The Music Book Podcast

On this episode, Marc talks with Michael Rancic, author of "A Nation of Tinkerers: A History of Electronic Music in Canada from 1945 to 1985," released in August of 2026. It's a fascinating and detailed look at the way electronic music evolved in Canada after World War II, from the early innovators who created new technology in academic settings, to the way various genres made strides in using electronics, from reggae to hip-hop to disco to novelty music. 
As Michael writes, "From wartime labs of the NRC to the basement studios of bedroom producers, this is a story of access and its absence, of play and resistance. It's a reminder that the sounds shaping Canadian music today – from the pop charts to the avant-garde – were built not in isolation, but through a persistent, collective, and very human act of tinkering."
You can buy Michael's book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-nation-of-tinkerers-a-history-of-electronic-music-in-canada-from-1945-to-1985-michael-rancic/
We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Michael Rancic!

On this episode, Marc talks with Josephine Reisman, author of "The Last Temptation of Beck: The Untold Story of a Pop Messiah," released in September of 2026. It's a portrait of Beck during the 90s and early 2000s, the way his music and persona changed over that time,and it goes deep into his ties with Scientology, and how his moving in and out of that culture multiple times might have effected his life as an artist and public figure, as well as the lives of those around him.
As Josephine writes, "When I began this investigation, I thought I was reporting a political story, a work of recent history. What I found instead was a story that was timelier than I could have imagined – albeit not in the ways I expected. The story of Beck in the nineties and early years of this century turned out to be rooted in questions of disinformation, belief, and conspiracy, of who deserves our trust and what it means when our trust is betrayed, questions we grapple with only more today, in our age of malleable facts and unreliable media."
We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Josephine Riesman!

On this episode, Marc talks with Steven Hyden, author of "Is This It: The Never Ending Rise and Fall of The Strokes (And Rock ‘n’ Roll)," released in September of 2026. It's a look at the career and impact of this New York band who got huge waves of attention when their first album, Is This It, came out in 2001, and have since had a kind of up and down career both commercially and critically. Hyden's book is as much cultural analysis and criticism as it is biography, delving into the way rock and roll itself has changed over the last 25 years, and tackling some bigger philosophical questions about what all of this means.
As Steven writes, "A quarter century after they were heralded as "the coolest band on the planet" by one especially overexcited British music magazine, the Strokes remain a Rorschach test. The aspirations and the biases of the behloder give shape to their otherwise uneven and amorphous body of work. Did the Strokes peak early and fail to live up to lofty expectations? Or did music culture change in such a profound way at the turn of the century that those expectations were already anachronistic by the time Is This It entered record stores?"
We hope you enjoy Marc's chat with Steven Hyden!

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!