Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond Pushkin

On today's episode Justin Richmond sits down with Alex Kurland, the director of programming at New York City's legendary jazz venue, The Blue Note. Alex has been booking extraordinary talent at The Blue Note since 2011, as well as producing their annual festival in Napa, CA. On today's episode Alex talks about some of the incredible talent he's booked at the club including their regular artist-in-residence Robert Glasper. And he talks about that time he booked a series of shows with Jazz legend Bob James (who is one of the most oft-sampled musicians), to play along with Slick Rick, Talib Kweli and Rakim.

Amanda Shires is a Texas-born singer/songwriter who got her start at 15 when she joined Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys on fiddle. After starting her solo career in 2005, Shires continued to play with a number of other bands including her husband Jason Isbell's band, the 400 Unit. In 2019, she started the all-female country supergroup The Highwomen, which includes Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Maren Morris.

After the 2022 release of Amanda Shires’ seventh solo album, Take It Like A Man, she released an album of covers with the late Bobbie Nelson—who’s primarily known for playing piano in her younger brother Willie Nelson’s band. Amanda initially enlisted Bobbie to play on her version of Willie’s classic, “You Were Always On My Mind,” but they continued to record together. The resulting collection of songs became the album Loving You, which was released this past June, nearly a year after Bobbie’s death.

On today’s episode Justin Richmond talks to Amanda Shires about Bobbie Nelson’s unfortunate start in the music business. Amanda also talks about why she feels more comfortable singing about society’s big issues alongside The Highwomen. And she remembers the time she went to Vegas and gambled away all her band’s tour money—only to win it all back after playing craps through the night.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Amanda Shires songs HERE.
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Today we are sharing an episode of one of our favorite shows on the Pushkin network, Talk Easy, hosted by Sam Fragoso. In this episode Sam talks to the renowned Swedish music producer and composer, Ludwig Göransson.

Ludwig is a Grammy and Academy award winning producer and composer who scored Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, The Mandalorian, and most recently he scored Christopher Nolan's epic, Oppenheimer. He’s also produced records and wrote songs for HAIM, Rihanna, Adele, and Childish Gambino.

He's a truly talented musician who's reenergizing modern films compositions. We hope you enjoy this chat as much as we do!
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DJ Drama is one of the most iconic mixtape DJs of all time. His legendary Gangsta Grillz tapes helped propel artists like T.I. and Young Jeezy to stardom. His classic Dedication series reinvigorated Lil’ Wayne’s career in the early and mid-2000s.

By 2007, the underground mixtape market was booming. But in January of that year DJ Drama and his longtime business partner Don Cannon were arrested by federal agents and charged with bootlegging and racketeering. The much publicized raid only boosted DJ Drama’s profile. In the years since, DJ Drama has built a successful record label and he’s continued to make mixtapes. Tyler The Creator even crafted his latest album, Call Me If You Get Lost, with DJ Drama’s classic adlibs all over it. It won the Grammy for best rap album in 2022.

That same year though, while DJ Drama was professionally at the height of his success, personally he was battling an addiction to opioids—an ongoing struggle he’s only recently started to talk about publicly.

On today’s episode Leah Rose talks to DJ Drama about how he got sober after being what he calls “a functioning junkie” who spent six figures a year on opioids. He also tells the story of how Lil Jon recorded his iconic “gangsta grillz” drops in Drama’s laundry room. And Drama explains why he decided to sign Lil Uzi Vert and Jack Harlow to his Atlantic Records imprint, Generation Now.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite DJ Drama songs HERE.
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Johnny Marr is an acclaimed British guitarist who’s played with a ton of bands including, most famously, The Smiths. Marr started playing guitar as a young teenager growing up in Manchester. When he turned 15 he dropped out of school and moved to London to join the band Sister Ray.

A couple years later he would help form The Smiths with Morrissey, Mike Joyce, and Marr’s friend and bassist, Andy Rourke. After The Smiths broke up in 1987, Marr went on to collaborate with an array of different musicians and play in bands like The Pretenders, The The, and Modest Mouse. In the early aughts, Marr started releasing solo material, and he’s on the brink of releasing a new album of his greatest hits.

On today’s episode Justin Richmond talks to Johnny Marr about his exciting work scoring movies with Pharrell and Hans Zimmer. Marr also recalls the terror he felt performing live in front of stadiums full of fans with The Pretenders on U2’s Joshua Tree tour. And he talks about the time he bought a Fender Stratocaster while hanging out with Oasis’ Noel Gallager. That Strat has nine pickups and it eventually led to him writing one the best songs of his solo career.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Johnny Marr songs HERE.
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This month we're sharing an exclusive preview of a conversation Bruce Headlam had with the country and bluegrass star, Marty Stuart. Bruce and Marty sat down at Bridge Studios in Brooklyn and Marty shared stories about first going on the road at 12 years-old to play mandolin with the Sullivan Family Gospel Singers, to eventually joining Johnny Cash’s touring band. And Marty talks about how a star studded studio session with Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis gave him the confidence to pursue a solo career in country music.

Please enjoy this exclusive first listen of Bruce Headlam with Marty Stuart, from Brooklyn.