By Episode 21, On The Record has moved beyond anticipation and into immersion. Brian Wise is no longer circling Jazz Fest—he’s in it, navigating its scale, its heat, and its constant, often punishing, decisions.

Broadcasting from the French Quarter, Wise paints New Orleans as it always is: chaotic, convivial and faintly surreal. One moment it’s a communal gumbo dinner with locals and visiting friends; the next, pre-dawn screams echo through the street—mercifully revealed to be part of a film shoot rather than something more sinister.

But Jazz Fest remains the centre of gravity. The conditions alone are a test: 30-degree heat, heavy humidity, and crowds pushing well beyond 80,000 across the main days. It’s a physical endurance exercise as much as a musical one, and Wise is candid about the toll—even for a seasoned attendee.

Show Notes

Brother Tyrone and The Mindbenders - 6/1/2025 - Maple Leaf Bar Live 

Nicholas Payton + Butcher Brown - “All Blues” (Official Live Performance) 

GA-20 - Naggin' On My Mind (with Charlie Musselwhite & Luther Dickinson)

Ani DiFranco: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert 

Joy Clark - Lesson (Official Music Video) 

Glen David Andrews - Medley: Iko, Iko & Right Place, Wrong Time 

Marcia Ball - They Don't Make Em Like That 

Things They Like To Do by Jon Batiste Swamp show New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival April 26 2026 

Ron Carter: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert 

Lucinda Williams Bus To Baton Rouge (Album Version (New Mastering) 

Bob Dylan I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You : Beacon Theatre Mar 2022 

The Lowdown | Official Trailer | Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Keith David | FX 

Elvis Costello Meets Jeff Tweedy in Mojo

New Elvis Costello Boxset To Feature A Wealth Of Never Before Heard Punk Era Recordings 

Bruce Springsteen My City of Ruins (Live at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2006) 

Episode 20 of On The Record finds Brian Wise reporting in from the field—first Austin, then New Orleans—with the kind of on-the-ground detail that reminds you why festivals still matter, even as many struggle to survive.

There’s even time for a detour through Austin’s bookstores in search of Dylan literature—because some habits travel well.

Show Notes

Railroad Earth - Been Down This Road 

The Last Revel - Iron and Ore 

Billy Bright + Geoff Union Trio : "Fischer Flood Take 1" 

Shelby Means - "Million Reasons" 

Shinyribs - Bitch Better Have My Money (Rihanna) / Long Train Runnin' (The Doobie Brothers) 

RAYE: Tiny Desk Concert 

Goose - Elmeg The Wise - 4/10/26 Asheville, NC 

After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan's Memory Palace Hardcover – by Robert Polito (Author) 

Old Settler’s Festival: An Austin Treat 

Episode 19 of On The Record kicks off with one foot in the present and the other firmly planted on the long tail of rock history—touching on new Rolling Stones material before sliding into an excerpt from Brian Wise’s recent interview with Mike Mattison of Tedeschi Trucks Band.

It’s a neat juxtaposition. 

From there, the episode turns toward what’s ahead, with Wise preparing to head to Austin and New Orleans. What really comes through is a sense of curiosity about what the trip will feel like this time around.

Show Notes

Tedeschi Trucks Band website 

Check out The Rolling Stones’ vinyl-only new single ‘Rough & Twisted’ as The Cockroaches

Listen to Michael's debut (and possibly last) album Oversharing With Strangers 

BRUNSWICK BALLROOM Presents MIKE RUDD DOCO + Q&A + LIVE BAND SHOW WITH GUEST ROSS WILSON - HOST BRIAN NANKERVIS 6:30 pm, Wed 20 May, 2026

There are episodes of On The Record that wander; Episode 18 plants its flag firmly in one year—1966—and dares you to argue it wasn’t the moment pop music grew up.

Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie mark the 60th anniversary of Revolver not as a nostalgic exercise, but as a forensic examination of how four-track limitations, studio ingenuity and sheer artistic restlessness combined to reshape recorded music.

Show Notes

The Comic Strip Presents s01e01 Five Go Mad in Dorset

THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE Trailer #2 4K (2026) | 

THE ROSES | Official Trailer 

Revolver (2022 Mix) Full Album 

I'm Only Sleeping (Take 1) 

Thane Russal - Security 

The Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown (Official Lyric Video) 

The Turtles You Baby TRUE 1966 Stereo 

The Righteous Bros (You're My) Soul And Inspiration 

The Knickerbockers - One Track Mind 

The Walker Brothers - The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore 

Them Call My Name 

Simon & Garfunkel Homeward Bound 

Jan and Dean Batman Theme 

The Kinks - Till The End Of The Day (Official Audio) 

The Beatles - Doctor Robert (Remastered 2009) 

If you want to know the exact moment legacy radio started to feel its age, it might have been when a major Australian station began giving away lacy doilies.

In the latest episode of On The Record, Michael Mackenzie and Brian Wise—veterans with a combined 70 years behind the mic—stage a fascinating "in-house" intervention for the medium they love (and occasionally despair over).

Joined by global "radio futurologist" James Cridland, the trio moved from a high-tech April Fool’s hoax involving Bob Dylan to a deep-tissue analysis of why the ABC is shedding listeners while community radio and podcasts are booming.

Show Notes:

Project Hail Mary - Official Trailer 

Sign Up for James Cridland’s weekly radio newsletter

The long goodbye to Bluesfest continues in Episode 16 of On The Record, but this time the tone shifts from shock to something closer to forensic analysis. If last week was a reaction, this is reconstruction.

If Bluesfest is a case study in organisational failure, Scarpetta is its televisual equivalent. The long-gestating adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s crime novels earns a near-unanimous drubbing.

Redemption comes via The Outlaws, Stephen Merchant’s Bristol-set series, which earns a glowing recommendation for its balance of humour, character, and social observation.

Brian Wise reports from Castlemaine’s Theatre Royal, where the “Man Out of Time” tribute to Broderick Smith becomes a reminder of what Australian roots music does best: community, continuity, and songcraft.

The episode closes on a note of tentative optimism, with Wise anticipating a film adaptation of The Magic Faraway Tree, his “favourite book of all time.” Whether it will soar or suffer the fate of Scarpetta remains to be seen.

Show Links

Rolling Stone ‘It Wasn’t A Sudden Collapse. It Was a Slow Bleed’: Former Bluesfest Executive Speaks Out 

Jay E Clair The REAL Reason Bluesfest Fell Apart: From Sold Out to Collapse 

Check out Michael's debut album 'Oversharing With Strangers' under the moniker Imposter Syndrome 

Scarpetta - Official Trailer | Prime Video  

The Outlaws - Official Trailer | Iview  

The Magic Faraway Tree | Official Trailer 

Tedeschi Trucks Band website 

Tedeschi Trucks Band - "Midnight in Harlem" (Live on eTown) 

Florry - First it was a movie, then it was a book (Official Music Video) 

Geese – Taxes Jimmy Kimmel Live 

AUSTRALIAN GOOD FOOD GUIDE Origini in Castlemaine 

Broderick Smith - Snowblind Moon 

Episode 15 of On The Record is the sound of a long-running Australian institution going quiet — followed by the louder, messier noise of what happens when a festival doesn’t just “take a break”, but goes into liquidation.

Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie devote the bulk of the episode to the sudden demise of Bluesfest after 36 years, and they do it with a guest who knows the event from the inside: Sarah Ndiaye, now Mayor of Byron Shire, formerly the “head honcho” of the Bluesfest photo tent — the social headquarters where media, and photographers regrouped each Easter.

Important Links

Bluesfest Reportage

Variety: Calls Mounting for a Class Action Against Bluesfest After 2026 Event Cancelled By Neil Griffiths 

ABC News: Confusion and anger as Bluesfest ticketholders question timing of cancellation By Julia André 

Byron Shire Echo: Bluesfest ancillary event in Bruns cancelled By Hans Lovejoy 

AFR: Refund complication as Bluesfest collapses owing $5.7m by Michael Bailey Arts & Culture editor 

Opinion If the Bluesfest era has ended, I’ve lost something more precious than money by David Free 

Pharaoh Sanders The Creator Has A Master Plan 

Ben Harper - With My Own Two Hands (Official Music Video) 

The latest episode of On The Record opens where any self-respecting Australian roots podcast should: the Port Fairy Folk Festival. It then takes a characteristic detour into aging payment technology, Formula One, Mick Turner guitar lines and the comedic chops of Steve Poltz.

Show Notes

Port Fairy Folk Festival 

Queenie & Hank - Anyhow I Love You Video 

ANNIE & THE CALDWELLS – Wrong feat. Deborah Caldwell Moore (Official Music Video) 

Kasey Chambers - Runaway Train (live) 

Mary Coughlan - 'I Can't Make You Love Me' | The Late Late Show | RTÉ One 

Liz Stringer – 'The Metrologist' (Live at Triple R) 

Liz's Final Show in Aust before heading back to the UK 

Steve Poltz - "The Son Of God" (live on eTown) 

Jim Lauderdale "Artificial Intelligence" Live From The Opry 

Shane O'Mara · Jac Tonks Sorrow Hides the Longing to Be Free - The Songs of Bert Jansch  Blues Run the Game 

Emma Donovan - Take Me To The River (Official Show Trailer) 

Sons Of The East - Come Away [Official Video] 

Sons Of The East - Sweet Thing

Mick Wall Eagles - Dark Desert Highway: How America s Dream Band Turned into a Nightmare 

Mick Turner - Don't Tell The Driver (2013) [Full Album] 

Mess Esque "Take Me to Your Infinite Garden" (Official Music Video) 

Messesque on Bandcamp 

Detectorists on Amazon Prime 

Steve Poltz Aust tour dates 

If you ever needed proof that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is less a museum and more a cultural argument with a gift shop, Episode 13 of On The Record opens by doing what the institution does best: stretching the phrase “rock and roll” until it politely accommodates everyone from Wu‑Tang Clan to Shakira, with a quick stop at INXS (or, as Michael once heard on the BBC, the new Australian sensation “Inks”).

Brian runs through the 2026 nominee list like a gig guide for the afterlife—The Black Crowes, Jeff Buckley, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Phil Collins (solo, because apparently we’re double-dipping now), Melissa Etheridge, Lauryn Hill, New Edition, Pink, Luther Vandross—and lands on the question that always makes the Hall quietly hilarious: who is this for, exactly? Michael’s baffled by the ceremony mechanics (do nominees really “turn up hoping”?), while Brian reassures him it’s not quite the Oscars, before casually dropping the detail that there’s a public vote. Nothing says rock’s rebellious spirit like “exercise our democratic right” via a link.

The more interesting subtext, though, is what induction inevitably drags in: absence. Several nominees have key members who’ve died—Buckley, Michael Hutchence, Ian Curtis—prompting the kind of morbid logistics only a Hall of Fame can inspire. Michael wonders aloud whether New Order could be coaxed into a once-only appearance, and if so, would Peter Hook be anywhere near the bass, given the long-running fallout. Rock history, as ever, is part music, part family law.

From there, the episode pivots into “telly as coping mechanism” territory. 

Michael has started season two of Hijack, acknowledging (with Idris Elba’s own executive-producer embarrassment) the inherent silliness of re-hijacking a man who has already been hijacked. 

Brian, meanwhile, goes looking for light relief in bleak news cycles and discovers Resident Alien—a show he’d dismissed as fluff until it turns out to be fluff with enough teeth to feel like therapy. The alien-in-a-small-town premise becomes an excuse for a few sharp jokes about humanity’s trajectory.

But the main event is the week’s shared homework: Paul McCartney: Man on the Run, the new documentary spanning the years between the Beatles’ breakup and Lennon’s murder. 

Brian begins with dread—opening on “Silly Love Songs” is hardly a confidence-builder—but both hosts admit the film wins them over. They praise the craft: strong editing, collage-like imagery, and an effective “no talking heads (but their voices)” approach. Then they do the responsible thing and ask the awkward question: how honest can a documentary be when McCartney’s own company financed it?

Their answer is satisfyingly unresolved. Michael argues it’s “warts-and-all enough” to avoid feeling like a total snow job—especially when the film lets other musicians (Nick Lowe, Chrissie Hynde) politely wonder what on earth Paul was thinking during the early, patchy years. 

Brian agrees McCartney produced plenty of throwaway material, though he’ll still go in to bat for Band on the Run and even dares to defend “Coming Up” (which Michael treats as a personal affront). 

They both wish the doco lingered longer on the Lagos chapter, one of the few moments in the Wings story that feels like true risk rather than post-Beatles reputation management.

The emotional spine, however, is Scotland. The documentary’s portrayal of McCartney retreating to a remote farm with Linda is read here not as quaint pastoral cosplay, but as a survival strategy—grief, disorientation, and the sudden absence of the band-as-family. 

The hosts talk candidly about parental loss, the Beatles as McCartney’s “emotional prop,” and Lennon as the creative foil who kept Paul’s “twee” instincts on a leash. 

Linda comes out of it as both partner and lightning rod: necessary to him, mercilessly judged by everyone else. 

Along the way, Brian remembers seeing Wings at the Myer Music Bowl in 1975 (yes, he was there), and the hosts revive Norman Gunston as the patron saint of awkward interviews—plus Michael’s conspiracy theory that McCartney’s infamous Japan marijuana bust may have been a deliberate exit strategy from a tour that Wings’ hearts weren’t in. 

It’s ridiculous. It’s also, perversely, the kind of narrative logic rock biographies thrive on.

By the end, the Hall of Fame is still a “broad church,” McCartney is still a genius with a questionable edit button, and Scotland remains the unlikely setting for both reinvention and retreat. 

The biggest twist is that for two men who can’t even land a sponsor, they spend 30 minutes proving the oldest rock cliché true: the past is never really over—someone’s just nominated it.

Important Links

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2026 Nominees! 

Paul McCartney: Man on the Run - Official Trailer | Prime Video 

Syfy's Resident Alien - Official Trailer (2021) Alan Tudyk 

Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five (2010 Remaster) 

The Art Of Paul McCartney 

Paul McCartney - Maybe I’m Amazed 

Paul McCartney - Norman Gunston 1975 

In this episode, roots music returns via the altar: Gillian Welch & David Rawlings live at Melbourne’s Forum, with guest Andy White joining the chat. 

They describe the duo as deities in Australia, playing with disarming minimalism (mics on guitars, SM58s, no fancy DI wizardry), and drawing an audience so quiet it feels like church.

Brian’s only complaint is the kind you’re only allowed after 20-plus gigs: he wanted setlist variations — the tour’s Neil Young (“Cortez the Killer”), Springsteen (“Racing in the Street”, “Atlantic City”), maybe a Garcia nod — and didn’t get them. 

Michael diagnoses him as “gluttonous”, which is fair, though “devout” might be kinder.

The conversation widens into stagecraft: tuning mishaps, the art of filling dead air, and the delicate question of whether you should tell stories between songs or let the song do the work. 

That segues beautifully into a bigger theme: the thrill (and terror) of the no-setlist life.

Bill Frisell becomes the exemplar: dazzling, improvisational, apparently operating without a set list, with Brian recounting a classic partner-at-gig moment — Karen asking if Frisell’s strange effects are just him tuning up. 

Frisell, told the story, laughs and admits people say that a lot. (This is the highest compliment: “your art is so unfamiliar I assumed it was maintenance.”)

From Frisell they leap to Elvis — specifically Baz Luhrmann’s concert-footage film EPiC (Elvis Presley in Concert), made from newly uncovered Vegas-era material. 

Michael’s key point is unexpectedly roots-adjacent: underneath the jumpsuits and spectacle, Elvis is vulnerable. 

He’s also a kind of bodily conductor, cueing the band with movement rather than baton, with the musicians watching him like hawks for the next dynamic turn. It’s showbiz as improvised gospel.

And in case you worried the episode might end without another collector’s item, Brian flags a song that did land perfectly at the Forum: Gillian & Dave covering Guy Clark’s “Desperados Waiting for a Train”, from Old No. 1 (1975), notable also as Steve Earle’s first recorded appearance — and now reissued in a special edition. 

They wrap by teasing more about the new McCartney documentary, sponsor fantasies (“someone with really deep pockets”), and the ongoing podcast mission statement: tell your friends — and also tell people you don’t like.

Which, frankly, is the most honest marketing plan in music media.

You can catch Andy White live on stage in May at the Merri Creek Tavern.

Important Links

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: Tiny Desk Concert

Andy White - James Joyce's Grave (live at Abbey Road)

The Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Live At The Wiltern)

Billy Bragg - A New England (Later... with Jools Holland) 

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert | Official Main Trailer 

Paradise Season 2 | Official Trailer | Hulu

An t-Eilean | BBC ALBA trailer

RTÉ | These Sacred Vows trailer

Blue Lights | Trailer - BBC

BILL FRISELL TRIO - "You Only Live Twice" @ XJAZZ Festival | LIVE FROM BERLIN

Bill Frisell's New Album In My Dreams

Bill Frisell - In My Dreams (Live / Visualizer)

Bill Frisell - A Change Is Gonna Come

Guy Clark - Desperados Waiting For A Train

Episode 10 opens in the long-running genre they’ve accidentally perfected — two grown men versus consumer electronics — as Michael explains how he revived his ageing Samsung “smart TV” (now “a bit of a nuff-nuff”) with a cheap HDMI streaming box bought from an Australian online retailer that “rhymes with Hogan”. 

The thrill here isn’t just 4K; it’s the moral victory of upgrading the brain while keeping the body. 

The upgraded TV then becomes a portal to two YouTube documentaries that send the pair (and us) into a warmly nostalgic British lane. One is an ARTE doc on Madness — “Princes of Ska” — which prompts Michael to re-fall in love with a band he rates as not just a ska novelty act, but an elite singles machine whose later pop craftsmanship deserves more credit than the pigeonhole allows.

The other find is the real rabbit hole: John Peel’s Record Box — an hour built around the late BBC DJ’s stash of 142 singles kept separate from his famously vast collection (more than 100,000 records). The documentary hauls the box around to fellow travellers and famous fans — Jack White, Elton John, others — letting them rummage, remember and speculate on why those particular records were kept close. 

Peel, it turns out, could contain multitudes: Sheena Easton’s “9 to 5”, some Status Quo, a heavy White Stripes presence… and a special extra shrine for The Fall, who were apparently too important even for the box. 

Then Brian takes the wheel for the episode’s marquee music moment: Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde turns 60, marked with a concert at Tulsa’s legendary Cain’s Ballroom, presented by the Bob Dylan Center (sitting right next to the Woody Guthrie Center, because Tulsa is quietly running a curriculum). 

Brian’s spoken with the Center’s director, Steve Jenkins, who teases an event titled Sooner or Later with a lineup that reads like an alternate-universe festival poster: 

Naturally, they can’t leave the album itself alone. They circle around what makes Blonde on Blonde such a gravitational object: the New York-to-Nashville recording shift, Al Kooper and Robbie Robertson in tow, and the snap-in brilliance of Nashville players like Charlie McCoy and Joe South. 

Michael calls it the culmination of Dylan’s ridiculous 18-month streak from Bringing It All Back Home through Highway 61 Revisited to Blonde on Blonde — productivity that makes modern “content schedules” look like a wellness day. 

Song picks follow: Michael is unwavering on “Visions of Johanna”; Brian leans toward “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)”, while also marvelling that Dylan had “Positively 4th Street” sitting on the bench, unused, like a spare masterpiece.

There are lighter detours too: a surprisingly vivid discussion of a film built around stand-up comedy as therapy (Will Arnett, Laura Dern, John Bishop’s life story, Bradley Cooper popping up in a minor role because he can), and then Brian’s recommendation of Mackenzie Crook’s Small Prophets — a title that briefly defeats Michael because he searches the wrong spelling and finds financial advice instead. 

Once located, it lands hard: whimsy, sadness, small acts, and a specific episode-four moment that gets Brian teary without him wanting to spoil why.

Michael flags the return of Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, apparently digging deep into the back catalogue (with a Guardian five-star review from Toowoomba), plus the pair’s Grateful Dead-adjacent moves and upcoming US tribute tour.

They also talk up Robert Finley, the 71-year-old, legally blind Louisiana singer with the late-blooming career arc (carpenter most of his life, first records in his 60s, produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys), heading to Australia in May for intimate shows. 

Finley’s story lands like a parable for anyone who’s ever thought they missed their chance. (Michael, who’s finishing his own record — under the gloriously self-aware pseudonym Imposter Syndrome, album titled Oversharing with Strangers — certainly hears it that way.)

Episode 10, then, is classic On The Record: a podcast held together by cable management, cultural memory, and the belief that the best stories are found when you stop pretending you have a plan.

Important Links:

Madness - Princes Of Ska (2025 Documentary)

John Peels Record Box {Full show}

The Fall Bremen Nacht (Vinyl Version)

BOB DYLAN CENTER PRESENTS “SOONER OR LATER,” ALL-STAR CONCERT CELEBRATING SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF DYLAN’S CLASSIC ALBUM “BLONDE ON BLONDE” 

Emma Swift - "Visions of Johanna" (Live at Layman Drug Company)

Bob Dylan - Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) (Official Audio)

IS THIS THING ON? | Teaser Trailer | Searchlight Pictures

Small Prophets | Official Trailer - BBC

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Brokedown Palace (Grateful Dead) Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY

Robert Finley - Helping Hand (Later... with Jools Holland)

Robert Finley First Australian Tour Details and Tix