Morse Code Podcast with Korby Lenker

Deep talks and sharp performances with the best musicians and writers working today.

Deep talks, sharp performances and empowering revelations from musicians and writers, from East Nashville and beyond. Unpretentiously hosted by Korby Lenker. korby.substack.com

  1. Tabitha Meeks: Patiently Waiting for My Day | MCP #325

    1D AGO

    Tabitha Meeks: Patiently Waiting for My Day | MCP #325

    Tabitha Meeks moved to Nashville from West Palm Beach with a folk band and a voice she’d been told five or six times wasn’t strong enough. The band didn’t last. One of her first Nashville experiences was getting fired as a backup singer 30 minutes into rehearsal. The guy who fired her said she’d have plenty of time for opportunities like this — she was, what, 21, 22? She was 28. That could have been the end of the story. Instead, Tabitha got a gig at a bar called Sambuca during COVID, where nobody was around and she was forced to be the lead singer for the first time. That’s where she found her voice. She released 30 or 40 songs over the next few years — different tempos, different moods, different sides of herself — and watched to see what people responded to. The retro pop thing hit. Nancy Sinatra meets Nora Jones, she calls it. Happy energy, piano solos, not taking life too seriously. We talked about the Pitch Meeting show she co-founded with her now-husband (and Morse Code Alum) Eric Fortlaza, building a social media following by posting nothing but live performance videos, the sync placements that are starting to pay off (including a Hulu show she can’t name yet), living in a shitty house so she could follow her dreams, the two voices in every artist’s head, and why couples therapy is non-negotiable. Then she played ”Waiting For My Day” on piano — a song about patiently trusting that your day is coming. She actually played two songs in the studio. I picked Waiting For My Day to be the standalone because it showed a more tender version of the Tabitha I know. But this girl has serious chops as a pianist! For eveidence here is a link to the moment in the main conversation where she plays her (much flashier) set piece “Life of the Party” Watch it. 🎥 Watch the full conversation on YouTube 🎸 Watch Tabitha perform “Waiting For My Day” Get full access to Morse Code with Korby Lenker at korby.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 8m
  2. The Brook and the Bluff: Back to Being a Band | MCP #321

    MAR 12

    The Brook and the Bluff: Back to Being a Band | MCP #321

    The Brook and the Bluff members Joseph Settine and Alec Bolton came over to talk about Werewolf, their new record - and a conscious departure from the studio experimentation of their last few releases. After years of working with producer Micah Tawlks - chasing sounds, layering tracks, driving a mobile studio into the mountains of north Georgia - they went back to the room. Five guys plugged in, reacting to each other live. Joseph calls it getting back to that 15-year-old teaching himself guitar in his bedroom. Alec calls it the thing that made it worth playing in the first place. The conversation also covers how drummer John Canada saved the band by showing up with his Type A brain and a question nobody else had thought to ask, why Birmingham is a sneaky music town, the tension between experimentation and identity, and Alec’s observation that the live show might be the last place where a group of people are fully present with each other. Then the full band played ”Can’t Figure It Out” and baby Zuzu got so amped she did the Arsenio arm from across the room. 🎥 Watch the full conversation on YouTube 🎸 Watch the Brook and the Bluff perform “Can’t Figure It Out AFTER THE CONVERSATION After the Conversation is my paid essay series where I keep thinking after the microphones are off. This week it's a short story loosely based on real life, that ends with a thought I think most musicians have had at least once: someday I will be glad I did this. I'll take a shower tomorrow. Get full access to Morse Code with Korby Lenker at korby.substack.com/subscribe

    57 min

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Deep talks, sharp performances and empowering revelations from musicians and writers, from East Nashville and beyond. Unpretentiously hosted by Korby Lenker. korby.substack.com

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