Legendary Nashville songwriter, Harlan Howard is purported to have coined the expression “three chords and the truth” and friend and colleague Bob Dylan is also remembered for the great line “All I need is my red guitar, three chords and the truth”. Well that’s all this riff is. Three chords. No passing chords, no fancy…

On certain days, I think “Time to Move On” is the best song on Wildflowers, on other days, other songs take that honour. It’s a song that resonates with so many people because it gives us that glimpse into someone finding freedom, if not exactly peace. Despite being the fourth most streamed song from Wildflowers…

We’re all quick to judge people, whether they cut us off in the fast lane, or don’t hold a door open for us as we’re heading out of the grocery store. But we don’t know what that person is going through, emotionally, psychologically, physically. That disconnect is amplified a hundredfold when it’s in the context…

Everything about the way this song is crafted sneaks up on you. It’s a masterclass in how you take an idea and flesh it out into a fully-fledged tour de force piece or art. And that’s not to say that this song isn’t wonderful when played just on an acoustic guitar, or on piano with…

When climbers finally decide to take on the holy grail of all ascents, Everest, they first face a nine day journey to base camp, which includes two full rest days. This journey alone weeds out about thirty of explorers. Those who are lucky enough to make the arduous trek to the first staging post are…

One last non-Petty episode before we being digging into Wildflowers! This time, Russell Mark, from The Nextdoors is back to talk about their new single “Swing and a Miss”. We talk about perfection in art and whether it’s worth striving for, we nerd out over specific production choices and songwriting form, and of course, we…

This is another special non-Petty episode of the podcast with the fantastic Jake Thistle, who found time in his insanely busy schedule to sit down with me to discuss his label debut, The Half Left Out. We chatted a little about Gainesville and Tom of course, but mainly we dug into the weeds around his…

A really fun one today folks. John and Kevin dig deep into inclusions and ommissions from 1993’s Greattest Hits. We have a conversation about formats (CD vs vinyl), chronological ordering vs sequencing, and whether ballads belong on Greatest Hits compilations. Both John and Kevin have one song that the other feels simply doesn’t belong on…

Today’s episode is the third installment in my Petty 8ight series, where I bring in musicians who aren’t Pettyheads, give them eight deeper cuts that they likely haven’t heard before, and get their thoughts on them. In this episode, my willing newbies are Sean and Todd McGinity. The brothers are based in Winnipeg and have…

A major change in this cover version is the format of the lyrics. Something in the Air is a fairly ominous call to arms. The original was released in May of 1969 when the Vietnam War was still raging at its most furious. Speedy Keen said that told ZigZag magazine in 1975 of the song…