Phil Madeira Part 2: Jazz, Scapegoats, & Resolution

John Thompson 1 Comment February 17, 2021

Phil Madeira, Part Two

Jazz, Scapegoats, Resolution, and Playing with Excellence

Host John J. Thompson is back in the living room of writer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and artist Phil Madeira (Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, John Scofield,) to talk about his recent solo projects, Providence, Crickets, Open Heart, and Hornet’s Nest as they wrap up this wide-ranging chat. The conversation gets into pretty deep waters right out of the gate, with Phil sharing some very vulnerable context about personal relationship challenges, the pain that came with the loss of a loved one, his own search for answers, and his commitment to staying true to his calling and how that has shaped his work as an artist. We’ll ruffle some feathers on this one, no doubt, but that’s what art is supposed to do, right?

The Red Dirt Boys in concert at The Wild Goose Festival in 2018 (Phil Madeira, Brian Owings, Will Kimbrough, Chris Donohue)

On the True Tunes Jukebox, we’ll take a deep dive into those recent solo albums, listening closely to some really interesting, and complicated, contemporary jazz-inflected Americana music and how it might help us find resolution in the midst of these complicated times. Don’t miss the special corresponding “mixtape” curated by Madeira for this episode!

On the Soapbox, we’ll contemplate Psalm 33 as it admonishes us to “play as unto the Lord” – and consider what might that might really mean.

Madeira played Guest DJ for us and pulled together this special 44 song mix for our weekly True Tunes Gallery Stage Mixtape on Spotify. Check it out here: