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The Working Songwriter

American Aquarium

The Working Songwriter

Joe Pug

Performing Arts, Arts, Music, Music Interviews

4.91.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2016

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The force behind American Aquarium, BJ Barham, discusses growing up in Lucky Strike's company town, being accepted by the Texas Red Dirt community, and how to keep a band on the road for a decade. 

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the working songwriter, the show where today's best songwriters come to Talk Shop. I'm your host, Joe Pug. Each episode here,

0:23.1

we host a distinguished guest, and we ask them to go deep on their inspiration, on their

0:28.2

process, and on the general ups and downs of making a life in music. So, whether you're a grizzled

0:36.5

veteran, desperately pulling up a Wikipedia page in a bar

0:40.4

to prove that you did in fact co-write a Matchbox 20 single, or else a scrappy upstart, perceiving

0:48.9

slights with the very best of it. This is your show. Because ultimately, it is what every writer seeks most,

0:57.4

an ironclad excuse to put off actually writing.

1:07.0

Hey, everybody, thanks again for joining us.

1:10.1

It has been an eventful month since I last spoke to you. To address the elephant in the room, I have nothing at the moment to say about the election of Donald Trump. My thoughts on him are well documented, so I'll spare you the recap.

1:30.1

And anything further that I have to say about his election,

1:33.0

I'll just be weaving into an album that I'm writing presently,

1:38.2

hopefully for release next year.

1:40.5

In our community this last month, we bid a fond and grateful farewell to Leon Russell, Sharon Jones, and the mighty Leonard Cohen.

1:51.5

Also in our community this month, we have a member in need.

1:55.9

Savannah Welch, member of the Austin band The Trishas, daughter of songwriter Kevin Welch, and sister of songwriter Dustin Welch,

2:05.0

suffered a catastrophic accident this last month that required amputation of one of her legs.

2:11.6

You can pitch in to help her and her family by visiting GoFundMe and finding the page,

2:19.0

Love for Savannah Welch, set up by Jenny Finlay.

2:22.5

Even if you don't know her personally,

2:24.3

even if you only have five bucks to give,

2:27.2

please stop by and do so.

2:29.4

This is our community,

...

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