Past  Episodes

In Episode 22 we talked about how Don Was and came to produce Bonnie Raitt’s best-selling, Grammy winning album “Nick of Time”, our cover set featured white artists covering Motown songs. Among the artists featured are Mary J Blige, Was (Not Was), Little Feat, Weezer, Radiohead, and Gorillaz just to name a few.

We paid tribute to the work of the late Robbie Robertson with and without The Band on episode 21 of The Can You Feel It Radio Show. The show featured his earliest songs from when The Band was serving as the back up to front man Ronnie Hawkins and even their early days as Levon and the Hawks. It went on to include songs from The Band and Robertson’s solo career. Also included were two exerpts from an interview Robertson did with The Broken Record podcast and an excerpt from the A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast about what the song “The Weight” is actually about.

Episode 20 featured our first listener submitted Top 5 list! Listener Kevin Manker of Adams, Tennessee submitted his Top 5 Rodeo Songs featuring George Strait, Red Steagall, Jerry Jeff Walker, Cody Johnson and Casey Donahew. We broke down the rodeo song and what makes it special and compared and contrasted it to the country song. Other artists featured were Jackie Venson, Stereophonics, G Love, Lyle Lovett, Darrell Scott and Edgar Winter’s White Trash.

A new recurring segment The Top 5 list, made its debut in episode 19. I submitted the first Top 5 list just to get the ball rolling but going forward all top-five lists will be submitted by listeners. My top five list was, “Top 5 Songs That Appear Together On An Album And Must Always Be Played Together”. It featured pairs of songs by ZZ Top, Reckless Kelly, Train, Dire Straits and BR5-49. Also featured were Steve Earle, Tyler Childers, Toni Price, The Verve, Emmylou Harris and more.

Episode 18 was a re-airing of a previous show that featured the very first installment of the recurring segment “Can You Steal it”. We compared the Mavericks song “Born to be Blue” with Nat King Cole’s “L-O-V-E” to see if the Mavericks might have taken a bit too much from Nat King Cole when they wrote their song. Steve Earle was featured in tonight’s cover set. Among the artists played were Patty Smyth, Crowded House, Joan As Police Woman, L Wilson, Marcia Ball and Smooth Hound Smith to name a few.

The 17th episode of Can You Feel It featured a cover set of hip-hop songs that took samples from rather unlikely sources. We talked about the Native Tongues Collective of hip-hop groups in the 1990s and we heard from Jungle Brothers, one of the members of the collective. We heard a set of guilty pleasures songs and talked about whether or not there is such a thing as a guilty pleasure. Other artists featured were Radiohead, The Chicks, The Wrights, Meghan Trainor and Joe Walsh and about 10 or so more.

The Beatles opened and closed episode 16. We heard a great collaboration between Todd Rundgren and Rivers Cuomo of Weezer which led into the cover set for the night which were all covers performed by Weezer. We even had a bit of grunge with the Screaming Trees. Other artist featured were The Brothers Johnson, The Black Keys, Todd Snider, Blackalicious, Lianne La Havas just to name a few.

Episode 15 was a re-aring of a two hour musical retrospective I did on the late singer/songwriter Jesse Winchester. I spoke with Jessie after a his show in Northampton, Massachusetts in November 2005. We discussed his life and his music and I interlaced the interview with Jesse’s music to create a musical history of the work of a true American artist.

Episode 14 featured, of all things, a set of four songs that highlighted yodeling in each one. Rodney Crowell’s new album was featured and the theme of the cover set was songs that had been written by one person has an instrumental and we’re covered by someone else who added lyrics. Other artists featured were James McMurtry, Jake Scott, John Hiatt, De La Soul, Arctic Monkeys and David Bowie made his first appearance on the show.

Episode 13 was this year’s Fourth of July show. My goal for the show was to avoid playing all of the cliché Fourth of July songs we always expect to hear on the radio, and we do we do, and play some less common songs that may be about the Fourth of July or may just be about our country and the concept of patriotism. Among the featured artists were Rodney Crowell, Randy Newman, Ozomatli, Paco Versailles, Robert Earl Keen and The Tubes

Episode 12 started with a track from Tommy Malone’s second solo LP and featured The Drive-By Truckers, John Cowan, Collective Soul and Humble Pie to name a few. The cover sent featured three Warren Zevon songs and I spent more time than I did on anything else that week trying to find the absolute best rendition of the last song he wrote and recorded; Keep Me In Your Heart. An excellent version by Welland, Ontario’s The Mandeville’s won the day.

Show number 11 featured return engagements from BR5-49, Glenn Walters, Lake Street Dive, Paramore and Aretha Franklin. Also featured were Ry Cooder, Meghan Trainor, G Love and Special Sauce, Fantastic Negrito and Cissy Houston and the Sweet Inspirations. The covers set featured three excellent Bruce Springsteen tracks by The Band, The Mavericks, and Big Head Todd & The Monsters

Due to a technical glitch Episode 10 aired on two consecutive weeks. Installment number two of Can You Steal It made it’s appearance on Episode 10 where Parker Millsap’s new single “So Far Apart” stood accused of taking too much from Wilco’s “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”. Other featured artists included The Devlins, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Australian Crawl, The Beatles, Ren and Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

Episode nine began with a strong dose of country music that included Angaleena Presley, Rodney Crowell, Marty Robbins, the Louvin Brothers and Kelly Willis. We also heard from The War and Treaty, Khrungbin feat. Leon Bridges, Del Amitri, Todd Rundgren and NRBQ Our cover set featured Al Green songs which included an excerpt from an interview I did with Tommy Malone of The Subdudes where he talked about the daunting task that is the covering of an Al Green song.

Episode eight began with three sets of minimalist rock which I soon abandoned as my tongue grew fatigued repeatedly saying "minimalist". The cover set featured covers I like of songs that I don't. Among the artists featured were Paramore, Joe Jackson, Amy Winehouse, Morphine, The Shins, The Meters, Say She She and Etta James to name a few.

Episode seven features nothing but songs that include a brass section. Not a single trumpet or a single saxophone but at least a three-piece brass section. That went for our set of cover songs as well. We also had sets of hip-hop and Latino music. Artists featured include Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band, Huey Lewis and the News, Public Enemy, The Buckinghams, Ojos De Brijo and Phil Collins.

Episode six starts out with country and goes on to feature sets of blue collar rock 'n' roll, my favorite top 40 songs of the week as well as a homemade mash up that combines the Avalanche's "Because I'm Me" and Honeycone's 70s soul hit "Want Ads”. Featured artists included BR5-49, Garth Brooks, The Kinks, Soon E Mc, The Roots, Hope TD Janelle Monáe and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.

In episode five we songs from every decade from the 1950s right through to the 2020s. We had a set of modern day Southern rock, a set of Elvis covers and two jazz guitarist who sing along with their picking. Some of the artists featured were Teresa Brewer, Betty Wright, Level 42, The Jam, The Beatles, Eric B & Rakim and Sonny Landreth

Episode number four ran the gamut from George and Tammy to Public Enemy. Aerosmith got the cover set and there seem to be a strong presence of Stax Records artists. Just some of the artists featured were John Cowan, Willie Dixon, Sam and Dave, Southern Avenue, 7Horse, Big Head Todd and the Monsters and Alt-J

In Episode three we talked about how Don Was and came to produce Bonnie Raitt’s best-selling, Grammy winning album “Nick of Time”, our cover set featured white artists covering Motown songs. Among the artists featured are Mary J Blige, Was (Not Was), Little Feat, Weezer, Radiohead, and Gorillaz just to name a few.