We often find an attachment to certain music during times of emotional upheaval and loss. And it can be a double-edged blade. We love it and find it painful at the same time… because, hey, music is weird – and mysterious. For Graeme, the ending of a relationship led him to this exact place. Around Read more about 6.2: Sarah McLachlan – Surfacing (1997)[…]
Twas two weeks before Christmas (a little bit less) and all through the podcast, Shannon, Graeme and Rob were receiving holiday presents… from our listeners! That’s right, this year we’ve outsourced our traditional gift exchange. Listeners Martin Hajovsky, Drew Walco and Sarah Irvin have given Graeme, Shannon and Rob respectively albums that they like. Will Read more about Holiday Special 2022[…]
Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Live Sessions – a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the live music albums that were meaningful to them, and pondering what makes a great live album. After exploring a theater and a concert hall as a setting for great live records, this time we consider Read more about The Live Sessions 3: Paul Simon – Concert in the Park (1991)[…]
The end of a road can take on many different forms. Sometimes, the road branches off in two or more directions. Sometimes, it’s a dead end. At other times, that road is shrouded in mist with no road signs to indicate what’s ahead. In any of these situations, you have to decide on what to Read more about 4.2: Elvis Costello and the Attractions – All This Useless Beauty (1996)[…]
Moving on. We all find ourselves at the end of one era of our lives and with a new one ahead of us. It can be exciting. It can be sad. It can be both at the same time. Sometimes, it happens when you’re a kid, and there’s a feeling of helplessness attached to leaving Read more about 2.7: Nanci Griffith – Flyer (1994)[…]
Sometimes, the best advice you can follow is: shut up and listen. That way you learn more, particularly about the stories of others that often remain hidden from you, yet are vital to know and understand. During a period of discovery for Rob around the issues of feminism and the burdens placed on women by Read more about 2.6: Tori Amos – Under the Pink (1994)[…]
Sometimes an album can offer you a point of departure: that moment when suddenly – WHAM! – everything clicks and new musical vistas are in front of you. We return to a theme we discussed back in episode 7 of our first season as we talk about Shannon’s journey with Tom Waits, specifically with his 1999 Read more about 2.4: Tom Waits – Mule Variations (1999)[…]
Break-ups! Autobiography! Pop crossovers! Season 2 of Deeper Cuts kicks off with a HUGE record from the late nineties, and a formative one for Shannon to boot while she was a musically curious 14-year old. Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill consolidated the nu-soul movement as it connected with hip-hop, reggae, and other genres by the end of Read more about 2.1: Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1999)[…]
In these dark days of political upheaval and world-class asshattery at the very top tiers of power, we all want to accentuate the positive. So, what songs make us look up from our shoes, and tell us to quit our mopin’? That’s the Deeper Question of the week: defiantly happy songs. It’s those tunes that Read more about Deeper Questions: Defiantly Happy Songs[…]
At one time, and even still for some today, the radio served as the primary vehicle for discovering the world of pop music that we continue to love throughout our lives even as our tastes change. So the Deeper Question this week is: What’s the first pop song on the radio that you remember hearing Read more about Deeper Questions: Early Radio Faves![…]
Road trip! It’s a common and very welcome battle cry, even if we’re just taking a journey by ourselves. The best and most memorable road trips are very often, if not always, accompanied by a great soundtrack. For Graeme, that soundtrack was Indigo Girls’ 1992 offering Rites of Passage, an album that he took with Read more about 6: Indigo Girls – Rites of Passage (1992)[…]
Location, location, location. Sometimes, a record is vivid enough to make you feel as though you’re in one as you listen. Maybe it can even help you make sense of your physical location, too. For Rob Jones, XTC’s eminently pastoral and Anglocentric 1999 album Apple Venus Volume 1 provided both of those things to him Read more about 5: XTC – Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999)[…]
Everyone needs a role model. This is true even for those who become role models themselves later on including Shannon Dohar. At one time, Ani DiFranco’s 1995 album Not A Pretty Girl served as her template, including the cover art that informed her ideal wardrobe! Shannon, Graeme, and Rob discuss the album that explores the complexity of Read more about 2: Ani DiFranco – Not a Pretty Girl (1995)[…]