SHEROES Talkhouse Podcast Network

In this episode of SHEROES, host Carmel Holt welcomes fellow public radio SHERO and music critic Ann Powers to discuss her latest book, Traveling: On The Path of Joni Mitchell, her nearly decade-long journey writing it, her own story building a 30-year career, and the evolution of her relationship to Joni as an artist, and to her music.

Host Carmel Holt takes SHEROES on the road to Brandi Carlile's Mothership Weekend in Miramar Beach, Florida. Through conversations with Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, S.G. Goodman, and Brandi's co-curators and festival organizers, Topeka, we continue the ongoing conversation and inquiry into lack of inclusion on festival lineups (see last week's episode with Book More Women), discussion about touring artists who are mothers and how to make working conditions better for them, and what queer identity and visibility means in both music spaces and to the artists themselves.

The popular Instagram account Book More Women began tracking the statistical data for gender inclusivity on U.S. music festival lineups in 2018, and has grown to a following of over 16k over the last six years. The account has become hailed by the likes of Brandi Carlile, who says that founding her own festival (Girls Just Wanna Weekend) was directly inspired by seeing the data that Book More Women posts. The identity of the woman who runs this account and handles the hefty task of tracking this data has mostly been a mystery, and it took us five years to finally convince Abbey Carbonneau to join us for a SHEROES interview. In this not to miss conversation we learn about the methodology and inspiration behind Book More Women, and find out a bit about the passionate music fan that has single-handedly built it from the ground up, completely on a volunteer basis.

Colorado-born and Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Jobi Riccio released her critically-hailed debut album Whiplash last September and has just been nominated for her first Americana Music Award as Emerging Artist of the Year. She sits down with Carmel Holt to discuss the path she has been on since her early teens as a guitarist, the crucial mentorship and influence she has received from artists like Sarah Jarosz, her experience as a student at Berklee College of Music, and how she has finally learned to take up the space she deserves.

Australian singer-songwriter Grace Cummings joins Carmel Holt this week to talk about her stunner of a third album, Ramona, and her journey thus far. A self-taught guitarist who is also an actor, Grace was encouraged by a fellow musician friend to share her mighty voice on stage, and though at first reluctant, she discovered a love for performing and music that quickly landed her a U.S. record deal, and a newfound musical soulmate in producer Jonathan Wilson, who produced her new album.

Guitarist Gabriela Quintero joins Carmel Holt to discuss the latest Rodrigo y Gabriela album, In Between Thoughts... A New World, their sixth studio release and first since their 2019 Grammy-winning album Mettavolution. Gabriela takes us back to her earliest days of teaching herself to play guitar, discovering her love of rock and metal bands, and the chance meeting at fifteen with Rodrigo Sanchez that would eventually lead to forming their metal-influenced acoustic duo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and traveling around the world to playing some of the biggest stages.