The Music Book Podcast

On this episode, Marc talks to Kip Lornell and Tom Mindte, co-authors of "Buzz Busby: Father of Washington, DC Bluegrass," published in June of 2026. It's a thorough and fascinating biography of the Bluegrass pioneer Buzz Busby, who moved from Louisiana to Washington DC as a teenager to work for the government, but quickly became an influential player and songwriter, starring on a daily local TV show, performing everywhere around the region, even participating in the show Louisiana Hayride when a budding young star named Elvis Presley was there.
Tom Mindte has worked on this project for decades, gathering recollections of Buzz and researching his life, as well as having played with Buzz himself in various groups. Kip Lornell is a professor and historian, particularly of DC music - in 2024, he wrote "Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, D.C.," which Mindte contributed to, and in 2009 he co-wrote "The Beat: Go-Go Music from Washington, D.C." with Charles Stephenson.
As they write, "This book is the result of some 20 years of research, including personal interviews with 35 of Buzz Busby's musical associates and family members. But a large part of the story is from the words of Busby himself, capture on tape in the mid-1980s...This quote from Busby sums up his view of his own life: "I started at the top and diligently worked my way to the bottom."
We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Kip Lornell and Tom Mindte!

On this episode, Marc talks with Ashley Kahn, author of "Days Of Miracle And Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland," released in August of 2026. It's an in-depth look at the making of Simon's classic 1986 album, in which he launched into a new style of songwriting and production, working with many African artists, sometimes in Africa, at a time when there was a loose cultural boycott due to the ongoing apartheid there. Kahn's book delves into how that situation was more complicated than headlines suggested, and is also a fascinating exploration of musical collaboration and how records were made at a time where analog and digital converged.
As Ashley writes, "It is challenging to describe a time when the world seemed to be moving in sync, toward a common good...Graceland served as a soundtrack to that time...[It] was music built on the priority of collaboration and what it locked into was the spirit of community. Simon's triumph was to achieve that, and to do it in a way that, for a moment, swung doors wide open, inviting all to celebrate.
We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ashley Kahn!

On this episode, Marc talks to Ira Robbins, editor of "Zip It Up! Too: More of the Best of Trouser Press Magazine, 1974-1984," published on his own Trouser Press Books. It's a follow up to 2024's "Zip It Up!," the first anthology of pieces from the legendary music magazine which Robbins co-founded and co-edited; I talked to him about that book when it came out, and you can hear our conversation in episode 31 which ran in March 2024. 
This second volume features more great articles from Trouser Press, as well as the full series of what they called "Autodiscographies," in which bands such as Blondie, John Cale, Iggy Pop, Sparks and more give guided tours through their own discographies as they stood at the time. The book also includes features divided into categories such as The Old Guard, New Wave and Beyond, and Characters, with fascinating pieces on artists from Paul McCartney to the Cure to Can to Duran Duran.
As Ira writes, "The story of Trouser Press resembles the story of a band. We met in high school, got things going in college, had fun for a while, met a lot of great people, made no money, broke up - and then got famous. We never had a clear sense of what the magazine meant to anyone until we stopped. Since 1984, I have been amazed by how durable a concept, a memory, an ideal Trouser Press turned out to be."
We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ira Robbins!

On this episode, Marc talks with John Davis, author of "Keep Your Ear to the Ground: A History of Punk Fanzines in Washington, DC," published in October of 2025. It's a thorough history of punk fanzines in DC from the 70s to the present day, focused on the stories of the people behind these publications and the way they both covered and influenced one of the most vital music scenes in the world. Davis gives time to small-run, more obscure zines that might otherwise have been lost to history, and shows how punk and indie in DC developed, changed, and continues to matter.
As John writes, "Without the photographers, concert promoters, volunteers, audio engineers, showgoers, record stores, and other key elements, there is no punk scene. This book examines another of those integral, yet under-explored, parts of DC punk – fanzines and the fans who made them."
Keep Your Ear to the Ground grew out of the work Davis has done as curator of Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland's Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, where he's been since 2013, and where he established the D.C. punk and indie fanzine collection, an archive of DC zines that continues to grow and is open to the public. Read more here:
https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/diy-dc-punk-and-indie-fanzine-collection-at-university-of-maryland-college-park-archives-deep-dive
We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with John Davis!

On this episode, Marc talks with Craig Robertson, author of "Chris Knox: Not Given Lightly," published in October of 2025 in New Zealand and available for pre-order now in the US. It's an incredibly thorough biography of the musician, artist, critic, and character who had so much influence on New Zealand indie music from the 70s until now, through his bands the Enemy, Toy Love, and Tall Dwarfs, as well as his huge role in the country's legendary indie label Flying Nun.
As Craig writes, "Knox deserves a biography because of the immense impact he’s had in New Zealand and overseas, largely through his music. But he’s also a critic, a cartoonist, a writer, an artist. And he’s an enormously colourful personality — opinionated, provocative, endlessly creative."
We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Craig Robertson!