Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters

We've been celebrating our 10th anniversary all year by digging in the vaults to re-present classic episodes with fresh commentary. Today, for our final "classic episode" of 2025, we're revisiting our 2020 conversation with "All I Want for Christmas" co-writer Walter Afanasieff. Happy holidays and thanks for a great year of looking back together as we continue to look toward the future!ABOUT WALTER AFANASIEFFThirteen-time Grammy nominee and two-time winner Walter Afanasieff is best known for his collaborative songwriting and production partnership with Mariah Carey that yielded hit singles such as “Can’t Let Go,” “Dreamlover,” “Hero,” “Without You,” “Anytime You Need a Friend,” “Butterfly,” “My All,” and “One Sweet Day,” a duet with Boyz II Men that was named ASCAP Song of the Year. It hit #1 in December of 1995 and stayed there for sixteen weeks—a record that remained unbroken for more than two decades. Their “All I Want for Christmas is You” was released in 1994 and has since become a holiday standard. It hit #1 on Billboard’s pop chart for the first time in 2019, giving Walter and Mariah the world record for the longest period of time between a song’s original release and its arrival at the top of the chart.  In addition to his success with Carey, Afanasieff carved out a formidable reputation as a go-to producer of hit movie songs. After co-writing and co-producing the Gladys Knight single “License to Kill” from the James Bond film of the same name, he went on to produce “Beauty and the Beast,” “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, “Even If My Heart Would Break” from The Bodyguard, and “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, which became the best-selling single in the world for 1998. Additionally he produced “Some Day” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Academy Award nominated “Go the Distance” from Hercules.Other hits from the Walter Afanasieff songbook include “Can You Stop the Rain,” a #1 R&B single for Peabo Bryson that earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Song, “Missing You Now,” a #1 Adult Contemporary hit for Michael Bolton, “If You Go Away,” a Top 20 single for New Kids on the Block, Savage Garden’s #1 pop single “I Knew I Loved You,” and Ricky Martin’s massive global hit “She Bangs.”The long list of additional artists Walter has written and produced music for includes Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Luther Vandross, Destiny's Child, Kenny G, Andrea Bocelli, Johnny Mathis, Kenny Loggins, Barbra Streisand, Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony, Babyface, and Josh Groban.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

GRAMMY winner and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Mike Reid chats about his remarkable musical life. PART ONEScott and Paul talk about the sports games and so much morePART TWOOur in depth conversation with Mike ReidABOUT MIKE REIDNashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Mike Reid has written twelve #1 country songs and has had his work recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Anita Baker, Bette Midler, Prince, George Michael, Nancy Wilson, Etta James, Kenny Rogers, Ann Murray, Wynonna Judd, Alabama, Joe Cocker, Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, Collin Raye and Tim McGraw. He is perhaps best known for co-writing the modern-day standard “I Can’t Make You Love Me” with Allen Shamblin. Launching his music career as a staff songwriter for country star Ronnie Milsap’s publishing company, Reid penned Milsap hits such as “Stranger in My House,” which won a Grammy for Best Country Song” and “Lost in the Fifties Tonight,” which was named ASCAP’s Country Song of the Year. As an artist, Mike signed with Columbia Records and scored a #1 hit with the self-penned “Walk on Faith.”Others who’ve recorded Reid’s songs include Tammy Wynette, Rita Coolidge, Don Williams, Billy Dean, Josh Turner, Shelby Lynne, The Judds, George Jones, and Shania Twain. A true Renaissance man, Reid went on to compose theatrical and operatic works, winning a Richard Rodgers Development Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters for 1997's The Ballad of Little Jo. His most recent project is a collaborative album with Joe Henry called Life and Time.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're celebrating our 10th anniversary all year by digging in the vaults to re-present classic episodes with fresh commentary. Today, we're revisiting our 2020 conversation with Elvis Costello. ABOUT ELVIS COSTELLOReleased between 1977 and 1979, Elvis Costello’s first three albums—My Aim is True, This Year’s Model, and Armed Forces—were all included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. That early period of his recording career yielded now-classic singles such as “Alison,” “Watching the Detectives,” “Pump it Up,” “Radio Radio,” “Oliver’s Army,” “Accidents Will Happen,” and others.Though he established his career as a rock artist and reached commercial heights in the US with the pop hit “Everyday I Write the Book,” Costello’s more than thirty studio albums cover a breathtaking range of stylistic ground, from Almost Blue, his early 1980s album of country covers, to The Juliet Letters, his 1993 collaboration with The Brodsky Quartet, to North, an album of ballads partially inspired by his wife Diana Krall that topped Billboard’s Jazz chart in 2003, to Il Sogno, his first full-length orchestral work, which was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, and topped Billboard’s classical chart in 2004, to Wise Up Ghost, a 2013 collaboration with Questlove and The Roots. In between, he’s continued to release albums both solo and with his bands The Attractions, The Imposters, and The Sugarcanes. Always an adventurous collaborator, Costello entered into a fruitful songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney that yielded more than a dozen songs, including Costello’s Top 10 single “Veronica” and McCartney’s “My Brave Face.” He went on to release entire collaborative albums with Richard Harvey, Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint, and others. He has written lyrics for compositions by Charles Mingus, Billy Strayhorn and Oscar Peterson, as well as musical settings for lyrics by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. His songs have been covered by a range of artists including George Jones, Chet Baker, Dusty Springfield, and Solomon Burke. Costello has been nominated for fourteen Grammy awards, two of which he won, as well as an Academy Award for co-writing “The Scarlet Tide” with T-Bone Burnett for the film Cold Mountain. He has received two Ivor Novello awards for Songwriting, the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Songwriting award, and the ASCAP Founder’s Award, which was presented by Burt Bacharach. He was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and was named one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine. His genre-stretching new album, Hey Clockface, was recorded in Helsinki and Paris, and was released on October 30.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Grammy-winning producer and singer-songwriter Joe Henry gives us insight into his multi-faceted careerPART ONEPaul and Scott chat about their music-themed road trip and say R.I.P. to MTV. PART TWOOur in-depth conversation with Joe HenryABOUT JOE HENRYJoe Henry is a singer-songwriter who became a record producer as a protege of T Bone Burnett. He went on to win Grammy awards for his work with Solomon Burke, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Bonnie Raitt. Additionally, he produced the final albums of the late Allen Toussaint, who credited Henry for ushering him out of retirement. Henry’s contribution to American music remains somewhat enigmatic. Joe’s own records often feature adventurous contributions by instrumentalists, such as one of only two cameos Ornette Coleman ever made with a singer, while his song “Stop” was reworked into Madonna’s hit pop single, “Don’t Tell Me.” The long list of artists Joe has produced includes Ani DiFranco, Aimee Mann, Bettye LaVette, Elvis Costello, Rodney Crowell, Aaron Neville, Hayes Carll, Joan Baez, The Milk Carton Kids, Rhiannon Giddens, and many others. As a songwriter he has collaborated with Rosanne Cash, Jakob Dylan, Loudon Wainwright III, Billy Bragg, Madonna, and many more, while releasing 17 studio albums as an artist. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americana Music Honors & Awards in 2025. Joe’s most recent album is Life and Time, a collaborative project with fellow songwriter Mike Reid.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're celebrating our 10th anniversary all year by digging in the vaults to re-present classic episodes with fresh commentary. Today, we're revisiting our 2021 conversation with the late Todd Snider. ABOUT TODD SNIDERCelebrated singer-songwriter Todd Snider has continued the troubadour legacy of mentors like John Prine, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, while putting his uniquely clever, wry, sly, and often irreverent spin on folk, rock, country, and Americana. Launching his career on Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Records, Snider has spent more than two decades touring relentlessly, both on his own and with legendary artists such as Emmylou Harris. Along the way he’s made a splash with fan favorite songs such as “Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues,” “Alright Guy,” “Can’t Complain,” “Beer Run,” “Statistician’s Blues,” and “Play a Train Song.” He has released well over a dozen albums, including The Devil You Know and Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables, both of which were named to Rolling Stone’s list of the Top 50 Albums of the Year. He also formed the group Hardworking Americans, and published a memoir called I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like: Mostly True Tall Tales. His songs have been covered by Garth Brooks, Gary Allan, Mark Chesnutt, Tom Jones, Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver, Elizabeth Cook, Warren Haynes, Loretta Lynn, and Elvis Costello. When we first spoke to him he'd recently released his experimental funk-influenced album called First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder. Snider died from complications with pneumonia on November 14, 2025.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.