Today, author, music journalist and podcaster James Campion joins me to delve into one of the most iconic and enduring songs in the history of popular music as he gives a taste of his book Take A Sad Song: The Emotional Currency of Hey Jude. We talk about how McCartney took a song inspired by John Lennon's son Julian's feelings about his parents divorce and refined it into one of the most universal songs ever written, how John Lennon was the first of many people to think it was about himself, the difficulty of writing in second person, the songs unusual take on male friendship and how it acts as a sequel to She Loves You, how the recording saw the Beatles take another leap forward in the studio and the revolutionary elements of the track that now seem classic and inevitable.

A fun change of pace this week on the show. Earlier this year, I co-produced a tribute album to Americana icon Jim Lauderdale, featuring an eclectic group of incredible Australian artists reinterpreting Jim's incredible songbook. Today, Michael Carpenter, who co-produced the record and played the bulk of the music you hear on the album, as well as mixing and mastering the project, joins me to break it down track by track. We get into how each song and artist were chosen, the arrangement process and how each track evolved over the months of production. Blake O’Connor and Sinead Burgess - Hole in My Head Adam Harvey - Where the Sidewalk Ends Imogen Clark - Tough All Over Katie Brianna - You Don’t Seem To Miss Me Georgia Mooney - The Brighter Side of Lonely Ella Hooper and Davey Lane - Halfway Down Charlie Collins - You’ll Know When It’s Right Holiday Sidewinder - Planet of Love Clayton Doley and Jade MacRae - It’s A Trap Georgia State Line - Run Like You Shane Nicholson - El Dorado Melody Pool - When Carolina Comes Home Again Emma Swift - The King of Broken Hearts Kevin Bennett - Headed for the Hills

Today ARIA-winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer of this podcast Georgia Mooney joins me for a delightful delve into Martha Wainwright’s self-titled debut album. We dig into the Wainwright clan and how they explore their relationships through each other’s music, seeing Martha play outside a prison and falling in love with her, Martha and Georgia’s shared method of songwriting slowly, Martha’s spiky directness in her lyrics, her vocal influence on Georgia, the song Bloody Mother-Fucking Asshole and much more. Plus Georgia talks about her beautiful new single ‘War Romance’.

Today legendary singer-songwriter and founder of iconic band The Go-Betweens, Robert Forster, joins me to pay tribute to the legendary Texan troubadour Guy Clark and his debut album Old No. 1. We revisit the fateful night in Santa Monica on the promo tour for 16 Lovers Lane where Robert saw Guy play live and had a damascene conversion to his music, how it impacted the the second act of his career as a solo artist, why Clark never achieved the broad fame of contemporaries like John Prine and Townes Van Zandt, Clark’s economy of language and melody and why this is “the Astral Weeks of country music”. Plus we delve into Robert’s brilliant new album ‘The Candle and the Flame’, knowing when to stop writing, growing into a better singer as he gets older and how his approach to recording has changed over the years.

Today legendary Australian actor and comedy renaissance man Francis Greenslade joins me to talk about Paul Kelly’s classic album Comedy. We talk about how Francis discovered the record when he was performing with Paul in an Adelaide theatre show, how Paul leaves space in his lyrics for audience interpretation, how his vocals serve the lyrics and he never over sings, From Little Things Big Things Grow, Paul’s off stage introversion and the agelessness of Paul’s music.