Song Chronicles

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 3 of Song Chronicles. Our guest today is singer and songwriter Billy Valentine, who just released a new album called "a masterclass in soul interpretation" by Record Collector. Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth was chosen as the first record for the relaunch of Flying Dutchman, the iconic imprint known for releases by Duke Ellington, Gil-Scott Heron, and Leon Thomas.

Billy was born in West Virginia as one of thirteen children and later moved to Columbus, Ohio where his parents owned a nightclub. His brother Alvin introduced him to the path of professional entertainer. At 15 years old, Billy booked his first paying gig after sitting in with his brother Alvin during a performance at Leon’s Cocktail Lounge in Patterson, NJ. After a stint in the original touring company of The Wiz, Billy and his brother John formed The Valentine Brothers. Together they recorded four albums and had a breakout Reagan-era protest single "Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)."

The Valentine Brothers

After the duo split, Billy began a songwriting collaboration with Bob Thiele, Jr and Phil Roy. The trio’s songs were recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Pops and Mavis Staples, The Neville Brothers, and his hero Ray Charles. We talk about the "pinch me" moment of hearing Ray’s recording of his song, the title track of the album My World.

Ray Charles's 1993 album My World

Billy’s incredible vocal interpretations made him a sought-after demo singer for songwriting greats like Burt Bacharach & Hal David and Gerry Goffin. Bob Thiele, Jr. says it was Billy’s voice that made the songs they wrote together irresistible, making Billy "the secret weapon of nearly every songwriter in LA." We talk about how Billy came to sing on the soundtrack of Boston Legal.

Burt Bacharach and Billy Valentine

Recording during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 brought Billy back to the '60s, being brought up in Ohio during the Kent State and Vietnam War protests. He chose to reinterpret iconic protest songs by Gil-Scott Heron, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder for his new record Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth. We talk about the permanence of protest songs in our cultural landscape.

After many decades in the business, Billy says he is finally feeling good in his own skin and proud of how he made these songs sound. We talk about how hard artists are on themselves and how pleasing yourself is the hardest part. He has an ageless quality about him and describes himself as having a "young heart."

Enjoy this conversation with a storied interpreter of songs.

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 2 of Song Chronicles. Our guest today is Michelle Lewis, an Emmy- and Peabody-winning songwriter and composer and an advocate of songwriters’ rights as executive director of SONA.

Michelle’s parents were both musicians. Her dad was the tenor saxophone player in Frank Sinatra’s band and her mom was a session singer who sang with the likes of Benny Goodman. Michelle talks about what it was like to tag along with her parents in the early seventies scene of working musicians in New York as "the little mascot of the cats."

Michelle recording jingles as a kid

After college, Michelle had a deal with Irving Azoff’s Giant Records as a recording artist. Later her songs were recorded by other artists, including Cher, Amy Grant, Kelly Osbourne, and Lindsay Lohan. We talk about the invisibility of songwriters and the skill involved into distilling your life experience into words that can be sung by someone else, like a screenwriter writing for actors. More recently, Michelle has been a composer for children's television, including Doc McStuffins, for which she won a Peabody Award. She shares how writing for television lets her express a different range of creativity because it's not bound by genre.

Michelle with her Peabody Award

In 2015, Michelle had a cut on an album that sold millions of copies and yet she was paid a fraction of what her 2005 hit was worth. Learning how much streaming technology had devalued the work of songwriters, she got together with songwriters Shelly Peiken, Pam Sheyne, Kay Hanley, Adam Dorn, Jack Kugell, and attorney Dina LaPolt to form SONA, Songwriters of North America. SONA pushes for changes to legislation like the Music Modernization Act which updated how songwriters are paid mechanicals to reflect the streaming music landscape. Michelle breaks down the different sources of revenue for songwriters including mechanicals, performance royalties, publishing, and syncs.

SONA meeting with Senator Edward Markey

Michelle is a mentor with WriteGirl, an organization that provides free mentoring to girls interested in songwriting and other types of writing including poetry, fiction, journalism, and screenwriting. We talk about the experience of helping girls write their first songs and how their lives are changed after seeing their songs performed. Michelle shares a story about watching future National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman develop her voice in WriteGirl workshops.

WriteGirl songwriting workshop

 

Enjoy this conversation about the importance of the jobs of songwriters, who provide the soundtrack to our lives.

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 1 of Song Chronicles. Our guest is producer, engineer, and educator Mark Rubel. Mark has produced thousands of recordings for artists including Alison Krauss, Rascal Flatts, Fall Out Boy, Ludacris, and many more. Mark sees humans as storytelling machines, with production and mixing as a unified field of sonic storytelling.

Mark placing microphones to record Roy "Futureman" Wooten at The Blackbird Academy in Nashville

Mark has taught audio technology, the music business, and the history of rock to thousands of students. Previously the Audio and Recording Director and Instructor at Eastern Illinois University, he is now the Director of Education at The Blackbird Academy in Nashville, where he and Louise met, when she was one of his students. He shares the parallels between pacing a lesson and pacing a set list and how teachers are, in a sense, performers when they hold their students’ attention.

Mark teaching students at Blackbird Academy

He’s currently working on a book on the great American recording studios of the '60s and '70s many of which had their own unique setups with obscure pieces of equipment before the studio revolution moved recordings from live tracking to mono to 24 tracks synched up. Describing himself as a "inveterate rabbit hole diver", the task of finishing the book has been monumental. We talk about how Mark finds the motivation and energy to get everything done, what kinds of people make art no matter what, and how his parents influenced him. HIs mother was a journalist and his father was a scientist and mathematician.

“You know" he says, "...if you take science, but high level science, where it's not, it's not just equations, it's  philosophical leaps of problem solving and  finding creative ways to get from one place to another -so that kind of science -and you combine it with what my mother did, which was portraiture in words, and you put them together, you get a record producer, engineer who's making a kind of a technical portrait of someone's essence, and you're trying to portray their personality and, and who they are through sound. So it's, it's a nice combination of those two things.”

 

Enjoy this conversation about making audio technology accessible to everyone. 

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 12 of Song Chronicles. Our special guests today are the bewitching jazz vocalist Marley Munroe, better known as Lady Blackbird, and the award-winning producer, writer and musician Chris Seefried. Together, the two created the incredible Lady Blackbird debut album Black Acid Soul, which they describe as a genre all its own they almost invented. As Chris explains, the word "jazz" could have been limiting, but he reassured Marley "you can still wear your outfits."

Lady Blackbird’s vocals are often compared to legends like Nina Simone or Billie Holiday, two vocalists she feels trained her. Chris describes what it’s like to have new audiences see Marley perform — it’s almost as if she’s a star they just haven’t heard yet.

As well as being a renowned producer, writer, and musician, Chris is an artist in his own right. We talk about what it’s like for him to be a part of another artist’s project as an artist himself. There’s no conflict for him because, as he says, "We get to play everything we love and listen to the greatest singer in the world sing it."

Black Acid Soul might seem like an overnight success, but many years of work have gone into it.

Marley and Chris in 2014

And releasing a debut record in 2020 was no easy feat — Marley and Chris couldn’t support the record with the standard touring because of the pandemic. 

The project was eventually embraced first by the UK, as often happens with American artists, and Lady Blackbird was invited to play Jools Holland — which Marley and Chris pushed through not realizing they both had COVID.

Listen to a most joyful conversation and hear about Marley and Chris's incredible journey writing, recording and performing this world-class, era-defying music that's worthy of becoming part of serious music fans' most loved artists.

 

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 11 of Song Chronicles. Our special guest today is Thomas Walsh, an Ivor Novello-nominated songwriter who is the front person and songwriter behind the Irish pop-rock project Pugwash.

As a band, Pugwash released six albums and toured through the UK and Ireland before Thomas returned Pugwash to its roots as a solo project with the most recent album Silverlake. He's currently at work on a new solo album.

Pugwash in 2015

We also talk about The Duckworth Lewis Method, his collaboration with Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, and what it's like working with a true partner in co-writing. 

The Duckworth Lewis Method

Thomas is an incredible writer of melodies. We talk about the songwriting process, how he often dreads the process but loves the result, and how he usually writes from his own experience. Though he feels the need to be modest about his own songwriting, I get him to share his favorites of his own songs that he's written throughout his career. As he shares, it's often the songs that come to you quickly that turn out the best.

Thomas performing in 2015

Thomas is a walking encyclopedia of music with the biggest record collection I've ever seen. He shares his obsession with the labels printed on records and the sense memories he associates with 70s music.

He talks about getting to work with many of his influences, including Jeff Lynne, co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra, who told him a funny story about how George Harrison found his awards to be highly valuable — in the garden. You'll also hear a fun story about singing Kinks songs with Ray Davies in the pub.

Thomas with Jeff Lynne

Enjoy this in depth conversation with a true lover of music.

 

Season 2: Episode 10

Billy Steinberg

 

 

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 10 of Song Chronicles. Our special guest is Songwriter Hall of Fame member Billy Steinberg, who with collaborator Tom Kelly wrote many Number 1 hits including "Like a Virgin" by Madonna, "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper, "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston, "Alone" by Heart, and "Eternal Flame" by The Bangles. The duo also co-wrote "I’ll Stand By You" with Chrissie Hynde and "I Touch Myself" with Christine Amphlett and Mark McEntee of The Divinyls.

Billy Steinberg and Cyndi Lauper in Finland, 1988.

Billy’s first hit song was "How Do I Make You," which Linda Ronstadt decided to record after hearing demos from Steinberg’s band Billy Thermal. In our conversation, Billy shares how he found out Rondstadt would record the song which later reached the Billboard Top 10.

Billy Thermal's unreleased 1980 album

In 1981, Steinberg began a momentous collaboration with songwriter Tom Kelly, with whom he wrote many memorable hits of the 80s and 90s. Billy shares how he and Tom found their groove as co-writers and how they always tried to write to make themselves happy rather than customizing songs for potential artists. Their breakout hit was "Like A Virgin," the title track of Madonna’s second album. You’ll hear Billy’s personal story behind the lyrics to "Like A Virgin" and what it meant for him to hear the song sung by an Italian nun, directed at God.

Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly, and Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, 1992.

Steinberg’s lyrics resonate throughout the years because their themes are universal — which is different from being general or bland, as we discuss. We also talk about how the Brill Building Era inspired him to become a songwriter.

 

Billy has gone on to write with many other songwriters, including frequent collaborator Josh Alexander with whom he co-write "Give Your Heart a Break" by Demi Lovato and "Too Little Too Late" by Jojo. They have also written numerous songs with the artist LP, whom Steinberg calls "a female Roy Orbison."

Billy Steinberg and LP

Enjoy this interview with Billy Steinberg on what makes songs that stand the test of time. 

Season 2: Episode 9

Jon Platt

 

Welcome to Episode 9, Season 2 of Song Chronicles. Our special guest is Jon Platt, the Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Publishing – a man Jay-Z proclaimed as the “the Obama of the music industry.”

 

 

Jon took a quite unusual path to becoming one of the most powerful and influential (music) publishers of the past 25 years," according to Variety. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Oakland, Jon was a high school student in Denver when he took his first step into the music industry. While working in a sporting goods store, he befriended a local DJ named Thomas Edwards, who showed Jon the deejaying basics and he soon became a popular club DJ.

 

Jon with Chuck D. photo by Desiree Navarro/Wire Image

 

Jon's next life-changing moment came when Jon was MC’ing a Public Enemy/Ice Cube concert. He got to talking with Public Enemy’s front-man, Chuck D, who told Jon not to settle for just being a DJ. “My music dream started the next day from that day,” Jon reveals in our conversation.

 

with Jay-Z

 

Inspired by Chuck D's words, Jon began managing some songwriters and producers in Los Angeles. In 1995, he got a low-rung job in EMI’s A&R department and quickly struck gold by signing Marqueze Etheridge, co-writer of the TLC’s smash, “Waterfalls,” one of the year’s – and the decade’s – mega hits. He credits his “DJ instincts” for his talent for breaking records like “Waterfalls” as well as his role behind the making of the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys smash single, “Empire State of Mind.”

 

Jon (on the right) with Sean Combs, Jay-Z, and Clarence Avant, one of Platt's mentor figures. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Image

 

At EMI Music Publishing, Jon signed Kanye West, Jay-Z, Diddy, Beyoncè, Drake, and Usher, while working his way up to being President of North America, Creative in 2011. He later moved Warner/Chappell, where he was appointed Chairman and CEO in 2015. Then in 2019, he took the same positions at Sony Music Publishing, the world's No. 1 global music publisher with a catalog of over three million songs.

 

 

 

Highly respected inside and outside the music business, Jon has received such honors as SESAC’s Visionary Award, Morehouse College’s Candle Award in Music, Business and Entertainment, and Black Radio Exclusive Magazine’s Man of the Year, and has been a perennial presence on Billboard’s prestigious Power 100 list.

 

with Pharrell Williams. Photo by Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

 

Jon’s most cherished honor, however, is the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award - because the event raised more than $6 million for the hospital. He wholeheartedly believes in the importance of helping people because you can help. This belief is underscored in the story he shares about assisting in getting Kanye West onto Usher’s Confession tour along with his many philanthropic endeavors – such as starting the Big Jon Platt Scholarship Program in 2005 to help Denver high school students go to college.

 

Jon with his wife, Angie, Usher, and Rita Ora

 

He’s extremely proud too for being able to assist songwriters during the pandemic. Jon, who has championed songwriters throughout his career, helped to have Sony’s COVID Global Relief Fund donate over $2 million to songwriters – and not just Sony Music Publishing songwriters -worldwide. We also discuss the Music Modernization Act, which he believes is a step in the right direction for songwriting compensation. It’s important, Jon says, “to do the right thing by songwriters.”

 

Photo by Mary Beth Koeth

 

Please enjoy this very special conversation with Jon Platt as he offers his perceptive personal insights along with talking about his unique place in the music business, and his love for music and music-makers.

 

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 8 of Song Chronicles. Our special guest this week is cardiologist and singer-songwriter Suzie Brown, whose work has been recognized by NewSong Music Competition, the Great American Songwriting Competition, and the International Acoustic Music Awards.

Born in Montreal and raised in Boston, Suzie seemed predestined to follow in her parents’ footsteps to become a doctor and didn’t consider being a musician to be a potential career choice. While pursuing medicine at Harvard Medical School and later at the University of Pennsylvania, she started performing purely for the love of it, joining an a cappella group in college, moonlighting in a production of Hair with other busy grad students, and fronting a cover band during residency.  She wrote her first song during her cardiology fellowship.

Over time, Suzie became a staple of the Philadelphia music scene, where she released her first three albums. Now living in Nashville with her husband Scot Sax, she is a part-time Vanderbilt cardiologist and a full-time mom.

Suzie and her husband Scot Sax

 

This full plate of responsibilities caring for others means Suzie has to fiercely defend her own creative time. Her sixth record, Under the Surface, was made by stealing away the hours of 6-10pm each evening with her producer Billy Harvey who lives down the street in Nashville. Making music during the COVID-19 pandemic was the one thing she could do for herself that allowed her to process the heartbreak she felt caring for her patients.

In this conversation recorded in March 2021, Suzie shares her insights for tapping into inspiration amidst an impossibly busy schedule, wrestling with perfectionism, and how going to med school prepared her for adjusting to the "new normal" of living in a pandemic.

Enjoy this conversation with Suzie Brown about living a full and fulfilling life.

Welcome to Episode 7 of Season 2 of Song Chronicles. Our featured special guest is Aaron Lee Tasjan. We spoke back in February, right after the release of his fantastic new album Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!

Aaron's newest album

 

Aaron has led a fascinating life. He's lived in many different corners of the country, and has worked with the New York Dolls, Lucinda Williams, Jack White, and Tony Visconti. In this conversation, Aaron shares insights he learned from the artists he's connected with along the way.

While living in Ohio at age 16, a song of Aaron’s caught the attention of Peter Yarrow, who invited Tasjan onstage to perform with Peter, Paul and Mary. He learned from Yarrow how far songs can go from their intended meaning based on the projection of the listener.

After earning a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music, Aaron dropped out after only one semester to get on with the business of making music. "Learning, that's a two-way street — you have to be open to it," he says.

At the age of 19, he moved to New York City to start living his dream and had to figure out how to become part of the city's network of working musicians. Eventually, he got encouragement from and got to work with some of his Mount Rushmore musical heroes. We talk about the lessons he learned about creative passion and work ethic during that time and how he found community within the NYC music scene.

Aaron met singer-songwriter Justin Tranter and together they formed the glam rock band Semi-Precious Weapons. Tony Visconti produced their debut album. We talk about what makes rock & roll work — Aaron’s take is that rock & roll is slightly embarrassing — and how the band’s manager BP Fallon created rock & roll moments for them, such as connecting them to Kate Moss for a hang that got them on the cover of the Daily Mail.

After Aaron left Semi-Precious Weapons, he spent three years as lead guitarist for the New York Dolls.

Aaron playing with the New York Dolls

 

Since 2013, Aaron has lived in Nashville, writing songs and recording genre-defying solo work. In this time, he has released five solo albums: In The Blazes (2015), Silver Tears (2016), Karma For Cheap (2018), Karma For Cheap: Reincarnated (2019), and Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! (2021). His songwriting can be heard on recordings by Pat Green, Yola, BP Fallon, and JD McPherson. We discuss the good and bad parts of the professional music culture in Nashville.

BP Fallon and Aaron Lee Tasjan

 

Aaron's fashion sense is all his own. He makes some of his own clothes, such as the sweater seen on the cover of Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! We talk about what songwriting has to do with sewing and other ways he finds creative inspiration in non-musical activities.

Aaron in the sweater he made

 

Enjoy this conversation with Aaron about everything that goes in to a creative life.

Season 2: Episode 6

Nicole Atkins

 

Photo by Barbara FG

 

Episode 6 of Song Chronicles’ second season features a freewheeling conversation with Nicole Atkins, a singer-songwriter NPR Music hailed as “one of those people who is so inventive in everything she does.”

 

 

Last April, Nicole released her fifth full-length, Italian Ice, an album she described as to "an acid trip through my record collection." It certainly serves up an exquisite blend of soul, country, rock, blues, and classic pop that showcases her powerful, dramatic voice.

 

 

Unable to do her normal touring for her new album, Nicole got creative and hosted an online record release event. She also started presenting a weekly livestream variety show, We’re All In This Together. During the summer, Nicole switched to doing a live streaming series, Live From the Steel Porch, initially based out of Asbury Park’s Langosta Lounge (near her hometown of Neptune City, New Jersey) and later from The Dive Motel in East Nashville, her current home.

 

Nicole performing at the Langosta Lounge

 

In December, Nicole released the holiday single “Every Single Christmas,” which she co-wrote with JD McPherson. (She quite accurately described her version as “Cyndi Lauper and Brenda Lee, the spirit of the NY Dolls and The Ramones' 'Palisades Park,' all rolled up into a National Lampoon’s Christmas movie"). Endlessly creative, she has already put out via Bandcamp this year covers of Brenda Lee’s “Break It To Me Gently” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust," as well as a duet with her friend Marissa Nadler on The Fleetwoods’ gem “Mr. Blue.”

 

 

The pandemic also gave her the opportunity to spend a lot of time with another of creative loves: painting. In fact, this interview took place while she was creating a mural at the Ivy Manor Studios in Sheffield, Alabama in the legendary Muscle Shoals area.

 

Nicole points out a detail of the mural she was painting at Ivy Manor Studios

Portraits of the Swampers that Nicole painted

 

Muscle Shoals has been a favorite destination for Nicole of late. It’s the location for her label, Single Lock Records, which was founded by The Alabama Shakes’ Ben Tanner and the acclaimed singer-songwriter John Paul White. She also recorded Italian Ice at the renowned Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Featuring contributions from Swampers David Hood and Spooner Oldham, Spoon’s Britt Daniels, the album has garnered much acclaim. Consequence of Sound raved that Italian Ice is “the best thing she’s done so far,” and Elvis Costello stated it proves “once more that you can respect the ‘then’ and still be about the ‘now’.”

 

 

Nicole outside and inside the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio

 

Music has been a major part of Nicole’s life since childhood. She began learning piano when she was nine, taught herself guitar at 13, and was playing in bands by seventh grade. While she went to University of North Carolina at Charlotte to study art, Nicole admits she concentrated more on music. During her time in Charlotte, she played in the popular local band Nitehawk and the alt-country group Los Parasols. She then spent several years bouncing between Charlotte and New York City, sometimes playing in groups and sometimes solo.

 

Nicole performing on Late Night With David Letterman Show in 2007

 

Attracting major label interest, Nicole and her band The Sea signed with Columbia in 2006, with their debut, Neptune City, appearing in 2007. Nicole had a new band, dubbed The Black Sea, when she started doing her second album; however, problems with Columbia made her leave the label without the album being released. The record (entitled Mondo Amore) eventually came out on Razor & Tie Records in 2011.

 

Nicole singing at La Zona Rosa at 2010's SXSW. Photo by Kirk Stauffer

 

While preparing to make album three, Nicole suffered the bad luck of having Hurricane Sandy flood her family’s home. Neptune City producer Tore Johansson invited her to record her album at his studio in Sweden. There she cobbled together songs from fragments she had on her iPhone, which resulted in 2014’s Slow Phaser, her self-described “prog-disco” album.

 

Photo by Brett Winter Lemon

 

In concert at Red Rocks Photo By Rett Rogers

 

Teaming up with Single Lock Records, Nicole recorded her fourth album in Fort Worth, Texas with the production trio Niles City Sound (the team behind Leon Bridges’ breakout debut). The stylish Goodnight Rhonda Lee exudes a retro vibe that attracted comparisons to Dusty Springfield, Roy Orbison, and Patsy Cline, and it’s a sound that evolved into something even more timeless on Italian Ice.

 

 

Photo by Barbara FG

 

Please enjoy our conversation with the multi-talented, thoroughly delightful Nicole Atkins.