“Lead Belly was the father of family music” Dan Zanes on Lead Belly, Baby! — a modern tribute featuring Chuck D, Valerie June & Billy Bragg. www.lpm.org/music/2018-0...

Blue Öyster Cult’s Joe Bouchard talks Strange Legends, true crime lyrics, & how Don’t Fear the Reaper became an anthem for the apocalypse (with help from Stephen King). www.lpm.org/music/2020-1...

Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney, Filthy Friends) isn’t done fighting. “The climate has changed,” she told me. “Not ‘will change.’ Has changed.” Her record Emerald Valley turns grief for the planet into electric protest. www.lpm.org/music/2019-0...

Susan Tedeschi’s Just Won’t Burn is over a quarter century old and still smokes. She tells me how a blues jam in Boston, a pile of CDs, and a run of timing changed her life. “That record got me my first Grammy nom, my husband, and a career,” she laughs. www.lpm.org/music/2023-1...

“History is more frightening than fiction.” Corey Hawkins, Anna Diop & director Nadia Latif on turning Walter Mosley’s The Man in My Basement into a haunted reckoning with race, grief & guilt. www.lpm.org/music/2025-1...

At 59, Mike Flynt went back to college to play football. The Senior tells his wild true story, with Michael Chiklis tackling the role (literally). “We all have regrets,” Chiklis told me. “What Mike did is what we all want—a second chance.” www.lpm.org/music/2025-1...

Richard Curtis once told me, “Santa helps, but he doesn’t fix everything.” That was when he turned his kids’ stories into That Christmas with Brian Cox & Ed Sheeran. www.lpm.org/music/2024-1...

Back in 2014, I talked with Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace at Forecastle right after Transgender Dysphoria Blues dropped. She said, “Rock’s never been fair. It’s usually the bands with the least to say that get the biggest.” www.lpm.org/music/2014-1...

Rickie Lee Jones once told me about the time she went walking by the river in Louisville and saw a dead cow float by right before diving into a conversation about the American Songbook, ghost characters, and surrendering control to Russ Titelman. www.lpm.org/music/2023-0...

Bonnie Raitt on Dig In Deep: “Money shouldn’t be buying legislators. It’s an auction, not an election.” Still raging, still heartbreakin’, still the queen. www.lpm.org/music/2016-0...

Cults told me they never planned for Go Outside to blow up. “We only had three songs out and had to prove we could write a whole album,” Madeline said. Not bad for a couple of art-school kids who turned vintage girl-group pop into modern alt-radio gold. youtu.be/bZDeX2VaDyg?...

Matthew Ryan opens Hustle Up Starlings with “Everything sucks as bad as it gets” — but don’t be fooled. It’s not cynicism; it’s survival. He told me about heroes, hope, and finding his Mike Campbell in Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon. www.lpm.org/music/2017-0...

Courtney Marie Andrews says Old Flowers is “a record about heartbreak written when heartbreak was all I could think about.” Sparse, raw, and painfully human — it’s a nine-year relationship collapsing in slow motion, but with melodies that still heal. www.lpm.org/music/2020-0...

Toro y Moi’s Mahal starts with a Jeep engine and ends when it shuts off — a psychedelic joyride through love, identity, and funk history. “I just wanted to put the listener in the Jeep,” Chaz Bear told me. Mission accomplished. www.lpm.org/music/2022-0...

Manchester Orchestra told me The Million Masks of God is “birth to death,” a cosmic limo ride with the Angel of Death, written while they were becoming fathers and saying goodbye to one. Heavy stuff, but still hopeful. www.lpm.org/music/2021-0...

Erika Christensen & Penelope Ann Miller talk After All — generational scars, Texas heat, and finding beauty in silence. consequence.net/2025/11/erik...

Robert Ellis says Wisconsin’s Refuge gave him what the music industry can’t: space to think, write, and not care about selling it. “You don’t have to think about money here. You just make the thing. And that’s the point.” www.lpm.org/music/2017-0...

Scott McMicken says Critical Equation came from “simplifying the chaos.” The Dr. Dog co-founder talks about stepping outside their home studio, blending soul and psychedelia, and why honesty—not nostalgia—is their comfort zone. www.lpm.org/music/2018-0...

Corey Glover says Shade is Living Colour’s “homage to the blues”—and a reminder that not much has changed since Cult of Personality. We talked about Who Shot Ya, George Clinton, and why the blues never dies—“it just changes clothes.” www.lpm.org/music/2017-0...

Sal Vulcano on why his first special’s called Terrified: “My parents used fear like seasoning.” We also talked Rufus Wainwright, Don Rickles, and hash gone wrong in Amsterdam. www.lpm.org/music/2024-0...

I caught up with Bowen Yang and Teresa Hsiao to talk Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens, fame, family, weed empires, and Michael Bolton. Bowen says the show hit close to home: “I got to really ground Edmund in something I could access in my own life.” www.lpm.org/music/2023-0...

Mary Stuart Masterson’s bringing indie cred, Michael Chiklis is bringing intensity, Rob Corddry’s bringing hilarity, and Idina Menzel’s just trying to keep the whole thing on key. It’s actors night on WFPK, plus four hours of all the good classic alt and new cuts. Tonight at 6p ET on WFPK.

I talked with Tesla’s Brian Wheat about his memoir Son of a Milkman — opening up about bulimia, anxiety, and survival, and the cosmic moment he met his hero Paul McCartney. “If you believe in God,” he told me, “then on the eighth day, God created Paul McCartney.” www.lpm.org/music/2021-0...

Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls talks about their orchestral album String Theory, revisiting forgotten gems like “Say You Love Me,” and why “Remember David” still hits hard decades later. www.lpm.org/music/2021-1...

All in one single year, Bryan Adams pulled a Taylor Swift move by re-recording his catalog to reclaim his rights, wrote for Pretty Woman: The Musical, and somehow still found time to drop So Happy It Hurts. Oh, and John Cleese plays God on one of the tracks. www.lpm.org/music/2022-1...

The Hives are still out here treating rock & roll like a full-contact sport, Noddy Holder’s reminding us who invented Christmas glam, and Travis Van Winkle’s got the Hollywood grin to sell it all back to us. Tonight, with all the usual music detours, at 6p ET on WFPK

Arnold told Travis Van Winkle he was “ripped”—he blacked out after that. We talked FUBAR, service trips, and turning 40 with a wrestling match in Senegal. www.lpm.org/music/2023-0...

Delbert McClinton says if he never hears another “guitar masturbation solo,” he’ll be just fine. The Texas legend talked with me about Tall, Dark, and Handsome, writing songs on a veranda in Mexico, and why he still calls his 60-year career “rock and roll for adults.” www.lpm.org/music/2019-0...

Chris Difford on Squeeze’s anniversay: “We’re showing off.” www.lpm.org/music/2019-0...

Johnny Marr’s got riffs for miles, Bethany Cosentino’s gone solo and thriving, and Bowen Yang’s here to make us laugh while the world burns. Tonight at 6p ET on 91.9 WFPK.

Jake Shimabukuro calls every recording session “the greatest day,” but this one really earns the name. The ukulele master’s album features Jerry Douglas, a Hendrix cover, and a reminder that every obstacle has its own melody. www.lpm.org/music/2018-1...

Bethany Cosentino on Natural Disaster: “I outgrew the old me. This record’s me starting over." www.lpm.org/music/2023-0...

Gavin Rossdale. Bryan Adams. Ross Lynch. Three eras, one show. Four hours of rock goodness. 6p ET on WFPK

Tim McIlrath says Rise Against’s Nowhere Generation isn’t about politics, but about the people left behind by them. “They’re doing everything right, and the finish line keeps moving.” Hope, anger, and an acoustic guitar for the rest of us. www.lpm.org/music/2021-0...

Florence Welch dropped by to talk about Everybody Scream — witchcraft, chaos, imperfection, and all. “It wasn’t mythology to hide the truth — it was the truth.” consequence.net/2025/11/flor...

Courtney Barnett wrote her 2021 record mostly from bed—and still made it sound universal. “It was a lesson in patience,” she told me. “You can’t deny what’s going on around you.” We talked letters, loneliness, and the beauty of doing nothing. www.lpm.org/music/2022-0...

Katelyn Tarver says she “just decided to go for it” on Subject to Change — a beautifully heavy album about growing up, falling apart, and realizing adults don’t actually have it figured out either. www.lpm.org/music/2022-0...

Tamara Lindeman of #TheWeatherStation talked about Ignorance, rhythm as emotion, climate anxiety, and the upside of not knowing what the hell you’re doing on a toy keyboard. “Ignorance,” she says, “can be freeing.” www.lpm.org/music/2021-0...

Chris Walla (formerly of #DeathCabForCutie) sat down to guest DJ and talk about his first college radio gig (“side two of Disintegration, naturally”), the soul of public radio, and why an orchestra tour might be the most fun they’ve ever had. www.lpm.org/music/2012-0...

Ross and Rocky Lynch of #TheDriverEra talk about the Live at the Greek album, their pop-punk return on “Get Off My Phone,” and how “Rumors” marked the start of something new. “We always want to do something new, even if it drives us crazy.” www.lpm.org/music/2024-0...

David Foster on Whitney’s “I Will Always Love You,” Celine’s infamous key change, and his recent chapter writing musicals. “I love Drake and Ariana Grande,” he told me. “I just don’t know how to make that kind of music.” www.lpm.org/music/2020-0...

With Stranger Things about to wrap its final season, here’s one from the vault — back when Finn Wolfhard was fronting his first band, Calpurnia. We talked about their single “Cell,” covering Weezer, and trying to finish high school while chasing a glam-rock revival. www.lpm.org/music/2019-0...

Penn Badgley on You’s twisted seasons, directing Greg Kinnear, and raising a kid who worships Aretha Franklin. “If the show’s about love,” he says, “then we finally hit the part where Joe realized it’s not about you — it’s about me.” www.lpm.org/music/2023-0...

Lyle Lovett on parenthood at 60, pandemic adjustments, and why his son’s right about bacon. “If getting to do something you love every day is retirement,” he told me, “then I’ve always been retired.” www.lpm.org/music/2022-0...

From the vault: Passion Pit’s Ian & Jeff at ACL 2013: “We were headlining shows with a 25-minute set. I wish we could give people their money back.” youtu.be/p4Vywh1Bp3w?...

The Mowgli’s talked to me about resilience, lineup changes, and singing for Sesame Street. “Every rock-and-roll cliché—we’ve been through it. But if we can push through, hopefully someone else out there can too.” www.lpm.org/music/2020-0...

Throwback to Forecastle 2015 with First Aid Kit — talking about Emmylou Harris, sumo wrestling, songwriting, and meeting our heroes. www.lpm.org/music/2015-0...

Kayla Wallace joins Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, and John Hamm in Taylor Sheridan’s Landman, taking on Texas oil, good ol’ boys, and one very real snake. “I thought it’d be CGI—it wasn’t.” www.lpm.org/music/2025-0...

Johnny Marr told me about the Telecaster he bought right here in Louisville — the one he calls the Louisville Slugger. We also dug into Spirit Power: The Best Of Johnny Marr and his book Marr’s Guitars, which turned into a life story told through 130 instruments. www.lpm.org/music/2023-1...

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark herself, joins me to talk Elvira’s Cookbook From Hell, goth weddings, Pee-wee Herman, and why Jack White might be her next musical partner. “I’m like the Martha Stewart of the macabre.” www.lpm.org/music/2025-1...