today’s audio is the very first version of my song “slung-lo”, recorded sometime in early 2003. i had turned in the first version of my album “grand” and my label at the time, nettwerk, had told me they couldn’t release it because it was too short. not the first time i’ve been too short for something! rim shot!
anyway, they weren’t wrong. the first version was a tidy 34 minutes. so i very quickly had to write two new songs. one was an ode to judy garland called “cosmopolitans” and “slung-lo” was the other. i was trying to capture my struggles with the label and how hard it was to write on demand. you can hear in this version i had yet to figure the chorus, but the bridge was already bridging in a very cool way.
i picked this song because today’s episode is an excerpt of a conversation i had recently with my pal musician kristen ford. among other things we touch on my relationship with nettwerk.
besides being a musician, kristen is the host of obermann amplified, a podcast about music and life and business. i met kristen when they were a teenager, as a camper at the institute for musical arts, here in western massachusetts. they were always fiery and themselves and paving their own path. kristen has long since grown up, and into, a wonderful career as a touring singer-songwriter, who specializes in live looping. their most recent record is “pinto”, which was released by the iconic righteous babe records.
before we get to my conversation, i want to let you know that there’s no touring update / news break in this episode. i don’t have any gigs on the calendar right now. that will change, of course, but until then, here’s a simple, soft reminder to consider upgrading your subscription to support myself and this pod. thank you!
kristen and i jumped right in with a super deep question about gender and identity so get ready for some hot tea that i have never spilled before. but first kristen read out my list of career accomplishments, which i will spare you, but we reference as we get started. i hope you enjoy this conversation, and when you’re done please click over to hear the entire episode on kristen’s channel plus all her other great work.
ME GUSTA! : SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS!
show me a magazine that does better features than texas monthly!! here’s the latest about the first-family of hot-air-ballooning
oh boy have the sports been good!! maybe so good they are a religious experience? regardless it was so good that mariska/olivia did a two do shay then ran to MSG for game 4!!
did you see the tony’s opening number!!! i LOVED it!!! and p!nk has always been a favorite!
i both love david sedaris (his writing) and hate david sedaris (his interviews) but this one was perfection and gave me quite a lot to think (and laugh) about.
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2026
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