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PODCAST

Caropop

There may be nothing more inspiring and entertaining than relaxed, candid conversations among creative people. Mark Caro, a relentlessly curious journalist and on-stage interviewer, loves digging into the creative process with artists and drawing out surprising stories that illuminate the work that has become part of our lives. The Caropopcast is for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the music, movies, food and culture that they love.

music music interviews

All Episodes

52:37

Don Was, Pt. 1 (Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, B-52's)

Caropop ·

2024/12/05

His ‘80s band Was (Not Was) scored a top 10 hit, “Walk the Dinosaur,” but Don Was has had an even greater impact on the music world as a producer. In 1989 he produced two big comebacks: Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning Nick of Time and “Love Shack” and other songs on the B-52’s Cosmic Thing. Then came work with Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Willie Nelson and—in a long, fruitful collaboration—the Rolling Stones. He’s got amazing stories detailing his Stones job interview and the origin of Cindy Wilson’s cry of

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2:45

Caropop Happy Thanksgiving 2024

Caropop ·

2024/11/28

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you so much for listening to Caropop since our launch in the fall of 2021. We’re now 157 episodes and more than three years in, and we can’t wait to share more great conversations about creative work with you. Please enjoy this brief message from the Caropop team, and take this opportunity to catch up on any episodes you may have missed, and we'll be back with another fantastic guest next week. Thanks!

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60:55

Graham Gouldman (10cc)

Caropop ·

2024/11/21

Graham Gouldman already had written classic ‘60s hits—including the Yardbirds’ “For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul,” the Hollies’ “Bus Stop” and “Look Through Any Window” and Herman’s Hermits’ “No Milk Today”—by the time he and Manchester schoolmates Lol Creme and Kevin Godley plus ex-Mindbender Eric Stewart formed one of the '70s’ most tuneful, innovative bands, 10cc. These four singer-songwriters made four distinct, head-spinning albums, with Stewart and Gouldman’s hypnotic “I’m Not in Love”

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77:53

Grant Achatz on Charlie Trotter

Caropop ·

2024/11/14

“It felt like I just stepped into a rodeo, and they shut the gate behind me.” That’s how Grant Achatz describes his first day of working in the kitchen of Charlie Trotter’s, then considered one of the world’s finest restaurants. The future 3-Michelin-star Alinea chef was just 21 in the summer of 1995 when he convinced Trotter to give him a shot at his namesake Chicago restaurant. But Achatz did not have a positive experience and left after a few months, moving on to a longer tutelage under Chef

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53:46

Susan Cowsill

Caropop ·

2024/11/07

Susan Cowsill was the kid sister of the family band the Cowsills, and she made an indelible impression singing “and spaghetti’d!” on the Cowsills’ 1968 hit version of “Hair.” Jump to the 1990s, and she was singing and, for the first time, writing songs in the indie supergroup the Continental Drifters, which also included her friend Vicki Peterson of the Bangles and Peter Holsapple of the dB’s. With the Drifters having a resurgence with a new book and compilations—and with Susan still performing with

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76:54

Sima Cunningham (Finom)

Caropop ·

2024/10/31

Sima Cunningham has had two albums released this year: Not God from Finom, her band with fellow Chicago singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Macie Stewart; and a long-gestating solo project, High Roller. With Finom kicking off a tour this weekend and a solo album launch and a Roches-themed show coming up, Cunningham is enjoying the culmination of a lifetime of music-making and collaboration. Here she recalls growing up in a musical and artistic household; tells of her sibling-like connection with

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52:13

Iain Matthews (Fairport Convention)

Caropop ·

2024/10/24

Iain Matthews was an early member of the pioneering British folk-rock band Fairport Convention, singing on its first two albums and leaving during the recording of the third one, Unhalfbricking. Since then this singer-songwriter has formed other bands — Matthews Southern Comfort, Plainsong — and released much solo work, including the just-released How Much Is Enough. He has scored some hits — Southern Comfort’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” his 1979 solo song “Shake It”—and says he has

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51:25

Joan Osborne

Caropop ·

2024/10/17

Joan Osborne is best known for a certain big hit yet has amassed an impressive career since then. Her latest album, Nobody Owns You, may be her most personal yet, with songs about her mother’s Alzheimer’s, the impact of time spent in “Too Many Airports” and the title track addressed to her daughter. Yet she remains as enthusiastic interpreting others’ songs as her own. One early such song, Eric Bazilian’s “One of Us,” initially was intended for another singer (Osborne does an excellent impression

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57:39

Scott Lucas (Local H)

Caropop ·

2024/10/10

When the young Zion, Ill., band Local H shrunk from four members to two, leader Scott Lucas decided he liked the guitar-and-drums attack and has stuck with it for more than 30 years. Local H has had its moments of popularity (the 1996 album As Good As Dead and single “Bound for the Floor”), critical triumphs that fell short commercially (1998’s dazzling concept album Pack Up the Cats) and subsequent albums that showcase Lucas’ smart, melodic songwriting, his formidable vocal and guitar chops, and

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96:18

Mark Caro, by Steve Dawson

Caropop ·

2024/10/03

To mark Episode 150 of Caropop, we’re doing something different. My friend Steve Dawson— an awesome singer-songwriter who was my guest back on Episode 10, as well as my co-author on Take It to the Bridge: Unlocking the Great Songs Inside You—said he wanted to turn the tables and interview me for an episode. So here we go, with Steve probing me on what drove me to become a newspaper writer and, eventually, to launch Caropop. We discuss the importance of curiosity, the keys to interviewing

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55:29

Isaac Slusarenko (Jackpot Records)

Caropop ·

2024/09/26

This week’s episode takes us behind the scenes of an independent record label and record store out of Portland, Oregon: Jackpot Records, with its founder Isaac Slusarenko. He opened the store in 1997 as a place that was all about music, no T-shirts or candles. He launched the label in 2004 with a vinyl edition of the 1971 self-titled psychedelic soul album by Beauregard, a Portland wrestler, followed by albums by local rockers the Wipers. With repeat Caropop guest Kevin Grey providing the all-analog

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74:57

John Stirratt (Wilco, The Autumn Defense)

Caropop ·

2024/09/19

Immediately after Uncle Tupelo co-leaders Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy parted ways 30 years ago, bassist John Stirratt and his fellow bandmates followed Tweedy into a new band, Wilco. Now Stirratt and Tweedy are the only members left from that original lineup, and Stirratt reflects on Wilco’s exciting, turbulent early years as well as the more stable past two decades with the same lineup. Then there’s Stirratt’s other band, the Autumn Defense, which he and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone (who joined

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82:56

Steve Wynn: Rockin' Author

Caropop ·

2024/09/12

The Dream Syndicate/Baseball Project singer-songwriter-guitarist just released a new memoir, I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True, and solo album, Make It Right. But Steve Wynn’s second Caropop visit is no mere rehash of his book and career. He loves talking about music, and our subjects this time include the guitars that got away, the fun of hunting for obscure records in the pre-digital era, and his 1981 pilgrimage to Memphis to track down Big Star’s Alex Chilton. Wynn also shares his perspective

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57:29

Jeff McDonald (Redd Kross)

Caropop ·

2024/09/05

Jeff McDonald’s band Redd Kross is marking its 45th anniversary this year, which is all the more impressive given that the singer-songwriter-guitarist is barely in his 60s. Jeff and his younger brother, bassist Steven, started the band in their teens, and their songs are as catchy and powerful as ever on their new self-titled double album. (A Redd Kross documentary and memoir also are out this year.) As you’d expect from someone whose love of music bursts from every power chord, massive hook and

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1:44

Caropop End of Summer Message

Caropop ·

2024/08/15

Wanted to let you know that we’re taking the last three weeks of August off, and we’ll be back the Thursday after Labor Day, Sept. 5, all refreshed and ready with a new Caropop conversation. In the meantime, we encourage you to explore our back catalog. There are 145 episodes, after all.Have you listened to Ep. 102 with jazz-R&B pianist/singer/composer Patrice Rushen? How about Ep. 90 with Suzzy Roche of the Roches? Or Ep. 88 with Eddie “King” Roeser of Urge Overkill? Or Eps. 24 and 25 with,

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42:01

Steve Cropper & Jimmy James

Caropop ·

2024/08/08

When I spoke with guitarist Jimmy James a few weeks ago for Caropop Ep. 143, he cited Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the M.G.’s. as a key inspiration. Listen to James’ work with the organ trio Parlor Greens and, before that, the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, and you hear how he, like Cropper, is a rhythmic guitarist who never overplays yet can make your head spin. I told James I’d love to hear him to interview Cropper, and he said that would be a dream come true. Turns out, the 82-year-old Cropper, my

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77:32

Dan Zanes

Caropop ·

2024/08/01

Dan Zanes enjoyed a good run with the Boston band the Del Fuegos but had no idea what broader, more enthusiastic audiences awaited him when he began making “family music” with friends such as Sheryl Crow and Suzanne Vega. The Dan Zanes and Friends albums and concerts got fans young and old dancing and singing along—and earned him a Grammy Award. Now he and his wife, Claudia Zanes, have a new album, Pieces of Home (out Aug. 30), as the couple continues expanding its reach through sensory-friendly

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69:34

Jimmy James (Parlor Greens, True Loves)

Caropop ·

2024/07/25

Jimmy James is a fantastic, funky guitarist who never plays more than is needed yet can seize any moment. This Seattle native is a longtime member of the big soul-funk band True Loves but may have been best known for his standout work in the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio. He left that group (and discusses his departure here) and now plays in a new, all-star organ trio, Parlor Greens, with Hammond player Adam Scone of the Sugarman 3 and drummer Tim Carman of GA-20. Its new album, In Green/We Dream, came

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59:40

Chris Stein (Blondie)

Caropop ·

2024/07/18

Guitarist Chris Stein was a driving force behind Blondie and, with longtime songwriting/personal partner Debbie Harry, co-wrote many of its classic songs, including “Rip Her to Shreds,” “Heart of Glass,” “Dreaming,” “The Hardest Part” and “Rapture.” His passion for exploration pushed Blondie beyond its punk roots into disco, pop, reggae and rap, and in this conversation we dig into the details. What struck him most about Harry’s voice and songwriting? Where did Blondie fit amid the art-punk CBGB

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73:12

Pete Best (The Beatles)

Caropop ·

2024/07/11

After a fluky financial windfall, Mona Best bought a Victorian mansion in Liverpool, opened the Casbah Coffee Club in the cellar, and the Quarrymen, an early version of the Beatles, became the resident band. When the Beatles needed a drummer for their 1960 Hamburg residency, they called on Mona's son Pete. Pete Best became a key player in the Beatles' evolution before being unceremoniously replaced by Ringo Starr on the eve of the band's EMI recording sessions. Here, in vivid detail, he recalls

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203 results

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