What makes a great cover version? For Paul Dempsey, it is not fidelity. It is risk.

In Episode 42 of On The Record, Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie welcome the Something for Kate frontman to discuss Shotgun Karaoke, his disarmingly loose—and increasingly popular—solo covers project. 

Across two albums and a growing run of sold-out shows, Dempsey has turned the familiar songs of Cher, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Collins, R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, Tanita Tikaram and more into a rolling invitation for audiences to sing, shout and occasionally rescue him from a forgotten lyric.

Show Notes

Kylie Minogue TAKES FLIGHT at the 2026 Toyota AFL Grand Final (Full Performance) 

John Craigie I Swam Here Full Album 

Something For Kate - Monsters (Official Video) 

Something For Kate The Killing Moon 

Paul Dempsey – 'Twist In My Sobriety' – Visualiser for ‘Shotgun Karaoke Vol II' 

Paul Dempsey - Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely 

Paul Dempsey - Bats 

XTC - This Is Pop (Documentary) 

R.E.M. - Losing My Religion (Official HD Music Video)

Bright Eyes - Light Pollution 

Paul Dempsey - "Born To Run"

Tony | Official Trailer HD | A24 

Tony Soundtrack Album

The Tony Blair Story on Iview

The Dropout | Trailer | Hulu 

What makes a rock star? It is not simply the hits, the haircut or the size of the crowd. 

In Episode 41 of On The Record, Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie turn to a 2014 essay by Robert Forster for a more exacting test: a rock star, Forster argues, is one even when nobody is watching.

Show Notes

SPIT Trailer (2025) Comedy Movie HD https://youtu.be/7mPdrlAJOQ4

Robert Forster "What’s the difference between a rock star and a pop star?" 

Amyl and The Sniffers - Guided By Angels 

Neil Young Casting Me Away From You from his new album Second Song

Lanterns | Official Trailer | HBO Max 

Madness - Baggy Trousers (Official 4K Video)

Madness - One Better Day 

Death Valley | BritBox Original Trailer 

Smithsonian Starstruck

Madness - Theatre of the Absurd Presents C’est La Vie

The 25th Americana Honours & Awards at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium sits at the centre of Episode 40 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie.

Though, as ever, the definition of “Americana” proves ripe for debate.

Brian Wise watched the ceremony while keeping one eye on Hawthorn training, and salutes the Americana Music Association’s efforts to broaden its representation. 

The night’s winners included Molly Tuttle as Artist of the Year, Tyler Childers’ Snipe Hunter for Album of the Year, Brandi Carlile’s “Returning to Myself” for Song of the Year, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings as Duo/Group of the Year, and Ken Pomeroy as Emerging Act of the Year.

Show Notes

The 25th Annual Americana Honors & Awards 

Ken Pomeroy "Deportee" (Official Visualizer) 

Big Ears Festival 

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 

Sam Bush & Emmylou Harris, "Walls of Time", Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, San Francisco, 10-4-25 

The Milk Carton Kids - Live From The Ryman - Official Release (Full Concert - 2/1/2024) 

BANSHEE - Season 1 | Full TRAILER | HD 

NOAH | Official Trailer [HD] | Paramount Movies 

Doobie Bros Toulouse Street 

Audience - Jackdaw 

Radiohead’s long-awaited return to Australian stages provides the spark for Episode 39 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie—and the hosts could scarcely have more divergent views. Plus new and old Richard Thompson, Cassandra Wilson and Bill Nye's latest performances.

Show Notes

Radiohead - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi [HD] 

David Byrne - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) | Prague | 17|6|26 

Man About The House: 50 Years Of Laughter - C5 Documentary HD Version 

Man About The House S02 E06 Carry Me Back To Old Southampton 

Cassandra Wilson: 

You Gotta Move  Death Letter 

Lazarus - Official Trailer | Prime Video 

&SONS Official Trailer 

Sopwith Camel - Fazon 

April 18 1976 Bob Dylan – If You See Her Say Hello Lakeland 

Wynonna Judd - "Am I Missing Out" 

Richard Thompson Cocaine Walking, Booze Talking 

Elvis Costello Withered And Died 

Episode 38 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie begins with welcome news for Australian audiences: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will return in 2027, making it three visits in as many years.

For a duo whose shows can feel like a form of secular communion, it is a remarkably generous run. 

The episode also pauses to honour Dolly Parton, whose death at 80 has prompted an extraordinary outpouring of affection.

Show Notes

The Wallflowers One Headlight 

Dolly Parton Train, Train (from The Grass Is Blue)

Dolly Parton - Long As I Can See The Light (feat. John Fogerty) (Official Audio) 

RN Music Show Tribute To Dolly 

Harris, Parton, Ronstadt on Late Show, March 24, 1999 (full, stereo)

Robert Plant's Nonesuch Selects Robert Plant's Nonesuch Selects

LE_MYSTERE_DES_VOIX_BULGARES_VOL.1 - PILENTSE PEE 

Suspicion — Official Trailer | Apple TV 

Patrick Radden Keefe discusses his new book LONDON FALLING 

In this encore episode of On The Record, we worship at the altar of Gillian Welch & David Rawlings with guest Andy White joining the chat. 

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. 

You’ll also hear Brian and Michael bickering over the relative merits of a British crime series spoken mostly in Scottish Gaelic.

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 37 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie travels from Melbourne International Film Festival screenings to the changing state of music journalism, with a detour through elite sport, television drama and the strange joy of old-fashioned telephones.

Show Notes

CONGO BOY Trailer

TOMORROW I'LL BE BRAVE trailer 

Joy Bubbles KSTP 

Dead Man's Wire Trailer #1 (2026) 

Official promo video for Dave Marsh's new anthology KICK OUT THE JAMS...35 YEARS OF MUSIC WRITING 

Rolling Stone Tribute to Dave Marsh 

THE BEATLES: The SECRET, Folk-Rock 'RUBBER SOUL' Studio SESSIONS You NEED To HEAR! (Rare Outtakes)

Mojo Mag article on Rubber Soul Redux 

Rubber Soul - khttps://youtu.be/RfBEqiEhCgM?list=PLycVTiaj8OI9Ptzsl9nzxfwUgZ0jx-Hyb

Judy Collins In My Life 

The Beatles - Michelle (Take 1 / Visualiser) 

Josh Rouse - "January Sky" [Official Audio] 

Episode 36 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie moves from the car parks of a Grateful Dead revival to the piano stool of one of rock’s great behind-the-scenes players, with Don Walker’s new album providing the local centre of gravity.

Show Notes

Summer Tour At Miff 

The Session Man | Nicky Hopkins: The Unsung Hero Behind Rock's Greatest Hits | Full Documentary 

Sympathy for the Devil (Isolated Piano) 

Link Wray: The Rock Prophet on SBS

Don Walker Darwin 

Shakespeare Always (2026) - Official Video - Icecream Hands

Episode 35 of On The Record begins where last week’s conversation left off: with Glen Hansard. 

Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie watch the Irish singer-songwriter’s funeral, a ceremony that made plain the depth of affection held for the Frames frontman, Once star and inveterate musical collaborator.

Mackenzie was especially struck by the accounts of Hansard’s generosity, the presence of his battered, road-worn guitars in the church band, and the closing performance of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young”. 

From there, the mood shifts to the Espy, where Mackenzie joined the winning team at the latest live Rock Quiz.

Show Notes

Funeral of Glen Hansard in Dublin | RTÉ News 

Sunnyboys My Only Friend (2014 Remaster) 

Ted Lasso Season 4 - Official Trailer (2026) 

George Costanza's Greatest hits 

PouredOver: Patrick Radden Keefe on London Falling 

Gary Stewart: I Am From The Honky-Tonks 

Gary Stewart She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)

Episode 34 of On The Record opens in sombre territory, with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie remembering Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter, Frames frontman and Once star who died aged 56 following a motorcycle accident outside Dublin.

Hansard’s career stretched back to the formation of The Frames in 1990, before his work with Markéta Irglová as The Swell Season, and a substantial solo catalogue. But it is the memory of his live shows that looms largest here. 

Wise recalls a performer who gave audiences everything, including the habit of leading crowds from the venue and into the street for impromptu singalongs. Hansard’s concerts, he says, had the uncommon ability to turn a room full of strangers into a temporary community.

Show Links

Glen Hansard meets Van Morrison in Glen’s words 

Flamin' Groovies Shake Some Action 

Mick Jagger Can’t Name One Good Thing About Getting Older | The Interview 

Sir Tom Jones & Peter Donegan's 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again' |Blind Auditions| The Voice UK 2019

Fiona Apple – "Horns of a Bull" from the Apple TV show 'Lucky' 

The Rapture Trailer 

Believe Me Trailer 

The episode opens with the passing of saxophonist Plas Johnson, 94, a player whose name might not mean much outside musician circles but whose sound is embedded in popular culture. 

Johnson’s cool, slinking work on Henry Mancini’s Pink Panther theme is his best-known contribution, but the wider CV is properly formidable: Frank Sinatra, B.B. King, Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, The Beach Boys, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville all appear on the roll call.

how Links

Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther Theme (Official Audio) 

Plas Johnson - I Hadn't Anyone Till You 

Plas Johnson obit in Rolling Stone 

Dr John Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya 

Tom Waits - "Heartattack And Vine" 

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival website

Silo — Season 3 Official Trailer | Apple TV 

Evolver 62 | Official Trailer | The Beatles’ Breakthrough Year That Changed Music Forever | Out Now! 

EVOLVER:62 Beatles and cakes in the village hall 

The Odyssey - Official 'Completely in IMAX' Behind the Scenes Clip (2026)

Othello, The Black Commando 1982 full movie Max H. Boulois Tony Curtis 

Aaron Lee Tasjan - The Real (Official Music Video)