In a very special edition here, we find Matt Heckler (formerly of Deep Chatham) teaming up with Benjamin Tod (of Lost Dog street band) to play a tune of Matt’s on the porch. Not just any porch, however. This is the house where Guy Clark used to live, and later […]
Y’all know I only bring the realness to the table. Today we’re breaking bread with Greg Farley (& his badass band), whom you might recognize as the fiddle player from the Felice Brothers. Farley is real as they come, enthusiastic and all smiles, no pretentiousness, no bullshit. I’d noticed the […]
I introduced Ben and Hayden some time ago, and they’ve been fast friends ever since. Kindred spirits even, both prone to trouble and writing great songs about it. Both were in town for the recording of Hayden’s album we put together, and we decided to sit down and talk shop. […]
Well folks, we’ve taken it international again. A momentous occasion, as this is the first video we’ve posted in a language other than English! I do believe that folk music is a global communion that knows no boundary. This was a different style than i’ve grown accustomed to playing with […]
In June 2018 I flew over the Atlantic Ocean from America to England, the reverse of the trip so many made way back when. I was visiting folk musician, writer and rambler Josh Okeefe when we recorded this little vid. This song, I’ll Tell Me Ma, is an old irish […]
We traveled to rural Kentucky to find Benjamin Tod, who had a collection of songs to share from his new solo record, “A Heart of Gold is Hard to Find,”. We recorded on the porch of his grandfather’s home. These days, it has been great to see Ben really come […]
John Davey is a songwriter’s songwriter. He writes poetry set to music, paints pictures with his words and is modest all the while. No easy feat when folks like me have your lyrics tattoo’d on their body. He was one of the first artists on GemsOnVHS, the videos still in […]
Ben came down to Old Hickory, Tennessee to play a new tune for us, just before the pandemic swept the nation. In some sort of premonition of events to come, we talked a little bit about how it is the duty of an artist to go into the darkness and […]
Jesse Daniel is a hard working, hustling honky-tonk troubadour from the land of the tall redwoods, way out West. When I first met him, he’d invited me to his hometown out in the forested backwoods hills of Ben Lomond (not the Scottish one, where I went with Josh Okeefe), in […]
I’ve always thought, personally, that Ben’s best songs are love songs. The temperament of his love songs usually ranges between playful and painful. Someone is usually leaving, or left and came back. They’re asking for forgiveness or dealing with pain. Grace’s Casket is my personal favorite, and the list is […]
