Show Notes
If you know me, you know that a significant chunk of my musical DNA involves the Tragically Hip, one of the single most successful acts to come out of Canada. Being from Buffalo, their music was on constant rotation — not just in my dad’s car and our stereo but at bars and sporting games around town. I have one of their album covers tattooed on my left thigh. I’ve stopped by some of the venues they played in their early days in Toronto. And I was fortunate enough to see them on their very last tour in 2016, about a year before lead singer and lyricist Gord Downie died of brain cancer. Our family dog, Gordon, is named for him. The Hip never really broke all that big in the U.S., which was both happenstance and purposeful. They were, in essence, Canada’s band, though anyone who lives or grew up close to the border is more likely to know their songs. Long story short: you simply can’t have a conversation about Canadian musicians without talking about the Tragically Hip. After Downie died, whoever was running his social media account started a casual mini series in which they’d pull an album out of Downie’s personal record collection. Albums by Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Joy Division, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash popped up from time to time. And recently I saw one that didn’t surprise me in the slightest: Joni Mitchell’s ‘For the Roses.’ But I’m getting ahead of myself. The exceptionally humble Gord Sinclair, bassist for the Tragically Hip since day one, was kind enough to speak with me about Joni and her influence on the band over the years. This is an interview I’ve been dreaming about for years, a real full circle moment for a music fan from Buffalo like me. Thanks for listening x * Allison
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More from Big Yellow Podcast
Well, this is another milestone for Big Yellow Podcast: our first guest who has sold out Madison Square Garden. My guest today is the exceptionally talented Lizzy McAlpine, who is scheduled to play MSG in June of 2027, but that’s frankly just one bit of her incredible resume. She’s also acted on Broadway and she just recently released her fourth studio album, Angel, which is much of the focus of our conversation here. She’s also, of course, a huge fan of Joni’s, as you’ll be able to tell from our chat and from listening to Angel, which was inspired heavily by albums like Blue and Hejira. But I’ll let Lizzy do that explaining! More information about Lizzy’s music and her tour can be found on her website. As always, thanks for listening x * Allison
I must thank my friend Matthew Ingate for getting me connecting with Naomi in Blue, my guest for this episode. I can’t emphasize enough how grateful I am that many of you out there have helped point me in the right direction in terms of incredible interview guests. The British-Chilean singer-songwriter Naomi in Blue — she’ll explain her stage name in this episode, fear not — has released her debut (!!) album, Is This Body Mine? and it’s an wonderfully visceral piece of work. She draws from Joni, but you’ll also here essences of people like Patti Smith, Fiona Apple and Nico here. More on Naomi’s music on her Bandcamp page. Thanks for listening x * Allison
We’re on a bit of a roll here at Big Yellow Pod. Today I present you with a wonderful conversation I had with Brianna Falcone, a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles — I stumbled across a video of her covering Joni on Instagram of all things. As we note in the show, Brianna has a new song coming out on September 12th, which she recorded live, outside under a tree. But there’s plenty more of her work to explore via her website if you should choose. As always, thanks for listening x * Allison
Welcome back to another Big Yellow Podcast interview episode! Today’s guest is Violet Grohl, a singer-songwriter out of Los Angeles who released her debut album, Be Sweet to Me, in May of this year. If you listen to Be Sweet to Me, and I hope that you do, you’ll hear its most prominent influences — acts like the Breeders, L7 and other punk rock sorts. (You can probably guess where that came from if you think just a little bit about her last name…) But Joni, Violet tells me, is a foundational influence for her, as you’ll hear in this episode. (And if you want more on Violet, check out her website, where she’s got a whole bunch of tour dates listed for this year.) As always, thanks for listening x * Allison
We’re wrapping up the final four of Joni’s studio albums today: ‘Taming the Tiger’ (1998), ‘Both Sides Now’ (2000), ‘Travelogue’ (2002) and ‘Shine’ (2007). As I mention in this episode…full transparency here: I’m not totally sure where this show will go from here. There likely won’t be consistent guests, but trust me when I say I’m always hearing about new people that I think would make excellent guests, the kind that are carrying similar artistic torches to the one Joni did and still is. If anyone out there has recommendations, I’m always ears. As always, thanks for listening x * Allison