Rob Nichols

I thought it might be simple.  Who were some of my favorite roots rock bands from the 1980’s and 90’s?  And why?  This episode turned into a deep dive into what still feels like it was only skimming along the surface of a genre that was hot for about five years and before fading back into where it was before, into a mostly forgotten sub-genre that I still love. “Roots Rock” was a name that was branded on a sound that came of age in the mid-’80s. Some guitar rawness.  Some harmonies. Roots rock had twang and guitars and drums. … Read more

A band named Truth and Salvage Co. was formed in 2005, made a couple of albums, and broke up only to return in 2022 with a lost album that was released – again – with a sound that it should have always had. Late in 2022, the band came back, finding a nice way to revisit a career that sputtered and eventually splintered. It was 2009 when Black Crowes Chris Robinson signed the group to his label and gave them the opening slot on his band’s tour that year. The band released its debut album (produced by Robinson) on May 2010.  … Read more

Rock hits but not Top 40 hits?  What’s that really mean? We take a listen to some great throwbacks to a time when rock radio was more than day-after-day classic rock, same song, repeat cycle that it is today.  Go back to when album rock stations (and for a brief time, Rock40 stations) made the radio a place for listeners to find a little bit of variety – and get surprised – with their rock and roll.  We hear songs that were hits on rock radio but not top 40, and one track that was a top 40 hit and … Read more

Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the studios there helped create some of the most important and resonant songs in rock and roll. On this episode, we look back at bit of the history of the Muscle Shoals sound, a trio of FAME Studio house bands, including the great “Swampers”, and how Detroit’s Bob Seger fused their sound with his heartland rock to produce some underappreciated but great songs – and one song (“Old Time Rock and Roll”) that has been played way too much, burned deeply into our music brains, but whose story – from writing … Read more

Pat Todd has been called the most sincere rock and roll singer/songwriter on the planet.  His first group, the LA-based Lazy Cowgirls, called it quits in 2004 after nearly 25 years together. Pat Todd, raised in Indiana, formed a new band, the Rankoutsiders. In them, I hear Jason and The Scorchers, the Georgia Satellites in their prime, cowpunk, and gassed up the guitars with bang-bang-bang drums, all driven in 5th gear. How had I not heard of Pat Todd until 2022?  I have no idea.  But now I have and find a need to share it with my rock and roll … Read more

The passing of Jerry Lee Lewis signifies the passing of one of the few remaining architects of rock and roll. That piano and that voice, recorded in a way that sounds like dim light, beers, AM radio rock and roll, cigarette smoke, and always the underlying idea that a fight might break out.  He made music filled with gospel roots, country music, piano boogie woogie, fire, preaching, loving, sexing, and edge-of-explosion rock and roll.  We dig into his career and find the rockabilly beginnings.  The rock and roll detonation.  The country hits.  The duets and collaborators.  And the attitude.  Always … Read more

Bar band swagger. Like many Minneapolis artists we have been talking about, there were a number of rock and roll bands that paid lots of night-after-night dues in rock clubs and van tours.  They too recorded critically-acclaimed, small-label indie albums before eventually landing a big deal. Or not. Artists – Just like Prince did – heard themselves on top 40 radio stations alongside other cuts from bands playing something different than their core sound, and artists took part of those sounds as their own.  Styles weaving into each. Grabbing something from another band and slipping that sound into their own … Read more

There are small towns known for a musical signature – a sound that you call the Bakersfield sound or the Muscle Shoals sound. There are sounds and bands and vibes tied to big cities like zydeco drums and street sounds of New Orleans, the funk and gloss of the Motown Sound of Detroit, and the stew of garage rock into new wave that was Boston.  Like the swampy soul of Memphis, the sound of the 90’s grunge and alternative rock in Seattle, and the 60’s and 70’s groove and soul with Philadelphia. There is a significant Minneapolis influence of the … Read more

This particular podcast episode found its inspiration in one of the Spotify-exclusive Rock Pop and Roll Radio Shows that we’ve made. They live on Spotify and were created to give me a chance to make an old-school radio show. Listen for 90 minutes to one and hear stories plus the whole song, something we don’t do on the podcast. A callback to the great radio of the 70’s and 80’s.   I was working on a podcast about Minneapolis roots rock/heartland rock bands and how they were oddly influential in the 1980’s musical landscape.  Then I remembered this Prince Spotify radio … Read more

Take a minute to think about Joan Jett.  More than one song.  More than just “I Love Rock and Roll”, as great as that radio song is.  She’s called “The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “The Godmother of Punk.”   Let’s think about the rock and roll in her catalog and the influences she ultimately passed along.  In the podcast, we talk about her career and how – somehow – she’s may even be a bit undervalued as one of the rock and roll greats. Jett’s self-titled solo debut was released in Europe in 1980. In the US,  the is … Read more