Frets with DJ Fey
Interviews with great musicians who play guitar. A place to hear their story and their music.
Episodes
Martin Belmont was about 11 or 12 years old, a kid growing up in England, when he asked his parents to buy him a guitar. The first record he got was “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley. Around that time, The Shadows, out of London, were a popular instrumental group. America had The Ventures, England had The Shadows. Young Martin was fascinated by the look and sound of Hank Marvin’s Fender Stratocaster. In art school, Marti...
Back in 2022, I talked with Ben Vaughn, whose music and radio show I’ve been a fan of for years. Ben has enjoyed a great career as a performer, songwriter, composer for film and TV, and record producer. He’s produced records by Ween, Arthur Alexander, and Charlie Feathers, and also collaborated with Alan Vega, Alex Chilton and Los Straitjackets. His songs have also been recorded by artists including Marshall Crenshaw, Th...
“Wasted Wonderland” serves as the title of a great compilation of songs by Bob Collum. A singer-songwriter and guitarist, Bob grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, then spent a couple years in Chicago before making a big change. In 2001, he moved to the UK. Bob’s music had already been getting airplay in Europe and not long after moving there, he formed The Welfare Mothers. He also made a lot of friends and connections in England’...
John McFee formed San Francisco-based band Clover in the ’60s. Their first, self-titled album on Fantasy came out in 1970. Several years later, they came to realize some key people in the UK pub rock scene were big fans of their music. Nick Lowe, Brinsley Schwarz and also drummer Pete Thomas, who called Clover to see if they would audition for the up and coming Declan MacManus, who would soon change his name to Elvis Cos...
Multi-instrumentalist Maia Sharp has written songs for the likes of Cher, Bonnie Raitt, Trisha Yearwood, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal and Art Garfunkel, just to name a few. Hailing from L.A., Maia is currently based in Nashville, often collaborating with many musicians and songwriters in that creative community. She also collaborates often with her dad, three-time Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter and guitarist Randy Sharp. ...
Daniel Ash, along with Peter Murphy and brothers Kevin and David Haskins, formed Bauhaus, a band who were pioneers of goth rock. Their debut single, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” is considered by many to be the first record of the gothic-rock genre. They released five studio albums, and during that period, Daniel and Kevin formed the post-punk band Tones on Tail in the early 1980s. In 1985, David Haskins, now as David J, rejoin...
Vicki Peterson played lead guitar and sang vocals for The Bangles. Vicki was also in The Continental Drifters and the Psycho Sisters, both with Susan Cowsill. John Cowsill is the youngest brother in The Cowsills, a family band who had a string of hits including “The Rain, The Park & Other Things” for which they received a gold record. John went on to play percussion and provide backing vocals on “867-5309/Jenny” with...
Rebecca Pidgeon has enjoyed a long, successful career as a singer-songwriter and guitarist as well as a very successful career in film as an actress. Her songs have also appeared in major motion pictures. Born in the U.S., she moved with her family at a very young age to Edinburgh, Scotland and later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She became lead singer of the band Ruby Blue, but left and released ...
Crispian Mills was born into a family of actors, film producers and directors. He was exposed to a wide variety of music, but when he heard “You Really Got Me“ by The Kinks, it was an epiphany – he knew he wanted to play guitar. Through determination and practice, he became a great guitarist. He loved Deep Purple. He loved The Ramones. He played in bands including X-Ray Spex before forming Kula Shaker in 1996. Their debu...
Chris Stamey’s new album Anything is Possible releases Friday, July 11. Musicians who contributed to this record include The Lemon Twigs, Matt Douglas of The Mountain Goats, Marshall Crenshaw, Don Dixon, Probyn Gregory and more. It features long-time friend and collaborator Mitch Easter – Chris sings, plays keyboards, guitar and bass and…he wrote the orchestrations.
It was great to talk with Chris about his earl...
Jefferson Hart and his stepdaughters Lila and Ella are Secret Monkey Weekend, a family band who were the subject of an Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary. Jeff plays guitar, Lila plays drums, Ella plays bass and all three provide wonderful vocals and harmony. The documentary tells the story of how the band came to be, through loss and heartbreak – but also of a family coming together and bonding over their love of music ...
Over the years, Don Dixon has produced some of the greatest albums of all time. Records by R.E.M., Marshall Crenshaw, The Smithereens, Guadalcanal Diary and Let’s Active. He’s also produced albums by his wife, Marti Jones. Marti is a wonderful singer songwriter as well as a fine artist whose work graced the cover of White Noise & Lightning: The Continental Drifters Story. Don and Marti are great musicians and I’ve be...
I was a big fan of Guadalcanal Diary, so when Murray Attaway appeared on Frets back in 2022, I could hardly believe I was talking with their lead singer and main songwriter. The band released four major label albums throughout the 1980s and Murray went on to record In Thrall, a solo album that features Jackson Browne, Nicky Hopkins, Jim Keltner, Aimee Mann, Steve Nieve, Sid Page and Benmont Tench among others. Murray has...
In June of 2024, I talked with Peter Holsapple about the reissues of two classic albums by the dB’s – “Stands for Decibels” and “Repercussion”. I had the pleasure of talking to Peter again recently, this time about his soon to be released solo album, The Face of 68. The song you’re hearing, “Larger than Life” , is the first single from that album. It was great to catch up with Peter to hear about his very busy 2024, the ...
Paul Rappaport is an accomplished guitarist who first heard guitar when he was a kid in California, watching a live local TV show featuring country guitar players…a show that was broadcast from a huge L.A. car lot. He learned to play, fell in love with the instrument and by high school was playing in bands. While attending college at UCLA, Paul got a job offer. A very appealing offer from Columbia Records. The position s...
Steve Wynn has released well over 30 albums during the last 25 years, with his bands The Dream Syndicate, Danny & Dusty, Gutterball, The Miracle 3, The Baseball Project and more with quite a few solo records in the mix.
He’s played over 2,000 shows in more than 25 countries and his songs have been recorded and/or performed by R.E.M., Luna, Concrete Blonde, The Black Crowes, Yo La Tengo and Eleventh Dream Day...
When Chuck Mead was a young boy, he and his sister moved with their parents to Lawrence, Kansas. He got a drum kit as a gift when he was 12, and soon after started playing in the family’s band. It was made up of his mom, his dad, his grandparents and uncles who played country and western, and Chuck would also sing songs by Carl Perkins and Elvis.
An uncle taught Chuck how to play guitar and by high school, he w...
It was a wonderful experience talking with someone I've admired for so long. I love her songs, I love her voice. And she’s just incredibly cool. In additional to her solo work, there’s such a long list of great bands and artists she’s performed with.
A list that includes – Pat Benatar, The dB’s, The Del-Lords, Dave Alvin, The Golden Palominos, Marshall Crenshaw, Van Dyke Parks, Vic Chesnutt, Wilco, Richard Thompson a...
While growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a young Beth Bombara took piano lessons in grade school. By the time she was entering high school, she had become interested in another instrument: her Mom’s electric guitar. She formed a punk band, Green Means Go, wrote some songs with her bandmates, and before long was playing for local audiences and gaining a loyal following. After attending college in both Michigan and Ill...
The dB’s debut album Stands for Decibels was released in 1981, the album was praised by critics and over time, came to be loved by many fans who consider it a landmark power pop jangle classic. Stands for Decibels has now been reissued through Propeller Sound Recordings digitally and on CD, but also for the first time in the US on vinyl. My guest today on Frets is singer-songwriter, keyboardist, guitarist, multi-instrume...
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