted audiences from his ancestral home in Nova Scotia to the dance party dives of California to massive festivals across Australia and beyond. As we are still quite separated during the pandemic, host Z. Lupetin called up Poltz in Nashville to discuss the long and twisty road Poltz has travelled -- jumping from his inspired, most-recent album Shine On back to his childhood in swinging Palm Springs (where he met Elvis and Sinatra), to making $100,000 music videos for his ill-fated major label debut in '98, to nearly dying on stage after substance abuse problems and never-say-no-to-a-gig exhaustion took its toll.   We now find him in a more peaceful, purposeful existence in where he is newly married and enjoying making music at home (government orders!) for the first time in decades. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on The Show On The road, we feature a conversation with Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance, two Texans and expert harmonizers who for the last decade have toured the world as Jamestown Revival. Right before all tours got sent home, host Z. Lupetin was able to hop on the Jamestown Revival tour bus (sorry for the engine hum) to discuss their intimate new record, San Isabel, and their journey from meeting as curious singing teenagers in Magnolia, TX to their move out west and back home again. While their previous record, The Education of a Wandering Man, saw them harnessing the muscular roots-rock that can be heard at their powerful live shows, San Isabel strips everything back to their intimate two-voices-around-one-mic, “southern and Garfunkel” sound that brought them together in the first place -- and has rightfully won them hordes of fans coast to coast. They say sibling harmony can’t be compared and we’ve had several sets of twin bands on the podcast, but what about soul-brother harmony? If one thing is clear just sitting on the bus and listening to them weave their stories and songs together, it’s that Clay and Chance were born to sing together. San Isabel was laid down at Ward Lodge Studios overlooking the San Isabel National Forest in Buena Vista, Colorado and often includes the natural sounds of the nature all around them. Give it a listen -- it's peaceful and powerful and raw and maybe just what we all need right now. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the show we bring you a two part conversation between Z and folk-jazz visionary Kat Edmonson. The first was captured backstage before a show at Largo in LA right before the Covid-19 shut-down, and in the second part Z caught up with Kat during her anxious but creative quarantine in New York City.  Initially turning heads for her dreamy and futuristic interpretations of great songbook classics like Gershwin’s “Summertime” which have been listened to over ten million times and counting - Kat broke through with her own playful original works a decade ago, self-producing one of Z’s all-time favorite records “Take To The Sky”. She quickly found powerful fans in folks like Lyle Lovett who she toured with wildly and major label releases followed. Kat soon migrated from her home state of Texas to Brooklyn where her elfin chanteuse look and sparkling vintage sound (think Blossom Dearie with some Texan muscle) caught the attention of Woody Allen who cast her in “Cafe Society” - a dream come true for this black-and-white film lover. Z and Kat sat down to discuss her newest record “Dreamers Do” which may just be the shot of pure cinematic nostalgia we all need right now. Does she cover Mary Poppins, Disney’s Alice In Wonderland and Pinocchio and somehow make them deeply cool, sonically subversive and somehow brand new again? She sure does.   Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

For this special episode, your host Z. Lupetin adhered to the strict stay-at-home pandemic orders, recording an intimate phone conversation with Theo Katzman, the Cheshire Cat of soulful pop-rock and one of the most visible members of the mysterious funk supergroup, Vulfpeck. In January, Katzman celebrated the release of his cheeky, super catchy, unabashedly romantic, and pop-driven new solo album Modern Johnny Sings: Songs in the Age of Vibe and was on a run of packed release shows when everything shut down (you know, because COVID-19). Katzman’s expertly-crafted songs and lilting falsetto vocals have that rare spark that can brighten anybody’s dull quarantine in no time. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the show, host Z. Lupetin meets up with Joey Dosik, a silky-voiced songwriter and freaky-talented multi-instrumentalist who writes lush, romantic jams that transport listeners to R&B-tinted, old school FM radio gold. Some listeners may have learned of Dosik's talents with DIY, future-funk ensemble Vulfpeck, led by trickster curator/composer Jack Stratton. Vulfpeck went from making goofy viral videos and recording an album of total silence -- that scared the shit out of streaming giants like Spotify after it rocketed the band to international notoriety and financial success -- to crowdfunding a series of hit funk records and vinyl releases that propelled them to sold out international tours, headlining nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, and an unprecedented sold out show at Madison Square Garden (all with no record label in sight). As we honor and celebrate two lost musical greats this week, Bill Withers and John Prine, it’s comforting to remember that we have constant new waves of amazing artists like Joey Dosik coming up who can honor and further their message. In many ways, Dosik's songs combine the honest earnestness of Prine’s best early work, telling frank stories of family and relationships, with Withers’ deep, church-flavored, down-home groove. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Right before the whole world as we know it shut down, Z got to talk to Oliver and Chris Wood of the Americana pioneers The Wood Brothers about their renewed musical bond, how they grew up in Colorado jamming with their biology professor dad, and how they just barely missed being bashed by the great East Nashville tornado a month and a half back. When it rains it does pour, it seems. The conversation happened before one of their last shows on their Covid-19 shortened west coast run. The Wood Brothers’ brand new record “Kingdom in My Mind” is a sweetly funky, ballsy, bluesy and booty-shakingly romantic improvisational masterwork - do yourself a favor and turn it up loud and proud - it will help you groove through the lock-down. If there is anything that’s clear in this deeply strange and unsettling time, it’s that we need music now more than ever. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

To say today’s episode is personal would be an understatement. Your host Z. Lupetin founded the group in Venice Beach, CA over ten years ago with a lucky Craigslist ad that started it all. What started as a clandestine jam group with as many as ten instruments going full blast at an after hours advertising office, the band was soon starting in speakeasies and small venues around LA, with the band eventually recording their beloved live album “With A Lampshade On” at the famed Troubadour in LA and the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. In 2013 Liz Beebe joined the group and they began touring full time, becoming a powerhouse eight piece band that wowed festivals and stages in over dozen countries, playing over a hundred and fifty shows a year and releasing seven full length records along the way - including their soul-dipped self-titled work from 2017 produced by Grammy-winner Ted Hutt, the co-founder of Flogging Molly. This week celebrates the release of their most daring work to date - “Is It You, Is It Me” produced by Sam Kassirer (Lake Street Dive, Josh Ritter) and engineered by Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stephens). The album doesn’t shy away from confronting the powerful political fallouts happening in families and communities around the country - and their emotional rock n roller “Get Rid Of You” pays homage to the courageous kids in Parkland, FL who stood up and demanded gun control measures be taken now - prompting recent glowing write-ups in Rolling Stone and Billboard. Z was able to gather the whole band around the mic while on the road in New Hampshire - make sure you stick around to the end of the episode as the band shares their intimate acoustic single “Let It Go”. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week we feature a border-breaking bluegrass band who came all the way from Buenos Aires to celebrate their folk album of the year Grammy nomination - and before they hit the red carpet, they stopped by Z’s LA living room studio to talk about their unlikely founding and how they’ve created their intoxicating brew of traditional North American and often overlooked South American stringband sounds - Che Apalache. Lead by a trilingual world traveller, the fleet-bowed fiddler, spitfire vocalist and sonic scholar Joe Troop - the band formed almost accidentally when Joe began teaching curious local Buenos Aires pickers his own North Carolina folk traditions and amongst his talented students, he found three kindred spirits in Argentinians Franco Martino on guitar and Martin Bobrik on mandolin, and Pau Barjau on banjo originally from Mexico. The result has been one of the most unexpected and have-to-hear-this-to-believe it stories in modern roots music - culminating in their brilliant second record Rearrange My Heart which was produced by fan of the band (and guy pretty good on the banjo) Bela Fleck. Lucky for us, they play several songs during the episode! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the show - Z meets up with a cerebral Texas born roots rocker who has recently struck out on his own, poking one foot in the torn tinsel of a Houston honky tonk and another in a haunted California “Black Mirror” episode set in a tilted sci fi future - Jason Hawk Harris. While most songwriters hide behind walls and trapdoors of metaphor, Harris isn’t afraid to openly process his recent family traumas and loss on his stunning and aptly titled first solo album “Love and The Dark” released by Bloodshot Records in 2019. Despite his youth, Jason has much to tell us and if this equally sensitive and swaggering sound is where the future of modern country music is headed? We’re in. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the show - Z’s conversation with revered singing songstress and deeply wise wordsmith, Dar Williams. Coming out of the Hudson Valley outside New York City, Williams has released over thirteen albums over a quarter century as one of America’s touchstone folk poets, first bursting out of the famed Lilith Fair folk rock scene in the mid 1990s with contemporaries like Ani Difranco and the Indigo Girls and gaining a devoted following. She has toured with luminaries like Joan Baez and Patty Griffin, written a book about what makes communities resilient, runs her own songwriting retreats, and has inspired generations of women to fearlessly embrace their creativity, and exercise their limitless potential. Z was able to catch up with Williams in the green room at historic McCabes Guitar Shop before her second show of a sold out weekend. A new album is on the way. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

What do legends like Bob Seger, The Doobie Brothers, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt and Pink Floyd all have in common? They’ve all tapped pianist and master keyboardist Bill Payne - one of the co-founders of folky-funk cult favorites Little Feat to lend his special sauce to their records or touring bands. Stories? Yeah, Bill’s got a few to tell us. In this second part of our epic talk - we go back through Bill’s life from his first piano lesson to playing with the Greatful Dead in stadiums - and keeping the spirit of his lifelong project with the late Lowell George - Little Feat going fifty years and counting. How do you create that adrenaline of a life show in the hush of the studio? Bill’s idea: create your own audience in your head.  Check out the beautiful deluxe reissues of Sailin’ Shoes and Dixie Chicken which feature never-before-heard songs and demos.

This week, on the very first episode of 2020, we welcome The Steel Wheels, a Virginia-based band of virtuous harmony masters and savvy stringband experimenters who have quietly put together an impressive body of work for the last decade, corkscrewing their way across the country supporting seven diverse acoustic-based albums and along the way, and gaining gangs of devoted fans from their big-hearted, peace-promoting songs. Taped live at historic Mccabes Guitar Shop in LA, Z. Lupetin gathered the boys around the mic to dive into their boundary-pushing 2019 release Above The Trees, how they once toured on bicycles to spread climate change awareness, and how they survive 15 hour drives to strange shows in Iowa. They end the episode with their gorgeous acapella song “This Year”. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

JD McPherson joins Z. for the final episode of The Show On The Road's 2019 Season. The Oklahoma-born artist makes his own brand of high intellect, dance party-ready Sun Studios-style rock 'n roll and last year, may have recorded one of the greatest original Christmas albums of the modern era with "Socks". While JD McPherson probably never dreamed he would become a new rock-n-roll king of Christmas, “Socks” that may be his most impressive feat yet. If you’re deeply suspicious of the capitalistic caterwauling of most modern holiday music on the airwaves (except you, Mariah!) you'll still fall in love with JD’s sarcastic and sweet new collection of holiday originals, which deftly dives into lesser discussed Christmas subjects like broken expectations, inter-family angst, holiday horniness, and hilariously - the myth of why Santa must be grossly overweight to satisfy us myth-loving kids. Give the album a spin as you rock around the Christmas tree or the Chanukah bush, or even better - keep it playing all year long. Back in a few weeks with more episodes! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, a special conversation with the founder and sonic visionary behind one of the America’s most beloved and underrated roots-and-noise-rock groups, Grandaddy: Jason Lytle. Starting from humble beginnings as a trio of skateboarding friends in Modesto, CA in the early 1990s, Grandaddy put out a series of daring, deeply weird records all produced and written by Lytle that first caught fire in Europe, and by the turn of the Millennium, the band found themselves headlining rock festivals like Glastonbury in the UK and crashing late night TV in the US with the cool kids. But Jason wasn’t cut out for traditional cookie-cutter stardom. Grandaddy broke up for six years, and after disappearing into the Montana wilderness, the soft spoken multi-instrumentalist mountain-crazy songwriter kept his devoted fanbase coming back by creating oddly-titled solo records of cinematically rich soundscapes that encircled whacked anti-heroes and telling poetic, campfire-ready short story songs that still make us worried kids feel heard and seen but also constantly keep us guessing. His latest “NylonAndJuno”, which dropped in August on Dangerbird Records, is an experimental instrumental album made entirely with a nylon string guitar and a vintage Roland Juno synthesizer. Zach was able to catch up with Jason before a rare and recent solo show in LA. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this week’s episode of The Show On The Road, Liz Vice – a Portland born, Brooklyn-based gospel/folk firebrand who is bringing her own vision of social justice and the powerful, playful bounce of soul back to modern religious music. Liz Vice is following a rich tradition that goes back generations to powerful advocates like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sam Cooke, the Staples Singers, the Ward Sisters, Aretha Franklin, and especially Mahalia Jackson, who was the soundtrack to the civil rights movement. It was Mahalia who pushed Martin Luther King Jr. to tell the assembled masses in Washington, D.C. about his dream. We often forget how much religious music was infused in the counterculture back in the 1960s, and as the BBC mentions in a great article about the era, “The music of the black church was infusing and inspiring the political consciousness of folk music; gospel was no longer just for the religious but the foundation for much ‘60s protest.” And so we bring you Liz Vice — and a little clear-eyed Christmas spirit to usher you into the twinkling darkness of December. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week Z. welcomes Madison Cunningham - a gifted songwriter, singer, and guitar slinger who has quickly risen from shy Southern California prodigy to a nationally admired Grammy-nominated major label recording artist redefining what could be a new genre between the fertile plains of pop, jazz and new wave folk music. As the eldest daughter of a big family, maybe Madison Cunningham was always meant to be an old soul. And as a young star on the rise, she thankfully hasn’t had to toil long in dive bars and retirement community gymnasiums, as many new artists do. She has already dazzled on large stages, opening for her heroes like the Punch Brothers, Iron & Wine, and Andrew Bird, all while teaming up with luminaries like Joe Henry to bring her songcraft to a new level. If you have an hour, lock yourself in a dark room and listen to her newest release “Who Are You Now” and forget the failed love affairs and credit card debt and smoky bars of your youth and put your faith in the new generation. We are in good hands, no doubt about it. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the show, Z. Lupetin speaks with renowned British song collector, sonic interpreter, roots music promoter, and deeply intuitive folk singer Sam Lee. Lee came to music almost by accident after a former life as a wilderness survivalist and nature advocate. Since, he has become one of the leading voices in Great Britain, saving the treasured endemic music cultures that rapidly disappear each year. His gorgeously delicate and meticulously researched debut, Ground Of Its Own, shot him from hopeful academic to nationally recognized folk star -- partly by being nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize. Lee has relentlessly worked to save and rejuvenate the ancient melodies and songcraft of Irish and Scottish traveller tradition, Romany rhythms and stories, and connect those traditional melodies to a youthful pop culture that is yearning to know where it came from and where it is going next. His Nest Collective, an "acoustic folk club," gathers artists, authors, dancers and theatrical renegades and puts on shows and events across London - making Sam a rare double threat - as both an artist and a promoter of other artists. His newest release, Old Wow, drops January 31, 2020. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

As Z. travels across the UK this month, we bring you Lucy Rose - a talented singer-songwriter who grew up in the same lyrically fertile plain as Shakespeare, who has made albums filled with twisty tales of sharp tongued, black-hearted people searching for redemption, and navigating the rough rivers of a kind of supernatural sorrow that refuses to let us go as we grow up. On her newest “No Words Left”, Lucy has gone back to her roots a bit, forsaking the glossy Brit-pop direction that some of the powers-that-be wanted to push her in, and peeling back her sound so that what we hear is just the thorny pure fruit inside. The result is intense. Interlocking singing conversations in the tone of a toothy, hushed scream, as she questions our relationships with ourselves and maybe even God, to find who we really are behind the suffocating velvet gauze of our multiple social media personalities. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this Halloween, The Show On The Road brings you a special re-broadcast of an episode from our first month of shows with the legendary swamp blues singer and guitarist Tony Joe White. Tony Joe White made trance-like country blues with his signature ominous growl and slithering electric guitar for over 50 years. While many only know him for his novelty hit Poke Salad Annie (which was covered by a guy named Elvis), he also wrote for Dusty Springfield and Tina Turner, and the likes of Bob Dylan was a fan. Zach was fortunate to speak with Tony Joe at a hotel diner in Hollywood back in September about his storied career as a songwriter, guitarist, and touring musician, a few weeks before he passed unexpectedly on October 24, 2018. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Z. Lupetin speaks with Robert Ellis, the restless, tuxedoed, Texas piano-man who has paired his fleet-fingered, high-humored, “jazz in an Austin roadhouse” keys playing with machete-sharp lyrical turns of phrase — all backed up with his smile-through-the-apocalypse country-rock band. Ellis has gained a beloved international following all the while creating a persona that is half the tender brilliance of early Billy Joel, and half high-hatted, Southern huckster who might tell you a story that will make you cry one minute, and then steal your watch when you’re not looking the next. Z. met up with Robert Ellis on the road together in the Netherlands. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Z. speaks with Bonnie Bishop - the fierce singer/songwriter raised in Texas and Mississippi with a powerhouse voice shaped by decades of singing in smoky bars, cutting confessional Americana gems that have won her a Grammy for her songwriting, and gained her a growing legion of fans nationwide. Like her hero Bonnie Raitt, sometimes it takes an artist six records into her late thirties for anyone to take notice. And sometimes it takes a painful divorce to create a song that would be recorded by Bonnie Raitt and help Bonnie Bishop win the Grammy. No, Bishop’s life didn’t change overnight - reality is usually much more sobering than the fantasy of winning big in music. But, Bonnie knows she is winning now. Things are really happening - people respect her and the road is moving - and fast. And sometimes that’s the scariest thing of all. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Most bands who started in the tumultuous year of 1969 like Little Feat never make it out of that creative cauldron. How many heroes faded away or flamed out and can only be found now on classic rock radio or in dusty record bins? Little Feat is still here. And while the group lost talented but tempestuous lead singer and guitarist Lowell George along the way - as we learned in the first part of our wide-ranging conversation with renown keyboardist, songwriter, photographer and band co-founder Bill Payne, this ever-evolving collective of artists was able to keep the dream alive, delighting devoted fans with seminal live records like Waiting For Columbus and showing off their signature harmony-rich folk and brassy funk with a new tour while reissuing their beloved records Dixie Chicken and Sailin’ Shoes with never-before-heard material.  The more you look, the more you see that Little Feat is like a fifty year old best kept secret - the genre-bending band that many masters like Elton John and Robert Plant and even The Rolling Stones love to see live - with songs like “Willin’” being covered by everyone from Linda Ronstsadt to Gregg Allman to The Byrds. Meanwhile Payne has had an epic career playing keys in bands like The Doobie Brothers and expanding his creativity into fine art and authorship. Little Feat has always been that special group that, while never achieving world-wide fame, is always waiting to be discovered anew. 

This week, Charlie Parr - a Minnesota-based folk blues lifer who writes novelistic, multi-layered stories that shine a kaleidoscopic light on the defiant, unseen characters thriving in the shadows all around us. Charlie has a new record with only his name on it, and it isn’t shiny and perfect and commercial and catchy. It's him. It’s pure Charlie Parr, and maybe that’s enough. He hasn’t moved to LA or Nashville - he’s stayed in the cold grey north of Minnesota, because that’s his home. Take a second wherever you call home right now, and listen to his new record. You might hear something different every time. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Z. speaks to the founding trio of one the most respected and sought after folk rock bands in the country - The Lone Bellow. Their hedonistically heavenly harmonies have lifted them from playing tiny bars around their founding home base of Brooklyn, New York to adoring audiences at venerable venues like Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the Apollo, and The Ryman Auditorium, in their new home of Nashville, Tennessee. The Lone Bellow have a rapport that is intimate, hilarious, and -- when it calls for it -- deadly serious. The band is full of so much heart and genuine insight that you can’t help but lean in and listen. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Anna Tivel - the Portland-based singing poetess who builds mountain ranges of rhymes with her colorful, impressionistic perspective of a world still shrouded in endless beauty and mystery. Anna Tivel is one of those folk singers who is passed between friends and long-time listeners like a secret talisman; a tiny gemstone that you polish in your pocket when you need a reminder that the earth is vast and the smallest things you pass on the side of the road are beautiful if you look at it from the right view. As soon as the needle hits the wax on her latest record "The Question", Anna’s hushed, sharp edged voice begins slicing sonic film strips of angular verses that build and build until the words flow out in blinking mini movies that sear themselves on your eardrums and then are gone in a flash. It’s like she’s a sonic cinematographer waiting for the scene to be shot in our minds. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Z. speaks with booming country gospel trickster Paul Cauthen. Z. and Paul met up in Nashville after his weird and whacked-out Big Velvet revue, which nearly got shut down for a brawl that occurred on stage at the end. Paul has a way of harnessing his own madness into a dangerous and intoxicating sonic brew that needs to be in your ear holes right now. Start with this episode, and then move on to Paul's recent release, Room 41. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Matt The Electrician - a kind hearted songwriter and cunning craftsman of smile-inducing folk songs that retain the one thing we might need most in our jackknifed new century: hope. While the artist not known as Matt Sever may still be able to fix the sparking wires behind your walls with his nimble bare hands, he found a line of work even more daring, dangerous, and financially precarious to set his sites on back in the 1990s: being a roving folk singer. Matt’s been at this a while, he looks more like your cool tatted shop teacher than the next big arena money maker for the major labels -so letting the people who have put him up in their houses and cooked him a warm meal on the road support the music their own way? It’s kind of beautiful. In fact, his sturdy fanbase just lovingly funded his next record, in which he’ll be working on with a producer for the very first time, and that producer is none other than Tucker Martine. He’ll be heading up to Tucker’s studio in Portland Oregon to start the project in October. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Show On The Road is back with Cosmic California Country Singer / Songwriter Leslie Stevens. Z. speaks with the deeply intuitive songwriter and cosmic country singer who has been creating viscerally vulnerable songs that seem to ache right through the speakers with her shimmering voice on her much awaited solo album “Sinner”, which came out in August. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week Z. speaks with Dylan LeBlanc, the lithe Louisiana-born roots 'n roller who has one of those once-in-a-generation, ghostly-lilting voices that doesn’t seem of this time or place. His newest record "Renegade", produced by Dave Cobb, is out now, and it’s clear he’s grown up a lot in the last few years. It’s a big, snarling, cinematic, banger of a record; part spaghetti-western dust storm, and part hook-filled sixties AM radio sunshine. This is our last episode of the Summer season, so have a listen with a cold drink under the sun, and let Dylan’s voice transport you. Where? It’s up to you. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week Z. speaks with Smooth Hound Smith, the fiery folk-blues duo from East Nashville who've spread their infectious honeyed harmonies and gritty finger-picked sonic essays all across the continent. Despite being two hilarious humans who got married and share nearly every waking moment together, Zack and Caitlin have never stopped making each other laugh and have never stopped pushing their timeless songwriting to new heights. With their fancy new record "Dog In a Manger" coming August 9, they shine a sharp light on the beautiful worn edges of our country like never before. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Z. speaks with The Slocan Ramblers. This fearless, fleet-fingered string band is adventurously advancing the high lonesome sound of southern bluegrass to great acclaim, and not from the swampy states where it‘s known best, but in a lakeside folk hotbed that has become the cosmopolitan music mecca of Canada - Toronto. Their newest string oddesey - “Queen City Jubilee” - featuring a lovable zombie on its painted cover, was recently nominated for the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy the Juno for traditional roots album, and make sure you stick around to hear each band member doing a musical experiment where Z. asks them to musically respond to a slightly offensive Cards Against Humanity prompt. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Jamie Drake: a Southern California based singer songwriter who transports listeners into a vibrant technicolor world with her deeply vulnerable finger-picked ballads and thornily theatrical story songs. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Carole King wrote epic musicals on the moon? Listening to LA’s magical maiden songstress Jamie Drake will provide a clue as to what that would sound like. She writes songs with a certain old Hollywood glamor to them, and after a decade of helping other people write and sing songs, she got signed and has an insanely lush record “Everything’s Fine” coming out in September. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Think you know renegade roots songwriter icon Ani DiFranco? Think again! We are happy to bring you this special rebroadcast as Ani celebrates the 25th anniversary reissues of legendary albums Living In Clip and Little Plastic Castles which we dive into in this talk. Ani is more than a songwriter and singer of course. Call her an activist, author, and free-spirited feminist folk leader - who recently released her lushly orchestrated twenty-second album: Revolutionary Love. Many things have been said about the music Ani DiFranco has created for the last thirty years since she burst on the scene with her fiery self-titled LP in 1990. With her shaved head on the cover, fearlessly bisexual love songs, dexterous guitar work and hold-no-prisoners lyrics sparing no one from her poetic magnifying glass, DiFranco’s persona became almost synonymous with a rejuvenated women’s movement that blossomed in the late-1990’s Lilith Fair moment. And yet she was always a bit more committed to the cause than some of her more pop-leaning contemporaries, who faded away as soon as their hits subsided. Framing herself somewhere between the rebellious folk-singing teacher Pete Seeger and the gender-fluid show-stopping rock spirit in Prince, (who she recorded with after he became a fan,) DiFranco was always just as passionate about raising awareness for abortion rights, ensuring safety for gay and trans youth and bringing music to prisons, as she was promoting her latest musical experiment. She began playing publicly around age ten, and as a nineteen-year-old runaway from Buffalo, NY, she started her own label, Righteous Babe Records, that allowed her to operate free of corporate (and overwhelmingly male) oversight. Indeed, despite gaining a wide international fanbase she has released every album herself since the beginning — as well as championing genre-defying songwriters like Andrew Bird, Anaïs Mitchell, Utah Philips, and others. It was DiFranco’s encouragement that helped Mitchell’s opus Hadestown become a Tony-winning Broadway smash. DiFranco may have been deemed a bit too left-of-center for pop radio, but her beloved 1997 live record Living In Clip went gold. Let’s get something out of the way real quick: was this male podcast host initially a bit intimidated to dive into her encyclopedic album collection after admiring her work from afar and believing the songs were not meant for his ears? Indeed. I grew up with girlfriends and fellow musicians who rocked Ani’s Righteous Babe pins and patches on their jean jackets like they were religious ornaments. What I found during this mind-bending conversation, and after listening to her polished and mystical newest record especially, was that DiFranco has never tried to push away people that don’t look or talk like her — or tried to mock or belittle conservative movements she doesn’t agree with or understand. There is a deep kindness and empathy in her songwriting that I never expected and in her 2019 autobiography, No Walls And The Recurring Dream, she acknowledges how lonely and exhausting it can be trying to fight against a societal tide that doesn’t want to stop and give you space to be who you are. What became increasingly clear during our conversation was that DiFranco wants to make music for everyone. She prides herself on her quirky, multi-generational fanbase — with grandparents and kids, dads and sons, daughters and aunties alike singing along to favorites like “Both Hands,” “Untouchable Face,” and covers like Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” at packed shows across three continents.

This week, Z. speaks with Steve Earle. The three-time Grammy Award-winning roots ‘n’ roll poet and revered performer has been releasing fearless, roguish records for nearly four decades, accidentally becoming one of the founding fathers of the thriving Americana movement along the way. Growing up a baseball-crazy son of an air traffic controller in San Antonio, Steve Earle has never quite checked any cliché box or stayed in any lane on the way to his almost mainstream success. Host Z. Lupetin caught up with Steve on his tour bus before hitting the stage at ROMP Fest in Kentucky this past June. Steve has been on the road in support of his recent release, GUY — a tribute to one of his songwriting colleagues and heroes, the late Guy Clark. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Z's conversation with Freddy & Francine (AKA Lee Ferris and Bianca Caruso), a deeply soulful duo who have been lifting up audiences around the world with their gather-round-one-mic harmonies and been-through-hell-and-back love songs. Z. talks about Lee singing on Broadway and snaking through the gauntlet of substance abuse and Bianca finding her voice after too many years of dead end jobs and giving herself the permission to let her voice lead her as an artist. Check out Freddy and Francine on the road throughout the Summer. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Greg Holden - a Scottish-born singer songwriter and pop hitmaker with a series of increasingly personal, poetically powerful and daringly politically charged albums. Greg Holden finds himself in an interesting spot. He’s a major label artist who has taken himself off all social media and openly questions the need for the toxic digital society we’ve trapped ourselves in. His songs Boys in The Street and Hold On Tight have been streamed nearly 26 million times and the acoustic pop blockbuster he co-wrote for American Idol wunderkind Philip Philips has been listened to over a 120 million times, but when you listen to these songs a little deeper, you discover a depth and introspection that is rarely found in mainstream pop music today. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Z. speaks with the British born folk rock rebel and underground guitar icon, Richard Thompson. With his signature grimace that seems to dare you to look at his album covers, his salty slam poet vocal delivery, slashing finger picked guitar style, and imposing black beret which makes him look more like a hardened revolutionary than a kindly grandpa who just turned 70, Richard Thompson is a true icon of rock and folk music. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Z. speaks with Peter Rowan, the affable elder-statesman of folk music, who was there at the crucible beginnings of bluegrass, and has joyfully jaunted across a plethora of ethnic music styles in his five decade-long career. These days, despite it getting harder for him to get around, he's still on the road constantly, and you can see him at Telluride Bluegrass and Redwing Roots and Rockygrass and wherever young folks and old folks are still gathering around whatever stew folk music is cooking these days. Stick around to the end of the episode to hear Peter set up outside in the sun with his Free Mexican Airforce Band to perform a sweet Tejano tune under the trees. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, Z.'s conversation with The War and Treaty. In just a few short years, the rapidly rising folk-soul duo has gone from playing high school auditoriums to opening for Al Green at Radio City Music Hall, singing with Mumford & Sons in Nashville, and recording with Emmylou Harris. In the process, they have put together one of the hottest touring bands tearing through the US. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, a renegade guitar slinger for who has spent 20 years prowling stages around the world with the Foo Fighters and has become a soulful songwriter in his own right -- Chris Shiflett. His new record, “Hard Lessons”, is coming out June 14, and he talked with Z. about the vulnerability of striking out on his own, the whiplash jump from rocking Madison Square Garden one night and a rowdy bar the next, and how growing up with three brothers in Santa Barbara helped him navigate becoming a dad to three young sons of his own. For those about rock, we advise you listen to this man. He’s been to the mountain top and has had to start over more than once, but most of all, he can write Rock 'n Roll songs that make you roll the window down and sing at the top of your lungs. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Z. speaks Hot Club Of Cowtown -- the genre defining Western Swing trio that has quietly crafted over thirteen records, and has traveled a quarter of a century on the road together. On this episode, Z. was lucky enough to record two live performances from Hot Club Of Cowtown, and is there anything better than guitar, fiddle, and bass going full tilt around one mic? Both tunes are included, as well as an enlightening discussion about the scariest hotel room they've ever stayed in, playing together for over twenty years, and what it was like to tour with Willy Nelson and Bob Dylan...on the same tour.  Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Jon leads one of the most sonically innovative, shreddingly mind expanding, and confoundingly impossible to categorize acoustic groups, the Jon Stickley Trio. Z. spoke with Jon in a hotel bathroom a while back to hear his side of his guitar hero story, plus an exclusive acoustic performance from Jon at the end of the episode. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this episode, we get to know a little bit more about Dom personally by calling his mom to get the inside scoop on his upbringing in Phoenix, and Dom talks about his time in The Carolina Chocolate Drops. Be sure to listen to Part 1, which came out on May 1, before tuning into this episode. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We are in the most anxious time in human history - yet how do we still create compelling, joyful art and be a sane human being at the same time? We're back with the second part of our talk with rising singer-songwriter Raye Zaragoza who is celebrating the release of her striking new LP Hold That Spirit.  We talk about her mother’s trying immigrant story told through her song “Change Your Name” and trying to forget all your internal and external haters in “Joy Revolution” and best of all - we feature an exclusive acoustic performance of her track “Garden” which has not left this podcasters head for the last month straight. 

This week on the show, part one of Z's converstaion with Dom Flemons, the Grammy Award winning American songster who has made it his mission to reclaim and rejuvenate the lost acoustic music of the past and bring it whistling brightly into the future. Born in Phoenix Arizona to parents of African American and Mexican heritage, the ever curious young Dominique Flemons went from playing drums in his school band and busking on the streets of Flagstaff with his fingerpicked guitar and neck rack harmonica, to taking a chance that would change his life completely. He scrounged enough money to make it to the Black Banjo gathering in North Carolina where he would meet Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson, and begin seven year run with their groundbreaking African American stringband The Carolina Chocolate Drops. They would go on win the Grammy for traditional folk album, headline festivals and theaters around the world, open for Bob Dylan play the Grand Ol Opry, and burst into the consciousness of young acoustic music hopefuls all around the world, who were tired of the same stoic, hillbilly bluegrass and white-washed old-time songs played over and over around the festival campfire. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week, a folk-pop shapeshifter who effervescently sings in four languages and has rocked stages on four continents, Gaby Moreno. Born María Gabriela Moreno Bonilla in Guatemala City, she knew she wanted more as a teenager and journeyed to the USA with that big voice and an even bigger dream. She has since lived several lives inside the dark heart of the LA music business, getting signed to Warner Brothers at 18 and then dropped and signed by Epic Records, only to be dropped again by age 20. Why didn’t she give up and go home? Because the dream was a bit bigger than that. Over the last decade and a half, Gaby has put out a series of sonically adventurous and politically fearless English and Spanish language albums that have created an international fanbase which takes her around the world each year. Hop scotching from early jazz to introspective folk to Dap-King assisted soul, Gaby has been filling concert halls from Berlin to Sydney, winning her a Latin Grammy in the process, setting up a dream collaboration on a new album with Van Dyke Parks, and getting her weekly appearances on NPR’s Live From Here as Chris Thile’s secret weapon. She even helped write the theme song to Parks and Recreation. While she may be multi-talented, she is also among the kindest, sweetest souls to be featured on The Show On The Road. Make sure you stick around for a new song she plays at the end and a short story she wrote on the spot about UFO’s and time travel. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the show, Z. meets up with songwriter and rock n' roller Rayland Baxter on the road in Las Vegas. Beyond Rayland Baxter's mellow, easy going demeanor, lies a deeply perceptive and sharp as a knife craftsman who takes his songwriting deadly serious. His newest record “Wide Awake” deepens his focus and finds him questioning the very existence of the American dream being bought and sold all around us.  Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-show-on-the-road-with-z-lupetin1106/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy