Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie mark the 60th anniversary of Revolver not as a nostalgic exercise, but as a forensic examination of how four-track limitations, studio ingenuity and sheer artistic restlessness combined to reshape recorded music.

Show Notes

The Comic Strip Presents s01e01 Five Go Mad in Dorset

THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE Trailer #2 4K (2026) | 

THE ROSES | Official Trailer 

Revolver (2022 Mix) Full Album 

I'm Only Sleeping (Take 1) 

Thane Russal - Security 

The Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown (Official Lyric Video) 

The Turtles You Baby TRUE 1966 Stereo 

The Righteous Bros (You're My) Soul And Inspiration 

The Knickerbockers - One Track Mind 

The Walker Brothers - The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore 

Them Call My Name 

Simon & Garfunkel Homeward Bound 

Jan and Dean Batman Theme 

The Kinks - Till The End Of The Day (Official Audio) 

The Beatles - Doctor Robert (Remastered 2009) 

In the latest episode of On The Record, Michael Mackenzie and Brian Wise—veterans with a combined 70 years behind the mic—stage a fascinating "in-house" intervention for the medium they love (and occasionally despair over).

Joined by global "radio futurologist" James Cridland, the trio moved from a high-tech April Fool’s hoax involving Bob Dylan to a deep-tissue analysis of why the ABC is shedding listeners while community radio and podcasts are booming.

Show Notes:

Project Hail Mary - Official Trailer 

Sign Up for James Cridland’s weekly radio newsletter

If Bluesfest is a case study in organisational failure, Scarpetta is its televisual equivalent. The long-gestating adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s crime novels earns a near-unanimous drubbing.

Redemption comes via The Outlaws, Stephen Merchant’s Bristol-set series, which earns a glowing recommendation for its balance of humour, character, and social observation.

Brian Wise reports from Castlemaine’s Theatre Royal, where the “Man Out of Time” tribute to Broderick Smith becomes a reminder of what Australian roots music does best: community, continuity, and songcraft.

The episode closes on a note of tentative optimism, with Wise anticipating a film adaptation of The Magic Faraway Tree, his “favourite book of all time.” Whether it will soar or suffer the fate of Scarpetta remains to be seen.

Show Links

Rolling Stone ‘It Wasn’t A Sudden Collapse. It Was a Slow Bleed’: Former Bluesfest Executive Speaks Out 

Jay E Clair The REAL Reason Bluesfest Fell Apart: From Sold Out to Collapse 

Check out Michael's debut album 'Oversharing With Strangers' under the moniker Imposter Syndrome 

Scarpetta - Official Trailer | Prime Video  

The Outlaws - Official Trailer | Iview  

The Magic Faraway Tree | Official Trailer 

Tedeschi Trucks Band website 

Tedeschi Trucks Band - "Midnight in Harlem" (Live on eTown) 

Florry - First it was a movie, then it was a book (Official Music Video) 

Geese – Taxes Jimmy Kimmel Live 

AUSTRALIAN GOOD FOOD GUIDE Origini in Castlemaine 

Broderick Smith - Snowblind Moon 

Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie devote the bulk of the episode to the sudden demise of Bluesfest after 36 years, and they do it with a guest who knows the event from the inside: Sarah Ndiaye, now Mayor of Byron Shire, formerly the “head honcho” of the Bluesfest photo tent — the social headquarters where media, and photographers regrouped each Easter.

Important Links

Bluesfest Reportage

Variety: Calls Mounting for a Class Action Against Bluesfest After 2026 Event Cancelled By Neil Griffiths 

ABC News: Confusion and anger as Bluesfest ticketholders question timing of cancellation By Julia André 

Byron Shire Echo: Bluesfest ancillary event in Bruns cancelled By Hans Lovejoy 

AFR: Refund complication as Bluesfest collapses owing $5.7m by Michael Bailey Arts & Culture editor 

Opinion If the Bluesfest era has ended, I’ve lost something more precious than money by David Free 

Pharaoh Sanders The Creator Has A Master Plan 

Ben Harper - With My Own Two Hands (Official Music Video) 

Show Notes

Port Fairy Folk Festival 

Queenie & Hank - Anyhow I Love You Video 

ANNIE & THE CALDWELLS – Wrong feat. Deborah Caldwell Moore (Official Music Video) 

Kasey Chambers - Runaway Train (live) 

Mary Coughlan - 'I Can't Make You Love Me' | The Late Late Show | RTÉ One 

Liz Stringer – 'The Metrologist' (Live at Triple R) 

Liz's Final Show in Aust before heading back to the UK 

Steve Poltz - "The Son Of God" (live on eTown) 

Jim Lauderdale "Artificial Intelligence" Live From The Opry 

Shane O'Mara · Jac Tonks Sorrow Hides the Longing to Be Free - The Songs of Bert Jansch  Blues Run the Game 

Emma Donovan - Take Me To The River (Official Show Trailer) 

Sons Of The East - Come Away [Official Video] 

Sons Of The East - Sweet Thing

Mick Wall Eagles - Dark Desert Highway: How America s Dream Band Turned into a Nightmare 

Mick Turner - Don't Tell The Driver (2013) [Full Album] 

Mess Esque "Take Me to Your Infinite Garden" (Official Music Video) 

Messesque on Bandcamp 

Detectorists on Amazon Prime 

Steve Poltz Aust tour dates 

Brian runs through the 2026 nominee list like a gig guide for the afterlife—The Black Crowes, Jeff Buckley, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Phil Collins (solo, because apparently we’re double-dipping now), Melissa Etheridge, Lauryn Hill, New Edition, Pink, Luther Vandross—and lands on the question that always makes the Hall quietly hilarious: who is this for, exactly? Michael’s baffled by the ceremony mechanics (do nominees really “turn up hoping”?), while Brian reassures him it’s not quite the Oscars, before casually dropping the detail that there’s a public vote. Nothing says rock’s rebellious spirit like “exercise our democratic right” via a link.

The more interesting subtext, though, is what induction inevitably drags in: absence. Several nominees have key members who’ve died—Buckley, Michael Hutchence, Ian Curtis—prompting the kind of morbid logistics only a Hall of Fame can inspire. Michael wonders aloud whether New Order could be coaxed into a once-only appearance, and if so, would Peter Hook be anywhere near the bass, given the long-running fallout. Rock history, as ever, is part music, part family law.

From there, the episode pivots into “telly as coping mechanism” territory. 

Michael has started season two of Hijack, acknowledging (with Idris Elba’s own executive-producer embarrassment) the inherent silliness of re-hijacking a man who has already been hijacked. 

Brian, meanwhile, goes looking for light relief in bleak news cycles and discovers Resident Alien—a show he’d dismissed as fluff until it turns out to be fluff with enough teeth to feel like therapy. The alien-in-a-small-town premise becomes an excuse for a few sharp jokes about humanity’s trajectory.

But the main event is the week’s shared homework: Paul McCartney: Man on the Run, the new documentary spanning the years between the Beatles’ breakup and Lennon’s murder. 

Brian begins with dread—opening on “Silly Love Songs” is hardly a confidence-builder—but both hosts admit the film wins them over. They praise the craft: strong editing, collage-like imagery, and an effective “no talking heads (but their voices)” approach. Then they do the responsible thing and ask the awkward question: how honest can a documentary be when McCartney’s own company financed it?

Their answer is satisfyingly unresolved. Michael argues it’s “warts-and-all enough” to avoid feeling like a total snow job—especially when the film lets other musicians (Nick Lowe, Chrissie Hynde) politely wonder what on earth Paul was thinking during the early, patchy years. 

Brian agrees McCartney produced plenty of throwaway material, though he’ll still go in to bat for Band on the Run and even dares to defend “Coming Up” (which Michael treats as a personal affront). 

They both wish the doco lingered longer on the Lagos chapter, one of the few moments in the Wings story that feels like true risk rather than post-Beatles reputation management.

The emotional spine, however, is Scotland. The documentary’s portrayal of McCartney retreating to a remote farm with Linda is read here not as quaint pastoral cosplay, but as a survival strategy—grief, disorientation, and the sudden absence of the band-as-family. 

The hosts talk candidly about parental loss, the Beatles as McCartney’s “emotional prop,” and Lennon as the creative foil who kept Paul’s “twee” instincts on a leash. 

Linda comes out of it as both partner and lightning rod: necessary to him, mercilessly judged by everyone else. 

Along the way, Brian remembers seeing Wings at the Myer Music Bowl in 1975 (yes, he was there), and the hosts revive Norman Gunston as the patron saint of awkward interviews—plus Michael’s conspiracy theory that McCartney’s infamous Japan marijuana bust may have been a deliberate exit strategy from a tour that Wings’ hearts weren’t in. 

It’s ridiculous. It’s also, perversely, the kind of narrative logic rock biographies thrive on.

By the end, the Hall of Fame is still a “broad church,” McCartney is still a genius with a questionable edit button, and Scotland remains the unlikely setting for both reinvention and retreat. 

The biggest twist is that for two men who can’t even land a sponsor, they spend 30 minutes proving the oldest rock cliché true: the past is never really over—someone’s just nominated it.

Important Links

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2026 Nominees! 

Paul McCartney: Man on the Run - Official Trailer | Prime Video 

Syfy's Resident Alien - Official Trailer (2021) Alan Tudyk 

Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five (2010 Remaster) 

The Art Of Paul McCartney 

Paul McCartney - Maybe I’m Amazed 

Paul McCartney - Norman Gunston 1975 

They describe the duo as deities in Australia, playing with disarming minimalism (mics on guitars, SM58s, no fancy DI wizardry), and drawing an audience so quiet it feels like church.

Brian’s only complaint is the kind you’re only allowed after 20-plus gigs: he wanted setlist variations — the tour’s Neil Young (“Cortez the Killer”), Springsteen (“Racing in the Street”, “Atlantic City”), maybe a Garcia nod — and didn’t get them. 

Michael diagnoses him as “gluttonous”, which is fair, though “devout” might be kinder.

The conversation widens into stagecraft: tuning mishaps, the art of filling dead air, and the delicate question of whether you should tell stories between songs or let the song do the work. 

That segues beautifully into a bigger theme: the thrill (and terror) of the no-setlist life.

Bill Frisell becomes the exemplar: dazzling, improvisational, apparently operating without a set list, with Brian recounting a classic partner-at-gig moment — Karen asking if Frisell’s strange effects are just him tuning up. 

Frisell, told the story, laughs and admits people say that a lot. (This is the highest compliment: “your art is so unfamiliar I assumed it was maintenance.”)

From Frisell they leap to Elvis — specifically Baz Luhrmann’s concert-footage film EPiC (Elvis Presley in Concert), made from newly uncovered Vegas-era material. 

Michael’s key point is unexpectedly roots-adjacent: underneath the jumpsuits and spectacle, Elvis is vulnerable. 

He’s also a kind of bodily conductor, cueing the band with movement rather than baton, with the musicians watching him like hawks for the next dynamic turn. It’s showbiz as improvised gospel.

And in case you worried the episode might end without another collector’s item, Brian flags a song that did land perfectly at the Forum: Gillian & Dave covering Guy Clark’s “Desperados Waiting for a Train”, from Old No. 1 (1975), notable also as Steve Earle’s first recorded appearance — and now reissued in a special edition. 

They wrap by teasing more about the new McCartney documentary, sponsor fantasies (“someone with really deep pockets”), and the ongoing podcast mission statement: tell your friends — and also tell people you don’t like.

Which, frankly, is the most honest marketing plan in music media.

You can catch Andy White live on stage in May at the Merri Creek Tavern.

Important Links

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: Tiny Desk Concert

Andy White - James Joyce's Grave (live at Abbey Road)

The Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Live At The Wiltern)

Billy Bragg - A New England (Later... with Jools Holland) 

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert | Official Main Trailer 

Paradise Season 2 | Official Trailer | Hulu

An t-Eilean | BBC ALBA trailer

RTÉ | These Sacred Vows trailer

Blue Lights | Trailer - BBC

BILL FRISELL TRIO - "You Only Live Twice" @ XJAZZ Festival | LIVE FROM BERLIN

Bill Frisell's New Album In My Dreams

Bill Frisell - In My Dreams (Live / Visualizer)

Bill Frisell - A Change Is Gonna Come

Guy Clark - Desperados Waiting For A Train

The thrill here isn’t just 4K; it’s the moral victory of upgrading the brain while keeping the body. 

The upgraded TV then becomes a portal to two YouTube documentaries that send the pair (and us) into a warmly nostalgic British lane. One is an ARTE doc on Madness — “Princes of Ska” — which prompts Michael to re-fall in love with a band he rates as not just a ska novelty act, but an elite singles machine whose later pop craftsmanship deserves more credit than the pigeonhole allows.

The other find is the real rabbit hole: John Peel’s Record Box — an hour built around the late BBC DJ’s stash of 142 singles kept separate from his famously vast collection (more than 100,000 records). The documentary hauls the box around to fellow travellers and famous fans — Jack White, Elton John, others — letting them rummage, remember and speculate on why those particular records were kept close. 

Peel, it turns out, could contain multitudes: Sheena Easton’s “9 to 5”, some Status Quo, a heavy White Stripes presence… and a special extra shrine for The Fall, who were apparently too important even for the box. 

Then Brian takes the wheel for the episode’s marquee music moment: Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde turns 60, marked with a concert at Tulsa’s legendary Cain’s Ballroom, presented by the Bob Dylan Center (sitting right next to the Woody Guthrie Center, because Tulsa is quietly running a curriculum). 

Brian’s spoken with the Center’s director, Steve Jenkins, who teases an event titled Sooner or Later with a lineup that reads like an alternate-universe festival poster: 

Naturally, they can’t leave the album itself alone. They circle around what makes Blonde on Blonde such a gravitational object: the New York-to-Nashville recording shift, Al Kooper and Robbie Robertson in tow, and the snap-in brilliance of Nashville players like Charlie McCoy and Joe South. 

Michael calls it the culmination of Dylan’s ridiculous 18-month streak from Bringing It All Back Home through Highway 61 Revisited to Blonde on Blonde — productivity that makes modern “content schedules” look like a wellness day. 

Song picks follow: Michael is unwavering on “Visions of Johanna”; Brian leans toward “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)”, while also marvelling that Dylan had “Positively 4th Street” sitting on the bench, unused, like a spare masterpiece.

There are lighter detours too: a surprisingly vivid discussion of a film built around stand-up comedy as therapy (Will Arnett, Laura Dern, John Bishop’s life story, Bradley Cooper popping up in a minor role because he can), and then Brian’s recommendation of Mackenzie Crook’s Small Prophets — a title that briefly defeats Michael because he searches the wrong spelling and finds financial advice instead. 

Once located, it lands hard: whimsy, sadness, small acts, and a specific episode-four moment that gets Brian teary without him wanting to spoil why.

Michael flags the return of Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, apparently digging deep into the back catalogue (with a Guardian five-star review from Toowoomba), plus the pair’s Grateful Dead-adjacent moves and upcoming US tribute tour.

They also talk up Robert Finley, the 71-year-old, legally blind Louisiana singer with the late-blooming career arc (carpenter most of his life, first records in his 60s, produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys), heading to Australia in May for intimate shows. 

Finley’s story lands like a parable for anyone who’s ever thought they missed their chance. (Michael, who’s finishing his own record — under the gloriously self-aware pseudonym Imposter Syndrome, album titled Oversharing with Strangers — certainly hears it that way.)

Episode 10, then, is classic On The Record: a podcast held together by cable management, cultural memory, and the belief that the best stories are found when you stop pretending you have a plan.

Important Links:

Madness - Princes Of Ska (2025 Documentary)

John Peels Record Box {Full show}

The Fall Bremen Nacht (Vinyl Version)

BOB DYLAN CENTER PRESENTS “SOONER OR LATER,” ALL-STAR CONCERT CELEBRATING SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF DYLAN’S CLASSIC ALBUM “BLONDE ON BLONDE” 

Emma Swift - "Visions of Johanna" (Live at Layman Drug Company)

Bob Dylan - Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) (Official Audio)

IS THIS THING ON? | Teaser Trailer | Searchlight Pictures

Small Prophets | Official Trailer - BBC

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Brokedown Palace (Grateful Dead) Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY

Robert Finley - Helping Hand (Later... with Jools Holland)

Robert Finley First Australian Tour Details and Tix 

It opens with Wise declaring he “can’t stand” the sound of his own voice (a bold confession for a career built on talking), while Mackenzie offers the sort of praise that feels both affectionate and faintly menacing: “the voice of a generation.” 

Before the audio collapses entirely, the conversation sprints through Wise’s great sporting exertion: the exhausting labour of watching sport. 

There’s genuine distress at skier Lindsey Vonn crashing out in 13 seconds, complete with a description of pain you could feel through the screen. 

From there, the mood whiplashes into the Super Bowl halftime show—Wise calls Bad Bunny’s performance the best he’s ever seen, even while admitting he couldn’t understand a word of it. Mackenzie, meanwhile, is stuck on the visuals of sugar cane cutting and its historical echoes closer to home. 

Their consensus: if Donald Trump calls it the worst halftime show ever, that’s basically a five-star review.

Then comes one of Wise’s purest modern urges: gadget-lust triggered by sport. Spotting tennis champion Elena Rybakina wearing a watch post-match, he consults “our friend AI” and discovers it’s a Vanguard Orb worth a mere $200,000. 

At which point the show finally pivots to the Grammys—specifically the stuff that doesn’t make the glossy broadcast. 

Wise notes that Fela Kuti received a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award, nearly 30 years after his death at 58, making him the first African musician to be honoured that way. 

They sketch Kuti as both musical revolutionary and political force, the Afrobeat originator whose trance-like repetition and complex grooves seeped into Remain in Light and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. The point: the Grammys have 85 categories, and the good parts are buried where only the determined will look.

The episode’s left turn into pop comes via Mackenzie’s discovery of Charli XCX through the comedy-chat juggernaut Smartless. Wise’s response—“Who’s he?”—is treated as both generational commentary and perfectly on-brand. 

The subtext is clear: don’t confuse “not my cup of tea” with “not worth paying attention to”.

Politics drifts in, as it tends to now, through the question of who’s writing protest songs. Wise notes Nils Lofgren’s “No Kings, No Hate, No Fear”, nods to Lucinda Williams and Mavis Staples, and longs—audibly—for Bob Dylan to re-enter the ring with something era-defining.

 Mackenzie is unconvinced, offering the counterpoint that Dylan’s signature move in moments like this is often silence.

Screen culture gets its usual run: Mackenzie’s recommendation of the British robbery thriller Steel mostly lands—until Wise objects to the final 15 minutes for explaining too much, revealing his mother’s literary habit of reading the last chapter first. 

The music talk returns in force with Buddy Guy. Wise has interviewed him (Buddy turns 90 this year and is flagged as possibly touring Australia for the last time), and the hosts linger on the question Wise once had about Buddy’s live habit of paying tribute to other blues greats. 

Finally, Al Green turns up as both salvation and complication. Wise recommends Green’s EP To Love Somebody (Bee Gees cover included, plus “Perfect Day” featuring RAYE and a take on R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts”), while Mackenzie raises the perennial problem: applauding the artistry while not airbrushing the artist. 

Episode 9’s through-line, then, isn’t sport or even the Grammys. It’s the way culture arrives in the room: messy, overlapping, sometimes off-mic, and always demanding you listen harder than the algorithm wants you to.

Essential Links

Lindsey Vonn's heroic return ends in heartbreak | Wide World of Sports

Bad Bunny's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show

Vanguart Orb Flying Tourbillon Review: The Futuristic Titanium Timepiece of 2025

FELA Anikulapo Kuti - All songs

The Rolling Stones and Steve Riley - Zydeco Sont Pas Salés [Official Audio]

Smartless on YouTube

Charli xcx - I might say something stupid (official lyric video)

Charli xcx - House (Lyrics) ft. John Cale

Nils Lofgren - No Kings No Hate No Fear

STEAL - Official Trailer | Prime Video

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE | Official Trailer | Netflix

Sinners (2025) - Post Credit Scene (1/2)

Sinners Soundtrack This Little Light of Mine

Buddy Guy Aint Done With The Blues 

Buddy Guy Where You At Where U At

Al Green - Everybody Hurts (Official Lyric Video)

Brian reminds us that the Grammys permanently lost their way the moment they abolished the polka category. 

This wasn’t a niche concern, either. For years, Brian faithfully rang Jimmy Sturr, the undisputed Muhammad Ali of polka, who won his Grammy almost every time. A system so reliable has no place in modern music awards culture, clearly.

The tone shifts sharply—and respectfully—with news of the death of Sly Dunbar, one half of the mighty Sly & Robbie. What follows is a proper reckoning with just how vast Dunbar’s influence was: reggae, dub, dancehall, pop, rock, Dylan (Infidels), Grace Jones (Nightclubbing, Warm Leatherette, Living My Life), even a dub version of the Rolling Stones’ “Undercover of the Night.” Sly and Robbie weren’t just players, they were architects.

See the list of some of their important work below, along with links to every other turning point in the conversation.

From there, Episode 8 pivots to the curious durability of certain artists who simply refuse to age in the expected way. David Byrne is a rare example of someone who keeps recalibrating his work, with his latest tour behind Who Is The Sky garnering rave reviews in every state.

That thought feeds neatly into a wider cultural question: why the Australian Open continues to thrive while music festivals across the country are quietly collapsing?

The answer, the hosts suggest, has less to do with sport versus music and more to do with clarity of purpose. Tennis delivers a fixed narrative, star power, and infrastructure, while festivals increasingly ask audiences to tolerate inconvenience, rising costs and vague promises of “vibes.” It’s a sobering comparison given the state of live music in Australia right now.

The episode closes with genuine surprise at the quality of Van Morrison’s latest release, an album that sidesteps the curmudgeonly baggage of recent years and reconnects with the musical instinct that made him essential in the first place. It’s not framed as a comeback so much as a reminder: when Morrison stops arguing with the world and channels his Celtic soul, something powerful still happens.

Important Links

Grammys 2026 list of nominees and winners 

Jimmy Sturr website 

Jimmy Sturr youtube channel 

BAD BUNNY Wins BEST MÚSICA URBANA ALBUM | 2026 GRAMMYs 

Bad Bunny Tiny Desk Concert 

BAD BUNNY - NUEVAYoL (Video Oficial) | DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS 

The Goodies Pirate Radio (A Walk In the Black Forest) 

 Chat GPT’s Top 20 Albums Featuring / Produced by Sly & Robbie

1. Black Uhuru – Red (1981)
2. Black Uhuru – Chill Out (1982)
3. Grace Jones – Nightclubbing (1981)
4. Grace Jones – Warm Leatherette (1980)
5. Grace Jones – Living My Life (1982)
6. Sly & Robbie – Language Barrier (1985)
7. Black Uhuru – Sinsemilla (1980)
8. Gregory Isaacs – Night Nurse (1982)
9. Peter Tosh – Bush Doctor (1978)
10. Sly & Robbie – Rhythm Killers (1987)
11. Culture – International Herb (1979)
12. Ini Kamoze – Ini Kamoze (1984)
13. Serge Gainsbourg – Aux armes et cætera (1979)
14. The Gladiators – Proverbial Reggae (1978)
15. Bunny Wailer – Rock ’n’ Groove (1981)
16. Sly & Robbie – Dub Experience (1979)
17. Black Uhuru – Anthem (1984)
18. Bob Dylan – Infidels (1983)
19. Jimmy Cliff – The Power and the Glory (1983)
20. Sly & Robbie – Reggae Greats (1984)

Uncut: interview with Sly Dunbar on music 

Undercover (Of The Night) (Dub) with Sly on percussion

Black Uhuru Sistren 

Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper 

David Byrne Tiny Desk Concert

David's Reasons To Be Cheerful newsletter 

FRANKENSTEIN Trailer (2025) Guillermo del Toro 

Michael's fave food movie Chef is on Iview 

STEAL - Official Trailer | Prime Video 

Van Morrison Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge (full album) 

Gillian Welch talks to Brian about Her Forthcoming Tour of Australia with Dave Rawlings 

Lucinda Williams On her new album World's Gone Wrong 

Details of the latest tour which begins on February 13 in Brisbane can be found at lovepolice.com.au/tours

Weir, who died on January 10 at 78 (the same date as David Bowie’s passing—coincidence or cosmic scheduling?), becomes the launchpad for a surprisingly affectionate exploration of Deadhead culture. Michael recalls the excellent Long Strange Trip documentary—long enough, Brian notes, to break a Melbourne Film Festival projector—and the pair marvel at the Grateful Dead’s unique talent for turning concerts into economic ecosystems. 

From there, the conversation pivots to David Bowie's The Final Act documentary (streaming on ABC), Crowded House opening the Australian Open (a first for tennis, apparently), and the AFL's ongoing failure to book local acts for the Grand Final. Why Snoop Dogg over Emma Donovan? Why not Troy Cassar-Daley? The hosts are baffled.

Then there's Bluesfest's controversial booking of heavy metal act Parkway Drive, which has purists clutching their harmonicas. Festival director Peter Noble defends the choice, arguing you can't limit festivals by genre. 

The episode meanders through Lucinda Williams' new album, Russell Crowe's Oscar-worthy turn in Nuremberg, and the existential challenges of songwriting.

On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie is available on all major podcast platforms. Rhythms Magazine subscribers can access exclusive bonus content, including Loretta Miller's debut CD.

Episode Links

Grateful Dead Doco Long Strange Trip – Official Trailer | Prime Video 

David Bowie/Mick Jagger Dancing In the Street 

Bowie: The Final Act on Iview (2025) 

David Bowie - Changes (Live performance Glastonbury 1971) 

Split Enz reuniting for first time in 17 years | 7.30

Lucinda Williams - World's Gone Wrong 

NUREMBERG | Official Trailer #1 (2025) 

The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Goring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII 

Jeff Tweedy: How to Write One Song 

Loretta Miller on Bandcamp 

Subscribe to Rhythms to get Loretta's album on cd 

Two overly seasoned cultural obsessives staring at the same screen and seeing entirely different movies.

From there, the episode sprawls—happily and unapologetically—into a wide-ranging conversation about awards hype, viewing expectations, and the strange disconnect between critical acclaim and lived experience. One host praises audacity and subversion, the other demands coherence and restraint. Nobody backs down. Nobody changes their mind. Which, frankly, is exactly how these debates should be conducted.

Luckily, special guest Liz Stringer moves the conversation into other areas that are slightly more important - touring her latest album and raising money to address housing insecurity along with the uncomfortable truth that this is no longer a fringe issue confined to capital cities or stereotypes. 

The show rolls on, touching on music-making, self-management, creative independence, reality TV guilt, Russian books that are abandoned for the sake of mental health, and the eternal question of why we all say we won’t watch that show again… and then absolutely do.

By the end of Episode 5, On The Record has done what it does best: entertained, provoked, and digressed wildly. It’s messy, funny, opinionated, and oddly comforting—like a long conversation you didn’t plan to have, but are very glad you did.

Episode Links

Liz Stringer website  Liz's album The Second High One Battle After Another - Official Trailer  If I Had Legs I'd Kick You | Official Trailer HD | A24  Sam Fender - Remember My Name  Audrey Powne - From The Fire (ALBUM)  The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein Milk Fed by Melissa Broder  The Pitt  Succession  THE HISTORY OF SOUND | Official Trailer  SENTIMENTAL VALUE - Official Trailer  The Faces Ooh La La (2004 Remaster) 

There’s a healthy scepticism about hype, a refusal to confuse longevity with importance, and a shared belief that some things still genuinely matter—even if the algorithm disagrees.

Brian Wise brings context and deep musical memory; Michael Mackenzie brings reflection, curiosity, and the occasional philosophical swerve. Together, they interrogate nostalgia without fully surrendering to it, defend enthusiasm when it’s earned, and question why so much modern culture feels like it’s passing time rather than saying something.

There are laughs, strong opinions, thoughtful pauses, and moments where the conversation snaps into focus just long enough to land a point before wandering off again. It’s not a panel show, not a lecture, and definitely not a hot take factory.

Episode 5 doesn’t shout. It knows what it’s doing. Sort of.

Important links

Norma Tanega - Walkin' My Cat Named Dog 

Stray Cats - Runaway Boys 

Ram Jam - Black Betty 

The Rolling Stones - Not Fade Away (Mono) 

The Uncool - the new memoir from award-winning filmmaker and journalist Cameron Crowe 

Grover Lewis article - Hitting The Note With The Allman Brothers Band (first published in 'Rolling Stone', November 25, 1971, Issue No. 96) 

Kid Creole & The Coconuts website 

Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Stool Pigeon  

Du Fermier Restaurant website

Florry - First It Was A Movie, The It Was A Book 

Florry website 

David Bowie - Lazarus 

David Bowie website

What follows is a warm, rambling, oddly moving conversation about Christmas music, memory, faith, food and survival, with plenty of laughs along the way. Michael Mackenzie declares Christmas music a minefield of bad taste, arguing passionately for carols, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Otis Redding and Silent Night—while firmly rejecting novelty songs, forced cheer and anything involving Santa “rocking.”

Brian revisits his Catholic childhood as an altar boy, including midnight mass duties, Latin confusion, and the moral courage it took to tell an aunt that Sadie the Cleaning Lady was, frankly, not a great gift for a teenage boy. There are transistor radios from Liverpool, early playlists, and the dawning realisation that taste can arrive early—and stay stubbornly intact.

Michael counters with one of the great Christmas stories: a white Christmas spent working illegally in the Swiss Alps, dodging passport checks, sledding home from work, eating communal meals by candlelight, and throwing snowballs under fir trees. It’s nostalgic, cinematic, and only mildly incriminating.

Things take a darker, funnier turn with memories of Christmas stress, maternal meltdowns, and the single most divisive festive dish ever discussed on the podcast: mango pie with gelatin—described as having the texture of a stuntman landing on cardboard boxes.

The episode winds down with gift ideas, band-of-the-year talk, the weaponisation of Santa for child behaviour management, and a surprisingly tender close as the year ends and real life intrudes.

It’s funny. It’s nostalgic. It’s messy. And it’s the most On The Record Christmas you could hope for.

Important Links:

Elvis Christmas Album 

Alligator Records - A Genuine Houserockin' Christmas (2003 Full Album) 

Los Lobos Llegó Navidad 

Otis Redding - White Christmas 

Sister Rosetta Tharpe Silent Night

Once operational, the episode quickly becomes a rallying cry for the quietly furious demographic known as Grumpy Older Men Who Have Had It With Banks. Michael officially embraces his new identity after discovering his bank changed everything without warning, while Brian counters with tales of frozen debit cards, vanished tellers, and the most devastating bank exit in history...

From there, the conversation widens—considerably.

There’s a surprisingly heartfelt discussion about the best technology of 2025, which turns out not to be AI, crypto or anything with a subscription fee, but a lightweight laptop, a digital library card, and apps that simply work. Radical.

Travel takes centre stage next, with Michael recounting a punishing but transcendent hike through Albania’s Accursed Mountains, involving donkeys, snow-capped peaks, dodgy knees and a journey that somehow includes minibuses, boats and a black Mercedes. Brian counters with a pitch for Tulsa, Oklahoma—a city with no tourists, no traffic, a Bob Dylan Centre, a Woody Guthrie Centre, and an offer to pay you $10,000 to move there (family approval not guaranteed).

Music eventually breaks through—this is a Rhythms podcast after all—with Christmas gift recommendations ranging from Mavis Staples and Paul Kelly to Dylan box sets, Patti Smith anniversaries, Springsteen gloom, and vinyl for hipsters aged anywhere between 30 and 60. There are also book tips, documentary detours, and a shared belief that Brad Pitt shirtless does not automatically equal a good movie.

By the end, Episode 3 has covered banks, libraries, hiking, Dylan, Tulsa, laptops, Formula One, Christmas shopping and the philosophy of buying technology like a V8 Mustang—all without ever fully sticking to a plan.

Which, frankly, is exactly the plan.

Essential Links

Brian's fave tech of 2025  

Michael's fave tech of 2025

Michael's Journey through Albania's Accursed Mountains 

Tulsa's Bob Dylan Center 

PBS Documentary on the Tulsa Race Massacre 

Live, work, and grow in Tulsa (incentive program)

The Watchmen TV series that is built around the real life Tulsa massacre 

Louis Theroux talks with David Byrne on Apple Podcasts 

Adam Buxton talks with David Byrne on Apple Podcasts 

Formula 1: Drive to Survive - Season 7 | Official Trailer |

Victorian Record Stores to shop at or online for Christmas 

Captain Stomp  Greville Records  Rocksteady Records  Rathdowne Records 

Brian's Musical Christmas Recommendations

Mavis Staples Sad And Beautiful World  Van Morrison 70  Loretta Miller Loretta  Geese Getting Killed 

Recommended Box Sets Bob Dylan Through The Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol. 18 Patti Smith 50th anniversary of Horses Rolling Stones Black and Blue Remixed Bruce Springsteen Nebraska

Re-released on vinyl Chris Wilson King For A Day

Recommended Books Patti Smith: Bread of Angels Cameron Crowe: Uncool Peter Wolfe: Waiting On The Moon Tom Piazza: John Prine - Living In the Present Mike Campbell: Heartbreaker

What follows is a gloriously eclectic ramble through:

• A shamelessly persuasive plug for Rhythms Magazine, which somehow doubles as relationship advice

• A sold-out theatre talk about fungi, proving that mushrooms now draw bigger crowds than indie bands

• A deep dive into Pluribus, the Apple TV series that turns hive minds into a philosophical Rorschach test (Michael finds it calming; Brian finds it terrifying)

• The long-awaited final album from Chris Bailey of The Saints, hailed as a dignified, and moving farewell

• Lucinda Williams, political defiance, and why some albums are necessary whether America’s ready or not

• A prolonged, reverent detour into Tom Waits, including birthdays, movies, glitter-filled pockets, and the universal agreement that everyone would still fly overseas to see him

• Talking Heads nostalgia, Bluesfest ticket shock, and the unsettling concept of “cover bands with original members”

The episode wraps with movies (Dead of Winter, Train Dreams), tears shed in unexpected places, and the firm belief that art about love, loss, and grief is best discussed at length—preferably after checking the record button.

On The Record is a podcast where culture is taken seriously, and tangents are treated as the main event.

Useful Links

Rhythms Subscription For Your Loved One At Christmas 

Order Your Rhythms T Shirt For Christmas  

Merlin Sheldrake Interview 

The Saints Long March Through The Jazz Age 

Lucinda Williams new album World's Gone Wrong 

Lucinda's Honky Tonk in NYC 

Documentary: Finding Lucinda  

Jay Buchanan - Caroline (Official Music Video)

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | Official Trailer | Netflix 

Tom Waits - "Come On Up To The House" 

Tom Waits Glitter and Doom Live 

Tom Waits - The Acting Years 

Snocaps band site 

The Lemonheads New Album

Remain In Light feat. Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew | Full Set | Hollywood Arts Park | 3-2-2024 

Caught Stealing Trailer 

Dead of Winter Trailer 

Train Dreams Trailer 

Wise and Mackenzie first teamed up when they co-presented Dig On The Radio, a summer season of music and performances on ABC Local Radio between 2003 and 2006.

Since then, the pair have kept in touch both on and off the air, and decided there might be literally dozens of people eager to hear their meanderings in this new addition to the Rhythms stable.

In this debut episode Michael and Brian meander through:

• The annual Rhythms Readers Poll, which, shockingly, people have actually tried to rig. (Move over Florida.)
• Why older gig-goers prefer concerts that end before the evening news, and the uncertain future for finding new music audiences via radio.
• Mavis Staples’ new album, Sad and Beautiful World, which both agree is so good it may actually restore faith in humanity.
• A detour into Tom Jones, who’s made excellent records while the world wasn’t looking.
• Todd Snider, the mayor of East Nashville and patron saint of long, funny songs.
• Paul Kelly’s new album and gig, celebrated for making audiences actually listen because they didn’t know the lyrics yet.
• The Beatles Anthology reboot, where Apple Records proves once again that there is no bottom to the barrel if you have AI and Giles Martin.
• Final season of Stranger Things:  getting so dark it may require night-vision goggles
• Pluribus, the new Vince Gilligan sci-fi series about humanity becoming one hive mind—an idea Brian finds horrifying and Michael could really get behind.
• Cowboy Junkies live, who apparently sound so good Brian is still vibrating.
• The Springsteen biopic Deliver Us From Nowhere, prompting the important philosophical debate: Is it bi-OH-pic or BYE-opic?
• Patti Smith, whose writing has Michael crying and whose life stories have Brian reading again. Subscribe to here Substack here.
• A CNN Live Aid documentary, featuring Bob Geldof, Margaret Thatcher, and the invention of global-scale concert viewing way before GoFundMe. Watch on 9Now.

This podcast has been produced by Jasmine Griffiths.

You can find out more about Rhythms and the special subscription offer as well as catch up on the latest music news at rhythms.com.au

Paul Kelly joined Brian Wise in the studio at Triple R in Melbourne to talk about his recent American our, the film How To make Gravy based on his song of the same title and his latest album Fever Longing Still. He also performs two songs from the new album for us: 'All Those Smiling Faces' and 'Down To The River With Dad'. 

They alone have sold more than eighty million copies worldwide.

Michael Connolley was in Australia for the Sydney and Brisbane Writers Festivals and spoke to Rhythms Editor Brian Wise about the use of music, especially jazz, in his Bosch series and other works.

It was produced by Michael Mackenzie.

Connelly is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels.

He's the executive producer of three television series: Bosch, Bosch: Legacy, and The Lincoln Lawyer. He spends his time in California and Florida.

Michael Connolley was in Australia for the Sydney and Brisbane Writers Festivals and spoke to Rhythms Editor Brian Wise about the use of music, especially jazz, in his Bosch series and other works.

Produced by Michael Mackenzie.

Boo Mitchell is bringing some of the remaining Hi Rhythm Section members to Blues on Broadbeach this weekend (May 16-19)with guest vocalists Lina Beach and Jerome Chism. Boo will also be showing Take Me To The River and taking about the documentary. 

Songs: Hole In My Heart/Getting Older/Love Will Be Reborn - Martha Wainwright (Love Will Be Reborn), Five Years Old - Loudon Wainwright III (Fame & Wealth), One By One - Martha Wainwright, Wild Mountain Thyme (feat. Anna McGarrigle, Chaim Tannenbaum, Lily Lanken, Lucy Wainwright Roche & Martha Wainwright) - Rufus Wainwright (Folkocracy).

You can find Martha's tour dates at: https://www.marthawainwright.com/shows

You can check out Jon's touring dates here: https://www.joncleary.com/tour

This edition of the Rhythms Podcast is sponsored by Love Police Tours. You can find full details of the Wilco tour at lovepolice.com.au/tours.

Brian Wise spoke to Muireann just a week or so prior to her 17th birthday and just as her debut was about to be released. Listen to her amazing story.

Rooted in vintage country, Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet is an unapologetically beer-and tear-soaked homage to an era when hard-country weepers burst forth from AM transistor radios.

The album’s country roots run deep, with guests like Marty Stuart and Rodney Crowell and a lineup of top-flight musicians.

In 2023 Rhiannon has taken time from her busy life to tour her first album of all original material called You're The One, and Brian Wise asks her to guide us though this extraordinary melange of gospel, blues, rock, jazz, folk and darkly atmospheric.

One of the music documentaries at the Melbourne International Film Festival is Joan Baez: I Am A Noise which digs deep into the life of the renowned folk singer/activist as she retires from touring and reflects on her life. Co-director Karen O'Connor has been a friend of Baez for many years and has managed to gain access to a treasure trove of archival material. The film also uncovers some surprising revelations about the life of one of the most famous voices of the '60s protest movement and the singer who helped kick start Bob Dylan's career.

Luther has made a handful of solo records, having first come to attention as a member of The Freewheelers in the '90s, during which time his songs were described as having "the appeal and personality of those by Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson". Together, Jody Stephens and Luther Russell are THOSE PRETTY WRONGS, who combine the lyrical and soulful harmony and jangle of both Big Star and classic '90s alt-country.Touring Australia on the back of their new album Holiday Camp, Those Pretty Wrongs will be joined by some special friends and perform their own gorgeous material as well as some classic Big Star.  

Check the tour dates  at: Love Police Touring

Born and raised in Alabama and got a publishing deal with Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals when he was just 21, joined Paterson Hood in the Drive By Truckers and after five years began his solo career which included forming the 400 Unit and releasing 8 albums, the latest of which is Weathervanes, which follows the album Georgia Blue in 2021.

Brian first spoke to Isbell when he was in Australia for the first time with Justin Townes Earle in 2012 and they have chatted frequently since. Last year they caught up by Zoom to talk about the Fender Jason Isbell Signature model while Isbell was on the set of Martin Scorsese’s latest film Killers of the Flower Moon in which he plays the role of farmer Bill Smith. 

This time Brian and Jason met to talk about the new album Weathervanes prior to Isbell’s show at the Palais in Melbourne during his April tour of Australia with the 400 Unit, supported by Allison Russell.

Crowell brought three players with him - guitarist Jedd Hughes, pianist Catherine Marx, and bassist Zachariah Hickman — while Chicago natives John Perrine and Spencer Tweedy (Jeff’s son) split drumming duties. Jeff Tweedy appears on vocals, guitars, and banjo throughout and co-writes one of the songs. 

Most of The Chicago Sessions consists of newly written material but Crowell revisits two tracks from the 1970s: 'You’re Supposed to Be Feeling Good,' one of his songs first recorded by Emmylou Harris on her 1977 Luxury Liner album and Townes Van Zandt’s “'No Place to Fall.'

Rhythms Editor Brian Wise caught up with Rodney Crowell by Zoom to talk about The Chicago Sessions.

Pieces of Treasure was recorded over five days at Sear Sound in midtown Manhattan and the studio ensemble consisted of Rob Mounsey on piano, guitarist Russell Malone, bassist David Wong and drummer Mark McLean.

I last spoke to Rickie Lee in 2021 about her Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour so I was delighted to talk to her about music and caught up with her by Zoom at her home in New Orleans, where she has lived for the past decade.

However, Glasper's musical horizons extend way beyond jazz and while he won a Grammy for his work on the music for the Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead he has won another four for his R&B albums, mainly the Black Radio series.

Robert Glasper will be appearing at Bluesfest Melbourne and Bluesfest in Byron Bay as well as gigs in Brisbane and Sydney.

This Rhythms podcast is sponsored by Bluesfest Melbourne.

Earl didn't release his debut album Guitar Town until he was 27 years old, but he'd already established himself as a noted songwriter in Nashville.

By the end of 2022, Steve Earle had released 21 studio albums, many with his long standing band The Dukes.

He's also a published author, has appeared in the TV series The Wire, has produced an album by Joan Baez, and also been involved in several stage plays.

He's also released tribute albums to some of his key influences, such as Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Jerry Jeff Walker, and in 2021 released the album JT - a tribute to his son Justin Townes Earle who died in 2020.

Steve will be appearing at Blues Fest in Melbourne along with Lucinda Williams over the Easter weekend, and also at Blues Fest in Byron Bay, plus the Enmore Theatre on April 3.

This podcast sponsored by Bluesfest Melbourne.