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When what I thought was anxiety and depression was diagnosed as PTSD last fall, I suddenly saw trauma and its impact all around me: I noticed how little we talk about it, and remembered Fred Rogers’ oft-repeated mantra, “What’s mentionable is manageable.” And when my friend and neighbor, Senator Sarah McBride, reminded me on our…

The very first thing outgoing Online News Association CEO, Irving Washington, remembers buying with his own money was a $400 video camera for a local Indianapolis thrift store. “The big camera with VHS,” he tells me, laughing. “The one you put on your shoulder.” For “hours and hours,” Irving would “create shows” and sketch comics…

Whether as touring guitarist for the avant garde rockers, Psychic TV, or producer for artists like Boy George, Lenny Kaye, Pharoahe Monch, Jeff Berner makes a safe, creative space for those around him to make great art.  “Unless you’re the most self-assured, confident person in your own artistic capability, at some point, you’re going to…

It wasn’t until Friday morning, some 35 years after writing my first song and scarcely eight hours prior to the first on-stage performance of my new album, Constellations, that it occurred to me that songwriting is (for me, anyway) pure alchemy.  What begins in and is typically an expression of sadness and isolation, becomes, with…

In college, my favorite rock shows were blurry, buzzy, glorified keggers with three-dollar Solo cups, a rickety attic and a winning lineup of bands. By the end of the night, we were all playing together, the audience was onstage, and the bands were in the audience. Singer/songwriter Lily McKown grew up not far from me…

“Tyler, Texas” was born on the outdoor patio of Pinewood Social, a trendy cocktails and bowling hangout overlooking the Cumberland River, just southeast of downtown Nashville.  It was August, hot, muggy. Maybe 9pm or so. My friend, country music journalist, Annie Reuter, and I were just sitting down after catching a few songs at the…