Curious Goldfish Podcast

Curious Goldfish Podcast

Curious Goldfish is a podcast about independent music and the people who make it. The name comes from two Ted Lasso episodes. In one, Ted tells a struggling player that the happiest animal on earth is a goldfish, because it has a 10-second memory. The lesson: forget the mistake and move forward. In another, Ted quotes Walt Whitman before a dart match: "Be curious, not judgmental." Both stuck with me. I can't sing. I don't play an instrument. But I've spent years being genuinely curious about people who write something honest and then perform it for strangers. How they do it. Why they keep doing it. What it costs. The guests are Americana, folk, roots, rock, and country artists who aren't on the radio and probably won't be. Some have 500 monthly listeners. Some have 100,000. The common thread is that they chose the independent path and they're figuring it out in real time. We cover songwriting, the business of music, the touring life, and the moments that made an artist who they are. The conversations keep getting better.

Episodes

October 10, 2026 • 44 mins
Lyal Strickland sold most of his cattle herd to make his first album in about ten years. Get the stories behind the episodes: https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Lyal Strickland's family has f...
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Michael Rudd went 30 years without writing a song. Then came four albums in three years. Get the stories behind the episodes -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Michael Rudd was principal o...
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October 1, 2026 • 24 mins
Sub Pop dropped her. That loss is exactly what made her new album possible. Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Shannon Lay says the day Sub Pop passed on her record f...
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What's in the Muscle Shoals water? A New York soul singer went to find out. Get the stories behind the episodes -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Days before releasing Forever Muscle Shoa...
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He can't hear the crowd, and he calls every song he writes a love song. Get the stories behind the episodes → https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Chris Pierce lost most of his hearing at fifte...
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August 23, 2026 • 29 mins
One of American roots music's most singular voices, caught in a season of not knowing. Get the stories behind the episodes → ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Abe Partridge has lived three lives to get here: ten years preaching, ten in ...
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He ran a Fortune 500 company and hid that he was a musician; He tells me why he returned to his first love. Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) George Barrett spent ye...
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She never sang a note in college. Now Shooter Jennings produces her. Get the stories behind the episodes -> Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Alicia Blue went to college to be a poet and had never played...
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A founding E Street Band bassist, fifty-five years in, still says he's no maestro. Get the stories behind the episodes -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Garry Tallent came off a long run ...
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She wrote her funniest song while crying in a grocery store. A songwriter with a PhD in breakups. Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Anna May got the breakup text on ...
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Seventeen records in, she is not sure the eighteenth is worth making. Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Michelle Malone got signed to Arista out of Atlanta in the la...
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Rhett Miller got the lifetime achievement award. He almost dreaded the speech. Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Rhett Miller has fronted the Old 97's for 33 years w...
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He spent 38 years pitching Nashville's legends. Almost none of them knew he wrote songs too. Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Lance Cowan spent close to four decade...
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They turned down the record deals their families begged them to sign. Twenty years later, still here. Get the stories behind the episodes -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Dwight Ritscher...
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He wrote a song about loss. Months later, his brother died. The song already knew. Get the stories behind the episodes -> https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Chris Trapper grew up the sixth of...
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A billion streams behind him, and it's the fan dinners that keep the tour out of the red. Get the stories behind the episodes → Subscribe to Chords of Curiosity ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Barns Courtney expected his North America...
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A freight-train hopper and a Juilliard cellist on staying married by letting each other change. Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Dave and Andrea of Cicada Rhythm met when he ste...
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A guitarist's guitarist on chasing craft over fame, and writing a song a week to outrun his inner critic Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) David Ryan Harris is the kind of musici...
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A blue-collar cowboy who spent a decade and his own money to earn a debut called 15 Seconds of Fame Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Matthias Lamparter took ten self-funded year...
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A plane-crash survivor on loving something that hurts, and keeping AI out of his lyrics Get the stories behind the episodes → curiousgoldfish.com ( https://www.curiousgoldfish.com/?modal=signup ) Barrett Baber built the album "Crittenden County" out of...
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