096 Ashley Kahn on Paul Simon's "Graceland"

On this episode, Marc talks to Kip Lornell and Tom Mindte, co-authors of "Buzz Busby: Father of Washington, DC Bluegrass," published in June of 2026. It's a thorough and fascinating biography of the Bluegrass pioneer Buzz Busby, who moved from Louisiana to Washington DC as a teenager to work for the government, but quickly became an influential player and songwriter, starring on a daily local TV show, performing everywhere around the region, even participating in the show Louisiana Hayride when a budding young star named Elvis Presley was there.Tom Mindte has worked on this project for decades, gathering recollections of Buzz and researching his life, as well as having played with Buzz himself in various groups. Kip Lornell is a professor and historian, particularly of DC music - in 2024, he wrote "Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, D.C.," which Mindte contributed to, and in 2009 he co-wrote "The Beat: Go-Go Music from Washington, D.C." with Charles Stephenson.As they write, "This book is the result of some 20 years of research, including personal interviews with 35 of Buzz Busby's musical associates and family members. But a large part of the story is from the words of Busby himself, capture on tape in the mid-1980s...This quote from Busby sums up his view of his own life: "I started at the top and diligently worked my way to the bottom."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Kip Lornell and Tom Mindte!

On this episode, Marc talks with Ashley Kahn, author of "Days Of Miracle And Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland," released in August of 2026. It's an in-depth look at the making of Simon's classic 1986 album, in which he launched into a new style of songwriting and production, working with many African artists, sometimes in Africa, at a time when there was a loose cultural boycott due to the ongoing apartheid there. Kahn's book delves into how that situation was more complicated than headlines suggested, and is also a fascinating exploration of musical collaboration and how records were made at a time where analog and digital converged.As Ashley writes, "It is challenging to describe a time when the world seemed to be moving in sync, toward a common good...Graceland served as a soundtrack to that time...[It] was music built on the priority of collaboration and what it locked into was the spirit of community. Simon's triumph was to achieve that, and to do it in a way that, for a moment, swung doors wide open, inviting all to celebrate.We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ashley Kahn!

On this episode, Marc talks to Ira Robbins, editor of "Zip It Up! Too: More of the Best of Trouser Press Magazine, 1974-1984," published on his own Trouser Press Books. It's a follow up to 2024's "Zip It Up!," the first anthology of pieces from the legendary music magazine which Robbins co-founded and co-edited; I talked to him about that book when it came out, and you can hear our conversation in episode 31 which ran in March 2024. This second volume features more great articles from Trouser Press, as well as the full series of what they called "Autodiscographies," in which bands such as Blondie, John Cale, Iggy Pop, Sparks and more give guided tours through their own discographies as they stood at the time. The book also includes features divided into categories such as The Old Guard, New Wave and Beyond, and Characters, with fascinating pieces on artists from Paul McCartney to the Cure to Can to Duran Duran.As Ira writes, "The story of Trouser Press resembles the story of a band. We met in high school, got things going in college, had fun for a while, met a lot of great people, made no money, broke up - and then got famous. We never had a clear sense of what the magazine meant to anyone until we stopped. Since 1984, I have been amazed by how durable a concept, a memory, an ideal Trouser Press turned out to be."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ira Robbins!

On this episode, Marc talks with John Davis, author of "Keep Your Ear to the Ground: A History of Punk Fanzines in Washington, DC," published in October of 2025. It's a thorough history of punk fanzines in DC from the 70s to the present day, focused on the stories of the people behind these publications and the way they both covered and influenced one of the most vital music scenes in the world. Davis gives time to small-run, more obscure zines that might otherwise have been lost to history, and shows how punk and indie in DC developed, changed, and continues to matter.As John writes, "Without the photographers, concert promoters, volunteers, audio engineers, showgoers, record stores, and other key elements, there is no punk scene. This book examines another of those integral, yet under-explored, parts of DC punk – fanzines and the fans who made them."Keep Your Ear to the Ground grew out of the work Davis has done as curator of Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland's Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, where he's been since 2013, and where he established the D.C. punk and indie fanzine collection, an archive of DC zines that continues to grow and is open to the public. Read more here:https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/diy-dc-punk-and-indie-fanzine-collection-at-university-of-maryland-college-park-archives-deep-diveWe hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with John Davis!

On this episode, Marc talks with Craig Robertson, author of "Chris Knox: Not Given Lightly," published in October of 2025 in New Zealand and available for pre-order now in the US. It's an incredibly thorough biography of the musician, artist, critic, and character who had so much influence on New Zealand indie music from the 70s until now, through his bands the Enemy, Toy Love, and Tall Dwarfs, as well as his huge role in the country's legendary indie label Flying Nun.As Craig writes, "Knox deserves a biography because of the immense impact he’s had in New Zealand and overseas, largely through his music. But he’s also a critic, a cartoonist, a writer, an artist. And he’s an enormously colourful personality — opinionated, provocative, endlessly creative."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Craig Robertson!

On this episode, Marc talks Barry Walters, author of "Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969-2000," published in May of 2026. It's a fascinating version of music history focused on LGBTQ musicians and audiences, with chapters centered on specific artistsm from the Velvet Underground through David Bowie up to Judas Priest, Diana Ross, Prince, Depeche Mode, and so many more. Walters delves into each with the eye of a seasoned rock critic and the skill of a journalist, telling their stories and measuring their impact on LBGTQ culture and society as a whole. As he writes, "Straight critics have been telling us how to hear our music for ages, so I’m simply offering a queer alternative—based on forty years of professional research and two prior decades of fandom, with insights gleaned not only from when these records were new and we experienced them in the moment but also from retrospection and insider information."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Barry Walters!

On this episode, Marc talks Steve Lowenthal, author of "Dance of Death: The Life of John Fahey, American Guitarist," published in June of 2014. It's an enthralling biography of the legendary guitarist, writer, painter, and music historian, whose solo instrumental guitar work drew on so many sources and added so much that an entire genre became associated with him. "Dance of Death" is lean and efficient, but Lowenthal manages to fit such a wealth of information in its 220 pages that you might be astounded by how much you've learned once you've finished reading.As Steve writes, "John Fahey remains an ineffable presence, a touchstone. Seemingly, his career was in preparation for his legacy, with his copious notes and fictions providing its building blocks. His albums are the soundtrack to his story, and Blind Joe Death his alter ego. As a scholar, he saw the scope of modern music, and carved his place therein by weaving fragments of cultures and genre together in his own strange collage."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Steve Lowenthal!

On this episode, Marc talks with Ben Cardew, author of "Space Age Batchelor Pad Music: The Story of Stereolab in 20 Songs," published in April of 2026. It's a mix of biography and criticism that gets at both how Stereolab made their music and why it's had such an effect on so many people. The 20 song framework helps Cardew structure the narrative well, but he is also not beholden to it, as he covers many other songs, albums, stories, and ideas that surround this fascinating group.As Ben writes, "I've been listening to Stereolab since around 1992...and I still don't fully understand them...This is the story of Stereolab in twenty songs, each of which illustrates a certain facet of the band's abundant personality. It's not a comprehensive list, and it's not meant to be; it's a guide, a weak torch with dodgy batteries to light up your trip into the yawning Stereolab cave."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ben Cardew!

On this episode, Marc talks with Caryn Rose, author of Why Patti Smith Matters, published by the University of Texas Press, and Three Chords and Blessed Noise: A Patti Smith Tour Chronicle, a chapbook released on her own Till Victory Press imprint. The former is part biography, part memoir of Smith fandom, and part critical analysis of Smith's work and life. The latter is a tour diary that Rose wrote when she went to four Smith concerts held in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Smith's debut album Horses in November of 2025.Taken together, these books paint a portrait of Smith as a vital artist but also a devoted worker, someone who never stops putting time and energy into her art. Rose herself has been a writer for many decades, so she knows what it's like to treat creativity as a job, and it makes her insights about Smith particularly sharp.As Rose writes in Why Patti Smith Matters, "This is not a biography and this is not a hagiography. This is a book about Patti Smith's work, because it is her work that matters, and because of that work and the value that she places on her labor within the creative process."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Caryn Rose!

On this episode, Marc talks with Richard Langston, author of "The Clean: In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul," published in April of 2026. It's an excellent oral history of the Clean, the band started by brothers David and Hamish Kilgour along with Peter Gutteridge, and then Robert Scott. Langston tells their story thoroughly through interviews with the band and the many New Zealand music figures who surrounded them as well as American bands who played with them, alongside quotes from reviews and interviews during the band's tenure and archival material like their journals and letters.As Richard writes, "Once Hamish Kilgour and Robert Scott also agreed to tell the story, David and I discussed how to go about it, and we agreed on an oral history. We liked that format of storytelling as you can hear the unmediated voices of the different participants, giving it an immediacy and the richness of multiple voices talking about the same events."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Richard Langston!